ORLANDO, Fla. — Walking down the hall of an Orlando area hotel, they meet for the first time.
One quarterback was leaving the Capital One Bowl news conference while the other was just arriving.
Looking at Greg McElroy and Kirk Cousins, differences end at hair color — McElroy a red head while Cousins sports a short blonde cut.
Beyond that, they’re mirror images on the field, in the classroom and in front of a microphone. They’ll get a chance to square off against each other at noon Saturday in the Capital One Bowl in Orlando.
Both viewed as game managers who use their intellect to win games, the two quarterbacks in Saturday’s noon matchup have a strikingly similar style and statistics.
“I know [Cousins] burst onto the scene and did a great job for them last year and then he’s carried over this year,” McElroy said. “I know we’ve got to watch him on several occasions — I can remember the Northwestern game vividly — when they were playing in the 11:30 slot and we were in the 2:30 or the 7:30 game.
“I just have a lot of respect for him and the way he carries himself and the way he’s been able to respond and the way he took a huge step forward this year.”
Looking at the numbers, they are almost duplicates of the other.
McElroy holds a slight advantage in passing yards with 2,767 to Cousins’ 2,705 but his 209 completions are seven fewer than Cousins’.
In the classroom, both stand out as well.
Cousins was an academic all-conference selection for a third straight year while McElroy was the National Football Foundation scholar athlete of the year and a Rhodes Scholarship finalist.
As a junior coming back for one final season, Cousins has his eye on a few of the accomplishments McElroy’s added to his resume at Alabama.
“He’s got a national championship ring,” said Cousins who carries himself with the same confidence as McElroy in an interview. “And I’d like one of those. I have a lot of respect for a guy who can lead his team to a national championship and an undefeated season. You can see on the TV and watch Alabama play the way he leads and the way he’s able to lead their offense and make good decisions and manage the game. He does that as well as anyone in the country and that’s one of the reason’s they’re here in this bowl game.”
When talking about the quarterback position at Thursday’s news conference, Cousins ripped a few pages out of the Nick Saban playbook.
“Playing quarterback is a process,” he said. “It’s something that you’ve never fully arrived.”
Having so many parallels, it would have made sense for the two to meet at some point in the past. But the meeting Thursday was the first and hopefully not the last if McElroy has his way.
“I’m looking forward to competing with him on a quarterback level and meeting with him after the game, exchange phone numbers and maybe shoot a text some time,” McElroy said.