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Mickey Matthews to join XFL Dallas as linebackers coach

Stephan Rachuk — Mon, 22 Jul 2019 13:37:36 +0000

According to FootballScoop.com, Mickey Matthews will be joining Bob Stoops in Dallas. Matthews will be joining on as the teams linebackers coach.

Matthews served as the head coach at James Madison from 1999-2013, compiling a record of 109-71. 2004 was his best season when he led the Dukes to their first Division I-AA (now referred to as FCS) national title over, a 31-21 win over Montana, finishing with a 13-2 final record.

In his 15 seasons leading the program, Matthews led the squad to nine top 25 finishes and appeared in the I-AA playoff six times.

Matthews’ most notable win came in 2010 when he led the Dukes to an upset win over #13 ranked Virginia Tech in Blacksburg 21-16. James Madison would go on to finish the season with a record of 6-5.

Matthews has also coached for Kansas State, West Texas State, UTEP, Houston, TCU, Southwest Texas State, Marshall, and Georgia. In addition to serving as the defensive coordinator at Coastal Carolina, Matthews also held the defensive coordinator title at Southwest Texas State and Marshall.

Stay up to date with all the latest hires with the XFL2K Staff Tracker.

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Grady Raskin named Team President of XFL Dallas

Stephan Rachuk — Thu, 27 Jun 2019 12:51:09 +0000

We are just hearing word that XFL Dallas has hired it’s Team President, which was the only outstanding President hire of the eight teams. Grady Raskin has been tapped to fill the role.

Raskin most recently served as Vice President, Corporate Partnerships for the Dallas Stars, also spending time in a VP level for the Texas Rangers prior to that. Similar to Hunzeker for St. Louis, it’s great to see another local pick that has spent time and knows the host city well.

Stay up to date with all the latest hires with the XFL2k Staff Tracker.

UPDATE: Shortly after publication, the league has made this news official and pushed out a press release, which you can view below:

XFL NAMES DALLAS NATIVE GRADY RASKIN PRESIDENT OF CITY’S NEW TEAM

Stamford, Conn., June 27, 2019 – The XFL today announced that Grady Raskin, most recently Vice President of Corporate Partnerships for the NHL Dallas Stars, has been named President of the XFL team in his native Dallas.

The Dallas XFL team will take the field in February 2020 for its inaugural season and play its home games at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas. Bob Stoops is the team’s head coach and general manager.

Raskin will be responsible for the team’s fan engagement and business operations, including ticket sales, corporate partnerships, marketing, content, communications, community relations, and game day experience.

“Vince McMahon, Oliver Luck and I are thrilled to welcome Grady to the XFL as our eighth and final team president this year,” said Jeffrey Pollack, XFL President and Chief Operating Officer. “As a Dallas native who has called the Metroplex home his entire life, Grady understands the heart and soul of local sports fans and he’s deeply connected in the business community. We know that, working alongside Coach Stoops, he will help us connect with the community and build something special.”

“The XFL has attracted an impressive group of coaches and sports executives to its ranks, and I’d like to thank Vince McMahon and Jeffrey Pollack for the opportunity to lead the team in my hometown and work with the legendary Bob Stoops,” said Raskin. “Knowing how passionate football fans in North Texas are, it’s humbling and extremely energizing to take on this new challenge. We are eager to begin the process of building a first-class organization devoted to creating fan-first experiences and strong partnerships throughout the community.”

Raskin began his 22-year sports career as an intern for MLB’s Texas Rangers in 1996 and soon worked his way up to Director of Advertising Sales, selling corporate partnerships for three sports entities owned by Tom Hicks (Texas Rangers, Dallas Stars, and Mesquite Rodeo), as well as the newly-constructed American Airlines Center. He was elevated to Vice President of Business Development for the Rangers and Stars in 2007, then, upon the sale of the teams in 2009, moved to the Rangers exclusively. Raskin rejoined the Stars in 2012, serving as Vice President of Corporate Partnerships, managing all partnership sales and activations. Over his career, he has experienced two Western Conference Championships and a Stanley Cup Championship with the Stars, and two American League Pennants with the Rangers.

A cum laude graduate of George Washington University with a Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in sports management, Raskin was a three-year letterman on the university’s Division I baseball team. He lives in Dallas with his wife Ally and their two children.

