Based on the way an unsteady Greg McElroy was helped off the field in the fourth quarter of Alabama’s loss to Auburn, it was assumed that the senior quarterback had been concussed.
After the Tigers had put the finishing touches on a comeback for the ages, Nick Saban confirmed as much.
McElroy was (legally, cleanly) suplexed to the Bryant-Denny Stadium turf late in the second half on a sack by Tigers’ cornerback T’Sharvan Bell and did not return. He was replaced on the Tide’s final, last-gasp drive by A.J. McCarron, who threw four straight incompletions to end any hope of the Tide getting into range for a potential game-winning field goal attempt.
Saban said afterwards that McElroy was indeed suffering from a concussion, and it doesn’t appear that the injury will have any affect on his availability for the Tide’s bowl game, regardless of when it’s played.
“Greg has a concussion. He’s going to be OK. Nothing serious — he checked out good, so we don’t have any issues or problems from that standpoint,” Saban said.
The concussion on top of the loss was a bitter end to what was statistically a career night for the senior signal caller. McElroy threw for a career-high 377 yards, with 335 of them coming in the first half.