Trent Richardson Joins Hoover Coaching Staff

I was away when this news broke two weeks ago so completely whiffed on it. The former Birmingham Iron running back stays in the game in a high school coaching role. 

His NCAA and NFL accomplishments are widely publicized and probably don't need to be shared further.

In the AAF, in eight games, Richardson ran for 366 yards on 125 carries and scored 11 times. He added 205 yards on 31 receptions and another touchdown. His total of 12 TDs led the short-lived league. 

Feb 24th, 2019: "Trent Richardson scores 3 TDs, Birmingham Iron earns 28-12 victory over Atlanta"

Inching forward with recording the Iron's brief existence, this partial summary is again by Dudley. The full version with quotes can be accessed through this link.

The photography was taken from the team's Instagram account and uncredited.

(Trent) Richardson scored three rushing touchdowns while the defense forced four turnovers and allowed two field goals – in four trips to the red zone – to lift the Birmingham Iron (3-0) to a 28-12 victory today over the Atlanta Legends at Georgia State Stadium in Atlanta.

Richardson finished with 46 rushing yards but scored three touchdowns – two in the second half – to give the former Alabama standout six rushing scores this season. He also scored a 2-point conversion attempt after his second touchdown.

Trent Richardson

Atlanta took a 3-0 lead off a 21-yard field goal from Younghoe Koo to start the second quarter, but the Iron answered with a 39-yard kick from Nick Novak and a 5-yard rushing touchdown from Richardson with 2:39 to go in the half.

The Legends managed to score on another field goal attempt near the end of the first half but was shut out in the second half until 1:41 remaining. Birmingham allowed 346 total yards but picked off Matt Simms three times– one each by Jack Tocho, Matt Redfield and Jamar Summers – while sacking the former Tennessee quarterback three times.

Casey Sayles 

Simms finished 27-of-46 passing for 280 yards and connected with 10 different receivers. He threw a a 23-yard touchdown pass to Keith Towbridge late in the fourth quarter.

Richardson scored twice in the second half, and Novak nailed another long field goal in the third quarter to push the lead to 26-6 before the final Atlanta score cut the final margin to 28-12.

(Luis) Perez finished 17-of-31 passing for 160 yards and looked far more comfortable in the second half despite throwing his first interception of the season. He was sacked only once.

The appropriately named Highlight Heaven has an almost 12-minute video package for this game which I've embedded below. 

"Birmingham Iron Cruises in Debut Win"

As print media has become nearly extinct in recent years, tracking down newspaper clippings of game summaries from 2019 becomes almost impossible. Where the Birmingham Iron is concerned, we'll have to turn to news websites.

I don't think I could be less original than to copy from al.com but their coverage was quite good at the time, I found, and I want to hang on to it in case the links go dead at some point.

For now, the abbreviated article below was written by Evan Dudley. The photography is the work of Vasha Hunt. They have a February 10th, 2019, publishing date.

Iron is forged by hand but it was the leg of former NFL veteran kicker Nick Novak that gave Birmingham’s newest professional football team its first win in the inaugural weekend of the Alliance of American Football.

The Birmingham Iron took an early lead on three first-half field goals from Novak before former Alabama running back Trent Richardson put the exclamation point with two fourth-quarter touchdowns on a 26-0 shutout of the Memphis Express at Legion Field.

Novak, who played collegiately at Maryland before a 12-year career in the NFL, was the highest profile player to sign with the Iron – outside of local favorites like Richardson – and proved his worth with kicks of 29, 28 and 47 yards in the first half while pushing a 31-yard field goal through to give the Iron a 20-point lead midway through the fourth quarter.

The AAF has no kickoffs or PAT attempts so Novak was relegated to only field goals.

The showdown between quarterbacks was settled quickly as Memphis quarterback and former 2016 second-round pick Christian Hackenberg struggled mightily against the Iron defense. Hackenberg was 10-of-23 for 87 yards and an interception, and looked completely lost in the passing game while getting sacked twice and hounded throughout the contest.

Iron quarterback Luis Perez, who taught himself the finer details of the position by studying YouTube videos before winning a national title at Texas A&M-Commerce, was solid if not surprising in his debut. The California native was 19-of-33 for 252 yards with no turnovers and 17 yards on three carries.

...

The running game for both teams was inconsistent through three quarters until Richardson showed the potential that made him an NFL first-round pick in the final 15 minutes. He had only 18 rushing yards heading into the fourth quarter but added 40 rushing yards and two scores – plus a reception on a 2-point conversion attempt – and a catch for 14 yards.

Richardson turned it around in the second half and flashed the ability that made him an All-American at Alabama.

“Trent’s an unbelievable person and player,” Perez said. “He works very hard, and he’s very hard on himself so after that fumble he gathered himself up and said, “That’s on me and I’m going to come back and I’m going to end this game. I’m going to run the ball down their throats and we’re going to get this win.” And sure enough he did that.” 

... 

The Iron defense was spectacular, allowing only 202 yards while shutting out the Express and forcing three turnovers. Jonathan Massaquoi, a former Troy linebacker, was the defacto leader for the Iron and was excellent in space with seven total tackles (3 for a loss) and two sacks to go along with three quarterback hurries.

The most telling number from the defensive performance, however, was the Iron’s ability to force the Express into an 0-of-2 showing inside the red zone.

Novak was named the Special Teams Player Of The Week for hitting on four field goal attempts in this game.