Following AJ McCarron’s departure from Tuscaloosa early in 2014, a brief window of panic opened among the Tide faithful.

Who will play quarterback this fall?

Phillip Ely had transferred away. Alec Morris wasn’t talented enough. Cooper Bateman was a redshirt freshman, and David Cornwell was a member of the ’14 recruiting class.

That left Blake Sims, a fifth-year senior who had essentially played running back his entire career at The Capstone. The 5-foot-11, 212-pound “quarterback” with 4.57-second speed entered the year with 67 career rushes against 23 career completions. Sims even practiced with the running backs early in his college career.

Alabama came within a heartbreaker loss to Auburn of winning the SEC West (and probably playing Florida State for the BCS National Championship), but lost a whopping eight players whom the NFL drafted, most of them on defense.

Now it would be up to Sims — it was unthinkable then that he would even be on the radar of NFL scouts — to perform as well as McCarron and Greg McElroy before him?

Then Florida State’s Jacob Coker, who reportedly pushed eventual Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston pretty hard for the starting job, announced he would transfer to Bama. FSU coach Jimbo Fisher postulated that Coker was even more talented than McCarron. The Tide fan base breathed a collective sigh of relief.

A peculiar thing happened when Coker arrived on campus last summer, though. Coach Nick Saban didn’t immediately consider him the starter, even once fall practice started. For whatever reason, Coker never seized control of the position, while the limited Sims got better and better as a thrower.

New offensive coordinator Lane Kiffin schemed ways for eventual Biletnikoff Award winner Amari Cooper to get open. Sims did use his athleticism to run for seven touchdowns, but surprised even himself by throwing for 3,487 yards and 28 touchdowns, leaning on Cooper to lead the Tide to another SEC championship.

Which brings us to this season.

This could mark the third consecutive year that Alabama has not won a national championship (gasp!). It’s remarkable to think about, but that would be the longest stretch since Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa in 2007. (It took Saban just three years to win his first of three titles for the Tide.)

The program’s patented defense has faded slightly in the last several seasons, particularly against the pass and against up-tempo spread offenses. And along with Cooper, the team has lost several standout offensive linemen, running backs and receivers in the last two years.

It feels uneasy for Tide fans to enter the fall again without a clear-cut answer at quarterback.

Coker may finally step onto the field Sept. 5 against Wisconsin as Bama’s starter — out of default, if nothing else. There’s no way five-star true freshman Blake Barnett can be ready, right? Maybe Cornwell, after spending one year in the Kiffin offense, is ready to leapfrog Coker and step in as yet another surprise starter.

Before getting into too much of a tizzy, Alabama fans should embrace some logic. First, the Tide has more four- and five-star quarterbacks on its roster than every SEC team but Tennessee, and none of those players is named Coker.

Bama is far from the only SEC team with questions at quarterback. Mississippi State’s Dak Prescott, Auburn’s Jeremy Johnson, Texas A&M’s Kyle Allen and Arkansas’ Brandon Allen are sure-thing starters in the division.

But LSU and Ole Miss have quarterback questions as well. Alabama’s answer has a good chance to be better than the Tigers and Rebels.

Whomever plays quarterback still has Kiffin dialing up plays, potential All-SEC left tackle Cam Robinson protecting his blind side, potential 2016 first-round pick Derrick Henry carrying the football and a plethora of physically-gifted other options like Kenyan Drake, Robert Foster, ArDarius Stewart and O.J. Howard.

Is that really such a bad place to be?

I still think Coker will get his chance at last, though it wouldn’t be shocking if Cornwell edged him out. Either way, even without Cooper, Alabama’s offense should be one of the better units in the SEC next season.

The starter may even throw for 3,500 yards again should the team reach another SEC championship game.

No matter who starts, he’ll probably be more physically gifted than Sims as a quarterback. Certainly all the options are taller. Most all of them have better potential as pocket passers, even though Sims had a decent arm. Lack of experience? Sims was in the same place.

Don’t worry too much about Alabama at quarterback before the 2015 season.