Week eight in the United Football League’s (UFL) 2026 season will kick off with a special Friday Night game. The Dallas Renegades (3-4) will host the Orlando Storm (5-2) at Fort Hood, in what will be a unique setting for a professional football matchup.
Heading into this game, Orlando got back on track by the skin of their teeth this week, with a 24-23 win over the Houston Gamblers. On the other side, the Dallas Renegades lost their fourth in a row – devastatingly coming up short against Birmingham in overtime.
Let’s take a look at what we can expect out of these two teams on Friday Night.
Quarterback Play
Jack Plummer doesn’t dazzle with 300+ yard games every week, but he has been impressively consistent through seven weeks. Plummer is one of the UFL’s most accurate quarterbacks, completing 64.9% of his pass attempts. Protecting the football is his forte – he’s only thrown one interception, with 12 touchdowns to his name. Jack is a true leader, and is well on his way to earning another NFL contract.
Austin Reed, on the other hand, has been flaky. He is leading the UFL in passing yards (1,526), and clearly has the tangibles of a winning quarterback at this level. However, the Renegades haven’t been winning football games, and Austin’s inconsistent play has hurt. There are far too many moments where he tries to force the issue, rather taking what the defense is giving him. Dallas needs weeks 1-3 Reed if they want any chance of getting back on track. He’s thrown seven interceptions across the last four games.
Standout Playmakers
Elijhah Badger is another Storm piece who absolutely will be in the NFL this summer. He’s fresh off a two touchdown performance, continuing to show his abilities to beat defensive backs at every level. Dallas will have their hands full with Badger on Friday.
Chris Rowland doesn’t get talked about enough. He didn’t play a ton of offensive snaps last week, but that was mostly due to his tremendous play on special teams – with a 66 yard kick return against Houston. Chris continues to be a spark for the Storm whenever they need one.
The Renegades have completely slowed down as an offense, which is sad to see. They’ve got talent – as Tyler Vaughns is still one of the top receivers in this league. Against a Storm secondary that is a bit gutted, Tyler could be in for a big day.
Seth Green has been very quiet this season. He’s been a strong tight end with the Renegades the last couple of seasons – and is due for a bigger game. The matchups and opportunities will be there – Reed has to give Seth some looks this week.
The Injury Report
The Orlando Storm have missed a few defensive backs the last two weeks (two of which were placed on IR). Now, they’re trending towards missing one of their key starting corners. Brandon Sebastian is dealing with a concussion, and considering how short of a week it is for Orlando, there’s a solid chance he misses this game.
In addition, LB Tavante Beckett was placed on IR. It’s a huge loss for Orlando, as he was one of the vocal, veteran leaders in that defensive front.
RB Dae Dae Hunter is trending towards being inactive, which is brutal for Dallas if so. Their ground game has been mediocre, and missing the explosiveness of Hunter would be a tough pill to swallow. Defensively, they’re a bit banged up, likely missing DE Tashawn Bower with a calf injury.
Depth Chart Notes
For Dallas, Lorenzo Lingard will step into the RB2 position with Hunter inactive. Lingard spent the majority of this past UFL season in Houston, but has only suited up once for the Renegades. While Alex Akingbulu and Josiah Ezirim were the team’s starting tackles early on, Raiqwon O’Neal and Corey Stewart are now listed as the starters.
There isn’t a ton of movement for Orlando, outside of some of the defensive injuries. LB DeQuan Jackson, who was just signed a week ago, is now listed as a starter. Hopefully, safety Nate Meadors will be back in action – his presence has been missed the last two games.
Dallas Downfall
The Dallas Renegades have been in a free fall since week four, and it has been rather odd to watch unfold. Across the board, the level of play has dipped.
