Barrett Jones and AJ McCarron shared multiple national championships in their time as Alabama football teammates, but one tense moment they shared on the biggest stage still stands out to Alabama fans even a decade later.

Almost exactly 10 years ago, on Jan. 7, 2013, their competitive fire boiled over in the BCS Championship Game against Notre Dame when, despite having an insurmountable 42-14 lead, Jones and his quarterback McCarron had a very public disagreement on the snap count, as Jones ultimately shoved his QB for all to see. The pair hugged it out when the clock hit zero, with each guy later insisting he was right.

“We just got down in the clock, and we were trying to run a little time and we got up there with about seven seconds to go,” Jones said after the game. “They shifted, and I had to make some calls, and we just ran out of time. And he just got mad about it. It was not a big deal. We love each other. We kissed and made up.”

“Miscommunication,” McCarron told reporters in 2013. “He wanted to do something else, and I was right, and he didn’t like it. That’s us. We’re both perfectionists. I think y’all are making it a little bit bigger than what it is.”

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Saban even discussed the incident during a “60 Minutes” interview years later: “The game’s probably won, and they’re still trying to get it right, aight, which to me is the kind of pride and performance that you want in the players.”

Jones returned to Tuscaloosa last October where he served as an honorary captain for the Texas A&M game. Before an autograph session at the Bryant Museum, AL.com asked him about the moment a decade later.

“First of all, it’s funny that that’s the first thing that everyone asks me about, no matter what: ‘Why’d you push A.J.?,’” Jones said.

“Definitely, we were very intense. We both really wanted to get it right. He’s a great competitor, great leader of our team.

“I was frustrated, he was frustrated. We got into a little bit of a scuffle there that was no big deal, but certainly got a lot made out of it after the fact. We were both really committed. We got into a lot of heated discussions in practice. We saw things different ways. That’s what it takes to get on the same page and make sure you’re doing the best you can. We both really wanted to win, and obviously we won a lot of games together including back-to-back national championships, so it worked out pretty well.”

So, 10 years later, who was right? The former offensive lineman’s story hasn’t changed.

“I don’t know,” Jones said. “We broke the huddle too late. That was my complaint. They shifted from 4-3 to 3-4, and I re-pointed the Mike [linebacker] really fast. I thought he should have kept going with the snap-count. But who cares? It was not a big deal, and again, just something that got blown up.”

During his weekly radio show before the Texas A&M last season, Saban said the disagreement was a reflection of maintaining intensity and competitive spirit for 60 minutes.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for both of those guys because of the kind of competitors that they are,” Saban said. “But I think that’s just a demonstration of how players learn how to play for 60 minutes in the game. And they’re not looking at the scoreboard, they’re not letting the scoreboard affect how they play. They want to get it right, and they want to continue to do things the right way, and that’s their expectation for each other.

“So there’s a standard that they have for themselves, but there’s also an expectation and standard they have for their teammates. And when somebody’s not meeting that, there could be a confrontation, and I think that’s not a bad thing. That’s a good thing because you’re holding people accountable.”