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Fox Sports
28-05-2025
- Sport
- Fox Sports
2025 UFL MVP Power Rankings: Perez, Perkins, Ta'amu make up three-man race
Heading into the final week of regular-season play in the UFL , there are only three viable candidates for me to win MVP. All of these players have not only appeared in at least 70% of the regular-season games, but have proven their importance to their teams and presented consistent challenges for the league. Here's a look at my updated MVP rankings heading into Week 10: 3. Michigan Panthers QB Bryce Perkins Week 9 stat line: N/A Week 9 result: N/A Despite not playing the last two weeks, Perkins still ranks No. 3 in passing yards in the UFL with 1,342. With Perkins at QB, the Panthers looked like a championship-caliber franchise and one to reckon with the defending UFL champion Birmingham Stallions. While he's a long shot to win the MVP, there's an argument for his contention with Arlington Renegades QB Luis Perez for UFL Offensive Player of the Year. In just seven games, he's recorded 14 total TDs, second to DC Defenders QB Jordan Ta'amu. What Perkins might have been able to do statistically with two more games is debatable, but there's no doubt his contribution would've been positive. 2. Arlington Renegades QB Luis Perez Week 9 stat line: 20-of-30 for 206 passing yards, 2 TDs Week 9 result: 30-12 win over Memphis And after last week's performance, Perez became the only QB in the last five years to throw for at least 2,000 yards in three consecutive seasons. His 2,310 yards remains the record for passing in a 10-game season across the USFL, XFL and UFL. Had his team made the playoffs in 2025, Perez would've probably stood a chance to win UFL MVP. However, with a good outing this weekend, he should be a shoo-in for UFL Offensive Player of the Year. 1. DC Defenders QB Jordan Ta'amu Week 9 stat line: 14-of-22 for 240 passing yards, 2 TDs Week 9 result: 24-21 loss to Houston With Ta'amu at quarterback, the Defenders are just one of two teams to see their Week 1 starter play in every single game this season, and it has paid dividends. The Defenders have reached the playoffs for the first time in the UFL, boasting the league's leading passer (Ta'amu) and second-leading receiver (Chris Rowland). In a league where good quarterback play has been difficult to find week-in-and-week-out, Ta'amu's 2025 performance stands out. Even with a change in head coach, his consistency has been the largest reason the Defenders are one of the best teams in the sport. With 2,155 passing yards, Ta'amu has a chance to become the first UFL player to pass for more than 2,400 yards since spring professional football was reintroduced in the U.S. in 2020. He has also accounted for 19 total TDs. With two more passing TDs, he will break Luis Perez's record for passing TDs in a UFL season (18). RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him at @RJ_Young . Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily ! FOLLOW Follow your favorites to personalize your FOX Sports experience United Football League recommended Get more from United Football League Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Yahoo
Man arrested in alleged hit-and-run death on Mother's Day. Victim ID'd by coroner
A bicyclist, who was killed in an alleged hit-and-run on May 11, was identified by the Fresno County Coroner's Office on Friday afternoon. The victim is Luis Perez, 39, of Fresno. Officers responded to the crash just before 6 p.m. at Belmont Avenue and Thesta Street and found Perez lying in the roadway with serious injuries, police said. Perez was taken to Community Regional Medical Center where he died. Williams said a black sedan fled the area after the collision. Police were able to locate the suspect on Wednesday, who is identified as 44-year-old Luis Jimenez Ortiz of Fresno. The Fresno County District Attorney's Office filed criminal charges against Ortiz, who has a prior DUI conviction from 2002 in San Joaquin County and is currently facing pending charges in Merced County for a 2022 incident involving driving under the influence of drugs. If convicted on all charges, Ortiz faces a maximum sentence of four years and six months, plus 15 years to life in state prison.
