BREAKING AJ McCarron named Stallions Head Coach

[cdub55]

Birmingham is tied (with Columbus, Ohio) for last in the UFL at 1-4.
It might be that the jump from being a player to a head coach might be too big of a jump. There is a radically different skill set for a head coach. It is not just understanding Xs and Os.
I wish AJ well, but things ain't looking good in B'ham.

I became a high school head coach around the age of 30. I was so glad it was at a smaller school because my head was spinning and I would have either drowned or not have done a very good job of managing all of the things I would have needed to at a large school. In today´s world of ¨lets make a splash hire¨, they many times set guys up for failure without knowing it. Trent Dilfer is a great example. He was never prepared for the job. AJ is a prime example as well. Becoming a pro ball coach from the get go isnt ideal. I´m sure AJ doesnt see it that way but he needed years of experience for him to be ready to run a team as a head coach at that level. One day Im sure he will look back at it and realize it but its sometimes hard to see when you are in the fire so to speak.

 

[Tidewater]

I became a high school head coach around the age of 30. I was so glad it was at a smaller school because my head was spinning and I would have either drowned or not have done a very good job of managing all of the things I would have needed to at a large school. In today´s world of ¨lets make a splash hire¨, they many times set guys up for failure without knowing it. Trent Dilfer is a great example. He was never prepared for the job. AJ is a prime example as well. Becoming a pro ball coach from the get go isnt ideal. I´m sure AJ doesnt see it that way but he needed years of experience for him to be ready to run a team as a head coach at that level. One day Im sure he will look back at it and realize it but its sometimes hard to see when you are in the fire so to speak.

Well, the Stallions won yesterday, so maybe they have turned a corner.
Pretty undisciploned team. The kind of team that gets a stop on 3rd down and then a player punches an opposing player: dead ball foul, 15 yards, unsportsmanlike, 1st down. Stuff like that.

I suspect AJ took this job as a way to get cheap head coach experience. If successful, great. If not, no big deal.

 

[cdub55]

Well, the Stallions won yesterday, so maybe they have turned a corner.
Pretty undisciploned team. The kind of team that gets a stop on 3rd down and then a player punches an opposing player: dead ball foul, 15 yards, unsportsmanlike, 1st down. Stuff like that.

I suspect AJ took this job as a way to get cheap head coach experience. If successful, great. If not, no big deal.

AJ 100% should have accepted the job if he has aspirations to be a coach one day. Should he have been offered it in the first place was more or less where my post was coming from.

 

[rolltide_21]

Well, the Stallions won yesterday, so maybe they have turned a corner.
Pretty undisciploned team. The kind of team that gets a stop on 3rd down and then a player punches an opposing player: dead ball foul, 15 yards, unsportsmanlike, 1st down. Stuff like that.

I suspect AJ took this job as a way to get cheap head coach experience. If successful, great. If not, no big deal.

Good analysis. I have loosely kept up with them this year. Was a fan the last couple of years under Skip Holtz. I have to remind myself these guys are in the UFL for a reason. Undisciplined play is all over the field both in the game and the extracurriculars. And, due to it being the UFL, this was a win-win situation for AJM. Maybe it will work out for him. He knows the UFL game from a player standpoint.

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

In a way this is just karma for AJ going overboard critical on Alabama coaching for the past year and acting like he had all the answers behind a microphone. I mean AJ inherited a team that won 3 of 4 league championships the past 4 years and was mostly the same pieces, but AJ’s tenure looks like one of the worst teams ever assembled. I mean they should’ve lost week 1 because of a lack of discipline but somehow they eeked it out.

Either Skip Holtz was one of the greatest coaches that never was or AJ had no clue of what he was talking about the last 2 years about how to run a winning program loaded with advantages.

This experience may make him a better commentator...

 

[Tidewater]

AJ 100% should have accepted the job if he has aspirations to be a coach one day. Should he have been offered it in the first place was more or less where my post was coming from.

