AJ McCarron seems to be playing a lot of armchair quarterback these days.
While the former Alabama star is injured in Cincinnati, McCarron is continuing to criticize this new iteration of the Crimson Tide.
During his weekly segment on “The Game” with local Tuscaloosa sports station 99.1 FM, McCarron said the team was bereft of leaders after this weekend’s loss to Ole Miss.
“I think one of the things that this team is lacking that hurts them the most is not having the true leaders like we had last year and guys that, when things go bad said, ‘Hey, let’s calm everybody down, pick it back up and go back to work and get back on the right track,’” McCarron said on the Game. “I feel like when things go bad, this team struggles a little with bouncing back and making good plays.”
The former Alabama quarterback then spoke more about the leaders, saying Landon Collins and Trey DePriest are doing their jobs as leaders on the defense, but the offense needs more players like them.
“They got to find that leader on offense, I don’t know if that’s Austin Shepherd or, with Ryan [Kelly] being out, somebody needs to establish that,” McCarron said. “Blake needs to step up and do it. It’s going to be a tough road…I think we have a tough road here on out.
“Hopefully someone can establish as a true leader, and can get the team back on the right track to win some football games.”
McCarron later defended his statements on Twitter, saying the team is fine, but it doesn’t have vocal leaders, which he says are different than people who lead by example.
Other than the absence of an established leader on the offensive side, McCarron said the offense was targeting Amari Cooper too much, rather than spreading the ball around and not spreading the ball. He mentioned wide receiver Christion Jones as someone he frequently looked for last year.
McCarron also seemed to put some blame on head coach Nick Saban for keeping the offense too simple and preventing offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin from opening up the playbook.
“I don’t know if that’s Lane doing that or if coach Saban is kind of putting the handcuffs on Lane,” McCarron said during his segment. “I’ve known Coach to do (that) in the past (to) his offensive coordinator and we’re going to be very bland and run this play and do this and we’ll throw it on third down if we have to. It’s going to be interesting to see how they bounce back against Arkansas this week and what kind of offense comes out this week.”
During the weekly SEC Coaches teleconference, Nick Saban rebutted McCarron’s comments, saying he didn’t think what McCarron said about the offense was true.
Saban on McCarron saying UA offense lacks leadership: "I don't know how AJ would really know, but I don't see that."
— Chase Goodbread (@ChaseGoodbread) October 8, 2014
McCarron’s comments were critical of the team but, for the most part, they were measured and pretty typical of the things he usually says out loud.
But while he had plenty of unsolicited advice for the team, his advice for the fans was probably the most rational.
“People need to calm down,” McCarron said. “I understand losing a game at Alabama, having played there, people think the world’s coming to an end. It’s one game.”
UPDATED:
We are clearly twisted RT @Marq_Burnett: Katherine Webb (McCarron) isn't happy with these "twisted writers." pic.twitter.com/ClfSW8JBiR
— Jonathan Biles (@Jonathan_Biles) October 8, 2014
Follow Jonathan on Twitter @Jonathab_Biles
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Don’t miss out! Subscribe today to have Alabama’s leading headlines delivered to your inbox.