Potter, 23, has experienced a meteoric rise within the football scouting world. He started out as a video assistant at the University of Nebraska in 2020, moving into spring football the following year working in the personnel department of The Spring League.
He went back to his alma mater, Iowa Western Community College, later that year as the director of scouting. Potter returned to spring football when the USFL was reborn. He was in the front office head with the Stallions, first as director of player personnel and later as general manager, for all three of the team’s championship seasons.
In moving on to Sacramento State, an FCS school, Potter joins new head coach Brennan Marion on a revamped Hornets staff. Marion was named head coach on December 20. He replaced Andy Thompson, who resigned after two seasons to take a co-defensive coordinator position at Stanford.
Over the last few seasons, many colleges have expanded their football departments to include a general manager. The rise of NIL and thereby the influx of outside money, combined with the relaxing of transfer portal rules, has led to schools adding a general manager to oversee all facets of the program. Responsibilities of the general manager may vary from school to school.
The Stallions camp roster is near capacity, which is expected to be 64 players. There is time, then, for UFL management to seek out a replacement for Potter before training camp begins. Birmingham head coach Skip Holtz, who worked closely with Potter the last three years in establishing the roster, could take on more of a player acquisition role in the meantime, and could also have a say in the hiring of Potter’s replacement.
1 thought on “Birmingham Stallions GM Zach Potter accepts post at Sacramento State”
This is obviously bad news for the Stallions. The rise of the Stallions has been perfect. In 2022 they were the one team in the USFL that actually had a home stadium. This lead to players preferring to play for them which gave them an inside edge, see Bo Scarbrough. An inside edge however is just that. If you don’t use it you lose it. For example every time a Western division team comes to MetLife for a 1pm game, the Jets have the advantage. The Jets however usually sit on their hands for the first quarter and don’t come to play until they are already down and the other team has woken. The only time they jumped on a team was the Seahawks and that was more to poor play by the Seahawks as opposed to the Jets being especially crisp. Advantage not taken. However, the Stallions with their edge, had a coach, Skip Holtz, and GM Zach Potter immediately put the team on the map with coaches coaching, players playing and the GM who worked with Skip Holtz to use the advantage of both being the Stallions and having Skip Holtz promises to make any player better. This synergy was amazing leading to 3, count them 3 straight championships. At the beginning of 2024 the Stallions had the best odds of winning the Championship, however this was only in place because the thought was the Battlehawks and Defenders who had more talent, by way of the NFL from the season before would be knocked off by the other. As always football needs to be played as it turned out the Brahmas were coached by a wily old NFL veteran and a rising star and turned the Brahmas into XFL Division Champs. The Brahmas have a great chance to become the best team in the league, depending again how it all plays out. Let me get back on point.
As you stated in your article the time is right for this to occur. 80% of the roster is already filled out and it would not surprise me if Potter and Holtz already have an idea of who a couple more who players will be rostered. As much as I will miss Potter and his clear, football knowledge, plus he clearly understands the synergy that was formed and used it to his advantage in signing players when salary was not a selling point because there was no salary benefit to coming to the Stallions. As a matter of fact it might be a salary detriment to players who wouldn’t be active on the Stallions, but that would be on other teams. He sold the real things. Football, championships, becoming a better player, being in the right place to be successful, as being a champion they would try to sign true team players giving them a chance to come to camp. They were the best of what the UFL had to offer and they did it the right way. I am glad for Potter. Going forward I wish he and the Stallions he best. With Potter’s vision for both talent and the big picture I think he will do fine. I imagine Skip Holtz will also pick up the phone should Zach want to pick his brain….and you never know, maybe one day the UFL will be looking to expand into say err Sacramento and synergies will again align.
This is obviously bad news for the Stallions. The rise of the Stallions has been perfect. In 2022 they were the one team in the USFL that actually had a home stadium. This lead to players preferring to play for them which gave them an inside edge, see Bo Scarbrough. An inside edge however is just that. If you don’t use it you lose it. For example every time a Western division team comes to MetLife for a 1pm game, the Jets have the advantage. The Jets however usually sit on their hands for the first quarter and don’t come to play until they are already down and the other team has woken. The only time they jumped on a team was the Seahawks and that was more to poor play by the Seahawks as opposed to the Jets being especially crisp. Advantage not taken. However, the Stallions with their edge, had a coach, Skip Holtz, and GM Zach Potter immediately put the team on the map with coaches coaching, players playing and the GM who worked with Skip Holtz to use the advantage of both being the Stallions and having Skip Holtz promises to make any player better. This synergy was amazing leading to 3, count them 3 straight championships. At the beginning of 2024 the Stallions had the best odds of winning the Championship, however this was only in place because the thought was the Battlehawks and Defenders who had more talent, by way of the NFL from the season before would be knocked off by the other. As always football needs to be played as it turned out the Brahmas were coached by a wily old NFL veteran and a rising star and turned the Brahmas into XFL Division Champs. The Brahmas have a great chance to become the best team in the league, depending again how it all plays out. Let me get back on point.
As you stated in your article the time is right for this to occur. 80% of the roster is already filled out and it would not surprise me if Potter and Holtz already have an idea of who a couple more who players will be rostered. As much as I will miss Potter and his clear, football knowledge, plus he clearly understands the synergy that was formed and used it to his advantage in signing players when salary was not a selling point because there was no salary benefit to coming to the Stallions. As a matter of fact it might be a salary detriment to players who wouldn’t be active on the Stallions, but that would be on other teams. He sold the real things. Football, championships, becoming a better player, being in the right place to be successful, as being a champion they would try to sign true team players giving them a chance to come to camp. They were the best of what the UFL had to offer and they did it the right way. I am glad for Potter. Going forward I wish he and the Stallions he best. With Potter’s vision for both talent and the big picture I think he will do fine. I imagine Skip Holtz will also pick up the phone should Zach want to pick his brain….and you never know, maybe one day the UFL will be looking to expand into say err Sacramento and synergies will again align.