For any analysis of a contender in any given football season, start with the following question: Do they have a quarterback?

It’s the first question every pundit asks of every team as it assesses its chances for the upcoming season. If the answer is yes, then the next question is: How much experience does he have?

Alabama appears to be the exception to the trend, at least under Nick Saban. Three of Saban’s four championships in Tuscaloosa came with a first-year starter at the quarterback position. Two of those — A.J. McCarron and Jake Coker — didn’t even establish their grip on the starting job until after the season began. McCarron split snaps with Philip Sims in 2011, and Coker actually jobbed out to Cooper Bateman for the starting job in a loss to Ole Miss before taking over for good.

And so, as it has the past two offseasons, Alabama enters the winter and spring seeking to answer that question: Who’s the quarterback?

There are plenty of capable arms waiting in the wings for Bama because years of high-level recruiting have not neglected the QB position. The conversation will begin with Bateman, a rising junior who was relegated to mop-up duty and holding for placekicker Adam Griffith after his chance at the starting job went awry vs. the Rebels. Presumably, many of the same attributes that made him such an attractive candidate to start the Ole Miss game — i.e., his mobility — will make him the odds-on favorite to win the job for 2016.

Further down the depth chart, Alabama fans have high hopes for Blake Barnett, a five-star prospect from California, and David Cornwell, another highly rated prospect. There is also the possibility of another transfer — Montana State quarterback Dakota Prukop paid UA a visit last weekend, and acknowledged that he is “wanted” there.

Whoever the candidates, there’s a tradition to uphold. Not only have Alabama quarterbacks been winners under Saban, but they have proven themselves beyond the mere “game manager” label so often assigned to them.

Blake Sims followed A.J. McCarron — arguably the greatest QB in the history of the program — by turning in the program’s best single season in 2014. And while Coker never approached the statistical heights of either of his two predecessors, he delivered two of the best postseason performances in Alabama history in playoff victories over Michigan State and Clemson.

The quarterback derby for 2016 at Alabama, presumably, is already underway. There are big shoes to fill.