XFL St Louis Head Coach Anthony Becht was a guest on Karraker & Smallmon on ESPN 101. He talked about getting the XFL coaching job, pairing with St Louis, his coaching staff, the XFL draft, practicing with the DC team, and more.
He talks about when to expect the name drop and if St. Louis will be called the BattleHawks.
“I’ll say this obviously, I’m not dropping any announcements today, and that will be determined. It will be out shortly.
But the league is going to do the best thing for all the teams, and whether it’s tweaking some names for some cities, not tweaking some names, keeping the same name, they know what’s important and they know it sells.
So I’ll keep it at that. We’ll see what happens. But I’m excited about the name drop when we have that date set and the fans can kind of get excited about it, and I think everybody’s going to be happy.”
Becht said that 66 players would be drafted per team about the XFL draft, then cut down to 54 when the season starts. Then also mentions the XFL Draft date.
“And, of course, the draft will be mid-November. We have November 16th, I believe, so there’s a lot of work to be done.”
He talks about the Dallas Hub and gives some insight on how the practices will work.
“So myself and Reggie Coach Barlow, who’s with the DC team will practice at the same facility in the Arlington area. And it’s great. I mean, it will be a way to practice against each other when we have to. We’ll have parts of the day we’ll be doing our own thing.
We’ll never cross paths until we have some of those scrimmages. But it is having the best people, the best trainers, everything held in the same spot. It’s easier.”
He talks about XFL teams playing in the cities they represent.
“I think the number one thing is we’re going to be in the cities playing the games, and that’s going to be the most important thing. We’re going to be able to build something with the fan base. The fan base can get excited about a team every week, and that’s what will be great. But I think the hub idea is a good start to get the league off the ground.”
They talk about filling The Dome, the BattleHawks name, the culture of his team, the XFL rules, and more. You can listen to the full interview.
GT
August 25, 2022 at 7:00 pm
Hello Mr. Perry,
I see that the XFL Las Vegas team is holding a private work in Florida for their players
(selected players). I was under the impression that the teams were going to be pulled from the draft? However, it appear as though the teams have been selected? Can you clarify? How does a player get invited to a private workout?