Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron had an impressive 2012. He led Alabama to wins over rivals LSU and Auburn, an SEC Championship and their second straight national title. He did all of that with an injury. McCarron revealed he played the final six games the season with injured ribs.
"I had three ribs come out of place. They kept popping in and out of place, the one at the top, and it was just a nagging pain the whole time," McCarron told ESPN.com blogger Chris Low.
The injury occurred after the Oct. 27 win against Mississippi State. He was injured on a sack and was limited in throwing during practice thereafter. McCarron said he tried to continue throwing a little so that his timing with receivers was not hurt. He claims the passing game fell off a little after the injury.
"When it first happened, I still tried to throw some so our timing wouldn't fall off that much in our passing game. That's one of the things that kind of put a damper on our passing game a little. I was injured, and we had so many receivers injured, so it was hard to do a whole lot in practice. That kind of threw us off a little, but we still kept going," McCarron said.
McCarron also played much of the season with a knee injury. He suffered a bruised right knee during the team's win against Missouri Oct. 13. Despite the injury, he still threw for 171 yards in the game.
He finished the season with 2,933 yards, ranking him sixth in the SEC. He threw 30 touchdowns and only had three interceptions. All three picks came during the time that McCarron was suffering from the knee injury. In the final six games, McCarron still completed 65 percent of his passes for 1,249 yards and 12 touchdowns. He led the team on game winning drives against LSU and Georgia in the SEC Championship game.
"It's part of being a leader. We had a lot of guys getting it out at that point in the season. We all had our eyes on the same thing," McCarron said.
McCarron is 25-2 as a starter at Alabama. He has never missed any significant time due to injury. Alabama went on to win their third national title in four years.