Fox News
21-05-2025
- Sport
- Fox News
2025 UFL MVP Power Rankings: Defenders QB Jordan Ta'amu leads after Week 8
Week 8 of the UFL season is in the books. The playoff schedule is all set and ready to go. Where do we stand in the MVP race? Heading into Week 9, the MVP race appears to be a two-man competition between a pair of quarterbacks that have stood out above the rest this season: Bryce Perkins and Jordan Ta'amu. Does Perkins or Ta'amu claim the top spot in this week's rankings? Who else is in the mix and has a chance to make a run at MVP honors? Here's a look at my updated UFL MVP rankings heading into Week 9: 4. St. Louis Battlehawks RB Jacob Saylors Week 8 stat line: 16 rushes, 118 yards, 1 TDWeek 8 result: 29-28 win over Birmingham Saylors has been the most consistent offensive weapons in the UFL throughout the season. He leads all rushers with 466 yards and is tied for first place in rushing touchdowns with five. With more performances like last week, Saylors could be the primary reason the Battlehawks win their first UFL postseason contest. 3. Arlington Renegades QB Luis Perez Week 8 stat line: 32-of-46 for 350 passing yards, 2 TDs, 1 INTWeek 8 result: 33-30 loss to DC Perez has consistently shown himself to be one of the league's best passers. Heading into the final two weeks of the season, he has thrown for more than 1,800 yards, completed 70.9% of his passes and has thrown seven touchdowns to five interceptions. Though the Renegades are out of the playoff hunt, Perez still has a chance to top 2,000 yards passing in 10 games. 2. Michigan Panthers QB Bryce Perkins Week 8 stat line: N/AWeek 8 result: N/A Though Perkins did not play in Week 8, it's been clear since he ascended to QB1 in Michigan that his playmaking ability is what has allowed the Panther offense to remain dynamic. Perkins plays the QB position like a point guard, passing when players are open, but he's also just as adept at moving the chains with his feet. The Panthers always have an option to run or pass when Perkins drops back, and that skill will serve them well against the Birmingham Stallions in the USFL Conference Championship Game. 1. DC Defenders QB Jordan Ta'amu Week 8 stat line: 15-of-26 for 240 passing yards, 2 TDsWeek 8 result: 33-30 win over Arlington No one has proven to be more adept at creating explosive plays for their team than Ta'amu. With 1,990 passing yards and 16 touchdowns, he has thrown for nearly 200 more yards than the second-leading passer in the league and twice as many TDs as the No. 2 QB with that mark. While his completion percentage is 53.6%, when Ta'amu completes passes, they're more than likely to be chunk plays. Those chunk plays have allowed the Defenders to clinch their first UFL playoff appearance and have Ta'amu positioned as the presumptive MVP of the league. RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him at @RJ_Young. Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily!
New York Times
11-04-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
‘The Spring King' Luis Perez, the most unlikely UFL QB, won't give up on NFL dreams
It's hard to talk Luis Perez out of anything, especially professional football. When a 10-year-old Perez had fun at a birthday bowling event, he put his mind to the sport, bowled 12 perfect games as an amateur and nearly joined the Professional Bowlers Association before college. When his football coach at Texas A&M-Commerce dominated Perez at the pool table, Perez came back after Christmas break and began beating his coach with bank shots he learned on YouTube. Advertisement So it didn't matter that Perez didn't play football in high school and had never been a quarterback. He taught himself throws (again, on YouTube), willed his way into college football and five different stints on NFL teams. He has been cut five times. But he won't stop. Perez is known as 'The Spring King' because he has played in nearly every spring pro league, trying to keep his NFL dream alive. He has the unique honor of having thrown the first touchdown pass in USFL 2.0, XFL 3.0 and UFL history. In some ways, the nickname is a backhanded compliment because he's still here and not there, on an NFL roster. Almost every spring, he plays well, gets an opportunity in an NFL training camp and then gets cut. Now 30, he's back with the Arlington Renegades of the UFL, again looking for that final big break. Through two games, he again leads the league in passing yards. He got himself this far and won't stop just yet. 'I know I can play at the highest level,' he said. 