If you're not an Alabama Crimson Tide fan or an SEC fan period, then you may have no idea who this man is, yet he is just as good as, if not better than, anyone else in the nation.
His name is Greg McElroy.
The University of Alabama has been doing well over the past few years, and many can say it is because of Nick Saban. But while Saban is a good coach, and has really helped out the team, the players still have to go out there and play.
Which means we need to highlight certain individuals who are doing well, and McElroy is undoubtedly among them.
This is his first year starting in college and that made many people wonder, "Can he do well in a place like the SEC, especially in a place like Alabama where fans put a lot of pressure on players to do well?"
Usually we see people struggle during their first year, especially in the SEC, mainly because the defenses are so great. The top defenses in the nation in any given year usually come from the SEC, and this year is no different. In fact, Alabama's D is considered the best.
In Alabama, people like to talk early about awards. Fans here think Rolando McClain will be the defensive player of the year, and that Julio Jones will be the receiver of the year. And you'd be surprised at how convincing the arguments are for those two.
But McElroy is a person no one expected to do as well as he is doing, and, in my opinion, he is a dark horse in the Heisman race.
He is on par with or better than anyone in the nation right now. If you think I'm nuts, check out his numbers: McElroy has completed 78 of 119 passes for a 65.5 completion percentage, 1086 passing yards, 9 TDs, and only 1 INT, and a 165.5 QB Rating.
That is as good as or better than Tebow, Bradford, and even McCoy.
Sure, the numbers for all three will increase when they return from injury, but McElroy will also keep getting better. When you are on par with the big three in the nation, and have better numbers than each of them, you should be considered on the Heisman race with all three.
When the season started, people thought Bradford would repeat or Tebow would come out and win another. Some even thought McCoy was due, and would have a great season ending up with a Heisman Trophy.
While I think McCoy will still have a great season, McElroy faces some of the best defenses in the nation and still gets things done.
Some people are going to say that McElroy struggles in games sometimes, especially at the start of them. But the great part about him is that he is finishing games strong. And unlike McCoy, Tebow, or Bradford, he has a great running game to open up the passing for him.
Alabama is the only team that has four running backs playing every game, where all get at least five or six carries. And the feature back, Ingram, doesn't always get the most carries. The ball goes to the one who is hot at the time. If that is Ingram, then he gets the bulk of the carries.
All of the backs are getting their numbers, and there is complete selflessness there. The question mark at the beginning of the season was not the running game but the O-line, and, as I mentioned before, the QB position.
Both are doing well, which is surprising. McElroy took over for a QB in John Parker Wilson who was good but not great. The O-line had to replace Caldwell and Smith, two of the best O-linemen in the nation last year.
The absence of Smith in the Utah game last year showed, as the team had to do four line changes, which is more than they had done all year during a game. 'Bama ended up losing, despite many believing the Tide was the better team.
This year, the line is holding up well and blocking as good as any in the nation right now. McElroy gets plenty of time to throw and he has some nice guys there to throw to in Jones, Maze, Hanks, and others.
Not to mention, the backs are not back there to run all of the time. Ingram has the most receptions on the team right now, and he is the feature back! It is just a pure "team" with McElroy running the offense.
With the team scoring 30-plus points a game, his numbers will continue to rise. He may even lead them to a National Title.
His numbers speak for themselves, and while he may not be considered the best as far as pure ability is concerned, he is still getting the job done, well, better than others.
The dark horse in this Heisman race is McElroy, and we should not be surprised to see him in New York later in the year if he keeps up the great play.
If he does take the award, he'd be the first in University of Alabama history.
Read more Alabama Crimson Tide Football news on BleacherReport.com
Related posts
While watching Alabama vs Arkansas I realized something, the young junior Greg McElroy of the Alabama Crimson Tide is one of the best QBs in the SEC.
The man is undefeated as of now, dating back to High School. He has only been in 4 games this college season, but he has faced a great defense in Virginia Tech and an SEC defense in Arkansas.
He didn't do great in his first game against VT, but what QB would be ready to face that defense in the first game? Much less in his first college game? He seemed to only want to throw to fabulous sophomore Wide-Out Julio Jones in the first half of that game.
But in the second half, he realized the errors from the first and came back better than anyone thought he would. It shows resilience and the never give up attitude. McElroy and Alabama could easily have started going south, but that was not going to happen on McElroy's watch.
He single handedly managed the game better than the defense of VT thought he could, and Bama ended up winning. He just dominated like many thought he would over FIU and North Texas.
As a matter of fact, the points they scored against NT where the highest in Bryant Denny history.
But, despite how well he has played, he seems to be over shadowed by the wonderful Alabama running backs. They are the only team in the nation that has four running backs getting at least 5 to 7 carries a game each.
