The eight initial UFL franchises will be back in 2025. There’s no guarantee their coaches will be.
Via Mike Mitchell of SI.com, all UFL head coaches have become free agents, via the expiration of their one-year contracts on June 30.
Even if they return, work doesn’t begin until January 1, 2025. They’re basically seasonal employees, paid for part of the year and otherwise not paid, and not employed.
It makes it cheaper to employ them. It also gives them the ability to leave, if they want.
The UFL is a single-entity operation, with no team owners. The league does the hiring and the firing. The UFL might not want to bring all of the coaches back. Some of them might want to leave.
Here’s the reality. It’s hard to jump to the NFL or college football in July, absent an unexpected opening. While the schedule differences work for players who’d like to make the jump, teams aren’t hiring coaches deep into the offseason.
Of course, nothing stops a team from making a spot for a coach who has caught their attention. But what would be enough to get a UFL coach to step aside? Some UFL coaches would be inclined to stay put unless the offer was for a coordinator job.
Regardless, Skip Holtz, Wade Phillips, Anthony Becht, Mike Nolan, and others are available to any NFL team that wants to hire them. If they want to be hired.