ABOUT THE XFL

The XFL will reimagine football for the 21st century when it kicks off the weekend of February 8-9, 2020, committed to delivering a brisk, fast-paced game, with a fan-centric, innovative, and affordable gameday experience. The inaugural season will launch with teams in Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, St. Louis, Seattle, Tampa Bay, and Washington D.C. Each team will compete with a 45-man active roster over a 10-week regular season with a postseason consisting of two semifinal playoff games and a championship game. Every XFL game – every week – will be nationally televised and easy-to-find for fans coast-to-coast. Starting in February 2020, the XFL will air weekly on ABC and FOX, with games also on ESPN, ESPN2, FS1 and FS2. Vince McMahon, XFL Founder and Chairman, is personally funding the new league, and building the XFL with the same commitment and resolve that he has demonstrated building WWE into a global media and sports entertainment powerhouse. For more information, visit XFL.com and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

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Bob Stoops takes voluntary pay cut from Oklahoma

Stephan Rachuk — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 23:25:09 +0000

XFL Dallas Head Coach/General Manager Bob Stoops is taking a voluntary pay cut at the University of Oklahoma from $325,000 a year to $162,000, according to the Board of Regents agenda revealed on Friday.Beyond leading the XFL Dallas franchise Stoops is, and will stay on as, “Special Assistant to the Athletic Director,” a title he’s held since 2017. To me, this shows that Stoops is serious about the XFL and he’s putting more of his attention to the XFL.

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Robert Morris to join XFL Dallas as Analytics/Scouting Manager

Stephan Rachuk — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 13:00:16 +0000

This week alone we’ve seen hires for New York, DC and Los Angeles and now we have some news for XFL Dallas. Former Director of Player Personnel of the San Antonio Commanders will be joining the team as Analytics/Scouting manager.

Morrris has 15 years of coaching experience at the collegiate level, serving as Assistant Coach for Indiana from 1983 to 1993, as well as Purdue and University of Akron.

He also has many years of scouting experience, spending time with both the Cleveland Browns and the Sans Francisco 49ers.

It’s great to see so many former Alliance folks coming over to the XFL, and we may have another joining Dallas soon. Once we have further confirmation we’ll let you know.

Stay up to date with all the latest hires with the XFL2k Staff Tracker.

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Johnny Manziel expresses interest in playing for the XFL

Stephan Rachuk — Mon, 10 Jun 2019 14:16:35 +0000

The XFL weren’t the only ones in Houston this weekend. Former Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel was appearing at the TriStar collectors show on Saturday, where he discussed his XFL possibilities with multiple reporters. He told the Houston Chronicle that part of his interest would be based on the team’s proximity to Texas A&M, where he was a Heisman Trophy winner.

“It’s a stone’s throw from College Station,” Manziel told the Houston Chronicle “A lot of Aggies drove from Houston to College Station. Houston’s a great city that’ll always be near and dear to me.”

Manziel won the Heisman Trophy in 2012 and was a 2014 first-round pick of the Cleveland Browns. When his NFL career didn’t pan out, he made stops in the CFL and now defunct AAF.

Current XFL Houston Head Coach/General Manager, June Jones coached Manziel when he first joined the CFL.

“I enjoyed every single day I had with coach Jones,” Manziel said. “Being in his offense was the best part of each day. I know he’s going to be successful wherever he’s coaching.”

The CFL essentially banned Manziel from the league, after he was released by the Montreal Alouettes after being “unable to abide by the terms of his agreement.”

It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out. Since the XFL will be utilizing a draft system, Manziel would need to take his chances on where he lands if he decides to come to the league. There is no guarantee that he would land in either Dallas or Houston. Coach Jones has already said he would love to work with Manziel, so if Houston does end up getting the #1 pick, this may all come to fruition.

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Dallas XFL Summer Showcase Recap

XFL Plus — Sat, 08 Jun 2019 01:22:57 +0000

And we’re off! The first of the eight XFL Summer Showcase workouts took place today at The University of Texas at Arlington only a few short miles from XFL Dallas’ home in Globe Life Park. Roughly 100 athletes with almost equal numbers of offense and defense showed up to showcase their skills for XFL coaches and team management.

The weather was just about Texas perfect for this first XFL Showcase being partly cloudy, almost no wind and going from mid-seventies to mid-eighties toward the end.