Every one of them can be the feature back or starter for the team, but Coach Nick Saban prefers to start Ingram but keep everyone in the running back rotation involved. We are seeing a great freshman in Trent Richardson running all over people, yet he is the number two guy.
Then you have Terry Grant and Roy Upchurch who can both run over and run around you. Upchurch actually prefers to hit the Corners and safeties. It seems like getting high for him.
The backs play so well every game that people forget that there is something called a Quarterback who can do more than hand off the ball to the backs, he can actually throw it to a few people.
The problem coming into this season was that Bama didn't have a number two guy in the receiving core. We all knew Julio Jones would be the number one, but it was uncertain if a guy like Hanks or Maze could be the number two guy.
But both Maze and Hanks have stepped up, and Maze looks to be that number two guy Bama has needed.
Maze reminds me so much of a Tide alumni by the name of Tyrone Prothro. See, Prothro was a guy who could return punts and kick-offs, run the ball in the back field and so much more. However, he was best at the receiving position.
He could go up the middle and go deep, because he had to much speed it was impossible to catch up with him. Many thought that he was going to play NFL ball, but an injury to his foot ended it all.
He lost the one thing that separated him from many others, his legs. No one could catch him before, but even though he had great hands he was unable to come back, which ended his football career at Alabama.
Hopefully Maze will not experience the same thing Prothro did, but it is certain that he could be just as good. He is young and has all the speed in the world, but one that Prothro had that Maze doesn't have right now is great hands.
Maze can catch the ball of course, but he doesn't catch everything thrown to him well. I have seen passes that have thrown to him well, and Maze drops them a lot. He seems to be able to catch the deep ball, but he needs more to his game than just streaking down the field, which I feel he is working on and will improve.
Jones looks to be the unstoppable possession receiver at Bama, and if it takes 10 guys to bring him down every game like it did against Arkansas, teams will have trouble against this team.
But the man getting them the ball in McElroy. He has to much talent around him, but is he a product of that?
I personally think it is a yes and no here. Of course he has a lot of talent around him, you'd have to be blind not to know this. But the fact that he is getting the ball to them well almost every time makes him a great QB.
If he gets pressured and fumbles or throws interceptions a lot, the talented wide-outs are never going to get a chance to show everyone what they can do. So, McElroy is leading this team well and taking care of the ball, which is every coaches dream.
Saban is happy to see his young QB play well, and he has been on his game since that second half againt Va Tech. I think the talent around him is helping him a lot, but the fact is that he is controlling this offense.
Without McElroy this team may not be as good as they are right now. So, it is obvious McElroy is a great QB, and he still has time to be better.
Read more Alabama Crimson Tide Football news on BleacherReport.com
Related posts
As a lot of college football fans know, the week was full of upsets and just plain upsetting turn of events. Thursday saw the overrated Ole Miss go down, and then Saturday saw Penn State on top of others make their way down the ranks.
But, the biggest stories of the week in my opinion are about Miami, Florida, and Alabama.
Florida seemed to take it to Kentucky as most of us thought they would. The issue was not the way they played, but what happened toward the end of the game. Tim Tebow went down and didn't pop back up.
This is a strange site, because Tebow has long been considered Superman. A guy who cannot get hurt. Most of us know he does not have an injured past, and when he does have a little something wrong, he fights through it.
But this injury was something he couldn't fight back from, his kryptonite if you will. While being tackled hard by a Kentucky defender, he hit the back of his head on the knee of either one of his offensive lineman or one of the other defenders.
Once he hit, his neck just went catawopt if you will. I know its not a word, but there wasn't any that came to mind at the time, only "OHHH" and "Awe".
He was said to have suffered a concussion, and people were happy to see him walk off the field, however, he did spend the night in a near by hospital.
He is said to be ok, and will not suffer long term damage. Which is great to see. But, this may keep him out for a bit. While the hospital stay was just to make sure he would be alright, he may need to stay out of action a bit.
A concussion is not something you can just bounce back from, especially at the QB position and the way Tebow plays it.
The injury couldn't have come at a better time because they have a bye week next week, but the following week they head to LSU. Which is not going to be an easy team to run over if Tebow is not in the game.
Will he be a little scared about running? I mean, this LSU defense is known to be hard hitting and fast. So while they are not considered one of the best defenses in the SEC, they are still an SEC defense. The worst defense in the SEC could be the first of second best in another conference.
LSU will not take it easy on Florida because their best player is not doing so hot. If Tebow plays, which I think he will, it will be interesting to see if he just goes back to being the same old Tebow, or pulls back a bit.
The next story of the week comes out of the ACC in a team simply known as "The U". I personally drank the Kool-aid, Miami was handing out. After they beat the teams they did, which many thought they would lose to and had no chance against, one thought that they would continue to go out and win.
To me, this team played not to lose more so than played to win. There is a difference, trust me. They seemed to not go for the big plays or play as hard as they did before. It was like they were being a bit timid.
