The Florida Gators began the season as the number one ranked football team and most people’s favorite to win the National Championship. Along the way the Alabama Crimson Tide have gained ground. For one week Alabama moved ahead of Florida at the top of the AP poll. Even though Florida has moved back to number one there is still a lot of support for Alabama. The Alabama Crimson Tide have looked very good in 2009 but the Florida Gators are still the better team.
The past two weeks the Alabama Crimson Tide and Florida Gators have both struggled to win games but the teams are struggling for completely different reasons. The Florida Gators are simply making mistakes. Against Arkansas there were dropped passes, dropped interceptions and the defense gave up one long touchdown. The mistakes have been costly mistakes but the Gators have overcome them and ultimately the Florida Gators are a great team all around. The receiving core could be a little bit better but they’re not bad.
The Alabama Crimson Tide have a much bigger problem. Alabama hasn’t just made a few mistakes the past two weeks. The Tide have a glaring weakness. For the first few weeks the Alabama quarterback, Greg McElroy, picked up right where John Parker Wilson left off in 2008. McElroy controlled the game, didn’t make mistakes and let the defense, Mark Ingram and Julio Jones win the games.
The past two weeks Greg McElroy has just played horrible. Is it possible he just played poorly for two straight weeks and he’s going to right the ship? It’s possible but two consecutive bad weeks usually means he’s not a very good quarterback yet. The quarterback position is not a good position to have a problem. If the quarterback isn’t any good then it directly affects the receivers since they aren’t getting good passes thrown to them. It also affects the running game because defenses can load up and try and stop Mark Ingram.
Even if Greg McElroy turns around his season the Florida Gators are better than the Alabama Crimson Tide. Compare the two teams from position to position. Alabama has the better rush defense and Florida has the better pass defense. All around their defenses are even. The special teams are about even, they both have great coaches and running games that are in the top ten in the country. Alabama gets a slight edge in receiving.
That just leaves the quarterback position. Even if Greg McElroy plays like he did for the first six games he is still obviously not Tim Tebow. Not only is Tim Tebow a superior player (by a lot), not only is quarterback the most important position on the field, but on top of that Tebow is one of the greatest winners and leaders in college football history. When the game is on the line who would you rather have with the ball Tim Tebow or Greg McElroy? If you said Greg McElroy then enjoy watching the National Championship game from home.