'I know with the right fit and the right opportunity, I'm going to excel. When you're that close, when you get to the NFL and play in preseason, you're right there, you see what's going on. Like, I belong here. I'm gonna keep going until I get it.' Every step of Perez's journey could be its own story. Growing up in San Diego, the son of a Mexican professional soccer player, he tried to join a youth football league but wasn't picked. His dad convinced the league to make an extra team of all the undrafted players, like a scene out of 'Little Giants.' The players used bouncy castles from his dad's party rental company as tackling dummies. The team lost its first game 50-0, Perez wrote in his new autobiography. His high school ran a wing-T offense, so he was put at tight end instead of quarterback. He quit to focus on bowling and put football behind him. Until, as a senior, friends on the football team convinced him to attend the senior day game. When he saw players run out of the tunnel, he got goose bumps, realizing he had to give football another shot. Perez unsuccessfully asked if he could join the high school team for the last two games. Advertisement But Perez paused his bowling career, saying he would have plenty of time for that when he was older, and he went to YouTube to study throws that winter and spring. He connected with former NFL quarterback Akili Smith, who was the uncle of a friend on the high school team. They met up at parks around San Diego. To Smith's surprise, this late-stage trainee had something. 'He didn't know footwork, stance, but he was always a natural thrower,' Smith said. 'I never really had to fix his throwing mechanics. Him getting on YouTube to learn the position, that's a testament to him wanting to be great.' Smith put in a word with Southwestern Junior College coach Ed Carberry. It took some convincing that this bowler, who had no game film, was worth a look. But as a junior college, Carberry took on all comers. Perez says he arrived late, so there weren't any helmets or pads that fit him. He wore a lineman's helmet and oversized pads until he got something that fit. 'I didn't give a crap what they were making fun of me for,' Perez said. 'I just wanted to play ball.' He was the ninth-string quarterback, not even high enough to get reps. 'He was getting the end of the bunch and lower than that,' Carberry said, 'because he wasn't ready to play at all.' But players began dropping out or getting hurt. And Perez was quickly getting better. By the end of camp, he was the No. 2 quarterback, and when the starter got injured in Week 3, in came Perez. The nerves took over. His first snap as a real quarterback was a delay of game. But he rebounded with a back-shoulder fade touchdown pass that surprised everyone. He was off and running. Perez often takes family members to the stadium or an open field to help him visualize plays. His mom caught curl routes at Southwestern. His wife, Brenda, still quizzes him on plays from a new playbook. Advertisement 'OK, I haven't seen that,' Carberry said. 'Everybody says they work, but not everybody is willing to put in that kind of time.' A broken leg ended Perez's first season, but he showed up to practice the next week in a cast, believing he could play. The next season, Perez led Southwest to a junior college division bowl championship, throwing 18 touchdowns and just three interceptions. NCAA college interest began to pick up. Perez said UC Davis offered, until the coaches realized his credits wouldn't transfer. Kansas, Oklahoma State and Old Dominion had walk-on spots, but he wanted a scholarship. So Perez turned back to the internet. Have any Division II quarterbacks made the NFL? He came across Dustin Vaughn from West Texas A&M. Vaughn's coaches were by then at Texas A&M-Commerce (now called East Texas A&M), so Perez reached out to get a look. Commerce coaches saw him during a swing through California junior colleges and offered. Perez redshirted his first season in Texas, finally able to learn without pressure. When Commerce played Ferris State in the Division II playoffs, Perez drove up to Michigan just to be on the sideline. By then, coach Colby Carthel knew Perez would be the team's next starting quarterback. Perez shined as a junior, throwing for more than 3,300 yards with 32 touchdowns and five interceptions. The Lions went 11-2 and reached the second round, losing to Grand Valley State. Everyone went home for Christmas, but not Perez. He and Brenda drove 10 hours through a blizzard to Kansas City to watch the national championship game his team wasn't in. Why? He wanted to feel the energy. He wanted to understand the layout of the stadium. He wanted to visualize the moment. 'I told her we're going to be here next year,' he said. It helped that the Lions opened the next year against North Alabama, which was playing in the game. Some extra scouting. To convince Brenda, Perez agreed to weeks of extra dish duty. Perez called Carthel from the stadium to say the team would be here in a year. Advertisement 'He gave me more confidence than I gave him,' Carthel said. 