Former Alabama QB reveals wild Tennessee recruiting story and a coach’s big mistake

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. AJ McCarron heard the loud noise from his window one early morning at his home.

“I’m like, ‘who the hell is banging on my window?’” McCarron shared recently on his new podcast called the Dynasty.

McCarron opened up his blinds to reveal then-Tennessee coach Lane Kiffin and assistant coach Lance Thompson.

McCarron looked behind them and saw the entire Vols offensive coaching staff. Then he heard Thompson, the former Alabama assistant.

The Tennessee coaches had to sneak in because on the street, then-Alabama staffer Jeremy Pruitt was camped out. Nick Saban demanded Pruitt sit there for two days outside the home of McCarron, then a quarterback recruit who would eventually go on to win three national championships and start at quarterback for two.

“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.’”

Thompson had been assigned to that area when he was an Alabama assistant, but he was working for Tennessee. So Saban was worried.

About an hour after the Vols coaches left McCarron’s home, Saban called McCarron to ask what he was doing.

McCarron said nothing much, but he had just met with the entire Tennessee staff.

Saban was caught off guard.

“I told Pruitt’s ass to get down there and watch your house,“ Saban said, per McCarron. ”Let me call him."

Pruitt has since told McCarron the story of the phone call. It went something like this, per McCarron: Saban asked Pruitt what he was doing. Pruitt said he was sitting in front of McCarron’s house like he told him.

“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.

Is AJ here?

The woman told Pruitt that McCarron doesn’t live there. He’s several houses down.

Pruitt had been sitting in front of the wrong house for two days.