AJ McCarron will forever live on in Alabama lore as a three-time national champion and the winningest quarterback in Crimson Tide history. McCarron holds the program’s all-time passing record with 9,019 yards and is third with 77 career passing touchdowns — behind only Tua Tagovailoa (87) and Bryce Young (80) in the record books.
But, as it turns out, McCarron’s exemplary collegiate career faced its biggest test just months before he officially signed as a member of Alabama’s famed 2009 recruiting class, all courtesy of Lane Kiffin.
During a recent episode of The Dynasty: A Podcast on the Alabama Crimson Tide, McCarron recalled how Kiffin, the newly-hired Tennessee coach, put the full-court recruiting press on him in late 2008, all while outfoxing both Nick Saban and Jeremy Pruitt. McCarron began his hilarious story by recalling how Saban sent Pruitt – then Alabama’s director of player development – down to Mobile to post up outside McCarron’s home in an effort to shut down any late recruiting efforts from Kiffin and Tennessee.
“Pruitt comes down, and he’s sitting in front of the house, and he’d been there for about two days. One morning I’m knocked out, I think Dad’s at the fire station, I’m sleeping, and all of a sudden I get a bang on my bedroom window – bam-bam-bam-bam! I wake up like ‘who the hell is banging on my window?’” McCarron recalled. “And I open up the blinds and it’s Lane and Lance (Thompson) leaning on my window (waving back at me). I look behind them and it’s the whole offensive coaching staff for Tennessee. All you hear is Lance saying, ‘Let me in. Let us in!’ I’m like, alright, so I go to let them in.”
An hour or so later, once Kiffin and the Vols staff has left, McCarron’s phone rings and it’s Nick Saban
What you doing, boy?” McCarron remembers Saban saying.
“Aw nothing, just getting my day going. But I just had a full-on interview and meeting with the whole Tennessee staff,” McCarron told Saban. “The whole staff was down here in my living room and we were here for 30-45 minutes.”
Saban reacted as one would expect of the future seven-time national championship-winning coach.
“I told Pruitt’s ass to get down there and watch your house. Let me call him!” McCarron recalled Saban saying.Dynasty podcast co-host and former Alabama running back Trent Richardson then added: “But what’s even funnier is (Pruitt) had to go to my house and do the exact same thing because of AJ.”
McCarron and Richardson would ultimately go on to become Crimson Tide legends as vital figures in Saban’s dynastic run in Tuscaloosa. And while Kiffin’s time in Knoxville infamously ended a little over a year after his trip to Mobile, the now-Ole Miss coach would redeem himself in the eyes of Alabama fans by directing the Tide’s offense during its 2015 national championship-winning season. Pruitt, on the other hand, remains a fan favorite for his contributions as Alabama’s defensive coordiantor before his own tenure as Tennessee’s head football coach from 2018-20.
