Ole Miss fans couldn’t have been too surprised with what they saw from Matt Corral over the weekend. After all, he spent more than a few Saturdays dazzling fans at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and in the SEC at-large.
Corral, who threw for nearly 8,300 yards in his Ole Miss career and finished seventh in Heisman Trophy voting in 2021 after leading the Rebels to the first 10-win regular season in program history, came in off the bench for the Birmingham Stallions in Saturday’s USFL Conference Championship game against the Michigan Panthers.
The former Ole Miss star completed 9 of 11 passes for 120 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, leading the Stallions to a 31-18 win and a berth in the UFL Championship game on June 16 against the San Antonio Brahmas, the champions of the XFL Conference.
“My thoughts going into this is just, like every other day. We practice the same scenarios, the same plays, every day, day in and day out. And we get a lot of reps at it,” Corral said in the team’s postgame press conference. “And coach does a good job of putting us in place to get done what we have to get done.”
The Southern California native thrived in his final two seasons with Ole Miss under head coach Lane Kiffin, throwing a combined 49 touchdowns with an additional 15 rushing scores.
Corral was drafted by the Carolina Panthers in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft but suffered a season-ending injury that preseason. After the Panthers drafted Bryce Young first overall, Corral was waived by the Panthers in August 2023 and signed by the New England Patriots. The Patriots released Corral and later signed him to their practice squad. Corral signed with the Stallions in February.
Corral began the season as the Stallions’ starter but eventually ceded the job to Adrian Martinez. Martinez started seven of the team’s 10 regular-season games and finished tied for second in the league with 15 touchdown passes and led the league in rushing yards.
Martinez missed six of his last seven throws Saturday, which brought Corral into the game in the third quarter with the game tied at 18. Corral hit six of his first seven passes, and his touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter gave the Stallions their first lead. His touchdown pass with just over four minutes remaining sealed the outcome.
“I felt like we needed a spark offensively. I’ve said all along, I feel like we have two starting quarterbacks,” Stallions head coach Skip Holtz said. “ … I think Matt is a very talented individual, but more than anything, I think today is an unbelievable lesson in resolve, not in four quarters of resolve, but in two months of resolve, as he has had to stand on the sideline. And yet he has taken reps every week in practice.
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