How Alabama's Greg McElroy's Slump Could Help Later On

The biggest fools on earth are the ones who have never made mistakes. They are fools because they have not learned from making them. With that logic, Greg McElroy is learning some valuable lessons.

If you're one of the fans who's wondering why he could look so great one game and so not the next, there's a simple explaination—planning.

Not planning on Greg's part, but the opposing coaches. Defensive coordinators know two things for sure about McElroy: If you let him play his game, he will kill you, and he's still not seen everything a smart defensive coach can throw at him.

For the last three weeks McElroy has faced differing schemes that made him unsure of his decision making skills.

University of Kentucky defensive coordinator Steve Brown had his defensive backs go into different and unplanned motion just as McElroy started his count. He had never seen a team put so many backs in motion and it threw him off.

Lorenzo Ward, defensive coordinator/safeties coach at the University of South Carolina moved almost all his players just prior to the snap count starting. McElroy misread some of those movements and went too quick to the hot receiver when there was really no blitz coming.

The good news is he survived those games and learned much by watching the films and having coach McElwain, Alabama's offensive coordinator and QB coach, explain and show him both what went wrong in his reaction and in teaching him how to handle it better next time.

"I've spent extra time with the films this week", McElroy told reporters, "And I think I've learned a lot about how to deal with those things."

There's not much else left for the great defensive minds to throw at him now. So now he's a little older but a lot wiser.

"There were throws I made in the last few weeks where I hurried when I didn't have to." the Alabama quarterback said. "And some throws were off because of bad footwork and off balance throwing."

Despite the Tide's unbeaten record and AP No. 1 ranking, don't forget this is a first year starting college quarterback who still hasn't seen it all yet.

The coaches are working well with him and his ego is far from being bruised by the coaches and most of all the players, who feel he is still the man that will lead them to victory.

Cory Reamer quoted to me last week, "We know we could be the ones who could need the other side (the offense) to pick us up if we give up some scores and there's nobody else besides Greg McElroy that I have this much faith in that can make those points back up for us."

In the first few games, opposing teams knew little if anything about McElroy and he dazzled them with his leadership and passing skills.

Midway through they threw different sets and wrinkles at him. It slowed his production, but added to his game knowledge. But most important, he survived it while still putting W's in the right column.

Now going into the end, he has the experience and history of seeing all these shifts, slides, and movements and may be ready to avoid the problems they cause.

If so, then he hits the heart of the tough games more ready than ever to make his mark on the single season passing records at Alabama.