AUBURN
Former Alabama QB Greg McElroy explains why Auburn will be a different animal for Jarrett Stidham
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Outside of maybe the state of Mississippi with Shea Patterson and Nick Fitzgerald, all eyes are on the state of Alabama’s quarterbacks. The reigning Offensive Player of the Year Jalen Hurts and Baylor-to-Auburn transfer Jarrett Stidham will be crucial to their team’s success in 2017.
Specifically Stidham, the hype continues to build for the high-profile transfer. He threw for 1,265 yards and 12 touchdowns as a freshman at Baylor, and during Auburn’s spring game, Stidham looked exceptional and showed why he’s worthy of the hype he’s receiving. He’s as smooth of a quarterback as you’ll find — with underrated mobility, and he can make every throw on the field.
Will Stidham become the conference’s biggest impact transfer since Cam Newton? It’ll be fun to see how that question is answered.
The Heisman odds are up, and with the hype for Stidham, the hype for the Tigers continues to rise, too. Let’s face it: when Gus Malzhan has an elite signal caller, his offense is downright dangerous. And that’s what everyone is banking on with Stidham. Elite quarterback play is the great equalizer in college football, and flipping the Iron Bowl in-state power struggle towards Auburn is the type of impact he could have.
Former Alabama QB Greg McElroy knows how talented Stidham is, but he jumped on the SDS Podcast at SEC Media Days to explain why he thinks playing quarterback at Auburn will be a different animal than, say, Baylor.
“It’s not really the Big 12,” McElroy said. “It’s more Baylor … It’s more plug-and-play at quarterback in Art Briles’ system. So, I look at the quarterback position there, and it was made to succeed.
“Auburn it’s a little different animal,” he continued. “Now, it’s a quarterback-friendly offense for sure, and I do think he’ll have a lot of success. It’s just a matter of whether or not he can handle adversity of playing the position. In this league you’re going to get exposed once or twice. It’s not just a game; it’s over a series or a play. And Jeremy Johnson would make a mistake and then he’d make another one. And then trying to overcompensate for the first two, he’d make another one. He was always trying to overcome something catastrophic he did earlier, which led to more catastrophe.
“It’s important to keep things in perspective and have a short memory, because it’s intense playing quarterback in this league, particularly in the state of Alabama, where you are some of the more polarizing people in the state at quarterback.”
It’s easy to parallel Jeremy Johnson and Stidham, because of the preseason hype. Johnson never had the “it factor” but nobody knew it until he became the full-time starter. It was apparent from the get-go it wasn’t there, but Malzahn and Auburn were more or less forced to try and develop him. It just never happened.
So, until Stidham proves he’s not Johnson, the comparisons will continue, but it’s more than just the physical ability. Having the “it factor” is also about mental makeup, too.
You can listen to the full podcast with McElroy here.
There’s already one big difference, JJ couldn’t even pass on the defense in a spring game. Just listening and watching the two, they are a world apart character wise. JJ was never confident or cocky enough to be a starting QB in the SEC.
You’re either as delusional as everyone knows the Barners to be or uneducated about your own team weagle. Johnson was 12/19 for 227 yards and 2 tds after the first half of the last spring game he was in. Either admit Auburn can’t develop a QB to save their lives or shut up and find something to comment on that you actually know something about. College football definitely isn’t your strong suit.
Wow, someone’s angry. What’s wrong, did your sister kick you off before you could finish? IF you actually watched the game, which you know you didn’t, JJ overthrew everyone and was bailed out by Duke Williams on his big throws. The defense also dropped two easy pics. So get back on that sister and go read about something about your Saban God.
…and you’re one to be bashing about QB development. How many Bama QBs have made it to the NFL? How many 5 stars have crashed and burned for Bama? Yeah, keep singing that tune you moron.
Well, in terms of quarterback development, we were able to take somebody who had next to no talent as a QB and had been kicked around from position to position as an Athlete before temporarily settling in at RB until he was called to be a back-up QB because we didn’t have one and turn him into a QB who set a few records at Alabama in his one season as a starter. And if you want to talk about 5 star QBs who went to Alabama and then crashed and burned, there are two in recent history: Phillip Sims (beat out by AJ McCarron) and Blake Barnett (beat out by Jalen Hurts, remains to be seen if he truly crashes and burns or if he is able to make something out of his career).
Your bitter insecurity isn’t pretty. Can you not simply act like an adult fan of an incredibly accomplished team? Instead, you have an incessant need to act like a 5 year old country bumpkin being raised in the forest.