The 11-2 record that would be celebrated at nearly every college football outpost is in the Alabama football history books, locked, sealed and stored away, with stories about it to be told another day.

The Sugar Bowl confetti that was nice and all, but not the confetti Bama’s players wanted to fall on them, has been swept up from the Superdome carpet.

College football’s new-age, turbocharged turnstile that is the transfer portal has slowed since the window began on Dec. 5 — for now, at least.

And the headlines from last month’s Early Signing Period have been printed, with Nick Saban landing 7 5-star recruits in another heralded recruiting class in a seemingly endless line of them in Tuscaloosa.

In other words, Alabama’s roller-coaster ride of a fall has finally ended, all the participants have left the carnival and everyone has gone home — until spring practice starts in a few months, at least.

The new season isn’t here yet, but the new year is. And because the calendar has flipped to 2023, fanatical college football fan bases like the ones in the SEC — like the rabid one in Tuscaloosa — are already speculating about every little nuance that will make or break the ’23 season.

The 1st game of next season might still be about 8 months away. But it’s never too early to start brainstorming about the litany of questions that the Tide will need to answer to get themselves back into the College Football Playoff.

The typical ultra-concerned, ultra-loyal and maybe ultra-paranoid Alabama fan could probably come up with about 30 burning questions that Alabama will carry into its offseason. But we’ll narrow it down to the 10 biggest questions facing the Crimson Tide during these excruciatingly long offseason months between the bowl game and the start of fall camp.

1. Is the next Tide star QB on this roster?

You just knew we were going to start here, right? Well, 1 thing we do know for sure is that there will be no Bryce Young to rescue the Tide in 2023. He’ll be playing on Sundays for the Houston Texans or some other fortunate team. So no matter who ultimately wins the quarterback job coming out of fall camp, Tide fans are going to have to show a little patience (if that’s possible) because whoever it is won’t be the legendary Young, at least not right away.

Right now, we know so little about how it’ll all shake out. We know who Jalen Milroe is, after the sophomore-to-be spelled Young when he hurt his shoulder in October. Milroe is a nightmare for defenses to tackle, and he has moxie and guts, but he’s unpolished as a passer — right now, at least. Sophomore-to-be Ty Simpson threw all of 5 passes last season. But he was a 5-star phenom and 1 of the top overall recruits in the country in the 2022 cycle, so you’d have to think the potential for greatness is bubbling and waiting to explode, if given the chance.

But what about the greatness that could be born if either of Saban’s 4-star QB recruits should happen to win the job? There will be a healthy level of mystery surrounding Eli Holstein and Dylan Lonergan, especially during an offseason when there is no Young entrenched as the starter and there will likely be a wide-open quarterback competition waiting to take place. So, yeah, just knowing the raw talent that Milroe, Simpson, Holstein and Lonergan possess, it would be a pretty safe guess that the next Alabama star QB is in fact on the 2023 roster — we just don’t know which 1 of the 4 it is yet, or when that star will be born.

2. Who will be the new leader of the defense?

We go from the quest to replace Young with the quest to replace Will Anderson Jr., 1 of the best linebackers in school history and 1 of the best defensive players in Tide history. But more than just being all-world with his play, Anderson was also the leader of the defense the past few seasons. But like Young, Anderson will be 1 of the top picks in this spring’s NFL Draft, and unfortunately for Bama, he isn’t the only defensive leader the Crimson Tide will need to replace. Also gone are senior stalwarts Jordan Battle, Henry To’oTo’o and Byron Young.

That’s a ton of talent, a ton of savvy and, yes, a ton of leadership to replace on just 1 defense, in just 1 offseason. The truth is, the Tide will need multiple new leaders to emerge through the offseason cycle. But who will be the next Anderson, the next Alpha Dog of the Alabama defense, when the ball is kicked off in Week 1 this fall? There could be many answers by the time we get to that point. But right now, knowing what we know, we’ll go with junior-to-be linebacker Dallas Turner, who has combined for 67 tackles and 12.5 sacks the past 2 seasons.

Turner showed a glimpse of how he can meet the moment with his fumble return for a touchdown in the 4th quarter of the Tennessee game. It would’ve been the game-winning score had the Volunteers not rallied late. Turner is hardly the lone possible answer to this question about the Tide’s next leader on defense. But in early January, where we sit at this moment, he seems like the very best 1.

3. Can Jase McClellan finally become Bama’s backfield horse?

It has been a long road in Tuscaloosa for the senior-to-be from Aledo, Texas. McClellan showed real promise as a freshman, rushing for 245 yards and averaging 10.7 yards per carry. Then his sophomore season, when he was being counted on as the primary backup to Brian Robinson, was cut short in early October when a knee injury shelved him for the season. McClellan was 2nd on the team with 5 total touchdowns before the injury, which he returned from in 2022 to post 655 yards rushing and 7 TDs along with 3 receiving touchdowns.

