Questions pepper Alabama's offense. The quarterback? Receivers?
But if there's a spot that breeds confidence, it's the Crimson Tide defensive line. It's often cited as the reason Alabama continues to crack the top 5 in preseason rankings.
Three potential high-round draft picks -- A'Shawn Robinson, Jarran Reed and Jonathan Allen -- return with role players and former top recruits competing for time.
Day 1 in practice is typically a time to temper expectations in the media room, but Nick Saban isn't downplaying this group. He sees an opportunity for as many as nine or 10 players to rotate in action this fall.
"Well, you know the defensive line played fairly well last year, I thought," he said. "We've got quite a few guys coming back. I thought they did a nice job in the spring. I think we have a good mix in terms of the diversity of types of players that we have -- some guys are athletic and rush, while some guys are big and physical and can play inside."
Robinson, a junior who trimmed down to 314 pounds from 320 last year, had a few names for up-and-coming linemen. He listed sophomore Da'Shawn Hand (former 5-star recruit), sophomore Josh Frazier and freshman Daron Payne (another former 5-star) as players who've impressed him so far.
"They push it," Robinson said. "They have a drive. You need a drive to play defensive line."
Hand was one of the nation's top recruits overall in 2014 before seeing limited action last fall. Frazier dropped 20 pounds in a year and now plays at 315. And Payne dropped 10 pounds since arriving in Tuscaloosa while bench pressing 500 and power cleaning 345.
Among the top returning regulars are D.J. Pettway (23 tackles, 3 sacks) and Dalvin Tomlinson (22 tackles, 5 TFL, 2 sacks).
"When you look back it, look from a distance, those guys are huge," Alabama center Ryan Kelly said. "They're the best defensive line in the country. It's awesome to go against them every day because it makes us better as an offensive line. They're just massive guys. That's one of the fun things about playing the trenches. Just go every day against those guys and knowing that somebody gets better."
They're big, but playing lighter than previous versions of Alabama lines. Just six years ago, Terrence Cody had to lose close to 50 pounds to play nose tackle at 354 pounds. Payne, Frazier and Darren Lake are the heaviest on this line, each listed at 315 pounds. Allen, a first-teamer at end, also dropped weight from 283 to 272 pounds in the past year. O.J. Smith redshirted last season with an injury but trimmed 6.7 percent of his weight from 330 to 308.
Saban likes the combination of styles and sizes on the line considering the varied looks they'll see this fall.
"I think you need that in our league because we're going to play three or four teams that are sort of I formation, two-back run teams, which we haven't seen a lot in the last couple of years so we're going to need some big, physical guys to play against that; and then we're going to play a lot of spread teams in which we're going to need to be more athletic," Saban said. "So I feel like we have nine or 10 guys who can make a contribution, and every one of those guys have things that they can improve on. They all worked hard during the summer and are good shape, so that's a good start. But we need that entire group to improve."