Capital One Bowl: McElroy a scholar on and off the field
By DAVE DYE
FOX Sports Detroit
ORLANDO, Fla.
-- Nobody is going to miss Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy, a fifth-year senior, more than offensive coordinator Jim McElwain.
McElroy is McElwain's unofficial grammar coach.
"Everybody's kind of aware of his knowledge level," said McElwain, who grew up in Montana and played quarterback at Eastern Washington in the early '80s. "I mean here's a guy that finished right close to being a Rhodes Scholar.
"For me, personally, the guy helps me with my vocabulary. He can correct me when I'm kind of grammatically incorrect."
McElroy, who won his first 19 starts in college and is 23-3 entering his finale Saturday against Michigan State in the Capital One Bowl, comes to his coach's rescue in meetings when McElwain might say things like "We really need to do that good."
McElroy will quickly remind him that it should be, "We need to do that well or we need to do that better."
"I have to correct his grammar a lot, too," McElroy said, smiling.
"We've had some fun," the unspectacular-but-steady quarterback added. "I'm going to miss Coach a lot. We've had some great times. We've had some sour times, too. He's helped me grow and become the player I am and person I am."
McElroy surprised many last season by leading the Crimson Tide to an undefeated, national-championship season.
Now, he's down to his last game, his last grammar session. It has been an impressive career, both on and off the field.
McElroy ranks sixth nationally in pass efficiency this season, completing 70.6 percent for 2,767 yards and 19 touchdowns with only five interceptions in 296 attempts.
He was also a finalist for a Rhodes scholarship and the Campbell Trophy, the so-called academic Heisman.
"It is a marvel to have a guy who is so into learning the game plan and so focused in understanding and film watching," said McElwain, a former Michigan State assistant coach under John L. Smith.
"They (younger players) see how a true professional should prepare to go into a game and know what it takes. That's something I'm really going to miss.
"He made those meetings awfully easy. From a comfort-level standpoint, it's going to drive me crazy (next season). It's going to be real hard to see Greg leave."
McElroy didn't start at Southlake Carroll High in Texas until his senior year because he played behind Chase Daniel, who was the 2004 national high school player of the year and went on to star at Missouri.
McElroy, however, set a Texas high school record with 56 touchdown passes while leading his team to a state championship and the unofficial national championship in '05.
He committed to play at Alabama when Mike Shula was still the coach. McElroy was redshirted in 2006, Shula's final season before losing his job and getting replaced by Nick Saban.
"It's flown by extremely fast," McElroy said. "I'm going on 23, I'm a fifth-year senior. I think we've accomplished everything I've wanted to accomplish since I've been here."
McElroy's final year didn't go quite the way he hoped. The Crimson Tide were preseason favorites to win back-to-back national titles. They appeared to be on track during a 5-0 start, only to lose three of their final seven.
The last one was a crusher. Their 24-0 lead turned into a 28-27 collapse at home against in-state rival Auburn.
Alabama had previously lost road games to South Carolina and Louisiana State.
Still, McElroy can find a lot of positives despite the 9-3 record, even after going 14-0 last season.
"I wouldn't say it's a complete disappointment," McElroy said. "We're a better team now than we were at the start of the season. That's always encouraging.
"We've had more fun this season, in a sense the team really gets along, which can be a positive and a negative. Unfortunately, we didn't finish up exactly where we were expected to be. We didn't finish the season quite how we would have wanted to the past seven games, but we're happy with where we're at. We're proud and honored to be in this bowl game. Hopefully, with a win on Saturday then we'll call ourselves a 10-win team."
If so, as his offensive coordinator might say before being corrected, they would have done good.
No letdown from Alabama
Kirby Smart, Alabama's defensive coordinator, doesn't expect a letdown similar to two years ago, when the Crimson Tide got upset by Utah in the Sugar Bowl.
Bama won its first 12 games that season and was ranked No. 1 before losing to Florida in the Southeastern Conference championship game. The players clearly couldn't find much incentive for the bowl after their national-championship dreams were gone.
Some are wondering whether Alabama could take the same approach now.
"We challenged the players to not be complacent," Smart said "Our kids, our leadership has taken over. We've had really good practices, good tempo, probably surprisingly so. Even today, they were chipper out here.
"It's the fear of complacency being there, fear of what are you actually playing for, which pretty much every team in the country's got besides the two that are playing for it all.
"That team was a little different two years ago. That was the first game that they weren't playing for something. For a little while now, we've kind of been out of the national-championship hunt. We had to play for respect and pride. Guys have done that. They've gone out and practiced really well, especially at the bowl site. I think that makes it a little different."
Dec. 30, 2010