In 2024, the UFL experienced a successful first season, which was a complicated endeavor due to merging the XFL and the USFL. In the 2025 season, the UFL had expectations to build on the league’s success and continue building momentum for future seasons. Unfortunately, the 2025 UFL season had a rocky start with labor friction between the UFL and the UFPA, with rumors of a player strike dominating most UFL conversations during the pre-season. In addition, before the first week of games, the XFL conference DC Defenders experienced a change in their head coach position, with former DC head coach Reggie Barlow moving on to become the head coach at Tennessee State University.
Until this season, the Brahmas found a way to avoid the building tension and instability in the UFL. That ended today as the Brahmas experienced their first sign of a cracking foundation after falling flat with a 0-2 start, one season after winning the XFL Conference championship and playing in the first UFL championship game last season. Today, UFL insider James Larsen released a tweet announcing that Brahmas offensive coordinator AJ Smith decided to resign from his position with the Brahmas.
Smith’s decision to resign as the Brahmas offensive coordinator was not expected and left the Brahmas coaching staff, led by head coach Wade Phillips, without an offensive coordinator. With the Brahmas preparing to play against the Michigan Panthers on Sunday, April 13th, losing their offensive coordinator on the Wednesday before a game is a major red flag for the Brahmas organization. Over the last several years of spring football in The Spring League, the XFL, and the UFL, Smith was considered by many to be an offensive genius sporting an offensive style that combined aspects of the “Air Raid” offense and the “Run and Shoot” offensive systems.
The Brahmas have responded to Smith’s loss by promoting wide receiver coach and special teams coordinator Payton Pardee to the offensive coordinator position. While Pardee has experience and a great deal of knowledge of Smith’s offensive system, we will see what changes may come with a change of leadership on the offensive side of the ball for the Brahmas. The Brahmas are currently 0-2 and in last place in the XFL conference, and they have only averaged nine points per game on offense.
The direct cause of AJ Smith’s decision to leave the Brahmas is unclear, and it is surprising because this is Smith’s third season working with head coach Wade Phillips. In 2023, Smith led the Houston Roughnecks to the playoffs under the leadership of Phillips. In 2024, Smith and Wade Phillips continued to work together as both coaches took the reigns of the San Antonio Brahmas. According to a tweet from former Roughnecks quarterback Brandon Silvers, it appears that AJ Smith felt frustration related to not having as much control over his offensive personnel and game plan as he preferred to have as he led the Brahmas offense.
During the first two games of the Brahmas 2025 UFL season, the Brahmas offense did not resemble the offense Smith implemented during the 2024 season. In 2024, Smith worked around the limitations of quarterbacks Chase Garbers and Quinten Dormady using a variety of motions, shifts, and creative trick plays. This season, the Brahmas have not implemented those game plan tweaks, and it is not clear if that was a conscious decision made by Smith or if he felt pressure to implement a more vanilla offensive game plan with new Brahmas quarterback Kellen Mond.
So far this season, the Brahmas have only scored nine points per game, including two rushing touchdowns and field goals. This season has been a complete disaster due to the high expectations placed on the Brahmas after winning the XFL Conference in 2024. The answers to how to bolster the Brahmas’ offense now lie in the hands of first-time offensive coordinator Payton Pardee.
Pardee is in a challenging position because he only has three days to prepare the Brahmas offense and himself to face the Michigan Panthers of the USFL Conference this Sunday. This game could be considered an early must-win during the Brahmas’ short 10-week season, coupled with the 2-0 start of the three other teams in the XFL Conference. Can the Brahmas weather this storm and circle the wagons in time to score a critical victory against the Panthers?
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