Greg McElroy passing tests with changing plays at line of scrimmage

TUSCALOOSA — It wasn’t exactly Indianapolis Colts superstar Peyton Manning’s pre-snap ballet, but Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy walked up and down the offensive front, issuing orders before several snaps last Saturday.

Some were audibles, but most were not. More often, McElroy was killing the play and going to a second option that was called in the huddle. Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban calls them “check-with-mes.”

McElroy said a “check-with-me” could be as simple as changing a called run around right end to a run around left end. Or it could mean a new play or a new blocking scheme.

Simply put, it’s designed to get the offense out of a bad play, depending on the defense’s formation.

“There were a lot of check-with-mes today,” the coach said after Alabama’s 35-7 victory over Arkansas.

“We’re calling two plays in the huddle,” McElroy explained. “I’ll call, like, ‘Right-north-search, kill, south bobby.’ ”

In other words, if McElroy screams “Kill, kill, kill,” to the offense, he’s checking off to the second play. In his example, he kills right-north-search and runs south bobby.

“Greg identifies that,” center William Vlachos said. “Whatever they’re doing that we don’t like, if it’s the direction of the play, he’ll check it. ... If he checks it, we adjust our calls from there.”

McElroy said that’s the trickiest part of a “check-with-me” — potentially changing the blocking scheme as the play clock winds down.

“If he checks it, he’ll slow it down, tell us what we’re checking it to, and then we’ll replay everything out and get everything straight,” Vlachos said.

“This week we did it a little more than we have been. Spinning stuff and checking stuff to the other direction. It’s definitely not every play — sometimes, just calling the direction.”

McElroy said communicating the change has been easy for the Crimson Tide to this point. It might be more difficult in Saturday’s SEC road game at Kentucky.

“When you’re playing at home it’s pretty easy,” he said. “Obviously, it’s not quite as loud when the quarterback’s moving down the line and turning around. They’re not going to try to increase the volume in the stadium.”

The challenge is making sure everyone gets the message.

“We get 100 percent communication almost every time, I would say” McElroy said. “We haven’t had any backs go the wrong way or anything like that, no blocking assignments busted.”

McElroy said there are a variety options available for the “check-with-mes.”

“It can be run-to-pass, pass-to-run, run-to-run. We haven’t gone pass-to-pass yet, but I’m sure that’s something we can venture on,” McElroy said. “It’s something that the offense has really done a good job in.”

It’s also noteworthy that Saban and offensive coordinator Jim McElwain trust McElroy enough to give him those options.

“I think that they feel strongly enough in my preparation to be able to run those type of situation plays,” the quarterback said.