Alabama football QB race doesn't need a starter named, it needs an alpha | Goodbread
In January of 2009, just after the Alabama football team lost to Utah in a Sugar Bowl game that marked the expiration of quarterback John Parker Wilson's college eligibility, Greg McElroy strode into coach Nick Saban's office and staked his claim.
A bench player for most of his high school career, and to that point, his college career as well, McElroy, tired of the view from the sideline, told Saban that from that moment on, he was taking ownership of the 2010 team.
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He did exactly that, beating out Star Jackson for the starting job, then led the Crimson Tide to its first national title in 17 years that fall. McElroy's status as that team's field general didn't stem from his private declaration to Saban, however, nor did it magically happen when Saban formally installed him as the starter nearly eight months later.
It came somewhere in between, only when the team came to see McElroy in that way. Only when his example, and his play in practice, rallied respect and commanded loyalty. It's the team, after all, that decides whether a quarterback has their full confidence. It's given, not so much taken.
Fourteen years later, that's what Saban is looking for in three candidates, Jalen Milroe, Ty Simpson and Tyler Buchner, for the 2023 quarterback role.
He's looking for the alpha.
"Somebody's got to take the bull by the horns. Somebody's got to separate themselves," Saban said Thursday in his first news conference of fall camp. "When that happens, we'll tell you. … we want all the guys when they're in there, you play the position like it's yours. Like it belongs to you."
It'd be easy if the necessary mettle for a quarterback to take charge of 85 scholarship players could be spoken into existence.
It can't be.
McElroy knew that well enough, he just made sure Saban was aware of his mindset. For Milroe, Simpson and Buchner, roughly four weeks before Alabama's season opener against Middle Tennessee State, it's now a time for actions, not words. Saban's comparison of settling on a quarterback to baking a cake, first made at SEC Media Days, came up again Thursday.
Naming a starter isn't what throws a team's confidence into a quarterback. It happens the other way around, and the batter is still too wet.
For now, all Saban can do is wait.
And perhaps, turn up the oven's temperature.
ETC. — A few more players than usual will be on the Alabama practice field this month. An NCAA participation waiver, good only for this season, has expanded FBS preseason rosters from 110 to 120. … Former Alabama WR John Metchie, who missed his rookie NFL season following a leukemia diagnosis, is back and participating in Houston Texans training camp.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23 and the Talkin' Tide podcast. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Goodbread: Alabama QB race begins fall camp searching for its alpha