I think everything in the UFL is based of tiny budgets. ($6,400/player/week). I assume coaching positions are similar. At that pay level, you can take on a project.

If a player makes a boneheaded unforced error, when he gets back to the sideline, you can say to him, "And that, young man, is why you are in the UFL and not the NFL."

 

[cdub55]

I think everything in the UFL is based of tiny budgets. ($6,400/player/week). I assume coaching positions are similar. At that pay level, you can take on a project.

If a player makes a boneheaded unforced error, when he gets back to the sideline, you can say to him, "And that, young man, is why you are in the UFL and not the NFL."

UFL head coaches make between 100k-500k per year. Not a bad pay day for basically a part time gig...

 

[Bamabuzzard]

I think everything in the UFL is based of tiny budgets. ($6,400/player/week). I assume coaching positions are similar. At that pay level, you can take on a project.

If a player makes a boneheaded unforced error, when he gets back to the sideline, you can say to him, "And that, young man, is why you are in the UFL and not the NFL."

I agree, they can't afford to strap themselves financially to a big coach's salary where they have to come off a buttload of cash if they need to fire him.

 

[Windsortide]

AJ’s career is the most under celebrated by a QB in the SEC by the media. His accomplishments at Alabama exceed almost everyone who has played QB in the SEC. There is never a mention of how many championships he won, his won loss record as a starter, or just him being one of the greatest leaders/winners to play in the conference. ESPN hire him!

 

[Tidewater]

AJ’s career is the most under celebrated by a QB in the SEC by the media. His accomplishments at Alabama exceed almost everyone who has played QB in the SEC. There is never a mention of how many championships he won, his won loss record as a starter, or just him being one of the greatest leaders/winners to play in the conference. ESPN hire him!

Excuse me? I think he already has a job.
Probably ned to post a link here to explain what you mean.

 

[BamaMoon]

Excuse me? I think he already has a job.
Probably ned to post a link here to explain what you mean.

AJ’s career is the most under celebrated by a QB in the SEC by the media. His accomplishments at Alabama exceed almost everyone who has played QB in the SEC.

I agree. He has 3 NC rings. Two as a starter! And it's a shame that 13 team didn't 3-peat!!!

While his overall skills probably fall short of more recent Bama QBs, I'm not sure you could ask for someone to lead a game-winning drive better than AJ!

 

[tusks_n_raider]

I agree. He has 3 NC rings. Two as a starter! And it's a shame that 13 team didn't 3-peat!!!

While his overall skills probably fall short of more recent Bama QBs, I'm not sure you could ask for someone to lead a game-winning drive better than AJ!

AJ is really underrated.

His and Bryce’s Career stats in just about every category are near identical plus AJ has all those NC rings.

AJ’s career also ended right before we started opening up the Passing attack with more modern concepts.

He almost won a Heisman running an old school Play Action Offense.

I have Mac and Tua as the Top 2 but you can easily make an argument that AJ is #3 All-Time

 

[CrimsonTitles]

To be fair, I'm not really sure how much coaching matters in this league. Bob Stoops was probably the coach in the league when he was there, but that didn't really translate to success. Skip Holtz was hardly the best coach of the bunch, yet he won 2 championships. There's gotta be more to it than just "AJ isn't a good coach". They almost got rid of the Stallions, so if I had to guess, there was probably a ton of roster turnover. I don't really follow this league, but just a hunch. At any rate, AJ was not hired for his coaching acumen. He was hired to get butts in the seats, and it seems he has succeeded at that.

 

[81usaf92]

To be fair, I'm not really sure how much coaching matters in this league. Bob Stoops was probably the coach in the league when he was there, but that didn't really translate to success. Skip Holtz was hardly the best coach of the bunch, yet he won 2 championships. There's gotta be more to it than just "AJ isn't a good coach". They almost got rid of the Stallions, so if I had to guess, there was probably a ton of roster turnover. I don't really follow this league, but just a hunch. At any rate, AJ was not hired for his coaching acumen. He was hired to get butts in the seats, and it seems he has succeeded at that.