Offensively, it has been a nightmare. Let’s take a look at how drastic of a difference it has been:
Weeks 1-3 (3-0 record): 95 points scored (31.7 PPG), 340 Total YPG
Weeks 4-7 (0-4 record): 62 points scored (15.5 PPG), 245.5 Total YPG
The lack of a true rushing effort has been a thorn in the side of Noel Mazzone and Rick Neuheisel the last few weeks. Ellis Merriweather can score in the red zone, and Dae Dae Hunter provides a couple of chunk plays here and there – but far too often, Dallas finds themselves behind the sticks because teams know what they’re all about now. Austin Reed is a gunslinger, but when that’s your only feature as an offense, it becomes predictable.
Defensively, they aren’t anywhere near where they were to begin the year. Takeaways haven’t been their forte as of late, after being one of the league leaders in that category early on. Through three games, the Renegades had seven takeaways. Across the last four games, they’ve just forced two more – not helping out the offense at all.
When Dallas jumped out to a 3-0 start, their defense was playing excellent football. At the time, they were allowing just 17 points per game. That total has ballooned to nearly 30 points per game the last four weeks. Granted, Austin Reed has gifted defenses with a couple of picks sixes, but the point remains: Mike Gillhamer’s unit hasn’t been at the top of their game either, and it’s shown.
Can Orlando Weather The Storm?
It’s no secret that the Storm have also been struggling to stay afloat as of late. After dropping two games at home, they were legitimately outplayed by the Houston Gamblers – but somehow managed to come out with a win. Houston outgained Orlando 415 to 185 in total yards, a bizarre statistic given Houston’s issues on their end.
“Offensively, it’s the same story right now. We have one or two guys on every play not in the right spot. Whatever it may be: not holding their block long enough, not working to the right guy, maybe we’re in the wrong hole…we have to start looping three to four good plays in a row. Everyone needs to be in the right place, doing their job. Give credit to the teams that we’re playing, they’re stopping us. They want to stop our run.” – Anthony Becht
Their first down offense has struggled. Against Houston, the Storm were constantly putting themselves in 3rd and long situations, because of their inability to move the ball on early downs. Up front, Orlando simply needs to protect better. Their ground game has been way too inconsistent, rushing for just 55 yards against Houston this week. They’ll have opportunities against Dallas, though, as the Renegades have struggled to slow down the run the last few weeks.
Injuries have been tough for the Storm to deal with. Every week, this defense has seen a change of the guards. In the secondary, they haven’t been able to keep anyone healthy. Against Houston, Jason Taylor II and Avery Young took quite a few snaps at safety. Taylor had been signed back last week, while Avery was literally signed just a few days before game day. Meanwhile, Mishael Powell has also shifted to safety, even though most of his snaps have come at slot corner this year. This defense is still one of the top units in the UFL – they’ve just had some tough luck staying healthy.
Coaching Matchup
Orlando Storm, Anthony Becht: It has been a challenging year for Becht in Orlando, despite plenty of early success. Injuries have piled up on both sides of the ball, limiting what the Storm are capable of. That said, having gotten back on track this past weekend, the Storm are positioned to at least be a playoff team.
“Top to bottom, every team is difficult. Because of the parity, it makes it difficult. From a roster standpoint, we feel like we have a lot of good players, but you still have to show up every week and play. For us as a team, we talked about it today – have we played a complete game yet? Collectively, everyone complimented each other last week, but we have to make sure that we perform in all three phases. We have to protect the football. The two games we lost were because of turnovers.” – Anthony Becht
Dallas Renegades, Rick Neuheisel: One has to wonder if Neuheisel has lost the locker room a bit, because what is going on with this team? The vibes the last few weeks have been…weird. Rick is an incredibly successful coach, but staring down what could be a fifth straight loss – something has to give. He’ll need to get Dallas back on track against Becht, who is one of the most successful spring football coaches we’ve seen.
Final Thoughts
The UFL continues to innovate and do things differently. This Friday, these two teams will play at Fort Hood, one of the largest military bases in the country. Military members and their families will have the opportunity to come and watch these two teams face off – which should be an awesome atmosphere for a UFL game, packing out a 6,000 seat venue.
The action all kicks off this Friday night at 8pm ET on FOX. Unfortunately, tickets are not available to the public for this outing, given the security measures at a military base.
Full Roster Breakdowns: Dallas, Orlando
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