They didn't go for the big plays nor did we see them using the give us respect kind of attitude we saw them use before.
They had nothing to lose before, so they went for it all every time they went out. Now, they are somebody and because of that, they felt they needed to defend on offense.
What I mean by that is simply this, instead of going for the big time plays they did before, they took it down a notch and tried to not make as many mistakes so they wouldn't lose.
Virginia Tech is known for its Special Teams and Defense, and that came out yesterday as they beat Hurricanes. We should give Va Tech all the respect in the world for winning, but Miami choked under the pressure if you ask me.
They had a chance to basically run the table if they beat Va Tech. But now, Tech has gotten past the U, and Miami would be lucky to get a nice bowl bid. Because of the lack of competition they have ahead, they could beat them and it wouldn't matter.
While it seems everyone who will be in the National Title talks could have at least one loss, Tech is undefeated in the ACC, meaning they are going to the title game. If they win out, Miami will be snubbed from that.
Which means that because they don't have a conference title, they won't have another game to boost them up in the ranks. Va Tech still could though. Because they beat a high ranked Miami team, and still have competition ahead on top of a possible CT game, they could realistically get to the National Title game if someone loses.
And the teams in the top three could easily in Florida, Texas, and Alabama. Quite frankly, because they have a ton of competition ahead that could beat them.
In fact, last year it came down to the SEC Title game on who would go to the National Title game. Florida won, and then went on to win the National Title.
Miami needs to hope for a Va Tech conference loss, possibly two. Considering the tie would go to the head to head winner.
The one team that was as impressive as they should have been was Alabama. The Tide rolled over the Hogs in a big way, as they did last year.
Coming into the game, Arkansas' offense was said to be ranked #2 in the Nation. And Ryan Mallet was getting rave reviews. He was said to be a Daunte Culpepper type of QB that had a big arm and was tough to bring down.
Yet one of those were proven false as a Javier Arenas alone got 2 sacks in on Mallett. He showed he had a big arm, but the offense as a whole did not live up to its ranking, as it has miserable numbers.
The big thing most loved about the Tide was their offense. Who'd a thunk it? This team has never really been known for its offense, more so, its defense. And while the defense played well, as usual, the offense tore up the Arkansas defense.
It was a little rough to watch, as it started getting ugly in the second quarter.
This Alabama team has four running back, that is four! And unlike most teams out there, every one of them play in every game if they are healthy enough.
What I like so much about them is that all of the backs could probably start as the feature back on any other team. Yet they split time in a four running back rotation. And it seems to work really well.
Ingram, Richardson, Upchurch, and Grant may not get to 1,000 yards this year. But, it is obvious there will be at least 2,000 yards total on the ground for them.
Some think that they cannot get along if they are not the feature back, but they don't. What they do is go out there and run down the defense. Then once they are tired, another running back comes in to relieve them.
The backs never get too tired because they come in and out. Some more than others of course, but everyone gets to touch the ball.
Then, once you think you may be able to stop the run as a defensive coordinator, you forget that there is something called a pass. Because the Tide will throw it over your head or to down the field.
Once the Tide receivers get the ball, they are really hard to get down. Julio Jones had to have 10 men tackle him at one time before he went down. That shows such toughness.
But, he is not the only guy getting things done out there at Wide-Out. Maze and Hanks get things done too. Maze reminds many of the great Tide receiver, Tyrone Prothro, who is famous for something simply called, The Catch.
He was so fast and hard to catch. His elusiveness game him a head up on just about anyone. Then, he got hurt and was unable to return to the field. It is a sad story, but everyone who is a Tide fan respects what he did there.
Maze reminds many of this man, who many considered to be a Heisman candidate at one point. While I don't think Prothro would have won one, the year he was having before he got hurt was a great one.
If Maze plays anything like Prothro did, we may have two Wide-Outs on the Tide offense that could beat you at any point. Then, you still have to worry about that running back rotation that as we have seen in the past, has no worries about running down your throat and plowing the defense as they head to the endzone.
There are so many ways they can beat you, and it is the first time in a long time that Alabama has had an offense of this calibar. Some are relating it to their 1992 team, the last to ever win a National Title at Alabama.
If that team could resemble the '92 team what so ever, we may see that National Title going to the Tide's Trophy room in Tuscaloosa.
In closing, I feel Tebow will be fine. The injury looked and seemed bad at first glace, but he turned out to be ok from what Florida officials are saying. I feel Miami got too high on themselves, but more so they lose their edge that got them to where they were before the loss.
If this team gets it back, Miami could really be a force to recon with in the ACC and possibly in the Nation.
Alabama seems to be the top team in the SEC right now. I know some are going to disagree and say Florida is hands down. But, from what I have seen with this team, the Tide is a massive threat to win the National Title where as Florida may be faltering.
Read more Alabama Crimson Tide Football news on BleacherReport.com
