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The United Football League is entering just the fourth week of its 2025 season, but it has already dealt with significant upheaval within its coaching ranks.
It began with DC Defenders coach Reggie Barlow leaving his post a week before his team's first game after accepting the head coaching job at Tennessee State. Shortly thereafter, Memphis Showboats coach Ken Whisenhunt took an indefinite leave of absence. He returned to coach his team in Week 3, but ultimately stepped down from his post following his lone game in charge of the team.
On the same day Whisenhunt stepped down, the UFL announced Wade Phillips — a third-year spring football coach in his second season with the San Antonio Brahmas — was taking an indefinite leave of absence as well.
Add in the departures of St. Louis Battlehawks offensive coordinator Bruce Gradkowski, Brahmas offensive coordinator AJ Smith and Defenders defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, and the UFL's coaching hierarchy looks a lot different than it did at the start of the season.
But does the UFL have any existential worries about the coaching departures with which it has dealt over the first few weeks of its 2025 season?
"We don't," UFL vice president Daryl Johnston told USA TODAY Sports in a phone interview Thursday.
Johnston explained that the UFL's confidence in wake of the coaching departures stems from the depth of the staffs it has built.
"We are very, very fortunate that our head coaches have very deep networks into the coaching world, so we're very comfortable with the interim candidates that exist on each staff," Johnston said.
That has allowed the UFL to internally promote each of its coaching candidates, which is the league's preferred strategy for the sake of consistency.
"That's the biggest thing," Johnston explained. "When you're in the middle of the season, you want to be able to keep that consistency, the familiarity that the players and coaching staffs have developed."
That's one of the reasons Johnston believes the Defenders have found success in 2025, despite losing Barlow on the eve of the season and Williams during it.
Shannon Harris was a part of Barlow's staff in Washington for two seasons before being named interim head coach. He has since led the Defenders to a 3-0 start, including key wins over the three-time reigning champion Birmingham Stallions and the league's highest-scoring offense, the Battlehawks.
And while the Brahmas and Showboats haven't yet found as much success, Johnston is still pleased with the way their interim coaches have operated. He praised Memphis' Jim Turner for being "incredibly prepared" to replace Whisenhunt, noting that Payton Pardee led San Antonio to a season-high 23 points in his first game in place of Phillips.
UFL COACHING CHANGES: How league managed Reggie Barlow, Ken Whisenhunt departures
Johnston also wanted to make it clear that the UFL's departures were not an indictment of the league's future by some of its most prominent employees.
"There is not one single incident in all the moves that we've discussed, whether it's the three changes at the head coaching level or the three changes in the coordinator levels, that have anything to do with it being a result of a lack of confidence in what we're building in the UFL," he declared.
Many of the departures were simply about opportunities that were too good to pass up. That's what led Gradkowski to take a job with the Detroit Lions just before the season start, and Barlow and Williams to take the head coach and defensive coordinator jobs at Tennessee State, respectively.
"That's a tremendous opportunity for two people that are living in the Nashville area," Johnston said of Barlow and Williams' departures. "Sometimes, there's an opportunity that comes along that just makes so much sense that you have to walk away from something that you're really tied to."
Meanwhile, Smith's departure from the Brahmas stemmed from a difference in philosophy within the coaching staff.
San Antonio's offense had been struggling since being shut out in the UFL championship game. They failed to score a touchdown in each of the first two weeks and didn't include much motion in their pre-snap sets, which allowed for defenses to easily diagnose what was coming.
"You couldn't get to the point where you had a consensus of how you wanted to move forward, so you have to break a relationship," Johnston explained. "That happens from time to time."
Johnston didn't get into as much detail on Phillips and Whisenhunt's departures, but noted they were about putting "family first" and allowing coaches to take care of their health.
"Those are examples of us allowing those [departures] to happen to demonstrate we truly are family first," Johnston said.
That's why Johnston and the UFL's leadership remains confident that, despite losing some proven coaching talent, the second-year spring league is "as strong as [it's] ever been" and remains on track to find long-term success.
"I think when you really kind of take a step back and look at everything, I think that we feel a lot better than some people may think we do."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why UFL isn't worried about slew of coaching departures
Continue reading...
