Question: Will Tua hit McElroy's wall?

AlexanderFan

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The film caught up with Gmac and teams adjusted. With Tua, teams will be able to find weaknesses and ways to make it harder for him to succeed. But they will find it much, much harder than finding the holes in Gmac's game.
This has been my thinking as well. He seems fundamentally sound and able to read defenses and find an open receiver. While that doesn't typically lend itself to being worn down by fatigue, it's also unrealistic that his current trajectory will continue.


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sanjosecrimson

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no disrespect to the OP, but you're comparing a Heisman front runner with a QBR rating of 98.5 who is considered by many including our rivals a " generational " type player ( BTW I don't like using that term, but the media loves it) , a QB who right now is the most efficient QB in NCAA Football history through the first 6 games who has yet to play a full game, a QB on pace to shattered every Alabama Football record before he leaves, a player that stepped in cold in the 2nd half of the most important game in CFB to rally Bama on to victory against one of the best defenses in 2017 to Greg McElroy?????????????????????????? :conf2::conf2::conf2::conf2:
 

davefrat

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GMAC was a consummate "game manager" at QB...he never had anything approaching Tua's athleticism and throwing ability.

there's nothing to compare.
 

AlistarWills

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I sort of get what the OP was saying but I’d attribute things like that to the opposition getting enough game film in order to figure out tendencies. I’ll take this in a slightly different direction. I wonder what our coaching staff is doing to identify potential weaknesses/tendencies in Tua’s game and either improving those and/or hiding them as best they can with playcalling.
 

TideEngineer08

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I'm not sure why so many seem to have trouble remembering... it was a massive topic on this board. He did hit a slump in October. It was bad. We nearly lost the Tennessee game because of it (among other things, of course). He recovered nicely in November and had an MVP performance against Florida in December.

But to answer the original question, the answer is no. I mean, none of us can tell the future, but you can be as confident as is humanly possible that it's not going to happen. Not only is Tua a Heisman candidate, but he's surrounded by a great deal more talent in a completely different offensive scheme.
 

CraigD

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it's also unrealistic that his current trajectory will continue
Respectfully...why? If his talent level is high as it has appeared, game planning alone may not stop him or even substantially slow him. If his receivers can continue to get open and Tua can continue to find and hit them, who can stop that?

At this point it’s almost comical at times. It’s almost like the defense isn’t even trying. Why bother? (To use my favorite movie line ever, from Strange Brew: “No point in steering now.”). See: first play vs. Arkansas, several plays vs UL-L. Tua has such talent all over the field and is such a talent himself.

I don’t doubt that the numbers will go down somewhat when tougher defenses come around, but honestly I see it as just delaying the inevitable. Instead of a one-play, 75-yard drive it will be a 10-play, 75-yard drive with a few runs sprinkled in. I think Tua will look even MORE impressive when we actually see him engineer a sustained drive, throwing surgical passes all over the field, rather than drives like the first play vs. Arkansas. Plus, he may get to play more minutes, which will be awesome.

I’m actually looking forward to it. I like watching him play. It makes me happy. Good times indeed.


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selmaborntidefan

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I'm not sure why so many seem to have trouble remembering... it was a massive topic on this board. He did hit a slump in October. It was bad. We nearly lost the Tennessee game because of it (among other things, of course). He recovered nicely in November and had an MVP performance against Florida in December.

But to answer the original question, the answer is no. I mean, none of us can tell the future, but you can be as confident as is humanly possible that it's not going to happen. Not only is Tua a Heisman candidate, but he's surrounded by a great deal more talent in a completely different offensive scheme.

I never bought the notion he “hit a slump” because we weren’t a QB dependent offense.

Greg has a stellar day, maybe a career day against Arky that year. But some of his other totals even before SCAR were questionable (147 yards passing in 34 attempts against Ole Miss, most notably, and though 13 of 15, only 176 on UNT, And he fumbled in that one on the first play. Also - and I was at work - wasn’t there a blatant PI that wasn’t called on one of the drives in the first half against the Vols?

Yeah, McElroy didn’t do well at points there but how much of that was the increase in competition from facing lousy foes like FIU and UNT to decent ones?

