Alabama will look to defend its national title in 2016 and go back-to-back like its 2011 and 2012 squads did.

On Monday, the quarterback who led the Crimson Tide to those consecutive crowns revealed that he came close to leaving Tuscaloosa for Oxford.

AJ McCarron, now a quarterback for the Cincinnati Bengals, revealed to Yahoo Radio that he thought of transferring to Ole Miss after his freshman season.

“I thought about transferring to Ole Miss, I think it was towards the end of my freshman year, I really thought about transferring,” McCarron said. “I had to talk that over and everything, ended up staying and everything worked out.”

Before that, McCarron also pointed out that he almost never went to Alabama in the first place. He had decided to play for Bob Stoops at Oklahoma the night before changing his mind and playing for Nick Saban.

The 2013 Maxwell Award winner also talked about working to hush critics of Alabama quarterbacks at the next level, his relationship with Bengals starting QB Andy Dalton and more.

You can check out the full interview here.