Former Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron told CBS radio host Jim Rome that some of the younger players on the team did not “buy into” the Crimson Tide’s championship mission.
Alabama took itself out of contention for a third straight BCS title when it lost to Auburn in the Iron Bowl and then ended its season by falling to Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl.
McCarron was part of three Alabama national titles since 2009. After the 2013 disappointment, he is preparing for this year’s NFL draft.
“Myself and (linebacker) CJ Mosley, we were basically the two leaders of the team and we felt like it was a matter of time before it was coming,” McCarron said Thursday. “It’s definitely tough to lose, but it kind of shows when you don’t have everyone buy into one system, one belief, then sometimes a team is going to struggle.”
McCarron said some of the younger players let the team’s previous success get to their heads.
“We had a lot of young guys,” McCarron said. “In the end, success was our killer. Too much success and a lot of young guys coming in who didn’t know what it took to get back to that point to win. They thought we’d just show up and we’d win.”
McCarron said rather than complacency, some of the players were done in by a feeling of entitlement after being highly-touted out of high school.
“I think that’s one of the things that is wrong with recruiting out of high school,” he said. “You have guys who have never played the game of football rating these guys that they are a 5-star, because they’re sitting behind a computer screen watching their highlight film. Well, their highlight film is supposed to be good, the last time I checked. That’s the kind of thing that ticks me off about recruiting and when these kids come in and they’re 5-stars and they expect to play right off the bat. It’s a little entitlement and when they don’t play off the bat, they get a little ticked off and they don’t want to work.”
McCarron is ranked the seventh-best quarterback and projected to be a third- or fourth-draft draft choice, according to NFLDraftScout.com.