Alabama Football Recruiting: Crimson Tide in Position to Continue Rolling

The Alabama Crimson Tide could be losing as many as 16 of their 22 starters this offseason, including running back Trent Richardson, cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick, safety Mark Barron and linebackers Courtney Upshaw and Dont'a Hightower.

Normally, losing that kind of talent in one year would devastate a team.

But the Crimson Tide haven't won two of the last three national championships without landing star recruits year after year.

How will the Crimson Tide "cope" with losing so many starters? Easily. They have 27 verbal commitments, including two 5-star recruits and 15 4-star recruits, according to ESPNU.

Headlining the recruits is safety Landon Collins, an impressive blend of strength, burst and explosiveness. As the No. 7 overall recruit in the class, he should make Alabama forget about Barron rather quickly next season.

There's also Eddie Williams, one of the best pure athletes in the class. Due to his explosiveness and size (6'4", 210 lbs), he projects as a safety, outside linebacker or receiver in college. He's tall, lanky and extremely fluid. He's also developed a reputation as a punishing hitter on defense.

We should know by now that Alabama knows how to find replacements. Heck, Richardson turned out to be a better running back (and NFL prospect) than former teammate and Heisman winner Mark Ingram.

This offseason, the Crimson Tide have landed 4-star recruits Cyrus Jones, T.J. Yeldon and Kenyon Drake to make up for the inevitable loss of Richardson to the NFL.

The Crimson Tide have recruits Geno Smith and Travell Dixon to make up for the potential loss of Kirkpatrick.

Alabama has not only landed a lot of top verbal commitments, they've also done a good job of spreading the recruits across several positions to be in position to field a complete team in 2012-2013.

No need to worry about the Crimson Tide falling after their losses.

They'll be just fine.