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The 2023 USFL season is officially upon us, and we are finally getting XFL and USFL action together for our viewing pleasure this Spring football season. Sportsbooks are now available on that device in your pocket all over the world, and so this is going to be a Spring Football season like no other. I'll be here every week providing sports betting advice for USFL action, so join me here and pay homage to the original "fun" league. Be sure to also read all our other weekly USFL Fantasy Football articles.
If we ever start expanding into the realms of the European League of Football, Indoor Football League, Fan Controlled Football, and/or (I can only hope) the CPBL of Taiwan come baseball season – I'll be right here to discuss the full happenings across the board. They might not be the #1...or #2 leagues...but damn it, we've congregated here because we love sports. So, when the powers to be in professional sports decide to supply our hungry demand for more year-round action, it would be fundamentally and morally wrong of us to not take a head-first dive into Spring Football education so that we can continue to enter DFS contests and place anxiety-inducing bets on games that most of our friends and family probably won't even know are being played – and if you're still reading this paragraph, I am fully confident that you share my sentiment on that point.
Anyway, let's get to talking about the Spring Football League that started it all with the likes of Steve Young, Jim Kelly, Reggie White, Doug Flutie, and near-Congressman Herschel Walker. Here we go--the final week of the 2023 USFL regular season in a razor-thin postseason race. Let the madness ensue, and let us toast to a marvelous campaign.
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USFL Week 10 Playoff Scenarios
Week 10 USFL Power Rankings
- Birmingham Stallions
- New Orleans Breakers
- Memphis Showboats
- New Jersey Generals
- Philadelphia Stars
- Houston Gamblers
- Pittsburgh Maulers
- Michigan Panthers
Week 10 USFL MVP Ladder
- ***Alex McGough*** (QB, Birmingham Stallions)
- Honorable Mentions: Offense/Special Teams: McLeod Bethel-Thompson (QB, New Orleans Breakers), Case Cookus (QB, Philadelphia Stars), C.J. Marable (RB, Birmingham Stallions), Mark Thompson (RB, Houston Gamblers), Darius Victor (RB, New Jersey Generals), Reggie Corbin (RB, Michigan Panthers), Wes Hills (RB, New Orleans Breakers), Corey Coleman (WR, Philadelphia Stars), Justin Hall (WR, Houston Gamblers), Isiah Hennie/Josh Simmons (WR, Pittsburgh Maulers), Jace Sternberger (TE, Birmingham Stallions), Sage Surratt (TE, New Orleans Breakers), Luis Aguilar (K, Philadelphia Stars), & Colby Wadman (P, Birmingham Stallions). Defense: Frank Ginda (LB, Michigan Panthers), Breeland Speaks (DE, Michigan Panthers), Amani Dennis (CB, Philadelphia Stars), D.J. Daniel (CB, New Jersey Generals), Vontae Diggs (LB, New Orleans Breakers), Kyahva Tezino (LB, Pittsburgh Maulers), Greg Reaves (LB, Memphis Showboats), Chris Orr (LB, New Jersey Generals), Troy Warner (DB, Memphis Showboats), & Quentin Poling (LB, Birmingham Stallions). Coach of the Year Candidates: Skip Holtz (BHAM), John DeFilippo (NOLA), Bart Andrus (PHI), & Todd Haley (MEM).
Week 10
Pittsburgh Maulers at New Jersey Generals (Saturday, June 17th, 1 PM)
NJ (-3.5), NJ (-170), PIT (+145), O/U 40.5
Best Bet: Generals (-3.5) & Under 40.5
The Maulers and Generals both picked up impressive, clutch wins in Week 9; with Pittsburgh dismantling Michigan by a score of 19-7 to draw even in the North Division standings at 3-6, and New Jersey came from out of the absolute blue to beat the division-leading Stars 37-33 behind a well-rounded offensive outing, recovery of three of their four forced fumbles on Philly, and an 85-yard kick-return touchdown by Cameron Echols-Luper. So, now everyone in the North Division is locked at 3-6 and one game behind the Stars in the standings – so no one from the North is safe this week. They are all playing each other and we could end up with many different combinations of two of these four teams.
Troy Williams, Madre London, and Garrett Groshek definitely did their part to muster humdrum yardage at sub-par efficiency, but that's all that the Maulers really need in any given week. The backfield totaled 79 yards on 22 carries while Williams netted 166 yards passing on 14/24 efficiency. Not only is this better production (somehow) than they got in ugly past performances but most importantly: they committed zero turnovers. When your special teams pack a two-headed monster of Hennie & Simmons on punt & kick returns; and the beasts you boast on defense are good for five sacks, seven TFLs, four INT, and eight passes defended against a division opponent – taking care of the ball and draining the clock can get you pretty far.
Having said that, the Generals are either even or better than the Maulers in every department right now besides defense, but even New Jersey's play-makers like D.J. Daniel and Chris Orr seem to be having more of an impact with each game. If you trust New Jersey as a unit to stick with what worked last week – De'Andre Johnson passed at too good of a clip and Darius Victor/Trey Williams returned to being a highly-effective rushing tandem, and in that zone, Pittsburgh can't keep pace. The Generals take their fate into their own hands this Saturday and beat the Maulers by a final score range of 21-10 to 24-17. Lay the points and favor the under.
