Welcome back, Michigan Panthers! Meet the 17 Michigan players on 2023 USFL rosters

As you may have heard, the United States Football League is back for Year 2 of its second iteration, with its eight teams kicking off this weekend. That includes the Michigan Panthers, who finished next-to-last in Year 1. (They won their final game to claim the No. 1 pick in this year’s draft; that was used on Michigan State offensive lineman Jarrett Horst, who doesn’t appear to have made the opening-weekend roster.)

The Panthers kick off their 2023 campaign against the Houston Gamblers in Memphis, Tennessee, at noon Sunday (NBC); their first home game — in Detroit, no less! — will be April 30. But before then, let’s catch up on the league’s changes.

First off, pour one out for the Tampa Bay Bandits, who are no more (at least temporarily) after going 4-6 last season. In their place are the Memphis Showboats (carrying on the legacy of the USFL’s original Showboats, who also entered the original league in its second season, 1984).

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After playing every regular-season game last year in Birmingham, Alabama, the league has added three “local” sites. The Panthers and the Philadelphia Stars will share Ford Field in Detroit. (They’ll play their first two games on the road.) The Showboats and the Houston Gamblers will play in Memphis; the New Jersey Generals and the Pittsburgh Maulers will play in Canton, Ohio (which hosted the playoffs last year); and the Birmingham Stallions and New Orleans Breakers will stay in Birmingham.

There has also been some coaching turnover, with the Panthers’ Jeff Fisher departing and being replaced by Mike Nolan, the former San Francisco 49ers boss most notable for trying (and, unfortunately, failing) to bring back suits for NFL head coaches.

One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is that there are plenty of standouts from Michigan colleges suiting up this spring. Seven of the eight franchises have at least one player from the Mitten State, with only the Gamblers going without. (They don’t visit Ford Field this season, so the boo-birds will have to wait till next year.)

Here’s a quick look at the 14 Michigan college stars looking to break through in the USFL:

Birmingham Stallions

DT Willie Henry, U-M

Henry’s breakout senior season at Michigan — 6½ sacks and 10 tackles-for-loss in 2015 — earned him a fourth-round pick form the Baltimore Ravens in the 2016 draft. He didn’t play that season, but made their roster in 2017 and 2018, picking up 36 tackles and 4½ sacks in 17 games (with three starts). After spending the 2020 season with the 49ers (including one regular-season appearance), Henry spent time on the practice squads of the Houston Texans, Philadelphia Eagles and the N.Y. Giants in 2021. He signed with the Stallions last April and had nine tackles and a sack.

Houston Gamblers

S Stefan Claiborne, WMU

The Clinton Township Chippewa Valley alumnus switched to safety in his final season in Kalamazoo and had 51 tackles and two pass breakups in 13 games, including four tackles and a PBU in WMU’s 2019 First Responder Bowl loss to Western Kentucky. He signed with the Edmonton Elks of the Canadian Football League last year, but didn’t make it into any games.

OL Tyler Higby, MSU

Higby is also in his second season in the USFL after appearing in eight games last season. He bounced around the line during his time in East Lansing, with 30 starts — 21 at left guard, seven at left tackle and two at center — among 43 games with the Spartans before graduating in 2019. He signed with the Minnesota Vikings after the 2020 draft, but was released in the summer after missing two weeks with COVID-19.

WR Tyler Palka, SVSU

The former Saline star spent three seasons (including a redshirt year) at Saginaw Valley State before transferring to Gannon (Pennsylvania) University for the 2016 season. In two campaigns with the Golden Knights, Palka passed for 283 yards and a touchdown, rushed 111 times for 626 yards and six TDs and, after a 2017 move to wideout, caught 50 passes for 662 yards and five TDs. Since then, he bounced about pro football’s minor leagues before landing with the Gamblers last season; he caught 18 passes for 188 yards last season.

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Michigan Panthers

CB Josh Butler, MSU

A lockdown corner in East Lansing over four seasons, he redefined the term “Spartan Dawg” at Senior Day for the 2019 season, bringing his two dogs, Roxy and Remi, to the field in place of his parents, who both died during his time at MSU. When the coronavirus pandemic hit, shuttering the MSU facilities, Butler planed to train for the NFL in, he again relied on his canine companions, competing against them in drills and using them as weights. "I do the majority of my workouts, literally, with them," Butler told the Freep in 2020.

S Delano Hill, U-M

The Detroit Cass Tech star stood out enough during his senior season in Ann Arbor — with 50 tackles, 4½ TFLs and three interceptions — to go in the third round of the 2017 NFL draft to the Seattle Seahawks. Over four seasons and 42 games with Seattle, Hill had 64 tackles (including 3 TFLs). He signed with the Carolina Panthers in May 2021, but caught COVID-19 and was released in early August 2021.

