Former Alabama QB Who Helped Nick Saban Win 3 Nattys Reveals Secret That Wore Opponents Down: “Messing With the Other Team”

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There was never much mystery about why Nick Saban’s Alabama teams looked fresher in the fourth quarter. Talent certainly had plenty to do with it. But according to former Tide QB AJ McCarron, there was another factor that tilted games in their favor. And that’s the Alabama heat.

“If you’re playing somebody that is not used to this heat and the humidity that comes with being in Alabama,” AJ McCarron said on The Dynasty. “During our time, we were out there all day long, every day. So the heat didn’t bother you nowhere near as it was messing with the other team. So you knew late in the game, especially in the second half, like you’re going to wear the other team down and there’s no way they can hang for 60 minutes.”

McCarron was not the only one who believed Alabama could turn climate into an edge. Nick Saban often built practice around preparation and repetition, and Alabama players have long said the team trained hard enough to make September heat feel normal by kickoff.

His comment captures a phase of Alabama football that became one of the greatest programs in college football history. AJ McCarron played a huge role in it. After redshirting during Alabama’s 2009 national championship season, he took over as the starting quarterback and led the Tide to back-to-back BCS national championships in 2011 and 2012, becoming the first QB in college football history to win consecutive BCS titles as a starter.

By the end of his career, AJ McCarron had been part of three national championship teams under Nick Saban while collecting the Maxwell Award, Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award and Kellen Moore Award along the way. And perhaps Alabama’s weather was part of what made those wins possible.

Playing at Bryant-Denny Stadium in September wasn’t just about facing Alabama. Visiting teams also had to deal with the brutal heat. Temperatures in Tuscaloosa often climbed past 90 degrees during fall camp, and the heavy humidity only made things harder. Alabama players practiced in those conditions every day under Nick Saban, so by the time the fourth quarter arrived, AJ McCarron believed they were still going strong while many opponents had started to slow down.

Visiting teams and Alabama players weren’t the only ones dealing with the heat. Fans had to battle it too. During a 2019 home game against Southern Miss, temperatures were so high that the heat index climbed past 105 degrees. The school set up cooling stations across Bryant-Denny Stadium, but many spectators still looked for shade or decided to leave before the game was over. After the game, Nick Saban gave a shout-out to the fans who stayed through the blazing heat, saying he knew just how tough the conditions had been on everyone.

For Nick Saban, the heat was part of the preparation

The Alabama heat wasn’t something Nick Saban complained about. He expected his players to get used to it. Former OL Tyler Booker said in 2023 that the strength staff kept a close eye on players’ hydration with monitoring tools, making sure they were prepared to practice and play in the brutal conditions. For the bigger linemen, that meant drinking around a gallon and a half of water every day just to stay properly hydrated.

“That heat is something different,” ex-Tide DT Jaheim Oatis, who’s now at Ole Miss, admitted back then.

Alabama is still looking for better ways to protect players from the extreme heat. This offseason, the program became the first in college football to use HeatSense, a new system that tracks players’ core body temperatures and helps staff spot signs of heat stress before they become serious.

AJ McCarron’s point goes beyond remembering the good old days. He believes Alabama made the weather part of its edge. While visiting teams struggled with the heat, the Tide had already spent months practicing in it. And that translates into wins.

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