The general admittance gates were scheduled to open at 11:30 am, at which time players were already doing drills. The players were on opposite ends of the field, divided almost equally on each side with skill position players on one end and interior players on the other.

The offense in white and defense in navy. There was a smaller group in the middle with what at first looked like quarterbacks receiving the ball out by the hash and then throwing somewhat deep. At closer inspection and wondering why they were not with the other quarterbacks it hit me, these are not quarterbacks they are practicing the double forward pass. Not five minutes in and I’m already seeing new stuff.

They started off doing some simple backpedals, starting from the secondary backwards toward the QB and then would turn a 180 on command about 10 yards out and the QB would fire the ball at them. Then they moved onto some more follow the ball/coach back and forth, followed by a mid or deeper pass. After these one-on-none drills they moved to one-on-one receiver/defensive back routes doing the standard curls, quick-outs and then deep throws.

Before looking at the roster while watching the QBs throw, I started making a quick tally of 1 or 2 points for each throw. 2 for a good, tight, accurate throw and 1 for a lesser one. After four or five rounds one QB kept getting all 2’s and hitting all the marks with nice throws. His number was 24, so I then looked him up, Landry Jones. So, without even knowing who it was beforehand, his previous NFL skills quickly showed through. Christine Michael also looked pretty good; showing fast, multiple cuts and then getting downhill. I also quickly noticed him in the backfield, off play whenever turning away for a bit and looking back. He would be moving lots, just a bit off to the side sometimes for more room and even one of the only players to drop down and bust out a quick set of push-ups when the offense threw an interception. He seemed to be full of energy, enjoying it out there and taking advantage of it.

Besides the more well-known players, there was one other that I noticed was on a long go route and hitting about 40 yards down the right sideline with a leaping one-handed grab over a well covering DB. This guy was big, tall and appeared plenty fast against the DB coverage. One of the few plays to get the crowd cheering. It turned out to be a tight-end and not a wide receiver by the name of Brandon Barnes, from Alabama State. He also had another near one-handed catch over the middle a bit later. Definitely curious to see if he gets drafted.

I am sure there were also a few other standouts and even more from the interior players, but they were a bit harder to judge in this type of setting from the sidelines.

After the workouts during a Q&A in Chalk Talk, Bob Stoops mentioned a couple people that caught his eye as well; Ahmad Dixon (safety from Baylor), Landry Jones (QB from Oklahoma) and Frank Alexander (DE from Oklahoma). He might have been keeping his cards close to the vest as it was Landry Jones and another former OU player, but I am sure he was being honest. He came across genuine and a bit humble for someone with his pedigree. Someone asked him what it was like being the royalty of the XFL coaches, and he said, “I don’t know about all that, I haven’t even won a game yet, I am zero and zero”.

Speaking of Chalk Talk, after the workout there was a presentation and Q&A with CEO/Commissioner Oliver Luck and XFL Dallas Head Coach/General Manager Bob Stoops. This was an invite only gathering in one of the stadium meeting rooms, mostly for season ticket depositors and media to get more versed in the XFL nuances. During this Oliver Luck came out and gave us a presentation about what the XFL was, speedier play, different kickoff, slightly different punt return, OT rules and such. It was a lot of the stuff XFL superfans have seen before, but there were a couple nuggets I heard for the first time.

Oliver Luck did confirm the divisions will be East and West. Seattle, Los Angeles, Dallas and Houston making up the West and St. Louis, Tampa Bay, New York and Washington DC on the East. The teams will play the three other teams in their division, home and away. Then play the four teams in the other division once to get to the total 10 games. Then, although he didn’t confirm as they were still tinkering, but they were heavily leaning toward cross division scheduling in the playoffs. Leading to having the two best teams in the championship regardless of division. I think this is a great idea for only an eight-team league.

At the end of the day this was a spectacular event, marking the “first official football action of XFL 2020” (Oliver Luck’s words to us at the Chalk Talk).

Everyone there seemed genuinely happy and were very nice to all who were there. And the fans in the Q&A had lots of questions and were really interested in getting up to speed on the XFL game. This event turned out very well and I encourage any fans to get to one of these if they can. And if you can get in the Chalk Talk then drive from even further, because you may not get that type of setting with the league commissioner and local head coach ever again.