This past season, McClellan was a consistent backfield wingman to transfer Jahmyr Gibbs, who arrived from Georgia Tech and set the world on fire this fall with a team-leading 926 yards rushing and 444 yards receiving on a team-leading 44 catches. With Gibbs being a 1-and-done (at Alabama, at least) and heading off to the NFL Draft, it appears to be set up perfectly for McClellan to finally be The Guy in the backfield next fall. We’re talking about a resilient young man who returned from an ACL injury in 2021 to have a pretty solid 2022 while watching Gibbs be The Guy instead of him.

So we definitely know from the past few years that McClellan has boatloads of patience and a ton of staying power, because after everything he has been through, he’s still around. He’s hard to tackle on the field and hard to drive away from Tuscaloosa, and that might be crucial in 2023 because Alabama is going to have a new, inexperienced starting quarterback who isn’t named Bryce Young. So the Tide are going to have to lean on other areas, like running back and, most likely, McClellan.

4. What’s going to happen at tight end?

This is a really tricky one. After a stellar junior season in which he set the Alabama record for TD catches by a tight end, Cameron Latu suffered a knee injury in fall camp and was never quite the same in 2022. He finished with 30 catches and 4 touchdowns. But despite his disappointing numbers, Latu was at least that experienced, savvy safety net of a tight end that Young could count on, even if that happened less. But Latu is gone now, and whoever wins the starting QB job in 2023 will miss him.

So who takes over as the starting tight end in Tuscaloosa? Honestly, right now, in early January, it’s anyone’s guess. The 3 other tight ends who caught a pass for Alabama in 2022 are all returning in 2023: Robbie Ouzts (4 catches), Miles Kitselman (2 catches) and Amari Niblack (1 catch). The fact that this returning trio caught only a combined 7 passes this past season doesn’t mean any one of them couldn’t emerge next fall as the new Latu, whose departure will suddenly open up opportunities for all 3 that just weren’t there the past few seasons.

Perhaps the Tide’s next starting tight end will come from the transfer portal? A few weeks ago, Maryland junior-to-be tight end CJ Dippre transferred to Alabama. This past season, Dippre caught 30 passes (just like Latu, coincidentally) for 314 yards and 3 touchdowns for the Terrapins. Dippre chose to head to Bama instead of staying in the Big Ten and going to Ohio State. At 6-foot-5, 260 pounds, Dippre could provide a huge target for whoever the new starting quarterback is, and he has that experience from playing and thriving in the rugged Big Ten. Stay tuned.

5. What happens to Jermaine Burton?

For most of the 2022 season, he was the much-maligned transfer from Georgia, the guy who chose to catch passes from Young over Stetson Bennett IV, who beat Young (with Burton’s help) in last season’s national championship game. Burton began his Bama career with a bang, catching 5 passes, including 2 touchdowns, in the season opener against Utah State. And then it all fell kind of flat, as Burton didn’t see the end zone in 7 of the next 8 games.

Burton came on a little bit toward the end of the season, with a combined 18 catches and 4 touchdowns in the final 4 games, including 87 yards receiving and a TD in the Sugar Bowl victory over Kansas State. Sure, Burton ended up leading the Tide in receiving yards, edging out Ja’Corey Brooks. But 677 yards on only 40 catches wasn’t quite what Alabama (and probably Burton himself) had in mind when the season began.

Keep in mind, this was all with a superhero of a quarterback in Young. But Burton and Young never quite got on the same page in 2022, so now what becomes of the senior-to-be in 2023? Can Burton develop a bond with whoever emerges as the starting quarterback? Can he become a senior leader for the Crimson Tide and take his game up 10 notches, even though he’s going to be dealing with an inexperienced signal-caller? It’s all possible. Burton is a heck of a talent, when he’s dialed in. The Burton dynamic is going to be fascinating to follow in 2023, that is for sure.

6. Can Kool-Aid McKinstry become The Guy in the secondary?

Some Crimson Tide followers would argue he already was in 2022, with all due respect to fellow secondary standouts Brian Branch, Jordan Battle and DeMarcco Hellams. Kool-Aid was more than just “cool” as the Tide’s shutdown cornerback. He was a 1st-team All-SEC selection, right there on Bama’s 1st-team all-conference roll call with Byron Young and, of course, Anderson, who was named SEC Defensive Player of the Year — again.

So with seniors Battle and Hellams gone and the junior Branch declaring for the NFL Draft, shouldn’t that just increase McKinstry’s profile within Alabama’s defense (and the entire team) in 2023? You bet it will. Also consider that McKinstry was 1 of the nation’s top punt returners in 2022 and will presumably be again next fall, so his value to the Tide really knows no bounds. The junior-to-be from Birmingham is set up to elevate himself into superstar status for Bama in 2023. So yeah, he can indeed become The Guy in the Tide’s defensive backfield because he arguably was this past fall.