That being said.....the wonder is what happens when Tua faces genuine adversity for the first time. I think that’s probably what’s being said. We will see but he sure wasn’t afraid of failure against UGA with it all on the line.
 

RT27

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Most of us remember 2009 and how GMac hit a wall in his production. Most of us agreed it was the long grind of a college football season to a new starter.

First question: can Tua avoid this wall?

Second question: does playing so little in the second half of these games help decrease his chances of his production fading as the grind continues?


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There is zero things in common between Greg and Tua. Greg was a game manager, Tua is the best QB ever to play for Bama, period end of comparison.
 

B1GTide

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I never bought the notion he “hit a slump”
Neither did I. He continued to play up to his level, but defenses had figured out what that meant and game plans were put in place to meet that threat. The good news - Ingram was so good that no game plan could stop him. Without Ingram, your season is lost in 2009.

GMac was never more than a good QB. He played to his potential and was lucky enough to play for Alabama.
 

RT27

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I never bought the notion he “hit a slump” because we weren’t a QB dependent offense.

Greg has a stellar day, maybe a career day against Arky that year. But some of his other totals even before SCAR were questionable (147 yards passing in 34 attempts against Ole Miss, most notably, and though 13 of 15, only 176 on UNT, And he fumbled in that one on the first play. Also - and I was at work - wasn’t there a blatant PI that wasn’t called on one of the drives in the first half against the Vols?

Yeah, McElroy didn’t do well at points there but how much of that was the increase in competition from facing lousy foes like FIU and UNT to decent ones?

That being said.....the wonder is what happens when Tua faces genuine adversity for the first time. I think that’s probably what’s being said. We will see but he sure wasn’t afraid of failure against UGA with it all on the line.
Amen so many talking heads talk about how he will handle good teams. Took over in National Title game when we were behind, against #2 team in the nation and ripped it up. No9w he is even better as he has more playing time. I see no one out there who can stop this offense, slow it down a bit maybe. No worries if they try to stop Tua we still have the best backs in the nation. And the defense will be better prepared as they get more filed time. 18 happens this year.
 

92tide

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I never bought the notion he “hit a slump” because we weren’t a QB dependent offense.

Greg has a stellar day, maybe a career day against Arky that year. But some of his other totals even before SCAR were questionable (147 yards passing in 34 attempts against Ole Miss, most notably, and though 13 of 15, only 176 on UNT, And he fumbled in that one on the first play. Also - and I was at work - wasn’t there a blatant PI that wasn’t called on one of the drives in the first half against the Vols?

Yeah, McElroy didn’t do well at points there but how much of that was the increase in competition from facing lousy foes like FIU and UNT to decent ones?

That being said.....the wonder is what happens when Tua faces genuine adversity for the first time. I think that’s probably what’s being said. We will see but he sure wasn’t afraid of failure against UGA with it all on the line.
yeah, i can't really think of more "adversity" to have to face than what he was thrown into last year vs uga.
 

92tide

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Neither did I. He continued to play up to his level, but defenses had figured out what that meant and game plans were put in place to meet that threat. The good news - Ingram was so good that no game plan could stop him. Without Ingram, your season is lost in 2009.

GMac was never more than a good QB. He played to his potential and was lucky enough to play for Alabama.
the barn stoned our running game in 2009. mark only had 30 yds (on 16 carries) and trent had 51
 

mrusso

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He can absolutely hit McElroy's wall! He can also hit his house, his car, the trees in his yard and the flower pot on his back porch. All while avoiding a defender with a spin move. :biggrin2:
 

selmaborntidefan

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Neither did I. He continued to play up to his level, but defenses had figured out what that meant and game plans were put in place to meet that threat. The good news - Ingram was so good that no game plan could stop him. Without Ingram, your season is lost in 2009.

GMac was never more than a good QB. He played to his potential and was lucky enough to play for Alabama.
Yeah I think we agree here.

Greg - and I love the guy, I really do - was a competent accompanying musician in the studio capable of playing out on the road. The star in 09 was the defense, Julio and - as the year progressed - Ingram.

Tua is Mick Jagger, taking a great band to legend.
 

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