St. Louis coach Anthony Becht wants to see a crowd clad predominantly in Battlehawks blue at Protective Stadium on Saturday afternoon when he brings his team to Birmingham for a United Football League showdown with the Stallions.
What has given the coach the idea that’s even a remote possibility?
As Stallions coach Skip Holtz said, in perhaps an understatement, St. Louis has a quarterback “who is very familiar to people in Alabama.”
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The quarterback is AJ McCarron, who was under center for the Crimson Tide’s 2011 and 2012 BCS national-championship teams, then won the Maxwell Award and finished as the runner-up for the Heisman Trophy in 2013.
Becht isn’t limiting the Battlehawks’ appeal in Alabama to McCarron. St. Louis backup quarterback, Brandon Silvers, was a four-year starter at Troy. Both QBs were Alabama prep stars, too – McCarron at St. Paul’s Episcopal in Mobile and Silvers at Gulf Shores.
“We’re asking them to buy as many tickets as possible and get as much blue in the stands as we can,” Becht said. “… We’re trying to amp it up and get as many AJ McCarron Alabama fans as we can on the other side of the stadium.”
McCarron agreed Saturday’s contest could be called a homecoming game.
“I guess just because it’s playing back in Bama for the first time,” McCarron said. “But it’s just another game. That’s all I want it to be.”
It’ll be McCarron’s first contest in Alabama since Nov. 30, 2013, when the Crimson Tide lost to Auburn 34-28 in the Kick Six Game. He’ll be playing in the Birmingham area for the first time since Nov. 16, 2007, when St. Paul’s Episcopal won 44-15 at Jess Lanier in Bessemer in a second-round game on the way to the AHSAA Class 5A championship.
McCarron is aware he’ll have friends and fans in the stands, but he’s tried to avoid the hoopla.
“I just know that a bunch of people are coming,” McCarron said. “I don’t know who. I don’t pay attention to it. It’s not my job. If anybody hits me up, they get ignored, to be honest with you. During the season, I don’t reach out. I try to limit who I talk to just so I can stay focused. I don’t have anything to do with tickets. It’s not my deal. …
“My biggest thing is I like having a schedule. I like keeping the same routine, keeping the same schedule, so it’s not going to be anything special. … I appreciate all the support and love, but I want to just stay to this normal routine and not do anything out of the ordinary.”
After playing at Alabama, McCarron joined the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals. He also played with the Oakland Raiders and Houston Texans before sustaining a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during a preseason game with the Atlanta Falcons that put him on injured reserve for the entire 2021 season.
Out of football after the injury, McCarron got back on the field with the Battlehawks in the XFL revival in 2023. After leading the league in touchdown passes, McCarron returned to the NFL with the Bengals, but he still came back to St. Louis this spring.
“We selected AJ and recruited AJ for a reason last year,” Becht said. “We looked at over a hundred quarterbacks, and we really did our due diligence on what we wanted, what exactly is the key component to being successful. … Let’s get a quarterback that can really operate within the framework once the play comes in. Now you got the line of scrimmage, now your visuals, what you see, and then being able to get it out to the right guy on time. Quarterback-wise, no question: The true element of playing the position, there’s no one better than him at this point in this league in the last two years.”
McCarron again leads the league in touchdown passes, and he ranks second in the UFL in passing yards in 2024. That has helped St. Louis take the lead in the XFL Conference with a 5-1 record. But Birmingham leads the USFL Conference with a 6-0 record and clinched a playoff berth with its 33-14 victory over the Memphis Showboats last week, keeping the Stallions on course for a third consecutive championship.
“Birmingham’s a very well-coached team,” McCarron said. “They’re in the right spots, they do the right thing. And then just like all teams, if they mess up, you got to make them pay. You got to capitalize on those opportunities.
“It’s going to be a good challenge for both teams. I think the talent we have as a team, you can say the same for them, so we’re excited about the challenge and having a chance to go out and compete and then see what happens.”
The Battlehawks and Stallions will square off at 3 p.m. CDT Saturday in Birmingham. FOX will televise the game.
“I’m excited for AJ,” St. Louis offensive coordinator Bruce Gradkowski said. “AJ’s been on the biggest stage his whole career, winning national championships and being a part of big games, and, honestly, that’s when AJ rises most to the occasion is when his back’s against the wall, when a big play needs to be made. We’ve seen it over the last two years. If we need a drive, if we need an end-of-the-game play, AJ’s on it. He’s got the poise and composure. He’s got the mental toughness. He’s physically tough as well. These are the matchups, I think, he lives for. …
“Look, I’d love to see this stadium packed because AJ’s basically going home.”
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.