Former Alabama QB named head coach of new Rhode Island UFL team
By Jacob Moss
Published:
The 2026 college football and NFL seasons are already well underway, but the United Football League won’t start its new campaign for another 6 months, with kickoff officially penciled in for the end of March.
This means teams across the spring pro league are just now beginning to prepare for their upcoming seasons, including the brand-new Rhode Island franchise officially established on September 23rd.
This new team doesn’t even have a mascot yet, but they already have their first head coach in former Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron, who was officially announced as the head man on X Wednesday afternoon.
A Mobile, Alabama native, McCarron was the starting quarterback for the Crimson Tide under Nick Saban from 2011-2013, where he set numerous program records and led the Tide to consecutive national championships in 2012 and 2013.
He then went on to have a lengthy NFL career as a backup before spending the 2026 season as head coach of the former Birmingham-based UFL team. The league moved the entire franchise up north to create the new Rhode Island franchise, and it looks like McCarron will be following along while keeping his head coach title.
