The big question at Alabama going into the 2015 season has been, “Who is going to be the Crimson Tide quarterback?” A more pertinent question might be, “Can Alabama have success with a first-year quarterback?”
Alabama won national championships in 1964 and 1965 behind the quarterbacking of Joe Namath and Steve Sloan. Prior to the 1966 season, Coach Paul Bryant lamented, “We don’t have a quarterback…unless you count Stabler.”
Kenny Stabler went on to be one of the most accomplished quarterbacks in both Crimson Tide history and in the National Football League. In that 1966 season, the first-year quarterback led Alabama to an 11-0 record and Bama would almost certainly have won a third consecutive national championship except for a rigged Associated Press vote and a national prejudice against the state of Alabama that extended to Tide football.