If this is it for Bill O’Brien as offensive coordinator at Alabama, then he’ll go down as the guy who didn’t win a national championship with Bryce Young at quarterback.

That’s probably an unfair punch in the face, and this is the holiday season so it feels especially unnecessary to be overly critical of a guy who the Alabama players love and who is such a nice guy, but when has anything been fair, or even rational, about criticisms of Alabama football? Alabama lost two games this season on the last plays of the game, and by Alabama’s standards that makes this season a failure.

On Wednesday in New Orleans, O’Brien called this season’s record of 10-2 “incredible,” so it’s easy enough to feel the discordant vibes between Alabama’s current play caller and the Alabama fans who want him fired. Extreme to want a former NFL head coach canned? Obviously, but the Crimson Tide operates in a separate world from everyone else in college football. O’Brien was gift wrapped a potential No.1 overall pick in the NFL Draft at quarterback, or least that’s what everyone wants to think, and two seasons later Young is leaving Alabama without a national championship ring as a starter.

Young was close, too, and I think that’s what makes it all so tough for fans. He was hurt for a large stretch of the season, however, and I think that’s the easy thing for fans to ignore.

“At the end of the day, we’ve been very good for most of the season,” O’Brien said, “but at certain times during the season we weren’t as consistent as we wanted to be, and hopefully we’ve really worked on that the last two weeks and we’ll play a very consistent, productive football game on Saturday.”

Well, wouldn’t that be a nice prelude into the College Football Playoff.

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No.2 Michigan plays No.3 TCU at 3 p.m. on Saturday in the first national semifinal, and then No.1 Georgia takes on No.4 Ohio State at 7 p.m. … but not before the brunch-time special of Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.

Alabama is playing Kansas State in New Orleans at 11 a.m. on Saturday, and it’s hard to get excited about the game because, for the second time in four years, Alabama isn’t in the College Football Playoff. Framing it that way — second time in four years — seems ridiculous, right? Like that’s some kind of ominous trend. Welp, that’s the world in which all-or-nothing Alabama wants to operate, so it’s certainly not my place to go about shifting the goalposts.

I’m looking forward to watching Young and defensive end Will Anderson for the final time in Alabama’s iconic uniforms, but playing in the College Football Playoff would be a much more appropriate send off for their talents. Young won the Heisman in 2021, and Anderson won just about every award except the Heisman during his three years punishing SEC quarterbacks.

The pair could go one-two in the NFL Draft, which would be a new first for a college football team that doesn’t have many first-time-evers left to give the game.

Needless to say, playing Alabama in the Sugar Bowl is going to be the pinnacle of football for Kansas State. For Alabama, though, it’s leftover Christmas ham.

Do you still love it? Heck, yes. It’s honey-glazed ham. Are you ready for something new? Well, let’s be honest with ourselves. We’ve been eating ham for five days straight, and it’s getting kinda old. New Year’s Eve is the last day for eating the ham off the bone, OK? But don’t throw it away. Lord no. Just throw what’s left into a pot of black-eyed peas.

So, that’s Alabama football here before the big shebang. Saban’s ready to throw it all into the pot and start over, and make something new, and boiling off the marrow of Hambone O’Brien might be a questionable decision in reality, but sacrifices must be made to ensure supernatural good luck in 2023.

It’s not that O’Brien is a bad coach, it’s just that maybe Saban needs someone he can yell and scream at again like the old Lane Kiffin days.

O’Brien made it sound like he’s coaching his last game with Alabama this Saturday, and he’s already been linked to the New England Patriots. He didn’t rule anything out when asked about his future, but said those are conversations for after the bowl game. Will he be talking to anyone publicly after the bowl game? No, probably not.

Alabama fans would prefer to go into next season with someone else coaching offense at Alabama, and so that wish might be granted. Here’s my biggest concern, though, and it has everything to do with the quarterback position. Good quarterbacks are more valuable than platinum or gold in modern-day football, and there isn’t a quarterback in football who doesn’t enjoy working with O’Brien.

That stuff matters whether people appreciate it or not.

For the first time in years, Saban doesn’t know if he has a good quarterback for the 2023 season. The options are Jalen Milroe, Ty Simpson and incoming freshmen Eli Holstein of Zachary, Louisiana, and Dylan Lonergan of Snellville, Georgia. The spring will be a battle, and whoever coaches the offense next season will have the toughest job as offensive coordinator at Alabama since Kiffin.

Play calling in the final seconds of games will be the least of Alabama’s concerns.

“The way the quarterback room is set up, even with Eli coming in — there’s only going to be four quarterbacks on scholarship when I get there,” Lonergan said to ESPN back in July when he committed to Alabama. “So it’s going to be an open competition is what I’ve heard from the coaches.”

Milroe has to be considered the leader in the clubhouse. He’s arguably the most athletic player on Alabama’s roster, and he’s comfortable with the current OC. Consider that, too, while watching this Sugar Bowl that tastes like questionable ham. Is Young a potential No.1-overall draft pick thanks in part to O’Brien, or in spite of him?

If you know football in the way that Alabama’s players do, then it’s not a tough question.

Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama: A season of hope and the making of Nick Saban’s ‘ultimate team’”. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.