Greg McElroy offers stern warning to Alabama ahead of challenging stretch

College football analyst, and former Alabama quarterback, Greg McElroy made a recent appearance on ESPN’s SportsCenter to discuss the Crimson Tide’s most recent performance against Texas. Alabama entered the game 21-point favorites and exited with a narrow one-point victory, and ESPN’s Kevin Negandhi asked McElroy just how vulnerable the Crimson Tide are following their latest performance.

“More then they were headed to Austin I’ll say that, I think the biggest thing when you look at a performance like that when it comes to Alabama, 15 penalties in just three quarters, could’ve maybe been 20 if you look at a few if you’re gonna get down to it,” McElroy said.

The 15 Alabama penalties were the most ever by their team in the Nick Saban era, and McElroy believes he knows where the issue stems from.

CLICK HERE to subscribe for FREE to the On3 YouTube channel

“Was it a lack of discipline or a lack of composure? I think you have to draw a fine line there and I happen to thing it’s more the latter, lack of composure. They’re a lot of young guys playing pivotal roles, specifically along the offensive line, also at wide receiver, and at corner,” McElroy said. “Three areas that really need to get addressed as they move forward into a more difficult stretch on their schedule.”

McElroy does believe that the Crimson Tide’s problems from Saturday can be fixed, but they need to be fixed sooner than later, as their SEC schedule is right around the corner and includes a week 5 matchup with a No. 10 ranked Arkansas team that’s looked impressive through two weeks.

“So I think all the problems that they had are fixable and are correctable, but they’re gonna have to get better and get better in a hurry because if they go to Arkansas in a few weeks and play like that, they’ll be on the losing end. Because Arkansas’ further along in their program development than Texas was even in year number two under Steve Sarkisian,” McElroy said.

It’s still very early in the season to chalk up what Alabama’s season is going to look like, do the Crimson Tide take a step back? Or yet another SEC and National Championship appearance? Regardless, their performance versus the Longhorns grabbed everyone’s attention due to how rare it’s been in recent history to see the Crimson Tide in a vulnerable position, especially in the regular season.

Hopefully for the Tide, they can limit the mistakes McElroy mentioned, build up the confidence and experience of their younger talent, get back to their dominant, winning ways of recent history, and do it fast.