The next man up mentality has become a cardinal principle in the world of college football, as the game’s brightest stars depart for the grander stage that is the NFL each and every year.

College athletes are only given a limited number of years in school, making developing backups as important as preparing starters for action.

This offseason, a number of the SEC’s most dynamic talents will be leaving the college ranks to cash in at the professional level. Those players will leave glaring holes on their respective teams, and the teams that are best able to replace their departed stars are the team’s with the greatest chance to succeed in the coming year.

No team in the SEC has done a better job at preparing backups to take on starting roles than the Alabama Crimson Tide. Granted, Alabama routinely hauls in the nation’s top-ranked recruiting class each year, and it often is able to give its backups multiple years to develop before assigning them a pivotal role on the team.

Nevertheless, Alabama has a knack for excelling in the next man up area of the game, and it will need that trend to continue at the game’s most important position in 2015.

The Tide lost Blake Sims following last season, and the senior and one-year starter at quarterback will now try his hand in the pros. Although Sims is not the most talented player departing from the SEC this offseason, he’ll certainly leave the biggest shoes to fill of anyone in the conference.

Sims over-achieved more than any other offensive player in the SEC, thanks to Lane Kiffin’s exciting, pass-happy offensive scheme. It’s vital to the Tide’s success in 2015 that its next quarterback is able to duplicate what Sims did in 2014, commanding the offense without forcing throws or making boneheaded mistakes.

A lot will be expected of Jacob Coker is he is able to win the job this fall. The touted 2014 quarterback transfer was expected to start under center last season, but an inability to master the playbook cost him a starting job. Now he’s had a year to watch and learn, and if he gets the nod Week 1 he will need to show his command of the offense is equal to Sims’ last season.

However, once again Coker will not be entitled to the job. Freshman five-star dual-threat quarterback Blake Barnett enrolled early at Alabama at the start of the month, and he’ll have all spring and summer to learn the playbook and develop timing with the other players on the offense.

But like Coker, if Barnett takes over for Sims there will be a lot expected of him. After all, it’s not every day that a true freshman is asked to start at quarterback for the Crimson Tide.

To make matters worse for next year’s signal caller, they’ll have to match Sims’ production without top wideout and 2014 Biletnikoff Award winner Amari Cooper, who is expected to be taken in the first round of April’s NFL Draft. The connection Sims and Cooper formed in 2014 was the anchor of the Tide’s passing game, and the lack of a superstar wideout could cause the next Alabama quarterback even more trouble.

Alabama doesn’t rebuild, it reloads, and there’s no reason to expect Alabama to fall short of contending for an SEC title and a playoff berth again in 2015. However, no matter how much talent the Tide calls up into its starting lineup, it will all be moot if the quarterback does not play to the level of his teammates.

There are far more talented football players than Blake Sims departing from the SEC this offseason, but no departing star will leave as big of shoes to fill in 2015 as Alabama’s surprise star quarterback last season.