A. J. McCarron and the Running Backs
My friend Mike Roote brought this very question up a couple of days ago. As the down marker guy, Mike stood very close to A. J. McCarron a few years ago on the sideline when St. Paul's Episcopal of Mobile participated in a jamboree at Ivan Jones Stadium in Foley.
Mike said that McCarron couldn't have weighed over 165 pounds at that time (his junior year). St. Paul's went on to win the 4A state championship that year with McCarron at quarterback. Mike says, "Whatever they tell you (about McCarron), subtract about fifteen pounds and you've got his weight."
I am one of those who thinks McCarron has a bright future. And, I think he will weigh maybe 220 before he hangs up his pads for the last time.
But I will tell you this. It was Woody Hayes, who said, "There are three things that can happen when you pass the ball, and two of them are bad." Hayes was the coach who was known for his "three yards and a cloud of dust" runniing attack at Ohio State.
Well, if you stand back and look at Bear Bryant's career at Bama, even though he had the likes of Joe Namath and Kenny Stabler at quarterback, the Bear's Alabama teams ran the ball. Even Namath and Stabler ran the ball -- and they have the knees to prove it. Those Alabama teams that won big ran the ball. Namath or Stabler either one was lucky to ever throw the ball fifteen times in a game at Alabama. Then, as the sixties closed, Bear went to the Wishbone, declaring that he would never have another quarterback who couldn't run the ball. That meant they wouldn't throw much, and they didn't.
Mike brought this point up, that if you want to win championships, run the ball, keep it on the ground. That's what Alabama did this year for the most part, and Alabama won a national championship doing it. Looking at what Bama has coming back next year, we have TWO runners who might have a shot at the Heisman. For that matter, we also have a wide receiver who is in that league, but, as Mike points out, McElroy was a "game manager" this year. That means that usually he wasn't counted on for his passing.
I love the great quarterbacks that have come down the pike at Alabama. But when Alabama has won a national championship, the quarterbacks might as well have been window dressing. It may be that way when McCarron takes over.
Joe Namath has told this story, that Coach Bryant once told him before the Orange Bowl -- (I take it he was talking about the 1965 game, not the 1963 game) -- "Joe, you better get ready to pass the ball. We may throw it TWENTY times this game." Joe grins when he tells that, because he once passed for 400 yards in one game for the New York Jets. There were games when Joe Namath didn't pass thirty times for the Jets.
Nick Saban seems to be built in the mold of Hayes and Bryant. You want to win a championship? Even multiple championships? Keep the ball on the ground. Run those big backs over that defense until the fourth quarter, and you will exhaust that defense. It works every time, if you have the backs and the line to do it.
For that matter, Namath completed 17 of 28 passes in Super Bowl three, but did not pass the ball in the fourth quarter and did not complete a TD pass the whole game. Joe spent much of the night salting away the 16-7 Jets victory over Baltimore by handing the ball off to big Matt Snell, the running back who had played for Woody Hayes at Ohio State.
