Long before Julio Jones was an All-Pro receiver, he was a five-star recruit from Foley, Ala., and he was recruited by Alabama's Nick Saban and Pete Caroll, who was then the head coach at USC.
Carroll, however, didn't have much of a chance to make an impression on the young WR, even when he visited him.
NBC Sports radio host Rob Buska recounted on Wednesday's Pro Football Talk Live a discussion with Carroll about his attempt to sign Jones, and the impediments he faced along the way.
"We loved Julio so much, and he went to this high school in the middle of nowhere, in the sticks there in Alabama," Buska recalled Carroll saying, per Jon Schlosser of All 22. "We flew in to see him, and once we got out of the car, at the football field, during the middle of practice, coach saw me and knew who I was. He took Jones off the field, ran him inside, got the principal and the athletic director, and locked the school.
"Got Nick Saban at Alabama on the phone right away, and said, 'Hey, Pete Carroll's outside.' Next thing you know, there's your full scholarship right there."
Savage move, and one that certainly worked out for Saban and Jones.
Buska's version of the story is a little bit different from the one Carroll told as he recounted the visit to Foley last fall, but the main point is the same.
"There was a time when we went down -- I can't remember the town he was in -- but we went down to Alabama to go visit him and see if we could have a chance to get recruiting on him," Carroll said in October, per the Alabama Media Group, as his Seahawks prepared to face Jones' Falcons. "We had a chance to see him like in the parking lot, and some people from the school grabbed him and took him in the back room, and before you knew it, I think there was an Alabama coach on the way to the campus, and we couldn't even get near the guy at the time."
So, there may or may not have been a school lockdown involved and Carroll didn't specifically name any instigators, but the bottom line is folks at Foley High didn't want Carroll getting anywhere near their prized pupil.
That story is as deserving of a good "Roll Tide!" as any.
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