quote:
AJ McCarron had his first long interview this week, out from under the thumb of Saban.

When asked what happened to Bama's season, he said the younger players had no work ethic. The were all 5 star guys that thought you just show up and win a championship, while the older guys know it's hard work. He went on and on about it too... leaving no room for doubt what his opinion was, though he didn't name names.

He also called out the recruiting services, saying they are just people in a cubicle who never played football, judging players on their highlight reels. A quote was like "Last I checked, a player is supposed to look good on his highlight reel." i.e. they don't show you the half-assed workouts they skip or don't push hard, or the fumble or the bad snap... so apparently McCarron doesn't think as much about 5 star guys as they do about themselves.

ETA for link LINK

Anyway, I thought of this topic. All those five star guys for Bama and didn't win their division. Work Ethic, per McCarron.

He's only saying what true students of football, like me, have been saying for decades. But my Dad and Brothers taught it to me, and I've passed it on to my Son.

We all played the game too. Most of those guys assigning stars never have ... but I think I've mentioned that in various threads so many times before that it's beating a dead horse now. I played well into my 20s in Europe - football totally consumed my life probably until nearly the age of 45 or so, in various stages and forms.

Without the proper mix of blue collar and blue chipper you are unbalanced and it is virtually impossible to field a championship caliber team.

It's one of my main worries about SCAR right now because they are still down there looking for leaders in the weight room ... and the weight room is where your true hard core blue collar kids shine before coming-out and doing their thing on the gridiron.