A few things

1) Stallions won 3 championships in a row and played for a conference championship on the 4th.

2) While the Stallions were rumored to be relocating it wasn’t ever going to be a total nuking of a team it was going to be transferring the roster to the new team.

3) You are talking about 3 different leagues. XFL, USFL, and UFL. IDK really know if it is truly fair to suggest that Stoops is the best coach and Skip wasn’t that they hired. Really the USFL and XFL drafts were a total crapshoot with each team drafting a full roster at the same time. If you really want to be honest that makes Wade Phillips, Reggie Barlow, and Skip Holtz look far better coaches for their sustainable success. Yes Stoops won a XFL championship but he never had a winning record.

4) AJ had the ability to secure 12 players of the previous year’s roster. But unless I’m mistaken he only secured Matt Corral and traded him after week 3. Say what you want about Skip Holtz but that 4 year run of dominance kept his core players. So in a way it’s like AJ totally ignored what Skip had and wanted to prove his own abilities. Which is fine, but it’s weird he railed on DeBoer for supposedly having a treasure trove of talent that he inherited but couldn’t keep in Tuscaloosa but he inherited the most successful spring football team in history but chose not to keep.

5) AJ has also hired a coaching staff of first time coaches and a bunch of Alabama HS coaches. Compare it to the rest of the league who are mostly former NFL coordinators looking for one last little stint coaching and you start to see staffs that are more geared towards the sport that they are coaching out working a bunch of guys who talk a big game from the bleachers. The NFL and College football are two different sports and the emergence of NIL has still not changed that no matter how the same lazy hot take that gets thrown around tries to rationalize it.

I really think AJ thought this was an easy gig and thought that Xs and Os with a bunch of his nfl buddies and a few HS coaches that he has bumped into him over the years was enough. But he his finding out that are a lot of people out there who he has never heard of that have forgotten more about coaching pro football than he currently knows. His performances each week have emphatically proven that. He can get better but he really needs a better staff suited for this that aren’t a bunch of yes men and he needs to actually consult someone how to evaluate a roster instead of making bone headed decisions based purely off of his feelings at the time.

 

[AlexanderFan]

A few things

1) Stallions won 3 championships in a row and played for a conference championship on the 4th.

2) While the Stallions were rumored to be relocating it wasn’t ever going to be a total nuking of a team it was going to be transferring the roster to the new team.

3) You are talking about 3 different leagues. XFL, USFL, and UFL. IDK really know if it is truly fair to suggest that Stoops is the best coach and Skip wasn’t that they hired. Really the USFL and XFL drafts were a total crapshoot with each team drafting a full roster at the same time. If you really want to be honest that makes Wade Phillips, Reggie Barlow, and Skip Holtz look far better coaches for their sustainable success. Yes Stoops won a XFL championship but he never had a winning record.

4) AJ had the ability to secure 12 players of the previous year’s roster. But unless I’m mistaken he only secured Matt Corral and traded him after week 3. Say what you want about Skip Holtz but that 4 year run of dominance kept his core players. So in a way it’s like AJ totally ignored what Skip had and wanted to prove his own abilities. Which is fine, but it’s weird he railed on DeBoer for supposedly having a treasure trove of talent that he inherited but couldn’t keep in Tuscaloosa but he inherited the most successful spring football team in history but chose not to keep.

5) AJ has also hired a coaching staff of first time coaches and a bunch of Alabama HS coaches. Compare it to the rest of the league who are mostly former NFL coordinators looking for one last little stint coaching and you start to see staffs that are more geared towards the sport that they are coaching out working a bunch of guys who talk a big game from the bleachers. The NFL and College football are two different sports and the emergence of NIL has still not changed that no matter how the same lazy hot take that gets thrown around tries to rationalize it.

