The UFL “Crawls” into its Inaugural Season, but the Panthers are Ready to Pounce

The Michigan Panthers kicked off their 2024 season by hosting a town hall meeting on Saturday. VP of Player Personnel Jim Popp and Head Coach Mike Nolan talked about the upcoming season and fielded questions from media and fans about the inaugural UFL season.

 

The UFL is a merger between the rebooted USFL and XFL leagues, both of which have had short but memorable histories. The hope of the league is to capitalize on the condensing of the leagues and provide the very best on-field product that any spring league has put forth to date. 

 

January’s Dispersal Draft allowed the 8 UFL teams to select players from the eliminated USFL and XFL teams, essentially creating “super teams” composed of the very best players from the spring league squads. 

 

As for the Panthers, Coach Nolan selected many players from the Philadelphia Stars, a former USFL team who shared a facility with the Panthers in the 2023 USFL season. Because of that shared space, he was able to assess the Stars players not just on the field, but who they are as people; an important lesson he learned from his late father, Dick Nolan, who coached the San Francisco 49ers and New Orleans Saints in the NFL.

 

“My father’s advice to me was always: this is a people business…I always put that first. Football is easy, it’s just math. 11 on 11. It’s the people that make it.”

 

Expectations for the Panthers are high this season. They finished 4-6 in the regular season, which was good enough to earn them a playoff spot, where they were eliminated in double overtime in the semi-final game. 

 

When asked what areas of the team Nolan was impressed with, as well as what areas he’d like to see improvement, Nolan was quick to respond.

 

“It’s great to see the level of excitement that the guys play with, they play hard. Our defensive line got better and better throughout the season… We had the number one pass rusher in the league in [Breeland] Speaks. We had some individuals on defense who really played at the top of their game. 

 

As far as where they could improve, Nolan looked at his secondary, saying, “Our secondary didn’t get noticed as much, although one of our players was picked up and signed with the Dallas Cowboys and he’s still with them to this day. In the dispersal draft, our first two or three players that we picked were defensive backs. That’s an area I wanted to strengthen, and I feel like we did that.”

 

Nolan also shut down the idea of bringing back his famous suits that he wore on the 49ers sideline during his tenure as head coach, but with very good reason.

 

“I wore that as a tribute to my father. My father was going through Alzheimer’s. He would always wear suits on the sideline when he was coaching, so I did the same as a tribute to him. He passed away my third year as head coach in San Francisco and I put the suit away after that, so no, there won’t be any suits on the sidelines.” 

 

In terms of expectations for the league, both Popp and Nolan preached “crawl, then walk, then run.” They emphasized that the UFL is doing what they feel is in the best interest of the longevity of the league. The teams will play in their home markets, but weekly practices and meetings will all be based out of Arlington, at least for the first season. 

 

This met the ire of some fans, who pointed out that the players not living in, and reaching out to the community would cause a disconnect between fans and the team. Additionally, some fans felt the league-wide elimination of cheerleaders was another blow to the promotion and community engagement of the Panthers, and the UFL as a whole. 

 

While that is a legitimate concern that the league hopes to one day address, the emphasis is first and foremost to create a sustainable spring football league, a task that has yet to have successfully been completed for any significant period of time. 

 

Oftentimes, spring football leagues do not succeed because they want to be competition for the NFL, rather than a league that can further develop players and get them NFL ready. The UFL is determined not to fall into that trap, and will only grow and expand as fast as is appropriate. The “crawl, then walk, then run” mentality might seem a little conservative and slow paced for a game as fast as football, but if it results in a long term spring league that can create opportunity and jobs for people on and off the field, it just might be the winning formula.

 

Getting overly complicated and growing beyond your means is a surefire way to fail in any business. If the UFL wants long term success, they just need to re-read those words from Coach Nolan once again: “Football is easy.”