Why Alabama could open the 2019 football season at the nation’s top-ranked football team

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Nick Saban will disagree, but Alabama’s football program has reached the point where annual roster turnover is like replacing shark’s teeth.

Each year, stars leave – and others pop into place, then begin tearing opponents apart.

It’s why, even as the Crimson Tide heads into the 2019 season with the necessity of replacing several important players, it’s easy to project ‘Bama remaining atop college football. Oh, and having quarterback Tua Tagovailoa back doesn’t hurt, either.

Alabama must replace six senior starters for 2019. But as usual, that doesn’t tell the entire tale of attrition; several others are expected leave early for the NFL Draft. But that typically means the replacements will become stars.

“Got to pass the torch to somebody,” senior running back Damien Harris says.

And those who take the torch have an immediate goal: bounce back from Monday's 44-16 loss to Clemson in the national championship game.

But as Saban said shortly afterward, one game does not define a team, and the Tide did win 14 games, along with the Southeastern Conference championship.

"Good is not good enough," said Tagovailoa, a mantra the Tide surely will carry into next season.

During this dynastic run, Alabama has always had new standard bearers ready. But the Tide’s outlook for 2019 begins with Tagovailoa, the Heisman runner-up who should enter next season as a heavy favorite to win. In his first season as a starter, the sophomore transformed Alabama’s offense into something previously unseen during Saban’s tenure: dynamic firepower and potency, and a complete departure in style.

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