'That's who he was. He studied everything he had. He researched footballs on that trip and had us change our footballs because national champions used (another kind).' At Commerce, Perez set a strict no-partying rule for himself, with a twist: If someone invited him to a party, he would decline and instead do a workout. That could be footwork drills, work in the weight room, throwing or something else. 'In that moment, I'd have to go work out or go to the field,' Perez said. 'Even if it was 11 p.m., and I was going to turn the lights off.' As a senior, Perez created a 4 a.m. group workout, an idea he got from offseason training with Drew Brees in San Diego. It started with two players. It got up to 28 by the time the season started. To this day, Perez still does a 4 a.m. workout multiple times a week. It all paid off. Perez led Commerce to the 2016 Division II national championship. He won the Harlon Hill Trophy, the Division II equivalent of the Heisman Trophy, throwing for more than 5,000 yards. 'Luis was a spark, a leader everybody got behind,' Carthel said. 'That was special.' Perez hoped his success and relative upside would lead to him being drafted in 2018. That dream didn't materialize. Somehow, neither did an undrafted free agent contract. He had to go through a local camp tryout with the Los Angeles Rams before getting signed. His work ethic quickly made an impression. 'A couple times he kind of pissed me off because he beat me into the office,' coach Sean McVay joked in 2018. 'He's already in there studying tape. I'm like, 'What the heck are you doing in here already, man?' Really impressive.' Perez played in the preseason and was signed to the practice squad but was cut in September and began a cycle that continues to this day. Advertisement In 2019, he joined the Alliance of American Football on a tip from Chris Mortensen and played well before the league shut down due to financial issues. He signed with the Philadelphia Eagles but was waived. Then he signed with the Detroit Lions and was waived again. In 2020, he joined the new XFL, began as a backup but took over a starting job, only to see the league shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, he joined The Spring League and led the Jousters to the league championship game. In 2022, he went undrafted in the new USFL but signed with the New Jersey Generals and led the team to a 9-1 record while splitting reps. The Rams signed him again and then released him a month later. In 2023, he joined the third iteration of the XFL and led Arlington to a league championship, earning MVP honors in the title game and being handed the award by Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson. Teams called, but a broken foot led to no NFL deal. In 2024, he returned with the Renegades in the UFL and led the league in passing yards and touchdowns with just four interceptions. The Los Angeles Chargers signed him, played him in the preseason and then cut him. So he's back in the UFL again, leading the league in passing again. He keeps coming back, keeps swinging, even at 30. 'He's as driven as anyone there is,' said Bob Stoops, the Renegades coach and a College Football Hall of Famer. 'He has a unique story. There'll never be another one like it.' 'I'm so close,' Perez said. 'Why am I going to stop right at the finish line? That's my thought process. I tasted the NFL last year. I'm back on teams' radars. I know I can do it.' Perez doesn't have another job. He trains full time and owns a rental property that brings in some income. After every season, he asks himself if he still enjoys waking up at 4 a.m. to work out and study. If his body feels good. If he's still playing at a high level. If he can still financially do this. To this point, he still can. Advertisement Smith knows the feeling. The former No. 3 NFL Draft pick in 1999, Smith decided after a 2007 season in the Canadian Football League to call it a career. 'It's hard to walk away,' he said. 'I was very emotional in Canada, but I knew it was time to move on. For Luis, it's not over yet, because he still has the will to prepare, his mind is where it needs to be, and he's having success.' The odds of Perez getting back are low. He knows that. But so have the odds for everything else Perez has done, and he has willed it all into existence. Bowling. College football. Pro football. He just keeps showing up. He's made it this far. How could he not believe in himself until the very end? 'He just outworks, outthinks, outprepares and outwills the competition,' Carthel said. 'He's been picked to be the backup a thousand times. Every time I look up, he's winning championships.'
