The Crimson Tide will be looking to replace several starters from last year’s SEC championship team. That means there should be plenty of upcoming position battles to analyze over the course of the next couple of months.

A lot of analysts and fans already have a general idea of how they believe things are going to shake out, but that doesn’t automatically mean that those battles will play out like predicted.

Here are three position battles that might not go down the way we think they will once fall camp opens in August.

1. Who ends up starting at right tackle?

Alabama pulled in several high-profile recruits along the offensive line in their latest recruiting class. Among those newcomers, former 5-star — and No. 1 overall offensive tackle — Alex Leatherwood looked poised to make an immediate impact at right tackle.

Some of the other names that were being thrown around before spring practice began were JUCO transfer Elliott Baker and redshirt freshman Scott Lashley. Both players were highly rated 4-stars at one time, and Lashley had even been talked up by the coaching staff this offseason.

So, who ended up taking the most of the first-team snaps during the spring? Matt Womack — a former 3-star prospect from Hernando, Miss. Not only did he take most of the reps as the starter, but he also looked pretty good doing it.

Nick Saban had this to say about Womack earlier this offseason:

“I thought he’s had a really good offseason,” Saban said, according to AL.com. “His body is starting to develop. He’s starting to show a lot of maturity, balance and body control, better conditioning, better ability to sustain more mental toughness, better idea of what he’s supposed to do, a grasp of the offense, which allows him to play with more confidence. So, been really pleased with him.”

At 6-7, 326 pounds, Womack has the necessary size to hold up against powerful SEC pass rushers. However, it remains to be seen if an explosive, quick-twitch edge rusher such as LSU’s Arden Key can cause him problems, and that’s something that he will have to answer if he wants the chance to keep the starting job at right tackle.

Everyone thought it would be Leatherwood, Lashley or Elliott, but it’s possible — even likely at this point — that Womack will be the guy running out with the first team offense against Florida State on Sept. 2.

2. How will the snaps be distributed among the running backs?

Damien Harris ran for 1,040 yards last season. Before he suffered a broken leg in the national championship game, Bo Scarbrough showed flashes of being Derrick Henry 2.0 when given a heavy workload. Josh Jacobs looked like the second coming of Mark Ingram, but more elusive and a better receiver out of the backfield.

Last season was the first time Nick Saban had three players with 100 or more carries. Could the Tide have four in 2017?

All three return. On top of that, Alabama added 5-star Najee Harris and 4-star Brian Robinson to the stable. This is what the Tide’s backfield looks like:

  • Damien Harris (5-star)
  • Bo Scarbrough (5-star)
  • Najee Harris (5-star)
  • B.J. Emmons (4-star)
  • Brian Robinson (4-star)
  • Joshua Jacobs (3-star)

That’s as impressive of a group of runners as you’ll find in college football. But there’s still only one football. So how will the carries end up being distributed?

Well, the idea was that Harris and Scarbrough would continue to dominate the biggest percentage of carries in 2017. That might not be the case, however. Najee Harris was impressive in his spring debut, and Jacobs is too talented too keep on the sidelines.

Another thing to look at is the number of carries Alabama has averaged over the past several seasons. Over the course of the past five years, Alabama has averaged 575.8 carries per season. There have been seasons where one running back has dominated the carry percentage in the backfield — Henry had 395 carries in 2015, Trent Richardson 283 in 2011 — but don’t expect that to be the case in 2017.

There is even the possibility that three-to-four running backs could break the 100-carry mark. It’s a good problem to have, but it’ll be interesting to see how it all ends up shaking out once fall camp starts.

3. Can Tua Tagovailoa uproot Jalen Hurts as the starter at quarterback?

This idea that Tua Tagovailoa might actually have a chance of uprooting the SEC Offensive Player of the Year started to gain steam in March after spring training had begun.

While Jalen Hurts had shown noticeable improvement, Tagovailoa — a former 5-star prospect from Honolulu — was quickly gaining the attention of players and coaches alike. Both quarterbacks made plays in the annual A-Day game in late April, but the focus has mainly been on Tagovailoa.

Saban did say that there wasn’t a quarterback competition in Tuscaloosa, but he has since backed off that comment — at least somewhat.

“We have a quarterback who played really well and was SEC Player of the Year last year,” Saban told CBS Sports this past Wednesday. “I’m not saying he can’t be beat out. I’m not saying the players here have an opportunity to beat him out. But that’s the case at every position.”

That’s a very vague way of putting things, but the bottom line is that Alabama has two extremely talented quarterbacks. People have been given the opportunity to see what Hurts can do over the course of an entire season in the SEC, so it’s Tagovailoa who is the “unknown” at this time. What does that mean exactly?

Well, that means that the true freshman will have a hard time beating Hurts due to his lack of experience. Alabama rode the ups a few downs of having a true freshman quarterback leading the offense in 2016, so don’t expect them to want to do the same thing for a second season in a row.