Stuttgart Surge

From elfpedia.eu

Uniform of the Stuttgart Surge football team in 2024.

The Stuttgart Surge are an American football team based in Stuttgart, Germany, that plays in the European League of Football (ELF) since 2021.

History[edit | edit source]

The Stuttgart franchise is one of the founding members of the European League of Football, which was launched in 2020, and was originally supposed to adopt the name of the Stuttgart Scorpions from the German Football League (GFL). [1]After this was rejected by a majority decision of the Scorpions' club members, the team competes in the ELF under the name Stuttgart Surge. [2] The translation of the new name as the Surge can also be found in the logo design of the franchise and was chosen in reference to the Sacramento Surge team. The team played from 1991 to 1992 in the World League of American Football (WLAF), a predecessor league of the NFL Europe and won the World Bowl in 1992. The name Surge was able to prevail internally, among other things, against the resumption of the name of the Stuttgart Stallions, which were active as an American football team in the 1980s and 1990s in Stuttgart. The franchise is operated by the American Football Club Stuttgart GmbH, whose managing director Timo Franke was previously active with the Stuttgart Scorpions.

2021 Season[edit | edit source]

Former German national team coach Martin Hanselmann was hired as head coach and offensive coordinator.

The team won its first league game on June 19, 2021, against the Barcelona Dragons, 17-21. A week later, the team lost to the Frankfurt Galaxy in its first home game, in front of 750 spectators allowed due to the pandemic.

The average attendance at home games was 1429 spectators due to pandemic restrictions. On June 28, 2021, the Surge parted ways with U.S. quarterback Jacob Wright in response to accusations of racism against him. Even before the game against Berlin Thunder in Week 3, a new quarterback, Aaron Ellis, was presented on July 2, 2021. After losses in the last two games of the season, the Stuttgart Surge team, with a total of two wins out of ten games, finished fourth in the South Division and thus failed to qualify for the playoffs.

2022 Season[edit | edit source]

Before the start of the 2022 season, Suni Musa became the new general manager. The previous general manager, Timo Franke, took over sales and sponsorship. In addition, NFL player Jakob Johnson became co-owner of the Surge. Johnson had previously been an ambassador for the Surge. Stuttgart also joined Frankfurt in the new Central Division for the 2022 season, where they will face the two expansion teams from Austria.

The first home game of the season was lost to the Barcelona Dragons in front of a crowd of 2690. On July 2, after a season opener with four losses in four games, the Surge announced that Martin Hanselmann had resigned as offensive coordinator. His replacements in that regard are George Streeter for the running game and Fabian Birkholz for the passing game. Streeter, who has also served in a number of NFL roles, most recently coached the Stuttgart Scorpions' U19 team. Birkholz was previously a position coach and coordinator with various teams in the GFL.

On July 20, after three more consecutive losses, Stuttgart announced that Martin Hanselmann was also stepping down from his position as head coach. His interim successor was running game coordinator George Streeter, whose position was filled just as temporarily by former defensive backs coach Marvin Washington. However, the team failed to improve noticeably and finished the season without a win. After the season, Streeter became Director of Player Personnel and Development.

2023 Season[edit | edit source]

On October 18, 2022, the Surge announced the signing of Jordan Neuman as its new Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator. Neuman was most recently Head Coach of the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns and won the German Bowl 2022 with them. Also joining the Surge coaching staff from Schwäbisch Hall are Johannes Brenner as defensive coordinator and Cody Pastorino as his assistant.

For the first time in its history, Surge finished the regular season with a positive record of 10-2 and advanced to the playoffs. In the wildcard round, the #3 seed faced the #6 seed, the Panthers Wrocław. The game was clearly won with 37:14.

In the semifinals, they beat the #2 seed, the Vienna Vikings, 40-33 in Vienna.

In the championship game, the #1 seed Rhein Fire awaited, against whom the team lost 34:53.

Stadium[edit | edit source]

The Waldau-Stadion, known as the Gazi-Stadion auf der Waldau for sponsorship purposes, is a multi-use stadium in the Degerloch district in Stuttgart, Germany. The stadium is situated approximately 200m southwest of the Fernsehturm Stuttgart and holds 11,410 spectators

Players[edit | edit source]

Top Players[edit | edit source]