LB Terry Myrick, EMU

The 23-year-old returns for his second season with the Panthers after recording 27 tackles last year. That followed a career in Ypsilanti in which he racked up 260 tackles (including 17 TFLs) over 54 games in five seasons (2017-21), as well as an All-MAC second-team nod in 2020’s COVID-shortened season.

New Jersey Generals

WR Darrell Stewart Jr., MSU

Stewart turned into a big-play threat in 2019, his final season in East Lansing, with huge games against WMU (10 catches for 185 yards), Arizona State (nine catches, 121 yards) and Indiana (five catches, 117 yards) before injuries cost him the final month of the season. He spent time with the Green Bay Packers’ and Carolina Panthers’ practice squads in 2020 before signing with the Generals last September. In between? He starred in Germany, leading the Dresden Monarchs to the 2021 German Football League title with 82 catches for 1,369 yards and 22 touchdowns. He won’t be suiting up this weekend, however he was placed on injured reserve on Thursday.

New Orleans Breakers

K Matt Coghlin, MSU

Michigan State’s all-time leader in points (382) and field goals (76) got some offseason NFL work last year, with an invite to the Chicago Bears minicamp in May. He’ll be replacing Taylor Bertolet, who connected on just 75% (9-for-12) of his extra-point tries and 73% of his field-goal attempts.

S Sidney McCloud, Ferris State

A transfer from Northwood University before the 2019 season, McCloud stepped it up last fall as the Bulldogs repeated as NCAA champs. Despite tearing his labrum before the 2022 season, he played in the national title game, picking off a pass and returning it for a TD in the first half of FSU’s 41-14 mauling of Colorado School of Mines in late December.

CB Alex Thomas, Ferris State

Thomas starred with the Bulldogs in 2019, with five interceptions during FSU’s run to the NCAA semfinals, after transferring from Cincinnati. He opted out of the 2020 season, though that was later canceled by the coronavirus pandemic. Thomas returned to the Bulldogs in 2021 to post 19 tackles and three interceptions as FSU won the national title.

Philadelphia Stars

DE Ali Fayad, WMU

The MAC Defensive Player of the Year in 2021 — he had 17½ TFLs and 12 sacks — got a brief shot with the NFL’s Eagles (on the practice squad) before landing with the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL for the 2022 season. In four games for the Argos, the Dearborn product had four tackles and a sack en route to a Grey Cup victory.

DT Ralph Holley, WMU

A standout at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s and then in Kalamazoo — where he had 16½ TFLs and six sacks as a redshirt senior in 2021 — Holley landed with the Stars last season. He finished the USFL season with three tackles and a sack before getting a tryout with the NFL’s Bears in rookie camp last summer.

CB Channing Stribling, U-M

Another USFL returnee, Stribling is already getting Defensive Player of the Year buzz after a first season that saw him pick off seven passes, break up 11 others, make 11 tackles and even pull off a sack en route to a All-Defensive team nod and a summer tryout with the NFL’s Washington Commanders. It was a performance similar to what he did over four season (2013-16) in Ann Arbor, where he had 69 tackles, 3½ TFLs a sack and six interceptions in 36 games.

Pittsburgh Maulers

DT Christopher Okoye, Ferris State

The 2017 All-GLIAC first-teamer and Novi Detroit Catholic Central alumnus, who spent time in NFL camps with the Cincinnati Bengals and L.A. Chargers, had 25 tackles, including two for loss, over 13 games in his final season with the Bulldogs.

WR Hunter Rison, MSU/GVSU

The son of Spartans legend Andre Rison spent just one season in East Lansing, hauling in 19 catches for 224 yards over 12 games in 2017. He transferred to Kansas State and sat out the 2018 season, then was dismissed before the 2019 campaign for striking a woman. After a season at Fullerton College in California, Rison transferred to Grand Valley State, which didn’t play during the 2020 season due to the coronavirus pandemic. In 2021, Rison had 38 catches for 518 yards and six touchdowns for the Lakers.

TE Matt Seybert, MSU

The Traverse City St. Francis product was an unlikely Spartan, leaving a scholarship spot at Buffalo to walk on at MSU in 2016, and moving to defensive end in 2018. But his senior year of 2019, which featured a move back to tight end, featured some standout moments, including a two-TD game against Northwestern in September. That led “Mr. Reliable” — as he was dubbed by then-teammate Theo Day — to reveal who he relied on: The Man Upstairs. “I mean, I’m not gonna lie — you guys hear it all the time, people thanking God,” Seybert said. “But I’ve been praying my butt off lately, hard as heck.” He finished that season with 26 catches for 284 yards and three TDs and was a 34th-round pick in the USFL draft last year. With the Maulers, he had five catches for 34 yards and a TD.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 2023 USFL rosters have plenty of Michigan-made talent