USFL Week 1 Live Blog: Scores, updates for New Jersey Generals vs. Birmingham Stallions

The USFL season kicks off with the inaugural game featuring the New Jersey Generals and Birmingham Stallions at Protective Stadium in Birmingham, Alabama. Follow along for updates here or watch it live on NBC and Peacock. See below for more information on how to watch.

This first USFL contest of the season will feature the Generals of the North Division and the Stallions of the South Division. The Generals are led by head coach Mike Riley, who was a former defensive back for the University of Alabama from 1971-74 and has over 40 seasons of head coaching experience at the pro and collegiate levels. Riley’s coaching journey has taken him to the Chargers as well as the CFL, where he won two Grey Cups with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Skip Holtz will be leading the opposite sideline for the Stallions. Holtz is the son of former head coach Lou Holtz, who spent 11 seasons at the helm at Notre Dame and won a national championship in 1988. Skip most recently spent the last nine seasons at Louisiana Tech where he finished with an overall record of 64-50. He is making his coaching debut at the professional level in the USFL.

Stallions quarterback Alex McGough was a seventh-round selection by the Seattle Seahawks in the 2018 NFL Draft, though he does not have any NFL game experience. McGough attended college at Florida International, where he finished his career as the the program’s all-time leader in passing yards and passing touchdowns. In order to learn the Stallions’ playbook, McGough used about 200 color-coded flash cards.

As this season’s host team for the USFL, the Stallions continue Birmingham’s history of professional football that dates back to the 1970s and includes the Stallions from the original USFL in 1983-85. Players