Greg McElroy says it's 'back to the drawing board' for Alabama
Greg McElroy provided some feedback after Alabama’s loss to Texas in Week 2 during the Always College Football show.
Alabama’s 34-24 defeat to Texas was its first against the Longhorns since 1982. Alabama dropped to No. 10 in the AP poll as a result.
The ESPN analyst believes Alabama will need to shore up multiple areas heading into Week 3 at South Florida, including at the quarterback position.
Sophomore Jalen Milroe completed 14 of his 27 passes for 255 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions.
“As far as Alabama is concerned, back to the drawing board,” McElroy said. “Talked all offseason about Jalen Milroe. Does he see the field? Are turnovers going to potentially be a problem? They were obviously last night.”
However, McElroy isn’t placing the entire blame on Milroe, also citing issues with the offensive line and receivers.
“I didn’t think they adequately controlled the line of scrimmage offensively, which is a testament to Texas’ defensive front. I didn’t think the receivers created great separation,” McElroy said. “I also think at this point, if they’re not capable of really running the football and they get behind the sticks and they have penalties, it’s not a team right now that can just churn and burn on a 3rd-and-12.
McElroy conceded that Texas had a massive talent advantage over Alabama that factored into the final score.
“To be honest with you, Texas has better personnel than what I saw from Alabama,” McElroy said. “..At several different positions.”
However, McElroy isn’t waving the white flag on the Crimson Tide’s season.
“I think Bama can still win a lot of games this year. I think they’ll still be fine,” McElroy said. “They’ve got to clean up the penalties, they’ve got to clean up the turnovers, and they can’t give up explosive plays.”
Bama will be a really good team this season. But I believe the days being the NC favorites are over, for the most part. This season, a 9-3 (posible, but unlikely 8-4) record is a more likely scenario for them. The real question about Alabama is, considering the postal and NIL that is becoming so prominent in college football without any rules or restrictions, how much fire does Nick Sabin have in his belly? He’s always been against these without regulations and he’s been very vocal about his objections. Will he cave in and adjust like he did with the RPO offense which he also opposed, but ended up using it to win several championships? Or will he close out his coaching career as the GOAT and move on to the broadcast studio where he will excel as he did with coaching?
Saban will be done no LATER than his contract expiring. Honestly, if Saban decides to pack it up early and both sides come to an agreement on a predecessor then I can totally see Saban packing it up early. What a way to go out, greatest coach in all of CFP, winning one more natty to fully pass Bear Bryant and do broadcasting where he can be himself.
As long as Alabama beats Tennessee and Auburn I’m good with that, all the bandwagon fans seem to forget Franchione and how bad bama use to be before Saban
Offensive line needs to get a ton better. I remember watching the game and thinking “Good Lord, Milroe has a literal circle of people around him every time he drops back”. And honestly, that’s probably why Jalen ran first and threw later bc he didn’t have any sort of trust for his line that couldn’t buy him time to get it to his receivers.
Milroe isn’t a very good QB. Alabama may be able to overcome that if the line played WAY BETTER and gave him time to throw and opened some holes for the backs. It would also help if the Center could actually get the ball all the way to the QB on the fly. The West is wide open and and just about anyone could win it as of now. It all depends on which team gets it’s issues squared away.
I think Milroe is getting somewhat of a bad rap. He’s replacing maybe the best QB in Bama history. He’s only had what 3-starts? He looks like a work in progress, as 95% of first year starters do.
Look at the previous weeks results. Milroe looked good and he was accurate, because his line gave him protection and his receivers were getting open. He got very little help from his O-line and the Bama run-game, and his receivers were not getting separation. That would be a hard way to win for any young QB.
Put another way, switch QB’s and teams. Texas still wins with Milroe, and Bama still loses if Ewers was leading the Bama offense.