AJ McCarron tells hilarious story about Lane Kiffin sneaking past Jeremy Pruitt during QB’s recruitment
By Adam Spencer
Published:
AJ McCarron is a legend in Alabama. He won 3 national titles with the Crimson Tide and started at quarterback for 2 of them.
But Tennessee, then coached by Lane Kiffin, gave McCarron its best recruiting pitch. And the story of how it happened is hilarious.
During a recent episode of McCarron’s “The Dynasty” podcast, he shared a story about Nick Saban telling Jeremy Pruitt to watch McCarron’s house to make sure the Vols didn’t try to swoop in at the last minute.
Here’s how McCarron described the day he heard Kiffin, Tennessee assistant Lance Thompson and more Vols coaches knocking on his window (via AL.com):
Coach Saban was like, ‘hey I want you to go down, AJ had said Tennessee was starting to hit him up,’” Saban told Pruitt, per McCarron. “Lance is from down there, so go down, watch (McCarron’s) house. I want to let us know if Lance is trying to back door us and steal him away.’
When Saban found out the Vols had contacted McCarron, he called Pruitt, who insisted he was sitting outside of McCarron’s house:
No the hell you’re not,” Saban said, per McCarron. “Tennessee just left.”
Pruitt said nobody’s left the house or shown up. But Pruitt decided to go check. He knocked on the door and a “little old lady” answered, per McCarron.
That’s right — Pruitt was outside “guarding” the wrong house. It turns out McCarron lived down the street.
At least everything worked out for Saban, McCarron and the Tide in the end.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
