VIDEO: McElroy on 5 WRs and Legendary Coaches

Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy completed four passes to four different receivers in Alabama’s first scoring drive against Penn State Saturday night in Bama’s 24-3 win over the Nittany Lions in Tuscaloosa.

Greg McElroy talked post-game about coming out with an empty backfied early in Saturday night’s game.

“It was encouraging,” McElroy said. “It just shows me that the coaches have a lot of confidence in me going into a big game and our ability to execute in that has been really really good this season so far. It’s just another thing to have in our back pocket, something I’m encouraged by and something I think that we have a lot of legitimate weapons to use at our disposal when we’re in five wide.

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After the five wides set for the Tide’s first scoring drive, Penn State saw a heavy dose of Trent Richardson. But Alabama showed a variety of offensive formations throughout the game: empty set, the Pistol formation, and the Wildcat formation with both Marquis Maze and Trent Richardson running it. McElroy was asked what he thinks future opponents will think when they pop in the video tape of Alabama’s offense.

“It’s tough to say,” he said. “I think the great thing about our offense is that we’re very versatile. I think we have the ability to run the ball and pass the ball effectively. We’re very balanced. That’s obviously been a real point of emphasis for us since last season. We’ve been very fortunate to be explosive the last couple of games but we’re going to try to build on that.

“So, I think teams will see a well-coached football team that unfortunately made way too many little mistakes tonight in the 2nd half especially with formations and false start penalties, just bad mental errors. I take that upon myself. It’s something to build on.”

And with everything Tide opponents will have to prepare for that Alabama has done so far this season, they still haven’t seen Mr. Heisman Mark Ingram this season.

“Every time you put on SportsCenter you probably see a bunch of Mark,” McElroy said, “but he’s a special guy and I know he’s looking forward to getting back in the very near future.”

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McElroy also talked about having Bobby Bowden in attendance at Saturday night’s game. McElroy spoke to Bowden before the game.

“I told him that I grew up rooting for him and following him,” McElroy said, “and he’s been one of my idols. Having grown up and rooted for his teams I have a lot of respect for Bobby Bowden. The fact that all three of those coaches were there tonight: Coach Saban, Coach Paterno, and Coach Bobby Bowden, it was really neat because I have a lot of respect for those guys and the fact that they were there in the stands makes me really proud.

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