TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Alabama quarterback's agile brain can sop up tradition the way the biscuits do the red-eye gravy down at The Waysider, the Tuscaloosa eatery where Bear Bryant regularly mumbled through breakfast.
Greg McElroy knows the names, dates, facts, figures and all-time lineups for his favorite franchise.
Cut a vein and watch him bleed Crimson?
Actually, Think Blue.
"I can tell you the Dodgers' lineup right now, top to bottom," McElroy boasted and did just that, finishing with right fielder Andre Ethier and adding, "He's my favorite."
Alabama and Texas are playing Thursday for the Bowl Championship Series national title at the Rose Bowl. If former Dodger Raul Mondesi, McElroy's idol, were flipping the pregame coin, well, McElroy might have to collect himself before the first snap.
The guy leading the Crimson Tide into Pasadena was born in Los Angeles, was raised in Texas and made his name in the state where the stars fell. And now he leads 13-0 Alabama against 13-0 Texas, not far from where he lived his first decade.
Yet despite spending numerous days and nights at Dodger Stadium and at the Coliseum to see USC games, McElroy never has set foot in the Rose Bowl.
"I don't think you could have written a better script," McElroy's dad, Greg McElroy Sr., said.
If you never heard of Greg McElroy until a few weeks ago, well, join the club. He's spent most of his life waiting in line at Disneyland.
After McElroy's family moved to Texas when Greg Jr. was 10, he ended up enrolled at Southlake Carroll High School and sat three years behind Chase Daniel, the future Missouri star.
"It never bothered me much waiting my turn," McElroy said, a stunning statement in the world of play-me-now-or-I'll-transfer-or-sue. "If the coaches thought I was the best player, I would be playing. ... My parents instilled in me that anything worth doing was worth waiting for."
The McElroys didn't move to Texas to finagle their son's football fate. Greg's dad, in marketing and sales, accepted a job in 1998 to oversee the building of the American Airlines Center.
"A lot of families would say they moved because of the football program," Greg Jr. said. "That wasn't the case at all in my family."
The move was traumatic for mom, dad, Greg Jr. and his sister
"It was difficult for six months," Greg Jr. said. "I still kept in touch with my friends in L.A. I finally made friends in Texas."
McElroy got one shot to shine in high school - and it involved a little serendipity. Southlake Carroll, a Texas prep powerhouse, was running the passing-averse Wing T formation when the McElroys hit town. Then the school hired pass-happy coach Todd Dodge, now at North Texas. That allowed McElroy to lead Carroll to a 16-0 record and the state championship, throwing for 56 touchdowns and 4,687 yards.
In 2004, though, Greg's dad had taken a sales and marketing job back in Los Angeles with the Dodgers. Greg Sr. never missed one of his son's high school games, commuting back to Texas for the weekend.
McElroy didn't get much of a look from the University of Texas, which had locked up its future in Colt McCoy, so he ended up at Alabama. He again played the Space Mountain waiting game, sitting behind John Parker Wilson until getting his chance this season as a fourth-year junior. The Tide's 13-0 record brings his high school/college ledger to 29-0 as a starter.
The season hasn't been easy. After a fast start, throwing for nine touchdowns and only one interception in Alabama's first six wins, McElroy hit the wall. He didn't throw a touchdown pass in his next three games against Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee.
"He experienced some difficulty," his dad said. "It is so overwhelming, there's so much passion there, there's lots of pressure for a 21-year-old kid."
McElroy is a smart kid, a Rhodes Scholarship candidate, and he kept hitting the football books. He already has graduated, and his lowest grade was a "B" in, of all subjects, management and leadership.
McElroy could have requested a grade change after the Auburn game, a breakout performance in which he managed and led Alabama to a dramatic victory. McElroy came of age in the final minutes, directing a 15-play, 79-yard drive that consumed 7:03 and resulted in his winning touchdown pass to Roy Upchurch with 1:24 left.
"We always saw the light in him," senior tight end Colin Peek said, "because we're with him every day in practice. For the public, they finally saw Greg McElroy as the standout quarterback on that last drive, when he was almost able to will his team down for a touchdown.
"That's when everyone sort of had that light flipped in their head saying, 'This kid's a great quarterback, and he can do some deadly things for the team if he plays this way.' "
McElroy followed with a deadly performance in the Southeastern Conference title game against Florida, completing 12 of 18 passes for 239 yards and a touchdown.
His life since hasn't been the same. McElroy is now the man about town in Tuscaloosa, getting stopped in restaurants.
"I'm pretty recognizable," McElroy said, "as far as the red hair, the swooped hair. And the freckles. You don't see a lot of kids with freckles at 21."
McElroy says he always will consider himself a Texan, although winning the BCS title surely will make him Alabama's favorite son.
If the Crimson Tide loses, well, that would be worse than the Dodgers trading Mike Piazza.
Either way, spring training is not far off.