You know the ones. Those glass-half-empty, prone-to-criticize Alabama fans who have already deemed Greg McElroy a bonafide loser. They’ve bestowed upon him an unflattering nickname which I won’t even mention. They lambast him for what they perceive to be sub-par play. They call for his benching.
They get mad quickly and spew their knee-jerk solutions even faster.
Sure, the junior signal-caller had a couple of off games against Ole Miss and South Carolina. No, he wasn’t spectacular against Tennessee, but he certainly didn’t perform poorly either. He completed 17-of-28 passes for 110 yards and had a couple of key runs for first downs.
Perhaps even more important than what he did against one of the better defenses in the SEC is what he didn’t do. He didn’t throw an interception. He didn’t fumble. He didn’t get sacked.
Quite simply, McElroy put Alabama in position to win. He had nothing to do with Mark Ingram’s fumble, Tennessee’s touchdown with 1:19 to play or Tennessee’s ensuing recovery of an onsides kick. Yes, Terrence Cody saved the game for Alabama Saturday evening, but it would had never been in need of saving had McElroy thrown away the game before that.
The bottom line is that the red-headed kid from Texas – the one Bama fans were clamoring for last year and the one Bama fans were hailing as a darkhorse Heisman Trophy candidate just three weeks ago – is a winner. His record as a starting quarterback over the past 24 games? Try 24-0. He was 16-0 as a senior at Southlake Carroll High School and has now gone 8-0 at Alabama this fall.
Victories. Isn’t that after all what this game is all about and what Alabama fans yearn for most? Never mind that, on top of that, McElroy is still on pace for an excellent year statistically despite a couple of shaky outings.
Sometimes I wonder about the knee-jerkers. Have they ...
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