The Alabama Crimson Tide has had a lot of successful seasons lately. But considering the fact that they are currently on a two game losing streak, it is difficult to consider their 2013 season a success. The prognosticators here at VAVEL have considered Alabama to be a strong team this year, even rating them second in the preseason poll. They lost a lot of their better known talent to the NFL this past season, but Alabama keeps reloading and having some of the top recruiting classes in the nation. Plus, they "retained" head coach Nick Saban instead of having him go to the University of Texas. So things are always fairly promising for them. Here is their actual results from the 2013 season:

There are several changes that been made for this upcoming year, mainly with Lane Kiffin coming to town to be the offensive coordinator after Doug Nussmeier left to the University of Michigan. Alabama is a team to be reckoned with in 2014, so it is important to examine their potential roster for this season.

Offense

There is a lot of talent, but not much experience at quarterback for Alabama. During the spring game redshirt Freshman Cooper Bateman completed 11 of his 24 pass attempts for 156 yards and one touchdown. Senior Blake Sims had two touchdowns during the 2013 season last year. He was unimpressive during the spring game as well, completing 13 of his 30 pass attempts for 178 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. The other thing is that David Cornwell, a highly recruited quarterback from Norman, Oklahoma is going to arrive during the Fall and it will make it a big competition between all of them. However, it could end up being Jacob Coker who winds up behind center. Coker spent two years at Florida State, but the emergence of Jameis Winston limited his playing chances immensely. Still, the door is open, and it just remains to be seen who will take advantage of the situation.

Junior TJ Yeldon has been a strong running back. He was originally the change of pace back to Eddie Lacy during the previous year, but took over the starting role last year. Last year he ran for 1,235 yards and 14 touchdowns. He is for sure to be the lead running back again in 2014 with junior Kenyon Drake being the change of pace running back getting 694 yards and 8 touchdowns last season. Both of these gentleman should get more action this season with the quarterback situation being up in the air. Lane Kiffin likes to pound the ball too, so that is not likely to change as they continue into the 2014 season.

The leading receiver last year was junior Amari Cooper. He had 45 receptions for 736 yards and 4 touchdowns. Most memorable was the 99 yard touchdown reception versus Auburn, which is the longest play in Crimson Tide football history. Cooper should continue to develop, as Kiffin's wide receivers at USC had much more success than Alabama's did in college. Robert Woods and Marquise Lee both had more prominent careers than Julio Jones did in college. Seniors Christion Jones and DeAndrew White are both returning as well, and they should improve on their stats from last season with the absence of Kevin Norwood. Jones was more of a possession receiver last year with 36 catches for 349 yards and 2 touchdowns. White was quite a bit more impressive getting a better average since he had 32 catches for 534 yards and 4 touchdowns.

Defense

One of the best players on the Tide defense last year was sophomore defensive lineman A'Shawn Robinson. Robinson is a beast at 6' 4", 320 pounds and is able to move quite a bit around defensively. He led the team with 5.5 sacks and contributed 38 total tackles, with 8 of those going for a loss. The Tide did not get a lot of sacks last season, which is part of why their defense was not as good last year.

The Tide lost their most productive linebacker to the NFL in CJ Mosley. Their leading returning linebacker is senior Trey DePriest. He had 65 tackles and 7.5 tackles-for-loss last season. That does not come close to the 108 Mosley had, but 65 was still third on the team, and tackling is a linebacker's primary function. DePriest looks to build on that effort and continue his strength at linebacker in 2014.

Junior cornerback Landon Collins returns from a solid season in 2013. Collins was second on the team with 70 tackles and he had 2 interceptions, returning one for a touchdown. But the secondary lost a lot of talent to the NFL, including both starting safeties. Haha Clinton-Dix ended up being drafted by the Green Bay Packers and Vinnie Sunseri also went to the NFL. That type of production is always difficult to replace and with the back of the defense gone, they will only have to raise their game to another level this year to continue the Tide's strength on the defensive side of the ball. If they fail to do so, teams will be going deep on the team all year long.

Special Teams

Sophomore kicker Adam Griffith has to bounce back from the most memorable play in the Iron Bowl rivalry for Auburn last year. Griffith should be proud because he was just a few yards shy of nailing a 57 yard field goal to win the game and sending the Alabama Crimson Tide to the SEC title game. But instead, he has to come back better than ever. Griffith hit one field goal last year because the primary kicking duties were handled by Cade Foster. He has some big shoes to fill.

Freshman punter JK Scott is coming to the south from Denver, Colorado. He rated as the number three punter and number eight place kicker in last year's recruiting class. Obviously, he will lose some of the advantage of kicking in the thin air of the mountains in Denver. He had a 43.8 yard per punt average during his senior year. He will be around for many years.

2014 Season Outlook

There is a lot of talent returning to the Crimson Tide. But it is just a matter of time until we see who is going to rise as their best quarterback and take over for the season. Last time they had this happen, AJ McCarron took the reigns and he did great in his career at Alabama. What will happen to the Tide in 2014 will depend upon their schedule. Here it is:

With this schedule, it is easy to put a gigantic circle around October and just go down a little farther to grab LSU as well. Auburn, obviously, was the only team in the conference to beat them last year. That game has to be marked too. As far as schedules go, it is fairly loaded, but Florida Atlantic, Southern Miss, and Western Carolina are all cupcakes. Plus, they have such a loaded schedule with starting and finishing at home for the year. The Alabama Crimson Tide are looking to be a part of the first college football playoff and their success will largely depend on their quarterbacks and their two new safeties.