Alabama's Quarterback Greg McElroy Heating Up at The Right Time

Before the season even started rumors that turned out to be fact came drifting from the Manning Passing Academy, a special summer camp for the elite quarterbacks to attend, that this "new kid" from Alabama was raising everyone's eyebrows and putting some of the big name quarterbacks to shame.

He burst onto the college football world with a big second half in the Virginia Tech game but still many doubted that this was a man that Saban could pin his hopes on for a national championship run.

Then came the Arkansas game where Bobby Petrino sold out to stop the run and force Alabama to beat them with this first year starter. The result was a 35-7 stomping that saw McElroy throw for 291 yards and three touchdowns.

And this was the same Arkansas team that almost beat Florida, the same team that held Tim Tebow to just one touchdown toss in a 23-20 Florida come from behind win.

Then came the "slump". McElroy's numbers did in fact go down, but Mark Ingram's rushing numbers went up as did his Heisman hype. Doubters began wondering about McElroy again.

McElroy quickly put that doubt to rest with impressive wins over LSU and great completion ratios in the ones that followed. And then came "The Drive". With the game on the line, McElroy once and for all should have quieted the last of the doubters with a 15 play drive that killed both the clock and Auburn's hope of an upset.

He went seven of nine and slowly and methodically moved the Tide to the end zone with a nice pass to Sr. Roy Upchurch. In that drive he was cool on third downs unflappable after being hit and unfazed while being rushed.

Bama fans have now come to see Greg as an upgrade from last year's Sr. quarterback, John Parker Wilson and a man that has yet to lose a game as a starter, or make costly mistakes that have almost cost his team a loss.

Florida's game plan to stop Alabama is simple. Stop the run first. Pressure McElroy and force this young quarterback make plays against the best defense he's seen all year.

That has already been tried and they didn't like the results.

This is a different Alabama team that Florida faced last year even though the majority of the faces remain the same. The biggest different is the quarterback in Crimson and his ability to win games, and unfortunately for Florida, he's getting hot again at just the right time.