Alabama Football: The Biggest Offseason Storylines for the Crimson Tide

The dust has just about settled from Alabama’s Sugar Bowl defeat at the hands of Ohio State, and the Crimson Tide and their fans can firmly set their eyes toward the start of the 2015 season, which will kick off at AT&T Stadium against the Wisconsin Badgers.

But there are massive amounts of work to be done between now and September 5. Holes must be filled by departing players, next year’s roster needs to solidify, and players who haven’t seen much playing time will have an opportunity to step up. And of course, Alabama will also be looking for its third starting quarterback in as many years.

There will be no shortage of storylines to follow during the next few months.

Let’s take a closer look at what all will play out.

Fifth straight No. 1 class?

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Alabama has pulled in 247Sports’ No. 1 recruiting class every year since the 2011 cycle. If the Crimson Tide could do that one more time, that would give them five straight No. 1 recruiting classes, meaning every player on Alabama’s roster was part of a No. 1 class.

Nick Saban and Co. already have 24 commitments for the Crimson Tide's 2015 class, which has a sizable lead for the top class once again. Can they pull off the feat for a fifth straight year?

Alabama is still waiting on a few of its top targets to announce. CeCe Jefferson and Damien Harris, both 5-stars, would be quite the finish for another recruiting class.

Crimson Tide coaches will be all over the road these next few weeks as national signing day nears, putting the finishing touches on 2015’s class, while getting a head start on 2016.

Possible staff changes

Now that the regular season is over, Alabama can hop on the coaching carousel that is already in full effect.

There likely won’t be any major shakeups at the top of the coaching food chain. Nick Saban can’t reiterate enough that Alabama will be the last stop of his career. Lane Kiffin told AL.com’s Kevin Scarbinsky that he will also be back for 2015:

Still, there are always a couple of shakeups at the positional level. Last year, Bo Davis returned as defensive line coach to replace Chris Rumph. And Kevin Steele moved from player personnel to inside linebackers coach to replace Kirby Smart, who moved to coach the secondary (in addition to being defensive coordinator) for the departing Greg Brown.

Where will changes come this year? Those will likely play out sooner rather than later to nail down the 2015 coaching staff in time to send new coaches on the road to recruit.

Another QB battle

It won’t get any bigger than this as far as offseason storylines.

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Blake Sims is gone after his whirlwind run as a one-year starter. Jake Coker, now a fifth-year senior himself, will take another crack at the starting job after losing out to Sims a year ago. The strong-armed Florida State transfer showed off his physical tools but lagged in his grasp of the offense in a short time after enrolling in May.

Behind them, rising redshirt junior Alec Morris has the most experience of the bunch in terms of time on campus but has only seen a handful of garbage-time snaps, only handing off or kneeling down.

Cooper Bateman, a former 4-star from Salt Lake City, will be a redshirt sophomore. He showed promise at A-Day, throwing for 154 yards and a touchdown in a White team win. Bateman also brings a little bit of mobility to the position that was valuable for Sims in Kiffin’s offense.

David Cornwell was the star quarterback of the 2014 class and has a year under his belt redshirting. Blake Barnett, the highest-rated quarterback Saban has signed at Alabama, is already on campus and will go through spring ball as an early enrollee. A mobile type himself, the 5-star could be a dark horse to win the job despite his youth.

The next superstar?

Alabama is expected to lose the face of both its offense and defense to the NFL. Wide receiver Amari Cooper and safety Landon Collins, both juniors and the stars for their respective units, will likely be first-round picks in the 2015 NFL draft.

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Cooper was Alabama’s biggest playmaker and star on offense, breaking just about every school receiving record, earning unanimous All-American status and being named a Heisman Trophy finalist.

Collins led the team in tackles and made several game-changing plays in the secondary.

In addition, Alabama loses Sims and likely running back T.J. Yeldon, too. While all of those players were stars on the field, they were also recognizable faces of the program. They were all over promotional material like posters and game programs.

Who will be the next batch of stars?

Running backs Derrick Henry and Kenyan Drake will get increased roles next year. Alabama will likely have three new starting wide receivers, too.

On defense, the focus star-wise should shift to the defensive line, where Jonathan Allen and A’Shawn Robinson will be in their third years. D.J. Pettway and Jarran Reed should make that unit extremely deep and talented.

And of course, whoever ends up as the quarterback will feel the spotlight bright and clear.

Defensive adjustments

Last offseason, we saw an overhaul of offensive philosophy.

Kiffin came in and was given near-complete control of that unit, changing things in a big way.

Alabama ran a lot more tempo and came out in more spread looks. It helped that Sims could use his legs on rollouts, read-options and designed runs. Kiffin used a number of different formation looks, too, and a focus on his star players to break single-season offensive records in 2014.

It was important, because Saban realized that his traditional offensive styles weren’t necessarily suitable in this climate of high-octane shootouts. He adapted, and it paid off.

Is it time to do the same on defense?

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Saban and Smart have developed one of the most complex schemes in all of football. Former Alabama and current Atlanta Falcons cornerback Javier Arenas said last summer his NFL playbook is “not as complex as it was at 'Bama.”

Their system is built on a system of checks and substitutions from the sidelines and from players on the field to be able to defend every nuance of an offense after seeing where it lines up.

A lot of that breaks down, though, when teams go uptempo.

Alabama gave up nearly 500 yards per game over the last three games of the season against teams—Auburn, Missouri and Ohio State—that run some version of tempo. When teams go fast, Alabama can’t substitute the way it wants to and make all the necessary calls.

Will Saban and Smart overhaul their defense the way it did with the offense last offseason? Or will it be more of the same in 2015?

Marc Torrence is the Alabama lead writer for Bleacher Report. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Follow on Twitter @marctorrence.