Birmingham Stallions at Memphis Showboats (Saturday, June 17th, 4 PM)
BHAM (-4), BHAM (-175), MEM (+150), O/U 43.5
Best Bet: Showboats (+4), ***ML (+150)*** & Under 43.5
There are questions of incentivization and motivation absolutely peppered throughout this game – which is possibly the least meaningful of the week (granted, a high bar in Week 10) with the Stallions having already clinched a spot in the South Division Championship. Does that mean that this game means considerably less to Birmingham? Will Todd Haley, against all odds, exact the revenge he swore on Skip Holtz following Memphis's Week 2 42-2 embarrassment at Birmingham's hands?
This is absolutely NOT the same Showboats squad that suffered that early blowout, but while it may be hard to believe, the Stallions are probably a much better team now too than they were for that dominant victory. You've got to think that the Stallions have far more incentive to take precautions and avoid the possibility of injury to their key players, and if that's the case, it will be a far different team than the Showboats are tasked with handling, though that could still be a highly-motivated set of second-stringers. Memphis's running game has developed from non-existent to somewhat steady, but Cole Kelley is going to have to not commit multiple turnovers in this game if they are going to pull a big-stakes upset.
Take Memphis's defense and combine it with their level of motivation as compared to Birmingham's lack thereof, we have the perfect recipe for a half-hollow Showboats revenge spot to push for the playoffs. Under those circumstances, Memphis wins by a final score range of 19-17 to 22-21, coming in under.
New Orleans Breakers at Houston Gamblers (Sunday, June 18th, 4 PM)
NOLA (-4), NOLA (-175), HOU (+150), O/U 44.5
Best Bet: Breakers (-4) & Over 44.5
These two teams have had themselves some particularly explosive offensive stretches over the course of the season, and while the likes of Wes Hills-Mark Thompson & Sage Surratt-Justin Hall are very comparable from week to week, there is no denying that the New Orleans Breakers have the distinct advantage at quarterback with MBT proving time and again to have both a higher per-game ceiling and a lesser propensity for turnovers than Kenji Bahar.
In a 31-3 Week 9 victory over the Showboats, NOLA's defensive play-makers like Vontae Diggs showed exactly how much damage can be done by the Breakers when creating turnovers, and that will ultimately be the undoing of the Houston Gamblers in this win-or-go-home scenario. The reason Mark Thompson started to slow down in these final weeks was the inaccuracy and turnovers by Bahar in the passing game, and so as they were unable to spread the field through the air, the field began collapsing on Mark Thompson.
I do think that Houston will fare much better on offense than Memphis did last week, but the rock-solidness of McLeod Bethel-Thompson and the margin created by the Gambler's passing deficiencies will create a gap in scoring in favor of New Orleans. Throughout the course of the season, the Breakers have just proven to be a little bit better in almost all categories that are important to the Gamblers, and Mark Thompson cannot will this team into the playoffs on his own. NOLA takes this game by a final score of 24-20 to 31-24, so we're laying and leaning hard towards the over.
Philadelphia Stars at Michigan Panthers (Sunday, June 18th, 7 PM)
Pick Em (-110 each), O/U 42.5
Best Bet: Stars (-110) & Over 42.5
After all of the ups and downs in this North Division through the 2023 campaign, I definitely can't hold Philadelphia's close and high-scoring loss in Week 9 to the New Jersey Generals too much against them when Jersey legitimately looked like a top-four team in that contest. However, the Michigan Panthers' 19-7 loss last week to the Pittsburgh Maulers in a game where they got absolutely tuned up by Pitt's defense and looked utterly helpless on the field without the services of Reggie Corbin – that is a different story and one that I can very much hold against them.
Another interesting nugget: Josh Love has been moved to the inactive roster while Corbin and QB E.J. Perry have been moved to the active roster. While I like seeing Reggie back in action, he is a back that is at his best when he is being utilized both out of the backfield and in the passing game, so dealing with changes at quarterback for the final week of regular season play should very much worry anyone who has a stake in the Panthers in this game. That's rough context to have surrounding a matchup with the Philadelphia Stars. Case Cookus has proven his late-season superiority yet again and has been passing for great volume numbers and connecting with Corey Coleman for consistent big gains.
Plus, if the QB situation in Michigan is on shaky ground this week like it appears to be, that will be a problem. While the Stars' defense isn't exactly their hallmark, they do have the personnel in the secondary to create a couple of interceptions or at least a lot of disruption. Philly is going to have to deal with the defensive stars of Michigan, but they have enough of a running game now to withstand some of that pressure, and if they are in field goal range, you best believe that Luis Aguilar is hitting it. Calling this a pick-em contest? Please. The Stars win this game by a final score range of 24-13 to 31-17, so lean every so lightly towards the over.
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