Stay or Go? That’s the Choice for D.C.’s Championship-Winning (Interim - For Now) Head Coach
When Reggie Barlow left the D.C. Defenders to take the job as head coach at Tennessee State just a week before the UFL regular season began, Shannon Harris was thrust from position coach anonymity to interim head coach. His task was relatively simple: Keep the train on the tracks for the season, win a few games, then follow Barlow back to the college ranks in June.
Only someone forgot to tell Shannon Harris of this plan.
Instead, Harris outperformed all expectations (as well as his interim counterparts across the league), leading the Defenders, who finished with a record under .500 last season, to the UFL Championship. All of that success now leaves Harris with a question: Should he leave for Tennessee State as planned, likely stepping back into a position coach role? Or should he stay on as D.C. Defenders head coach?
Though he’s not been publicly offered the job, it’s difficult to see UFL brass allowing Harris to walk without putting up a fight. He has the support of D.C. players, who numerous times before and after the championship began chants of “take off the (interim) tag,” imploring UFL management to make Harris the permanent coach of the team. Ultimately, that decision is likely up to Harris himself.
Tennessee State certainly provides more stability. It’s unlikely the football program will disappear in two or three years. The UFL? Well, that’s another story. Despite the claims of league CEO and President Russ Brandon that the UFL is here to stay, spring football will be on tenuous footing or the foreseeable future. Brandon can be confident, but he’s not the one putting money into this venture. Any day, Fox, RedBird Capital, or whomever can decide that enough is enough if they don’t see progress and soon.
Yet, Harris has proven that he is capable of handling one of the top 40 pro football head coaching jobs in the world. Would he want to take a step back, not even to coordinator (a position likely to be filled by Defenders offensive coordinator Fred Kaiss), but likely to position coach for an FCS program? Harris could always pocket the experience he had with D.C. and use that to leverage future higher-profile jobs, knowing his work with D.C. could be what puts him over the top in the interview process down the road.
Like most situations, this may come down to money. And neither side may have a lot to offer in that department. Tennessee State as a school is experiencing financial hardships, leaving one to wonder how well they may be able to compensate a football position coach. Meanwhile, the UFL’s head coaches are considered seasonal employees, and many who reupped for 2025 reportedly did so at a lower salary than they earned on the XFL side prior to the merger. It’s what led to Hines Ward ducking out before the 2024 season.
It would be a feather in the cap of the UFL if they were able to retain Harris, and would be one less head coach vacancy UFL management would need to fill in an off-season where they may have to hire multiple in that area. Harris played with house money this year and won, and now he gets to reap the rewards that come with it and a decision to make in which there are really no wrong choices.