Former Alabama Quarterback AJ McCarron Criticized Coach Nick Saban's Tactics This Season
Former Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron criticized the current Alabama team on a Tuscaloosa radio show following a 23-17 loss to Ole Miss on Saturday.
McCarron, who was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the fifth round, called out Alabama head coach Nick Saban's offensive strategy and senior quarterback Blake Sims' play, saying:
"I don't know if that's Lane doing that or if coach Saban is kind of putting the handcuffs on Lane like I've known Coach to do in the past on 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. I understand [Amari Cooper] is an unbelievable player. He was that for us when I was there, but when you target somebody so much ... I think that was one of the best things we did while I was there. We spread the ball around to everybody. I mean, I think in numerous games ... where we had almost everybody on offense catch the ball that was eligible to catch the ball. Teams could never really pinpoint and play their defenses to cover Coop, and I think that's one of the things they're struggling with right now."McCarron's second criticism has to do with the distribution of the ball. Wide receiver Amari Cooper has 52 catches for 746 yards so far, while the next highest receiver, DeAndre White, only has 12 catches for 121 yards. Meanwhile, three different running backs have 20 carries or more for the Alabama offense.
McCarron also took a shot at the team's leadership:
"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... I feel like when things go bad, this team struggles a little with bouncing back and making good plays."
Nick Saban didn't have much of a response to McCarron's comments:
Alabama is 4-1 on the season and plays Arkansas on October 11.