McCarron: Is Saban putting handcuffs on Lane?
AJ McCarron had no shortage of opinions on Alabama’s loss to Ole Miss. (USATSI) AJ McCarron has hardly disappeared from the Alabama spotlight since trading in his Crimson Tide uniform for a Cincinnati Bengals one, and his comments on a Tuscaloosa radio station Tuesday won’t do anything to change that.
In his weekly appearance on Tide 99.1 FM, McCarron had several interesting opinions to share on the Tide’s 23-17 loss to Ole Miss — perhaps the most eyebrow-raising concerning his old head coach’s relationship to Alabama’s new offensive coordinator, and if it’s preventing the Tide from opening up the offense.
“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,” McCarron said, as transcribed by al.com, describing Saban’s approach as “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,” McCarron added. He suggested that the Tide need to work the ball to receivers other than Cooper, arguing that that balance was “one of the best things we did while I was there.”
McCarron also criticized the Tide’s offensive 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, ‘hey, let’s calm everybody down, pick it back up and go back to work and get back on the right track,'” he said. “I feel like when things go bad, this team struggles a little with bouncing back and making good plays.”
Perhapos not surprisingly, Nick Saban had something to say about that on the SEC teleconference Wednesday:
McCarron questions leadership on Bama team. Saban says, “I don’t know how A.J. would really know, but I don’t think that’s the case.”
— Pete Roussel (@coachingsearch) October 8, 2014
McCarron did say that Alabama fans shouldn’t panic over one loss — but as his own comments point out, one loss is all it takes to start the second-guessing when you’re Alabama.
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