The Alabama Crimson Tide have posted myriad notable achievements in the Nick Saban era. Three national championships in four seasons. Three SEC titles. Seven straight seasons with a double-digit win total. Throw in a Heisman Trophy winner and it would seem Saban has no more worlds to conquer.
That would be true except that his Alabama teams have not won consecutive SEC championships. To do this would be an especially notable feat since no SEC team has repeated as the conference winner since Tennessee did so back in 1998.
Saban's club has an opportunity to notch a second straight SEC title this season, but after reviewing the particulars of this team's situation, it is clear Alabama is highly unlikely to end the year as the conference champion.
Almost complete changeover in offensive personnel
To say that the Crimson Tide have lost nine starters on this side of the ball actually doesn't quite do justice to just how many changes Alabama is dealing with here.
It starts under center. Jake Coker is the most experienced candidate to take over the starting quarterback spot, but that is a relative term, as he has only 100 career pass attempts to his credit. The other four aspirants for this job (Blake Barnett , Cooper Bateman, David Cornwell and Alec Morris) have a combined zero career pass attempts, so whoever ends up winning this positional battle -- a competition that almost certainly won't be decided until fall -- will likely be starting from scratch.