Can Lane Kiffin Keep Explosive Alabama Offense Moving Forward in 2015?

Perhaps the biggest surprise of Alabama’s 2014 season wasn’t necessarily that Lane Kiffin had success at the helm of the Crimson Tide’s offense but the amount of success that he had.

Alabama broke school records for yards and plays run. Quarterback Blake Sims broke the single-season passing mark, while wide receiver Amari Cooper broke just about every record in the book.

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He did it with Sims, a first-year starter, utilizing the immense treasure of skill-position talent around him.

So after such a massive season on the offensive side of the ball, the question now becomes how does Alabama and Kiffin follow it up this year?

Kiffin will have to do almost a complete rebuild on the fly. He loses all but two starters from that uncharacteristically explosive team and will have to develop new stars in order to make things click for him once again on that side of the ball.

It will start, of course, at quarterback, where Alabama has more question marks than it has had in the past with no “sure thing” set to take the reins.

Jake Coker was supposed to be that sure thing, but he couldn’t pick up the offense quick enough in just a few months of work in Tuscaloosa before the 2014 season started. Now that he will get a full offseason’s worth of work in, he’ll probably be the de facto No. 1, but he is far from a slam dunk to win the job.

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It’s hard to count anybody out in this year’s race, even true freshman Blake Barnett, whose leadership qualities are already impressing the coaches and the players—especially those in the 2015 class who are already in school.

Kiffin has a proven track record of developing quarterbacks, so whoever does end up winning the job will be in good hands. He has worked with mobile types, like Barnett and Coker, and pocket passers like Alec Morris and David Cornwell. Kiffin hasn’t given anyone reason to doubt that whichever quarterback he chooses won’t succeed.

Once the quarterback position is settled, though, he’ll need people to protect him and to throw it to.

Alabama’s top three pass-catchers—Cooper, DeAndrew White and Christion Jones—are all gone. The next-most productive receiver last year was Chris Black, who caught 15 passes for 188 yards. Behind him, it’s ArDarius Stewart, who caught 12 for 149.

Someone’s going to have to step up.

More than likely, though, Kiffin will use more of a spread-it-out approach as opposed to making one guy the first, second and third option, like Cooper was this year, racking up over 1,000 yards more than the next guy on his team.

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While the faces of Kiffin’s offenses in the past have been quarterbacks, like Sims or Matt Leinart, and wide receivers, like Cooper and Marqise Lee, he’ll need to develop some offensive line talent quickly.

Alabama returns stud left tackle Cam Robinson and center Ryan Kelly but will need to piece together three other starters from a mix of players without much experience.

2014 JUCO signee Dominick Jackson should get a shot either at right tackle or right guard. Grant Hill, who has seen spot duty at both positions, too, will likely hold down the other.

Left guard will be a challenge, though. There are talented rising redshirt freshmen from Alabama’s mammoth 2014 offensive line class who could step up after a season’s worth of work. Or, a journeyman like Alphonse Taylor could fill that role.

For as many big, flashy plays as Alabama made this year, it wasn’t quite as dominant in the trenches as it has been in the past, and it cost them at certain points in the year.

It will be no easy task for Kiffin to put together an offense nearly from scratch during the offseason. In 2014, he had established weapons returning and was able to break in a quarterback to facilitate things quick enough to set a lot of records.

His second year in the program looks like it will be more difficult than the first.

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

Follow on Twitter @marctorrence.