I was thinking this morning...before last season, how many of us knew much about Alabama Quarterback Greg McElroy? I decided to look into the National Champion's stat card and found that going into last season, McElroy had attempted a whopping 20 passes over two seasons (after redshirting his freshman year). He'd played mostly in the final minute or final drive of games, and he'd primarily been handing the ball off.
In short, he'd been mopping-up victories.
So...surely no one had much of a plan for him in 2009. I mean, I'm sure folks thought he might "Grow into" the role of a starting quarterback, but no one could have thought he would be a lock-down starter. All he did in 2009 was go out and lead the Tide to a national title.
Aaron Murray is a very talented quarterback. He has the skill-set to win in the SEC, and he has had a year and a half to settle into the system at UGA. I'm not saying he's going to come in as a barn-burner, but the kid certainly has the credentials to receive a bit of respect from a timid and shell-shocked fanbase still reeling from a season where the seasoned 5th-year quarterback was anything but a strength for the team.
It's been said 1,000 (or more) times - all the kid has to do, is minimize his mistakes. His job is to distribute the football carefully and take the game as it comes. If he does that, he can win. And after the first half in Columbia, he'll probably have the same number of pass attempts as McElroy had going into last season (I don't know that he'll throw 20 times in the opener).
Do I think he'll lead the Bulldawgs to a National Title in 2010? I'm not so sure. But, did I throw down 20 bucks on that at 45:1 while I was in Vegas this weekend? Yup.
Go Dawgs!
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3 comments:
Isn't his height an issue?
No, his height isn't an issue. Why would his height be an issue? The kid isn't 5'8. Aaron Murray is 6' tall. He's more of 6' than Joe Cox was 6', and height wasn't an issue for Cox. He had his issues, but height wasn't one.
DJ Shockley is 6', and he was a pretty good College QB, winning an SEC title. Drew Brees is 6', and just won a Super Bowl. Eric Zeir, one of UGA's best, is 6'. I could bring up Tarkenton, but that's a different era of football.
Long story short, No.
So you're saying he is too short Ben? I kid. I get the skepticism with Murray from the fans who remeber cox getting the full support of th coaches. Who else were they going to put in there besides cox? In fairness- look at cox's stats and performances in games that he had any semblance of a rush attack and you see that he wasn't all that bad, but rather, he sucked at watching a inept offense not gain yards for the first 6-8 games and tried to do waaay too much playmaking. When he could be a game manage he only, we/ he fared well.
I thnk for Murray you can expect him to perform something like shockley did his second year. Tons of talent and intagebiles , but still making some mistakes. Who knows how Shockley would have done fulltime though. Regardless, I bet Murray will impress with the occaisional headscratcher as well
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