Note: We at XFL2k would like to thank XFLPlus for providing coverage of today’s event. Please make sure to check out XFLPlus.com and follow them on Twitter at @XFLPlus.

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Dallas Summer Showcase Rosters Revealed

Stephan Rachuk — Fri, 07 Jun 2019 16:54:16 +0000

We’ve heard a few names that would be attending the XFL Summer Showcase in Dallas today, but now we got our hands on the full 100 man roster. The roster is split between two pages, one for offense and the other for defensive players.

You can view the full list below.

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Former Air Force Receiver, Jalen Rowell to attend Summer Showcase in Dallas

Stephan Rachuk — Fri, 07 Jun 2019 13:15:45 +0000

Jalen Rowell was projected as a mid-round selection in 2017 but went undrafted after learning he would have to fulfill his two-year active duty commitment after all. He was told as the first round was underway that Air Force leaders had informed the academy that cadets would still be required to serve at least two years on active duty. That was a precursor to an official reversal of the DOD’s pro sports policy shortly after Jim Mattis was appointed secretary of defense.

Now Rowell has another chance to hit the field, he will be attending the XFL Summer Showcase today in Dallas. He played three seasons for Air Force, accruing 85 receptions totaling 1,738 yards with 12 Touchdowns.

.@AF_Academy graduate @a_young_raisin takes the first step towards achieving his dream of playing professional football at the @XFLDallas Summer Showcase.

For more info on the #XFLShowcase ➡️ https://t.co/hSEGr7twJp pic.twitter.com/v0piMIuzwe

— XFL (@xfl2020) June 7, 2019

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Landry Jones to attend Summer Showcase in Dallas

Stephan Rachuk — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 21:28:39 +0000

The XFL has just announced via Twitter that former Oklahoma Quarterback, Landry Jones will be in attendance at this Friday’s Summer Showcase in Dallas.

Former 4th round pick and @OU_Football standout @LandryJones12 will be showcasing his talents at tomorrow's @XFLDallas Summer Showcase.

For more info on the #XFLShowcase ➡️ https://t.co/hSEGr7twJp pic.twitter.com/9ZwOeMEO2Q

— XFL (@xfl2020) June 6, 2019

Jones played college football at Oklahoma, under current XFL Dallas Head Coach, Bob Stoops. He was selected by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the fourth round (115th overall) of the 2013 NFL Draft. He also played for the Jacksonville Jaguars and Oakland Raiders.

Jones was a highly regarded recruit and was among the highest rated quarterbacks for the Class of 2008 by several ratings publishers including a four-star rating by both Scout.com (sixth rated quarterback) and Rivals.com (sixth rated pro-style quarterback).

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Tom Mason to join XFL Houston as LB Coach

Stephan Rachuk — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 13:00:04 +0000

Tom Mason, another XFL alumni, previously serving the role of Linebackers Coach for the Las Vegas Outlaws, is coming back to the XFL. He will be re-joining June Jones in Houston as Linebackers of the team.

We heard back on June 5th that Mason would be joining the league via Mike Mitchell (XFLBoard.com), but we’ve now been able to confirm his role with the Houston franchise.

Mason previously served as the interim head football coach at SMU for the final 10 games of the 2014 season upon the resignation of June Jones, compiling a record of 1–9. Before that, he had been SMU’s Defensive Coordinator since 2008. He also served as the interim Head Coach at Boise State University for the first ten games of the 1996 season, compiling a record of 1–9.

He most recently held the role of Linebackers Coach for the Memphis Express of the Alliance of American Football.

You can stay up to sate with all the latest hires with the XFL2k Staff Tracker.

UPDATE: We originally reported that Mason would be joining the league as the Defensive Coordinator of the Houston franchise. Unfortunately, our tips turned out to be incorrect as we’re now being told that he will be joining the team as Linebackers Coach. The article has been updated to reflect the changes.

Breaking: Defensive coach Tom Mason will be joining June Jones coaching staff in @XFLHouston. The veteran assistant was last with The Memphis Express in the AAF. Mason was with Jones at SMU. He has also coached at Hawaii, UTEP and in the original XFL with The Las Vegas Outlaws. pic.twitter.com/MPtlp96vyD

— Mike Mitchell (@MMXFLBoard) June 5, 2019

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