On the fourth play of Alabama’s opening drive of the second half, one McCarron dropped back and tossed a pass to another McCarron.
Quarterback AJ McCarron connected with his younger brother, tight end Corey McCarron, for a 3-yard gain. It was the first time the brothers were able to hook up on a play in their Crimson Tide careers. AJ brought Corey to his postgame news conference after the Tide’s 49-0 thrashing of Chattanooga.
“I keep telling people that’s the reason I stayed, for memories like this,” AJ said. “It’s just something we’ll be able to cherish for the rest of our lives.”
AJ is the star quarterback, while Corey is a walk-on tight end. Corey said he’s worked all year for a moment like this.
“It was worth every second,” Corey said. “That was one of the greatest moments of my life. I will never trade it for anything.”
Corey jokingly said the pressure was on him to make the catch.
“A lot because if I would have dropped it, he would have yelled at me in front of a lot of people,” he said.
“It’s something we do every day and something we’ve been doing since we were kids.”
But big brother still had to offer some coaching tips for little brother.
“I congratulated him, but I still chewed his butt out and told him he should have got up field faster,” AJ said. “I’m happy for him, but I’m still going to be the bigger brother.”
Added Corey, “I should have got a lot more yards. The way we run that play, we usually get hit pretty soon. So I kind of stopped and turned my head so I didn’t get crushed. But I should have gotten more yards. It was still fun.”
Tide coach Nick Saban said he was happy to see them share the moment.
“AJ told me a long time ago that he’d like to throw a pass to his brother some day,” Saban said. “I told (offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier) at halftime to think of a play we could put Corey in and AJ would have a chance to throw him the ball. … I think they were pretty excited about it.”
McCarron’s parents were at the game for Senior Day, and AJ was sure his mother, Dee Dee Bonner, cried upon seeing it happen.
“I literally could hear her screaming over everybody as soon as he caught it,” AJ said. “The rest of the crowd was probably like ‘all right, great, a 5-yard gain’ and she was still yelling. The whole family probably cried.”
