USFL president Daryl Johnston hypes evolution during league's 2nd season

The USFL is three weeks from wrapping up its second regular season, and preparations are underway for the 2023 playoffs, which will conclude with the championship game July 1 in Canton, Ohio.

The playoffs will kick off with the North Division championship at 8 p.m. June 24, followed by the South Division championship at 7 p.m. June 25.

Season 2 of the USFL has been a new but fun experience for Daryl Johnston, the league’s president of football operations. The biggest challenge for Johnston and other USFL officials has been the logistical adjustment of moving from hosting games in one hub (Birmingham, Ala.) for the inaugural 2022 campaign to being in four locations this season: Canton, Detroit, Birmingham and Memphis.

“One of the things that we always leaned on last year was the strength of our USFL family being in one location,” Johnston said via a Zoom news conference Thursday. “That’s probably one of the most difficult things this year: We are spread out amongst those four hubs, and finding unity via Zoom call, touching base every day and being consistent as much as possible is important.”

The USFL set goals to reach in Year 2, including being more proactive. Johnston and the USFL hired four new head coaches, all with NFL experience: Ray Horton (Pittsburgh Maulers), Curtis Johnson (Houston Gamblers), John DeFilippo (New Orleans Breakers) and Mike Nolan (Michigan Panthers).

“To have available the guys that we were able to bring on board this year, we are talking about over 120 years of experience of coaching, from high school to the professional level, that we added to our coaching staff,” Johnston said. “Five Super Bowl championships between the four of them. It speaks volumes of the guys of that caliber that want to join you on your journey in Year 2.”

Johnston has been impressed with the turnaround of assistant coaches seeking opportunities at the NCAA Power 5 level, as well as USFL players getting an opportunity to play in the NFL.

“It’s gratifying that we are able to help them take that next step and take that opportunity,” he said. “We had a number of guys get into workouts and training camp. Twenty-four guys were on the active roster or practice squad this season, but KaVontae Turpin is our greatest ambassador with everything he has accomplished with the Dallas Cowboys.

“That shows the necessity for a league like the USFL when we can have a player be discovered and grant players an opportunity to prove NFL scouts wrong.”

Turpin was named MVP after the 2022 USFL season and then signed a three-year contract with the Cowboys. He played in all 17 regular-season games, accumulating more than 800 return yards as a kick and punt return specialist.

Johnston hopes the level of play in the USFL continues to evolve as they approach the end of Year 2.

“I would like to see us capitalize more on the consistency of our offenses and defenses,” he said. “We saw a little bit of that this year but would love to see more of that in Year 3. If you want to get together as quarterback and skill position as the offense and start fine-tuning things. that’s great.

“We need them further down the road. We can’t be in the same spot when Season 2 ends, when Season 3 is about to start. We will continue to press our players and staff to make that happen. The better thing we gotta tap into is familiarity. You aren’t running off the base of the offense anymore. Now you are being specific in how you want to attack teams. That’s something, hopefully, we can take a stab at in Year 3.”

The Maulers are hoping to live up to Johnston’s wishes. The Maulers are 2-5 this season and in last place in the North Division but have shown improvement after going 1-9 last season.

They have relied on a defense fronted by Kyahva Tezino out of San Diego State, who leads the USFL in total tackles with 77, including six for loss.

The Maulers are still in playoff contention but need a win Saturday when they host Houston (4-3) at noon at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton. The game will be broadcast on USA.

The Maulers then host Michigan (3-4) on June 10 before wrapping up the regular season at New Jersey (2-5) on June 17.