It began with DC Defenders coach Reggie Barlow leaving his post a week before his team's first game after accepting the head coaching job at Tennessee State. Shortly thereafter, Memphis Showboats coach Ken Whisenhunt took an indefinite leave of absence. He returned to coach his team in Week 3, but ultimately stepped down from his post following his lone game in charge of the team.
On the same day Whisenhunt stepped down, the UFL announced Wade Phillips — a third-year spring football coach in his second season with the San Antonio Brahmas — was taking an indefinite leave of absence as well.
Add in the departures of St. Louis Battlehawks offensive coordinator Bruce Gradkowski, Brahmas offensive coordinator AJ Smith and Defenders defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, and the UFL's coaching hierarchy looks a lot different than it did at the start of the season.
But does the UFL have any existential worries about the coaching departures with which it has dealt over the first few weeks of its 2025 season?
"We don't," UFL vice president Daryl Johnston told USA TODAY Sports in a phone interview Thursday.
Why UFL isn't worried about coaching departures
Johnston explained that the UFL's confidence in wake of the coaching departures stems from the depth of the staffs it has built.
"We are very, very fortunate that our head coaches have very deep networks into the coaching world, so we're very comfortable with the interim candidates that exist on each staff," Johnston said.
That has allowed the UFL to internally promote each of its coaching candidates, which is the league's preferred strategy for the sake of consistency.
"That's the biggest thing," Johnston explained. "When you're in the middle of the season, you want to be able to keep that consistency, the familiarity that the players and coaching staffs have developed."
That's one of the reasons Johnston believes the Defenders have found success in 2025, despite losing Barlow on the eve of the season and Williams during it.
Shannon Harris was a part of Barlow's staff in Washington for two seasons before being named interim head coach. He has since led the Defenders to a 3-0 start, including key wins over the three-time reigning champion Birmingham Stallions and the league's highest-scoring offense, the Battlehawks.
And while the Brahmas and Showboats haven't yet found as much success, Johnston is still pleased with the way their interim coaches have operated. He praised Memphis' Jim Turner for being "incredibly prepared" to replace Whisenhunt, noting that Payton Pardee led San Antonio to a season-high 23 points in his first game in place of Phillips.
UFL COACHING CHANGES: How league managed Reggie Barlow, Ken Whisenhunt departures
Daryl Johnston explains UFL coaching departures
Johnston also wanted to make it clear that the UFL's departures were not an indictment of the league's future by some of its most prominent employees.
"There is not one single incident in all the moves that we've discussed, whether it's the three changes at the head coaching level or the three changes in the coordinator levels, that have anything to do with it being a result of a lack of confidence in what we're building in the UFL," he declared.
Many of the departures were simply about opportunities that were too good to pass up. That's what led Gradkowski to take a job with the Detroit Lions just before the season start, and Barlow and Williams to take the head coach and defensive coordinator jobs at Tennessee State, respectively.
"That's a tremendous opportunity for two people that are living in the Nashville area," Johnston said of Barlow and Williams' departures. "Sometimes, there's an opportunity that comes along that just makes so much sense that you have to walk away from something that you're really tied to."
Meanwhile, Smith's departure from the Brahmas stemmed from a difference in philosophy within the coaching staff.
San Antonio's offense had been struggling since being shut out in the UFL championship game. They failed to score a touchdown in each of the first two weeks and didn't include much motion in their pre-snap sets, which allowed for defenses to easily diagnose what was coming.
"You couldn't get to the point where you had a consensus of how you wanted to move forward, so you have to break a relationship," Johnston explained. "That happens from time to time."
Johnston didn't get into as much detail on Phillips and Whisenhunt's departures, but noted they were about putting "family first" and allowing coaches to take care of their health.
"Those are examples of us allowing those [departures] to happen to demonstrate we truly are family first," Johnston said.
That's why Johnston and the UFL's leadership remains confident that, despite losing some proven coaching talent, the second-year spring league is "as strong as [it's] ever been" and remains on track to find long-term success.
"I think when you really kind of take a step back and look at everything, I think that we feel a lot better than some people may think we do."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why UFL isn't worried about slew of coaching departures
Continue reading...
