The 2026 UFL season officially kicks off this weekend! The DC Defenders will start their quest to become repeat champions on tomorrow against their rival in the St. Louis Battlehawks. A key part of the team being 2025 UFL Champions was there interim turned official head coach Shannon Harris. Last year, we saw the Defenders head coach Reggie Barlow leave the team the week before the season started, which opened the door for Shannon Harris to become the interim head coach. During the offseason process we saw the tag be taken off of Coach Harris as he had officially become the teams head coach. Coach Harris is the only head coach to both return from the 2025 season and be on the same team as last year. A couple of days ago I had the pleasure of asking a few questions to Coach Harris during a UFL media outing.
My first question asked how different the training camp process had been this year compared to last year, with him entering this camp firmly entrenched as the head coach—unlike last year, when he came in as the QB coach and only became the interim head coach right before the season started.
“You know, honestly not much different man. You know, we’ve – hit the ground running, you know last season was one of those things to where we knew we had Birmingham coming to game one, at Audi Field, so those guys were three-time defending champs, and we had to be ready to go from practice one. And now you know, same way this year knowing that we won a championship this past season and knowing that we’ve put a bullseye on our back so the same thing, same method, we just need to be ready to go from game one, we couldn’t afford to try take things slow within camp. – Yeah, we talk fundamentals, talk details, you know all those things from a specifics standpoint, but we had to be ready to go with the right mindset from day one.”
Replacing Chris Rowland & Anthony Hines III
DC was able to bring back more players than any other team in the league. Despite that, they still lost two elite players in Chris Rowland an Anthony Hines III. These two players were integral to the team winning the championship last season. They have also been pillars of the team for the past couple of years. I asked Coach Shannon about if any players have stood out during training camp as guys that could replace Rowland and Hines’ production.
“Yeah, we like what we got back in with Boogie Basham and (Derek) Parish and you know we got guys that’s inside in the middle that’s pushing up the pocket as well, Casey Rodgers is another big name for us, Brandon Smith is a guy that’s been showing so much versatility throughout camp, so we’re excited to have those guys – just a few of those guys that play some big time football who does a great job for us in getting lined up properly, caused our offense a lot of trouble and then you know we got Keke Coutee back with us from two seasons ago, you know he hasn’t missed a beat, we love what he brings to our offense as well, we kind of went back to how we were in 2023, you know we’re much bigger and explosive at the receiver position, so were definitely excited about that part within our offense.”
The reason DC will repeat as champions
The goal for DC is to once again win the championship. Including the (modern) USFL and XFL, the Stallions are the only team to win more than one championship. This season will be very different than last year with all the changed Repole made. Three teams have been replaced with new teams in Orlando, Louisville, and Columbus. We also saw some drafts shake up all the rosters to varying degrees. Even with all of that and more happening this offseason, I asked Coach Harris a simple question about the one main reason the Defenders will be repeat champions.
“Well, just the continuity, you know, that we have a lot of our key pieces that we brought back, these guys are champions at best, – our quarterback is back, we did a good job at getting some guys up front on both sides of the football, but again we got some really good continuity on our roster and then not just on our roster from a player stand point, but within our coaches as well.”
The reason of continuity is a great choice by Coach Harris. When I spoke to Ta’amu last week he echoed a similar sentiment that the continuity the team has will be their biggest advantage. If DC does accomplish this goal, they will be in a position to compete with the Stallions for the title of the best modern spring football franchise. We will see the team back in action against St. Louis at 12:00 PM EST on March 28th. I would also like to thank Coach Harris and the UFL for setting up this media availability.
