Bama's Greg McElroy deals with 'clutter'

TUSCALOOSA — Greg McElroy could prepare for the Tennessee defense, the ferocity of LSU’s front four, the tenacity of South Carolina’s defensive ends, the complexity of Jim McElwain’s playbook, the frustration of missing open receivers, even the wrath of Nick Saban.

But Alabama’s junior quarterback did not prepare himself for ... well, what Saban calls “the clutter.”

Message boards. E-mails. Talk shows. Columns. Opinions. Second-guessing. Third-guessing. Lou Holtz dissing your team’s title chances on national television because “Alabama’s got quarterback problems.”

There isn’t a more thoughtful, articulate, honest interview on Alabama’s football team than McElroy. He is invested fully in the program and is unquestionably one of its strongest leaders.

But McElroy was admittedly jolted by criticism aimed his way as Alabama’s offense struggled through victories over Ole Miss, South Carolina and Tennessee. He did not throw a touchdown pass in any of those games.

There is honesty, and then there is too much information. McElroy was extremely candid Monday.

“You can’t prepare for it. ... Really, you don’t know what it’s going to be like until you’re out there and until you experience it first-hand, because it is difficult,” McElroy said. “It’s tough not to have everybody like you, but that’s just the way it is sometimes.”

The quarterback vented a bit after Saturday’s victory over LSU, saying he had been the “target of hatred” during the offensive slump.

He played very well, completing 19 of 34 passes for 276 yards and two touchdowns.

“We have experienced a lot of criticism,” McElroy said Monday when he was asked about his comments. “Is it deserving? I’m not sure. ... But it was just an emotional moment. ... You let emotions get the best of you, and obviously I never meant to be hurtful towards anybody.”

Alabama coach Nick Saban said he met with McElroy several times as he was going through this drop in effectiveness.

“I think a lot of us tried to talk to him about it,” Saban said. “I think that sometimes when you’re prideful and you really want to do a good job and it means a lot to you, like it does Greg, it bothers you a little bit more when you’re not satisfying everybody.

“But at the same time, he needs to satisfy himself by doing his job well for his team and his teammates and not worry about everybody else outside here because that’s kind of clutter, too.”

Saban said McElroy got sidetracked by worrying about how he was doing instead of what he was doing.

“That’s not a good way to play, and that’s not a good way to compete, and that puts a lot of anxiety out there that doesn’t need to be there,” the coach said. “And we’ve talked about it quite a bit, and hopefully he learns and grows from it and can handle it better in the future.”

McElroy said Saban helped him through it not by hand-holding — “Coach Saban’s not really like that” — but by re-focusing on what’s really important.

“It’s not about how everybody perceives you,” McElroy summed up the message. “It’s about how you feel about yourself. He really kind of helped me out in saying, ‘Just forget about everything. Just enjoy it and have fun with it. What are you doing that’s causing you not to be successful or the offense not to be successful?’

“That’s mostly what we talked about, and he helped me out a lot in getting through it. Obviously, we’re back on the other side of it now.”

One wonders why a major college quarterback — let alone one leading the No. 3 team in the country — would be stung by people who post criticisms or vent their frustrations on a talk show.

Forget Dr. Lou, this is a case for Dr. Laura.

It’s a bit surprising that McElroy was surprised by this because he stepped into the position vacated by his close friend John Parker Wilson, a three-year starter who left with nearly every Alabama passing record on the books.

“Yeah, I watched John Parker over the years, and he’s dealt with as much criticism as anybody has,” McElroy said. “You’ve just got to take a step back, and you can’t prepare for that. You’re emotional. Your feelings get hurt, and you get all those things.”

He never lost his coaches or his teammates.

“I stay with confidence in him,” Ingram said before the LSU game. “He’s poised. He keeps his head. Never shows that he’s frustrated or anything like that. I always have confidence in him, and I’m sure he’s going to get it together and have a good game.”

Saban said coping with “the clutter” is part of being a quarterback.

“Because really, when you’re the quarterback, you probably get too much credit when it goes good, and you probably get too much of the blame when it goes bad,” the coach said. “And that’s the nature of the beast; that’s the nature of the position, and that’s kind of the way it is.”