But there will likely be an adjustment for McKinstry through the offseason and into fall camp. Because there won’t be Battle, or Branch, or Hellams playing alongside him. That’s a whole lot of talent to lose in 1 single offseason, and McKinstry will likely bear that burden more than anyone on the roster. And if that wasn’t enough to overcome, fellow cornerback Eli Ricks decided that 1 season in Tuscaloosa was enough, as the LSU transfer announced he was following Branch by declaring for the Draft instead of coming back for his senior season. Yes, having safeties Terrion Arnold and Malachi Moore back will be key, and 5-star safety Caleb Downs and 4-star cornerback Desmond Ricks will have a lot of eyes on them in 2023 — but a ton will be asked of McKinstry next fall, with so much talent around him saying goodbye.

7. Will Bill O’Brien still be Bama’s OC in ’23?

OK, this one is really hard to answer definitively, with the rampant rumors and all. So we’ll just say this: Who really knows? Only O’Brien really does. He took it on the chin this past fall, being criticized every which way for Alabama’s offensive inconsistencies, his play-calling, you name it. And, as a bonus (we’re being sarcastic), he has been rumored to be heading toward a reunion with either the New England Patriots or with Tom Brady in Tampa.

Interestingly, if O’Brien did opt to reunite with Bill Belichick in New England (where he was an offensive assistant from 2007-11), he would presumably take control of an offense quarterbacked by … former Alabama star Mac Jones, who led the Tide to the national title in 2020. If the 53-year-old O’Brien does return to Tuscaloosa for a 3rd season, he’ll be running an offense not led by Bryce Young for the 1st time, as O’Brien’s arrival at Bama coincided with Young’s arrival as the starting quarterback. Aside from those Brady-Tampa Bay rumors, O’Brien could end up either coaching Young’s successor at Alabama or his predecessor in 2023.

8. How much will Bama benefit from having Will Reichard back?

Um, a lot. A really, really whole lot. Reichard seemed to be saying goodbye to Alabama after the Sugar Bowl victory. He drilled that 49-yarder early in the 4th quarter, and that seemed like an appropriate ending to Reichard’s brilliant Bama career. The kicker from down the road in Hoover had accomplished so much during his 4 years in Tuscaloosa, sprinkling his name all over the Crimson Tide record book. He was heading to the Senior Bowl to try to improve his Draft stock, and that would be that.

The Tide had signed Conor Talty, one of the top kickers in the 2023 class, out of Chicago, and maybe he would turn into the next Reichard? But then everything changed, because Reichard suddenly changed his mind on Jan. 3. Alabama’s career points leader wasn’t quite ready to step away from the Alabama Football Experience (who can blame him?), so he decided to take advantage of his 5th season of eligibility, having an NCAA COVID-19 waiver. And now a Tide offense that will likely have some growing pains with a new starting QB can lean on Reichard’s right foot, for 1 last season.

9. Can Kadyn Proctor make an impact as a freshman?

Saban had already sealed a star-filled 2023 class in the Early Signing Period last month, and then the potential power of this class grew by a lot — literally — when Proctor, the 6-foot-7, 330-pound mammoth offensive tackle, flipped his commitment from Iowa to Alabama. According to 247Sports, Proctor was the No. 5 overall recruit in the country and the top-ranked tackle. Not only did Proctor flip to Bama, the Des Moines product did so after opting out from his home-state school, which makes the Tide’s get that much greater.

Normally, it’s difficult for O-linemen to truly make a huge impact as freshmen, especially at a football factory like Alabama. But Proctor isn’t your typical freshman offensive tackle — he was seen tossing a football 60 yards in the air, with little effort, during drills at the All-American Bowl. And this isn’t your typical offseason at Bama when it comes to the O-line, which lost stars Javion Cohen, Tyler Steen and Emil Ekiyor Jr. to the NFL or transfer portal, among other defections. So yeah, Proctor can absolutely be a factor in 2023. Are you going to tell him otherwise?

10. Has Alabama lost its perch atop the sport?

Ah, the 64-million-dollar question. Only at Alabama would we even broach this subject after 2 whole seasons of not winning the national title. But the problem is, during this 2-season championship drought in Tuscaloosa, that SEC rival school in the neighboring state has ripped off 2 national titles, doing it with a head coach who is a Saban disciple. All of this has caused some to call Georgia “the new Alabama.”

Let’s say this all remains to be seen. Let’s let it play out for another 5-7 years. Saban won 6 national crowns in 12 years. Kirby Smart seems to be on his way to a similar historic run in Athens. But national championships can be a fickle thing. You think you have the permanent recipe, and then they evade you. We’ll say Alabama still resides in the penthouse of college football — but it has company now like it never has before. We’ll see how 2023 changes or strengthens that reality.