Quarterback Year G COMP ATT CMP% YDS TD INT SCK
Reilly Hennessey 2023 7 130 204 63.7 1679 14 3 4
Kenyatte Allen 2023 7 112 174 64.4 1531 10 5 15
Aaron Ellis 2021 7 82 161 50.9 1173 9 7 33
Receiver Year G RRC TGT YDS CTCH % YPG YPC LNG TD TD/G
Louis Geyer 2021-23 22 69 125 1313 55.2 59.7 19.0 78 10 0.5
Paul Steigerwald 2021-23 32 80 123 998 65.0 31.2 12.5 41 9 0.3
Yannick Mayr 2023 11 50 66 770 75.8 70.0 15.4 74 5 0.5
Darrell Stewart Jr. 2023 8 59 78 754 75.6 94.2 12.8 48 5 0.6
Running Year G ATT YDS AVG YPG LNG TD TD/G FMB FML
Phileas Pasqualini 2022-23 15 184 703 3.8 46.9 34 6 0.4 7 4

2024 Roster[edit | edit source]

Quarterbacks

Running backs

Wide receivers

Tight ends

Offensive linemen

Defensive linemen

Linebackers

Defensive backs

Special teams

Injured reserve

Names with a strikethrough = season ending


Rookies in italics
Roster updated July 31, 2024
4 A-import, 6 E-import, 51 homegrown
61 active, 0 inactive, 0 practice squad

2023 Roster[edit | edit source]

Quarterbacks

Running backs

Wide receivers

Tight ends

Offensive linemen

Defensive linemen

Linebackers

Defensive backs

Special teams

Injured reserve

Names with a strikethrough = season ending
Practice squad


Rookies in italics
Roster updated 18 August 2023
4 A-import, 6 E-import, 44 homegrown
54 active, 9 practice squad

Staff[edit | edit source]

Head Coaches[edit | edit source]

Name Tenure Record Titles
W L
Martin Hanselmann 2021-20 July 2022 2 15
George Streeter 20 July 2022-Sept 2022 0 5
Jordan Neuman 2023-current 23 5 Won Central Conference 2023, 2024

2024 staff[edit | edit source]

Front office

  • Owner – Steffen Korinth, Erwin &
    Martin Schmidt, Jakob Johnson
  • General Manager – Suni Musa
  • Director of football operations/personnel – Robin Hammer
  • Chief Financial Officer – Florian Burger

Head coach

  • Head coach – Jordan Neuman

Offensive coaches

  • Offensive coordinator – Jordan Neuman
  • Offensive consultant – Rick Webster
  • Quarterbacks –
  • Running backs – Joshua Tapscott
  • Wide receivers – Joseph Joyner
  • Tight ends/fullbacks – Jochen Holzinger
  • Offensive line – Fabian Hoeller
 

Defensive coaches

  • Defensive coordinator – Johannes Brenner
  • Assistant defensive coordinator – Cody Pastorino
  • Linebacker – Daniel McCray
  • Inside linebacker – David Zeller
  • Defensive line – Justin Bernthaler
  • Defensive backs – Primo Lursini
  • Cornerbacks – Gerry Jäger

Special teams coaches

  • Special teams coordinator –

Assistant coaches

  • Analytics coach – Friedemann Hees
  • Defense Assistant – Nadine Nurasyid

Strength and conditioning

  • Strength and conditioning –
  • Head of Strength and conditioning –


Staff updated June 18, 2024


Total record[edit | edit source]

Games Win Loss Win % P+ P- PDiff
Stuttgart Surge 50 25 25 0.500 1356 1351 +5

Record per Season[edit | edit source]

Season Conference Rank Games Win Loss Win % P+ P- Playoffs
2021 South 4 10 2 8 0.200 157 355
2022 Central 4 12 0 12 0.000 113 451
2023 Central 1 12 10 2 0.833 387 237 Wild card round vs Panthers Wrocław 37-14
Semi final @ Vienna Vikings 40-33
Championship game vs Rhein Fire 34-53
2024 Central 1 12 11 1 0.917 565 179 Semi final vs Rhein Fire 23-29

Record per Opponent[edit | edit source]

Games Win Loss Win % P+ P- PDiff
Milano Seamen 4 4 0 1.000 224 80 +144
Helvetic Mercenaries 2 2 0 1.000 111 14 +97
Paris Musketeers 2 2 0 1.000 43 26 +17
Munich Ravens 4 3 1 0.750 123 68 +55
Barcelona Dragons 8 5 3 0.625 241 190 +51
Panthers Wrocław 5 3 2 0.600 146 110 +36
Helvetic Guards 2 1 1 0.500 60 50 +10
Raiders Tirol 6 3 3 0.500 119 178 -59
Vienna Vikings 3 1 2 0.333 53 116 -63
Leipzig Kings 4 1 3 0.250 72 139 -67
Rhein Fire 2 0 2 0.000 57 82 -25
Cologne Centurions 2 0 2 0.000 32 58 -26
Berlin Thunder 2 0 2 0.000 19 78 -59
Frankfurt Galaxy 4 0 4 0.000 56 162 -106

Source: https://elfdata.eu/

See also[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]