Just how does one go about choosing the “Mount Rushmore” for the Alabama Crimson Tide?

Of all the programs in the country, there might not be one more difficult to select just four luminary figures to symbolically look down on all the rest. So many conference and national championship trophies reside in Tuscaloosa. Hundreds of players and coaches have served key roles.

Even looking at a list of College Football Hall of Famers from Alabama hardly begins to trim down the list, as the Crimson Tide has 24 representatives.

Of course, some choices are easy. It’s not much of a spoiler to say Bear Bryant made the final cut. But how many other coaches can make the list?

Wallace Wade is credited with three national championships, four Southern Conference titles and three Rose Bowls. At most schools that would merit automatic inclusion. Heck, at Duke, they named the stadium after him. But at Alabama he wasn’t even that close to making the cut.

Ken Stabler, Joe Namath and Bart Starr all are legends, but thanks in large part to their pro careers, and in the case of Stabler and Namath, their off-field exploits.

So who did make it? This list is sure to generate some debate.

Who’s In?

Paul “Bear” Bryant

The one no-doubter, as Bryant’s houndstooth hat-clad head looms above the program like no other. A second-team All-SEC end for the Tide’s 1934 national championship team, his time as a head coach sets him apart.

After leading Texas A&M to a Southwest Conference title, he returned to his alma mater in 1958 and remained head coach until 1982. In that time he was the SEC Coach of the Year 12 times and national coach of the year three times. He won six national championships and logged 13 double-digit win seasons at Alabama. Houndstooth remains in style in Alabama because of one man.

Nick Saban

What Saban has done in his first eight seasons at Alabama would make him the man at almost any other school, but at Alabama he continues to live in Bryant’s shadow. Still, he’s arguably made himself the second-biggest name in Crimson Tide football in a relatively short time.

His stint in Tuscaloosa has been dominant with three national championships, six BCS (or College Football Playoff) bowl games and five SEC West titles. He’s coached Bama’s lone Heisman Trophy winner and 49 NFL draft picks. The man is still coaching and already has a statue outside Bryant-Denny Stadium. If he keeps it up they’ll have to figure out more big ways to honor him.

Mark Ingram Jr.

Only one player in the long, glorious history of Alabama football has won the Heisman Trophy. Individual honors for players don’t get any bigger, but it was hardly the only one for Ingram. As a sophomore in 2009, he also claimed SEC Offensive Player of the Year, first-team All-America status and MVP of the BCS National Championship Game.

By leading the Tide to back-to-back SEC West titles and the national championship as a sophomore, he helped re-establish Alabama as the country’s most dominant program.

Career numbers: 3,261 rushing yards, 670 receiving yards, 46 total touchdowns.

Individual superlatives:All-American (2009); All-SEC (2008-09), SEC Off. POTY (2009); Heisman Trophy (2009)

Cornelius Bennett

The linebacker from Birmingham went on to NFL stardom as a five-time Pro Bowler, but first he was a three-time All-American for the Crimson Tide and a huge figure in the program in the years following Bryant’s retirement. He’s one of only two players in Alabama history to have three All-American seasons.

As a senior in 1986 he won the Lombardi Award as well as SEC Player of the Year and finished seventh in the Heisman balloting, all before becoming the second overall pick in the 1987 NFL draft. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 2005.

Career numbers: 287 tackles, 21.5 sacks, three fumble recoveries.

Individual superlatives:All-American (1984-86); All-SEC (1984-86); SEC Player of the Year (1986); Lombardi Award (1986); College Football Hall of Fame (2005)