Fox News
10-04-2025
- Sport
- Fox News
UFL 2025: Best mic'd up moments from Week 2
Week 2 of the 2025 UFL season is a wrap, and it was full of star-studded performances. Arlington quarterback Luis Perez guided the Renegades to a 2-0 start, Battlehawks running back Jacob Saylors added to his league-leading rushing touchdown total and Memphis receiver Jonathan Adams put up another big performance with 128 receiving yards. As exciting as it is to watch the players shine on the field, it's also fun to find out what they had to say during the games themselves. That's why we've rounded up the best mic'd up moments from Week 2. Check them out! "Yeah, it worked!" The DC Defenders are off to an unexpected 2-0 start with interim head coach Shannon Harris. What surprised the players is not their record, but the success they had on their go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter against Memphis. With 8:25 left in the game and the Defenders trailing 12-9, DC quarterback Jordan Ta'amu faked the handoff and then threw a jump pass to a wide-open Ben Bresnahan in the end zone. As the tight end threw up his hands in celebration, a Defenders player yelled out, "Yeah, it worked!" DC's offense must have struggled with the play against its own defense, because he added, "They whooped our ass in practice with that." "Yeaaaaaaah!" Step aside, "One Shining Moment." There's a new montage in sports, and it's Battlehawks coach Anthony Becht screaming, "YEAAAAH!" and pumping his fist on the sideline like an overexcited Kool-Aid Man. Not that you can blame him. The Battlehawks are 2-0 and have won their games by a combined score of 57-15. "Yo ass lucky he didn't throw that to me!" The first drive of the Defenders-Showboats showdown was a harbinger of what was to come. Memphis was moving the ball and had made it all the way to DC's 20-yard line, but then the Defenders made a play right when they needed it most. This time, it was cornerback Kiondre Thomas, who snagged the interception off of Showboats quarterback E.J. Perry. The Defenders weren't able to turn it into any points, though. Thomas' teammate, fellow corner Deandre Baker, apparently thought he could have taken it all the way to the house if he had been the one pick off Perry. "That was cold AF!" The Defenders came out on top Saturday and, not coincidentally, won the turnover battle 3-0. The Showboats nearly got an interception of their own when cornerback Lance Boykin snatched a ball that was headed for receiver Cornell Powell and corralled it between his legs. Unfortunately for Memphis, Boykin couldn't get both feet inbounds. One teammate still appreciated the moment and probably thought it was one of those "so cool it should count" plays. "Good play, No. 93!" Sometimes, you just have to tip your cap to the opposing team. Roughnecks quarterback Anthony Brown managed to avoid a sack, but he made sure to give props to Renegades defensive end Chris Odom, who got a hand on Brown as he was throwing. "You had that s--- too!" Brown told him. Odom didn't get a sack on that play, but he did force an incompletion on third down. And on Houston's next drive, Odom finally got to Brown for his first sack of the season. "If it isn't there, run it." Stallions backup quarterback Matt Corral entered the game when starter Alex McGough left early with an injury. Corral had a decent game, going 18-of-29 passing for 198 yards and a touchdown. But Corral also made a few mistakes. On back-to-back plays in the second quarter, Corral took a delay-of-game penalty and then threw an interception. Rather than berate him, Skip Holtz coached him up on the sideline. "Just run the ball, take positive yardage plays. We'll go from there," the Stallions head coach said. Holtz's advice must have worked. Birmingham scored on its next three possessions and went on to beat the Michigan Panthers for the Stallions' first win of the season. Want great stories delivered right to your inbox? Create or log in to your FOX Sports account, follow leagues, teams and players to receive a personalized newsletter daily!
