How can Alabama get back to the apex of college football? SDS’ very own Chris Walsh is laying out a five-part series on how the Crimson Tide can become college football’s premier team once again.

Reclaiming the crown series:

It was the most talked about quote from the Southeastern Conference’s Media Days last week, although Steve Spurrier insists that he wasn’t taking a verbal shot at University of Alabama coach Nick Saban … at least not this time.

“I think they’ve had five number one recruiting classes out of the last six years, which has got to make him the greatest recruiter in the history of college football,” the South Carolina coach said. “Arguably, they’ve got the greatest collection of football players ever assembled for a college team if the recruiting services are correct, and they’re pretty much correct.

“So they’re the favorites.”

Those who have been around the league and Spurrier for some time immediately recognized and noted two things from his comments, that: 1) The Ol’ Ball Coach believes he has a really good team this year and could potentially see Alabama in the SEC title game, and 2) He’s essentially correct.

Although the numbers vary with each recruiting service, according to 247Sports the Crimson Tide has failed to have the nation’s best recruiting class only once since 2008 (2010).

“I give him credit for it,” continued Spurrier, who mentioned that he had only two top-rated classes when he was at Florida (1990-2001). “They do it the right way. He runs a good program. It’s just amazing to me how they’ve been able to stack and keep loading up players every year.”

In addition to measuring incoming talent, those rankings have also been a decent indicator of which teams may be in the national title hunt a couple of years later.

Of course Alabama has won three of the last five crystal footballs, but Notre Dame was second in 2008, LSU in 2009, and Florida State was second in both 2011 and 2012.

Consequently, even though Alabama has question marks at arguably the three most crucial spots this season — quarterback, offensive line and cornerback – it’s still considered the prohibitive favorite to win the conference title.

Granted, the SEC preseason media poll usually predicts the champion poorly, getting it right just four times since 1992 (18 percent) and not once with Alabama, it also had nine Crimson Tide players tabbed as first-team All-SEC.

That Alabama is loaded at so many other spots, including all the playmaker positions, is why so many people including ESPN analyst Tom Luginbill are so high on the Tide.

“There are so many components that go it, but I know one component that you (must) have to have a chance and that’s talent,” Luginbill said. “You have to have a quarterback and you have to have talent. If you have a quarterback and you have talent, you have an opportunity, in my opinion, every year to compete for some level of a championship.

“Coaching is one thing, but you have to have the thoroughbreds in the stable to run the race.”

If there were no other factors like scheduling or injuries, Luginbill said that if he had to pick the playoff favorites based on talent alone “Alabama certainly comes to mind.” The other schools he mentioned were Oklahoma, Ohio State “is close,” Oregon “maybe,” and Florida State.

Here’s why. Going back to 247’s rankings, which uses a star system with a 5-star player being the best and able to make an immediate impact, Alabama has 15 players who were rated as 5-star recruits on the roster, six on offense and nine on defense.

There’s also a whopping 50 4-star players, which combined with the 5 stars make up an incredible 76.5 percent of the 85-man roster.

That’s what Spurrier was referring to, but as Luginbill alluded to the key to the Crimson Tide’s season may be a player who wasn’t on the Media Day All-SEC ballot because he has yet to even participate in an official practice.

Jacob Coker, a transfer from Florida State, still has to compete with senior Blake Sims and redshirt freshman Cooper Bateman for the starting job. He’s obviously considered the player to watch at quarterback during training camp, but has a long way to go and no one knows how well he’ll work with new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Lane Kiffin.

“He’s never been in an Alabama uniform before, he has no rapport, he has no understanding of what the guys around him strengths are,” said ESPN analyst Greg McElroy, a former Crimson Tide quarterback under Saban. “If I was in his shoes, yes, I would struggle in that situation.”

Although Coker was initially considered a three-star recruit many consider the 6-foot-5 player with a strong arm to be the most physically-talented quarterback Saban’s had at Alabama yet. So while McElroy predicts a two-loss season for the Crimson Tide, the second being to Spurrier in the SEC Championship Game, he considers the numerous unproven quarterbacks to be the league’s biggest story this fall.

“According to everyone I talk to he’s the real deal,” McElroy continued about Coker. “I’m anxious to see him in person. I think he’s going to have a good year, but I’m really curious, I still think he’s a tremendous question mark.

“I think he’ll realize quickly that being the quarterback at the University of Alabama is 50 percent playing the game and 50 percent being the leader everyone expects you to be, dealing with the media, living the life day in, day out. (It’s) all those things and respecting the fans and appreciating the fans, because that’s part of the aspect that makes Alabama a really special place to go to school. The fans and the passion are tremendous.”

Meanwhile, early enrollee Cam Robinson is slated to start at left tackle while fellow 5-star rookies Tony Brown and Marlon Humphrey could challenge for playing time at cornerback. Sophomore Eddie Jackson is coming off a knee injury and the spring starters were a pair of converted wide receivers who now have some experience under their belt, Bradley Sylve and Cyrus Jones.

But for a little perspective go back to the 2009 recruiting class, of which reserve Antony Orr is the only player remaining on the roster and already has his degree. There’s been five first-round selections in the NFL Draft (James Carpenter, D.J. Fluker, Dre Kirkpatrick, Trent Richardson and Chance Warmack), an NFL Rookie of the Year (Eddie Lacy), and 11 players are set to be in NFL training camps this year.

“I really do think the most accurate way to be able to rank any recruiting class would be three years down the road, because I think the challenge for all these young men that got recruited today, wherever they’re going, is to be able to stay focused on what they need to do to improve as players and do the things that they need to do to become very effective college football players,” Saban said on National Signing Day. “And it is a challenge to go from high school to college. Maybe the biggest challenge of all, maybe even more so going from college to the NFL.”

