Alabama Football: What the Players Were Saying After the Capital One Bowl

Larry Burton (Syndicated Writer) Following the game in talking to players on the field during the trophy celebration and after the official press conference, some Alabama players gave a little insight and news of the season to come and mentality of the team going forward.

Walking with Trent Richardson to the podium, I asked with Mark Ingram leaving for the NFL was he ready to be headline running back and carry this team on his back?

With a huge smile he said, "I'm ready, I'll miss Mark, he's like a brother to me, but I'm ready and looking forward to it. I'm going to work hard this winter and be even better. I can handle it."

Then I turned to Arie Kounandijo and asked him a similar question. "With James Carpenter leaving and a tackle slot opening up, are you the man next year?"

The usually quiet Arie smiled and said, "I've been waiting a long time and I'm ready. Yeah, I ready."

And when I asked if his brother, Cyrus, might be up here with him, he said, "We'll just have to wait 'till February 3rd and find out. We're all going to get together and talk about it, but that's his decision."

Then I turned to A.J. McCarron and asked about him having his hands full this spring.

He said, "Ah, yeah, we're going to be getting everybody for next season, but we're ready. We've got a lot of young guys who are going to have to step up, but we've got a lot of returners too and we should be our best year. We've just got to get back to working hard, like what we do in the summer when we won it all...we just have to do that and the little things and we'll be alright."

He seemed surprised when I told him that we in the press box asked to have him as one of the interviews later. He said, "Really?"

I told him to get used to it—his world was about to change and soon every move he makes and everywhere he goes, people will be sticking microphones and cameras in his face.

"Well, that's how it goes. Greg has taught me a lot about how to deal about how to do that and I'm going to miss him big time."

Then I turned to William Vlachos and said some of the reporters were talking at breakfast about this being the last year of the Shula recruits and I reminded them that you would be back for your fifth year and he was a Shula recruit. I asked if he was the last one.

He said, "I don't know, there might be another one or two around. Saban signed me, but I committed to Shula."

I told him that Greg McElroy said he was the one nobody wanted to sit beside on a long plane flight because he ate their snacks. Was that true?

A laughing Vlachos said, "No comment on that!"

Julio Jones was more somber when I asked if there was any chance he'd be back next year.

"We'll see," was all he would answer and it was obvious he tired of answering that one.

I told Courtney Upshaw the buzz in the press box was that a defensive man needed to be an MVP for this game and some of us started to campaign to get everyone to vote for him. I asked how he felt to win that honor.

"I feel real good! I feel real good about everybody!" he said.

Then came Darius Hanks. I told him with Julio leaving and possible Marquis too, it would put a lot on him next year. Was he ready?

"My year!...I'm ready for it!" he said with a grin from ear to ear.

Following the press conference, Robert Lester and Barrett Jones both said this win didn't take the sting away from the three losses earlier in the year and if anything, it kind of made them feel worse because this game showed what the team was capable of, but didn't show the whole year.

And while Jones said that they had lots of fun, for him, the best was Universal Studios, they came focused on work first.

William Vlachos was more vocal. He said that a game like this shows where his team could have been but wasn't and it did nothing to take any pain away from the three losses.

"You saw what this team was able to do with a month to get ready and re-focus. We'll be ready next season and we won't sorry then."

A.J. did, in fact, get called to post game press conference, and he was very talkative and funny. He commented on how Greg had prepared him for more than just football and that now that he got some attention for that block, that he thinks he's Fluker!

Of course he was laughing when he said that.

On the serious side, he said that the biggest break he'll get is from now until January 12th, then it's back to work. When the others go home this summer, he's staying on campus with the receivers and working on timing and getting ready to able to deal with anything that any defense can throw at them.

When I told him that next year his hardest job wouldn't be going from backup to starter but from being a pupil to a mentor himself. He said once again, that Greg had prepared him for that as well as so much more.

Then he dropped a bombshell.

It seems that for this season, he and Coach Saban have had a standing Sunday afternoon appointment to watch and break down film. He said it's something that has taught him much and cemented a relationship with him that means a great deal to him.

"Me and coach, our relationship, it's one of a kind, we're really close. I spend every Sunday with him for three or four hours. We go up in his office and watch film and just talk...me and him are real personal," McCarron said.

And then he told a funny story about a fake field goal he goaded Saban into trying in practice.

McCarron said he and Saban have been doing this since his freshman year. A.J. wants to think that Saban gets as much from the visits as he does. He says he does it in part too to help Saban.

McCarron says sometimes Saban has too much on his mind and needs a break and sometimes he can just "cut up" a little with him.

That's both a side of Saban and some information about the relationship between these two that none of us in the press knew before he said this.

Knowing this now, the "spanking" Saban gave A.J. after a mistake a few games ago as he came off the field makes more sense.

The two of them have a deeper almost father-son relationship than many of us knew.

How that relationship and the time the two have spent together translate into on field productivity next year remains to be seen, but it was an intriguing thing to learn.

In all, all the players returning are already chomping at the bits to show the world that they are better than what they showed this year.

Hopes are not just high, so are expectations.

Video of these moments should be up this week on TouchdownAlabama.net filmed by Larry Burton