Christian McCaffrey.jpg

Stanford's Christian McCaffrey runs against Southern California during the first quarter of a Pac-12 Conference championship NCAA college football game in Santa Clara, Calif., last season (AP Photo/Ben Margot, File)

Once his football career is over, Alex Kozan would like to apply his business studies - he is working towards an MBA - to mergers and acquisitions.

The Auburn left guard nearly got a chance to apply those skills in the weeks following the BCS National Championship Game in Jan. 2014, when he tried to persuade the coaching staff to take a look at his former high school teammate, then-four-star prospect Christian McCaffrey.

"I was telling coaches like 'we got to get this guy, we got to get him,'" Kozan recalled with a laugh. "They're like 'well, he's from Colorado, they don't really have any speed out there.' I'm like alright, I'm telling you."

To be clear, Auburn is not listed among the many schools to offer McCaffrey and had long since filled its needs at running back in the 2014 recruiting class with former five-star prospect Roc Thomas and Kamryn Pettway.

Not even Kozan, who himself was a late addition to Auburn's signing class in 2012, believes his power of persuasion would've been enough to get McCaffrey, who finished runner-up for the Heisman Trophy last year after setting the NCAA record for all-purpose yards and was named Player of the Year by the Associated Press, to come to Auburn over Stanford.

"I don't think so but who knows," Kozan said. "We just played in the national championship game and I could've swayed him, maybe, if we could have got him on an official (visit). But his dad went to Stanford, his mom went to Stanford, he went to Stanford. It's hard to beat a top school in the country academically."

McCaffrey, who opens his junior season tonight as No. 8 Stanford hosts Kansas State at 8 p.m. CT (FS1), looks back fondly on his time playing with Kozan at Valor Christian High School (Highlands Ranch, Colorado).

"He was awesome," McCaffrey said. "He was incredibly fun to run behind in high school; made my job very easy. Another one of those guys that comes from a great family, a good guy who does the right thing, works incredibly hard and all about football, all about making his team better. Was really lucky to get a couple of years in with him when he was at Valor."

Kozan was hoping McCaffrey would win the Heisman last year

"He broke the all-time all-purpose yardage record; so that's an all-time record," Kozan said. "At the same time, I was across the field from Derrick Henry and he carried the ball (46) times and was pretty much unstoppable there, getting five yards a pop. I have great respect for both players but since I know Christian, I wanted him to win."

With the Cardinal usually playing games later in the day than Auburn, Kozan has been able to watch a lot of McCaffrey's games and the two keep in touch.

As McCaffrey tries to match his record-setting 2015 season, Kozan will be cheering him on, starting tonight while watching from Auburn's team hotel in Montgomery.