I really think AJ thought this was an easy gig and thought that Xs and Os with a bunch of his nfl buddies and a few HS coaches that he has bumped into him over the years was enough. But he his finding out that are a lot of people out there who he has never heard of that have forgotten more about coaching pro football than he currently knows. His performances each week have emphatically proven that. He can get better but he really needs a better staff suited for this that aren’t a bunch of yes men and he needs to actually consult someone how to evaluate a roster instead of making bone headed decisions based purely off of his feelings at the time.

Sounds a lot like what would happen if most of us took a football head coaching gig.

 

[JDCrimson]

A few things

1) Stallions won 3 championships in a row and played for a conference championship on the 4th.

2) While the Stallions were rumored to be relocating it wasn’t ever going to be a total nuking of a team it was going to be transferring the roster to the new team.

3) You are talking about 3 different leagues. XFL, USFL, and UFL. IDK really know if it is truly fair to suggest that Stoops is the best coach and Skip wasn’t that they hired. Really the USFL and XFL drafts were a total crapshoot with each team drafting a full roster at the same time. If you really want to be honest that makes Wade Phillips, Reggie Barlow, and Skip Holtz look far better coaches for their sustainable success. Yes Stoops won a XFL championship but he never had a winning record.

4) AJ had the ability to secure 12 players of the previous year’s roster. But unless I’m mistaken he only secured Matt Corral and traded him after week 3. Say what you want about Skip Holtz but that 4 year run of dominance kept his core players. So in a way it’s like AJ totally ignored what Skip had and wanted to prove his own abilities. Which is fine, but it’s weird he railed on DeBoer for supposedly having a treasure trove of talent that he inherited but couldn’t keep in Tuscaloosa but he inherited the most successful spring football team in history but chose not to keep.

5) AJ has also hired a coaching staff of first time coaches and a bunch of Alabama HS coaches. Compare it to the rest of the league who are mostly former NFL coordinators looking for one last little stint coaching and you start to see staffs that are more geared towards the sport that they are coaching out working a bunch of guys who talk a big game from the bleachers. The NFL and College football are two different sports and the emergence of NIL has still not changed that no matter how the same lazy hot take that gets thrown around tries to rationalize it.

I really think AJ thought this was an easy gig and thought that Xs and Os with a bunch of his nfl buddies and a few HS coaches that he has bumped into him over the years was enough. But he his finding out that are a lot of people out there who he has never heard of that have forgotten more about coaching pro football than he currently knows. His performances each week have emphatically proven that. He can get better but he really needs a better staff suited for this that aren’t a bunch of yes men and he needs to actually consult someone how to evaluate a roster instead of making bone headed decisions based purely off of his feelings at the time.

Sounds like the same thing is happening thst caused him to fall to the 5th round of the draft and never see the field as an NFL starter.

Until a person comes to embrace a little humility, you can likely look back at that person with a lot of unfilled expectations and missed opportunities...

 

[Windsortide]

Excuse me? I think he already has a job.
Probably ned to post a link here to explain what you mean.

I Just simply think AJ deserves more credit and more mention than he gets.

 

[Tidewater]

I Just simply think AJ deserves more credit and more mention than he gets.

Gotcha.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

To be fair, I'm not really sure how much coaching matters in this league. Bob Stoops was probably the coach in the league when he was there, but that didn't really translate to success. Skip Holtz was hardly the best coach of the bunch, yet he won 2 championships. There's gotta be more to it than just "AJ isn't a good coach". They almost got rid of the Stallions, so if I had to guess, there was probably a ton of roster turnover. I don't really follow this league, but just a hunch. At any rate, AJ was not hired for his coaching acumen. He was hired to get butts in the seats, and it seems he has succeeded at that.

That's what AJ said in the most recent press conference I saw. There was a ton of turnover and this isn't the same team from last season. He openly said it is a rebuild.

 

[davefrat]

Sounds like the same thing is happening thst caused him to fall to the 5th round of the draft and never see the field as an NFL starter.

Until a person comes to embrace a little humility, you can likely look back at that person with a lot of unfilled expectations and missed opportunities...

I wasn't aware that he was sort of toxic in that sense during the draft or during his short NFL career, but I could certainly see it.