“When I look back at it, I was like, well, you got to give credit to Uncle Bo because he was doing everything he could for Auburn. He knew I loved him, and he’s going to call me at all times of the night, inspiring me to whup his team even more? That was something funny, man.”

Despite Jackson’s efforts, Winston and Florida State rallied past Auburn 34-31 on Jan. 6, 2014, in Pasadena, California, to win the national title.

Winston said he chose to go from Hueytown High School to Florida State because he felt “cut from the same cloth” as Seminoles coach Jimbo Fisher.

“What did I want to accomplish in college?” Winston said. “I wanted to win a national championship, and if I can do that in football and baseball, yes, I’m going to Florida State.”

Winston said not all the fans in his home state supported that decision.

“When I committed to Florida State, the things that happened to me and my family was unbelievable,” Winston said. “Living in the state of Alabama 35 minutes from Tuscaloosa, I mean, my mailbox getting beat down. Thank the Lord, Home Depot had these mailboxes you could stick in the ground. … I still don’t have grass that grows in my front yard at my hometown house. I felt like somebody poisoned my grass. I don’t want to blame Harvey (Updyke) or anybody, but I believe something happened. Like, how does my grass stop growing? And I smelled gasoline when I got home. Me and my dad, we talk about this.

“My grandmother, she worked at UAB Medical Center, God rest her soul, and she was an avid Alabama fan. Fans would send my grandmother – my grandmother – hate mail. You’re going to come after grandma just because her grandson ain’t going to Alabama?”

Winston said he had examples of top quarterbacks from Alabama high schools who went to out-of-state colleges.

“We had JaMarcus Russell (of Williamson), we had Pat White (of Daphne), we had Philip Rivers (of Athens),” Winston said. “These are Alabama quarterbacks that did not go to an Alabama school. So you have these people, and you just look at the course of what they’ve achieved in their life. Pat White, he did great things at West Virginia. Philip Rivers, he’s a Hall of Fame quarterback one day. And JaMarcus Russell, he was the No. 1 pick. He did some great things at LSU. …

“So I was like, ‘Man, I’m going to take this chance.’ At this time, this was when Alabama was the traditional pro-style offense where their quarterback really wasn’t making an impact on their team. They were surrounded by great talent and a great defense, so the opportunity to go to Florida State, team up with Jimbo, who’s an offensive mind, and be around those players and dominate and go against the SEC – do you know how great it was? And it was crazy.