Boston College quarterback Thomas Castellanos should have consulted former Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron this offseason. McCarron has sound advice that could have helped a few weeks back.

“All I’m saying is, if you’re a guy like Thomas, keep your mouth shut, go to work,” McCarron said on his podcast the Dynasty recently, “and then let your play do the talking.”

Castellanos, however, took a different route. He let his trash talk do the talking. Castellanos and Florida State will play host to Alabama at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 30 to open up the 2025 season.

“I’m excited, man,” Castellanos told On3 this summer. “People, I don’t know if they know, but you go back and watch every first game that I played in, we always start fast. I dreamed of moments like this. I dreamed of playing against Alabama. They don’t have Nick Saban to save them. I just don’t see them stopping me.”

There’s a lot to unpack there, and McCarron did.

“Where do you even start?” McCarron said. “You’re going to a team that was 17th out of 17 teams in the ACC. You’re leaving a team and lost the starting job where you finished ninth in the ACC. I’m all for confidence, but this is stupidity.”

McCarron said Castellanos should call up Boston College coach Bill O’Brien, the former Crimson Tide offensive coordinator, to get his perspective. Even if their relationship is strained.

“Ask Bill how Alabama is,” McCarron said. “What type of players they have. How they play the game. And let OB tell you, hey Thomas, you might want to stay quiet on this one. Just go out and play. Now you just added fuel to the fire brother. Brother, I promise you, I wouldn’t want to be you the first game of the year. I don’t care how well you can run. How well you can throw it. Once you stand in that pocket and get hit a couple times, that accuracy that dipped that cost you the starting job, you better find it quick this offseason and during that game because it ain’t going to be good.”

McCarron said Castellanos’ comments sounded like someone who hasn’t played in the SEC before or faced Alabama.

“Because you have no clue what you’re talking about,” McCarron said. “You don’t know the type of team you’re about to face. The athletes you’re going to face … Speed. Size.”

Castellanos’ words will hang over the rest of the summer as Alabama prepares to Florida State.

“You’ve done ran your mouth and now you better back it up in the game or you are going to hear about it all year,” McCarron said, “and you might lose your job again and have to enter the transfer portal once again.”

Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.