Meanwhile, this past May, Texas A&M had three players selected in the first round of the NFL Draft, and became just the fifth program during the common draft era to have a first-round pick at least four straight years: Alabama (2009-14), Miami (FL) 2002-05, Ohio State 1994-97 and Southern California 1993-97.

However, after Mike Evans, Johnny Manziel and Jake Matthews, the Aggies didn’t have any other players selected.

“You look at the top of our league, LSU, Alabama have nine and eight guys drafted, that speaks to depth across the board, whether they’re seniors, juniors, underclassmen or not,” Texas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin said. “For us to be where we need to be, we need to be talented but we need to increase our depth.”

Alabama eligibility tracker
Name, Class, Stars, Overall national rank
Composite rankings complied by 247Sports

Quarterbacks (5)
David Cornwell, 2014, 4, 79
Cooper Bateman, 2013, 4, 80
Blake Sims, 2010, 4, 275*
Jacob Coker, 2011, 3, 532 (FSU)
Alec Morris, 2012, 3, 569

Running backs (7)
Derrick Henry, 2013, 5, 12
Bo Scarbrough, 2014, 5, 16-z
T.J. Yeldon, 2012, 5, 28
Altee Tenpenny, 2013, 4, 53
Tyren Jones, 2013, 4, 66
Kenyan Drake, 2012, 4, 130-y
Jalston Fowler, 2010, 4, 220

Wide receivers (9)
Robert Foster, 2013, 5, 23
Chris Black, 2012, 4, 45
Amari Cooper, 2012, 4, 46
Cameron Sims, 2014, 4, 84
ArDarius Stewart, 2013, 4, 86
DeAndrew White, 2010, 4, 107
Derek Kief, 2014, 4, 221
Raheem Falkins, 2013, 3, 361
Christion Jones, 2011, 3, 365*

Tight ends (5)
O.J. Howard, 2013, 5, 19
Malcolm Faciane, 2011, 4, 190
Brian Vogler, 2010, 4, 228
Kurt Freitag, 2012, 3, 480
Ty Flournoy-Smith, 2014, 3, 103 (JC)-x

Offensive line (15)
Cam Robinson, 2014, 5, 4
Grant Hill, 2013, 4, 61
Ross Pierschbacher, 2014, 4, 74
Brandon Greene, 2012, 4, 125
Dominick Jackson, 2014, 4, 2 (JC)
JC Hassenauer, 2014, 4, 172
Arie Kouandjio, 2010, 4, 173
Ryan Kelly, 2011, 4, 237
Alphonse Taylor, 2012, 4, 266
Joshua Casher, 2014, 4, 280
Leon Brown, 2013, 4, 19 (JC)
Isaac Luatua, 2011, 3, 391
Montel McBride, 2014, 3, 422-z
Bradley Bozeman, 2013, 3, 471
Austin Shepherd, 2010, 3, 623

Defensive line (15)
Da’Shawn Hand, 2014, 5, 5
Jonathan Allen, 2013, 5, 16*
A’Shawn Robinson, 2013, 5, 33
Dee Liner, 2013, 4, 46
Josh Frazier, 2014, 4, 85
Korren Kirven, 2012, 4, 166
Jarran Reed, 2014, 4, 13 (JC)-y
D.J. Pettway, 2011, 4, 206 (2014, 4, 14 JC)
Dalvin Tomlinson, 2012, 4, 217
O.J. Smith, 2014, 3, 398
Johnny Dwight, 2014, 3, 429
Dakota Ball, 2012, 3 432
Darren Lake, 2012, 3, 584
Brandon Ivory, 2010, 3, NA
Anthony Orr, 2009, 3, 582

Linebackers (14)
Reuben Foster, 2013, 5, 6
Rashaan Evans, 2014, 5, 15
Trey DePriest, 2011, 5, 29
Xzavier Dickson, 2011, 4, 34
Christian Miller, 2014, 4, 39
Reggie Ragland, 2012, 4, 41
Ronnie Clark, 2014, 4, 70
Ryan Anderson, 2012, 4, 78
Tim Williams, 2013, 4, 82
Dillon Lee, 2012, 4, 101
Denzel Devall, 2012, 4, 139
Shaun Dion Hamilton, 2014, 4, 203
Keith Holcombe, 2014, 4, 281
Walker Jones, 2013, 3, 658

Secondary (14)
Landon Collins, 2012, 5, 7
Tony Brown, 2014, 5, 9
Marlon Humphrey, 2014, 5, 12
Cyrus Jones, 2012, 4, 43*
Laurence “Hootie” Jones, 2014, 4, 50
Geno Smith, 2012, 4, 61
Maurice Smith, 2013, 4, 84
Bradley Sylve, 2011, 4, 106*
Jarrick Williams, 2010, 4, 130
Nick Perry, 2010, 4, 250
Anthony Averett, 2013, 4, 273
Jabriel Washington, 2011, 4, 285
Eddie Jackson, 2013, 3, 349
Jonathan Cook, 2013, 3, 524

Special teams (3)
Adam Griffith, 2012, 3, 656
JK Scott, 2014, 3, MA
Cole Mazza, 2013, 3, NA
*Wasn’t necessarily recruited at the position now playing
x-Flournoy-Smith went to Georgia Military College to quality academically
y-Currently suspended
z-Has yet to qualify academically
(Note: A previous version of this chart complied by the author appeared in a Bleacher Report story on June 4)