AJ McCarron on Thomas Castellanos: ‘I still think his comments are stupid’

AJ McCarron is still not a fan of Florida State QB Thomas Castellanos after the latter’s comments about Alabama over the summer. Castellanos backed up his trash talk with a 31-17 win over Alabama this weekend and is now selling shirts to commemorate the win and his quote. He said Nick Saban couldn’t save Alabama when he was getting ready to face the Crimson Tide.

McCarron ripped Castellanos then and he ripped afterwards, even though the Seminoles were victorious on Saturday. How this pans out moving forward remains to be seen, but Castellanos is on top of the world while Alabama was left picking up the pieces.

“I don’t take anything back, still think his comments are stupid, from a sense of it’s just not something you do as a quarterback,” McCarron said on The Dynasty Podcast. “And you don’t see many guys do it. But guess what he said in his press conference at ACC media days that he meant no disrespect, but it was a message to his teammates that, hey, this is the type of leader I am. I’m not backing down from them like we’re going to carry this confidence and swagger. 

“And they did. And they rallied behind him and I thought, I thought this defense would, for a guy that does not throw the ball very well, I think he had nine completions in the game, (play better).”

Castellanos was nine-of-14 passing for 152 yards and ran for 78 yards and a touchdown. Based on the stat line, McCarron had a take.

“He hits a go ball early in the game that, listen your college quarterback, you should be able to throw a go ball. It’s not anything special,” McCarron said. “But they threw some quick game, a little bit (of) curl routes and then a rail route when we were in man coverage, that was just awful coverage by Deontae Lawson. But hat’s off to him. He came out, our pass rush again was nonexistent. I mean, just awful pass rush. And he created plays with his legs just extending through rush lanes and taking off and hats off to him.”

Castellanos was the loudest over the course of the summer and the Boston College transfer wasn’t exactly taken seriously. Doubt him now folks.

“Feels great. Relied on my teammates today, relied on my coaches,” Castellanos said. “They put us in position to go out there and execute and win and we came together today. We heard everything everybody said, we (saw) everything everybody said and that just added fuel to the fire. We went out there and just played ball together … just went out there and executed. That’s it.”