by Alex Scarborough | ESPN.com

BLAKE SIMS WAS cracking. Even as he led Alabama downfield on its opening drive against Texas A&M, his eyes were as wide as saucers, and he looked agitated in the pocket. On third and goal, he stared through the coverage before firing a pass into the chest of a defender. If not for some bad hands by the Aggies, it would have been a pick six. Instead, Bama settled for a field goal as Sims dodged yet another bullet. But the groan from the crowd said it all.

The past two weeks had been an indictment of Sims. At No. 11 Ole Miss on Oct. 4, he threw an interception in the end zone with less than a minute left to give Alabama its first loss. The next week, against Arkansas, while trying to protect a one-point lead in the fourth quarter, he executed one of the worst quarterback sneaks you'll ever see, essentially jumping in place. Alabama's befuddled offensive coordinator, Lane Kiffin, could be seen on the sideline asking, "What was he doing?" Now, back inside the crowded fishbowl of Bryant-Denny Stadium, more than 100,000 fans stood in judgment. Was Sims a fraud fully exposed?

He was certainly no AJ McCarron. Alabama's golden boy had said so himself. After the Ole Miss loss, the QB who had led the Tide to two titles didn't just hint at Sims' inadequacy, he came out and said it, throwing his supposed friend under the bus. McCarron told a Tuscaloosa radio station that he didn't believe the team had any "true leaders like we had last year." The defense surely had them, he said, "but they have to find that leader on offense." He mentioned linemen Austin Shepherd and Ryan Kelly, then finally reached a third option: the quarterback. "Blake needs to step up and do it," McCarron said. "It's going to be a tough road."

BEFORE THE SEASON, the only memorable thing about Sims' four years at Alabama was the series of crotch-pointing "suck it" gestures he delivered from the bench to a 2012 LSU crowd after teammate T.J. Yeldon scored a last-minute go-ahead touchdown. Otherwise, the promising 2010 recruit from Gainesville, Georgia, was a nonfactor, seeing time mostly at running back. Early on, the only snaps he took under center were mimicking opposing dual-threat quarterbacks on the scout team.

When he finally did become the backup QB, it was with the tacit understanding that he was a placeholder until a worthy successor to McCarron was found. Three weeks after McCarron's final game in January, Jake Coker announced he would transfer from Florida State. But Coker struggled in practice, and coach Nick Saban named Sims the starter just hours before Alabama's season opener.

At barely 6 feet tall, Sims didn't look the part. And it didn't make sense to have a mobile quarterback like him running Saban's pro-style system. But his play through the first four games silenced the critics -- the redshirt senior led Alabama to an undefeated record and the No. 1 ranking in the coaches poll. In his first SEC start, he amassed nearly 500 total yards and four touchdowns in a blowout win over Florida.

But then he had to go on the road to Ole Miss. That's when everything started to fall apart, with McCarron's comments revving the national media spin cycle into high gear.

Although Sims would never admit to feeling insulted, those closest to him said they were caught off guard by the betrayal. His family was used to hearing it from talking heads and fanboys calling in to radio shows. "Some of it has brought me to tears," says his grandmother Joyce Richardson. But this was different. This was AJ, someone they thought they could trust.

"It was ragging Blake," says Sims' father, Sonny. "I was surprised, and the only thing that straightened me out was the way Blake accepted it."

Teammates rallied around Sims, but Bama was on edge as a one-loss team in the hypercompetitive SEC West, and Sims shouldered the brunt of the blame. Heading into the week of Texas A&M, he continued to shut out the criticism. Those close to him said he was aware of what others were saying, but he used it as motivation -- all the while asking his teammates to relax. "Let's go out there and have a good time," he told them that bright Saturday afternoon in Tuscaloosa. "Play for one another because we're brothers."

After that first possession ended in near disaster, everything started to click for Sims. During a TV timeout, he strode into the huddle, clapping his hands together furiously. He then led a 72-yard touchdown drive. Two drives later, he put an exclamation point on the turnaround: On first and 10, he tucked the ball on a zone-read and faked the entire front seven inside before cutting back to his right. Then, in a move that set him apart from every "game manager" in Alabama history, he cut back a second and third time, sending the secondary tripping over itself as he sprinted 43 yards into the end zone.

The rout was on: 300-pound linemen danced between kickoffs, and Alabama won by a dizzying 59-0 score. Sims grinned widely on the sideline. The doubters could shove it, and he didn't have to say a word -- or make a gesture. He wasn't playing the role of confident leader any longer; he was inhabiting it. "We had one motto: Be better than we were last week," Sims said afterward.

He isn't the demanding presence of a McCarron, getting into others' faces. Instead, the way Sims quietly went about his job earned him the respect of everyone in the program. He'd managed to unite a locker room that was charged with pressure under McCarron. One source close to the team described it as the People's Champ vs. the Golden Boy.

"I don't know that I've ever seen a player go through any more than Blake went through for four years," Saban would later say. "As a coach, you love to see guys that go through what he's gone through, work so hard, always persevere and then have success."

Alabama rolled through the remaining six weeks of the season. During a 25-20 win over No. 1 Mississippi State, Sims helped seal the deal with a 76-yard march Saban described as "one of the greatest drives in Alabama history." The SEC championship game was a formality -- except that Sims broke McCarron's school record for passing yards in a single season, finishing with 3,250.

The next day, after Alabama was handed the No. 1 seed in the playoff, Sims thanked McCarron for helping him reach this point, whether it was explaining the playbook or pointing out coverages in the film room years earlier.

"I really don't think he meant how he said it," Sims says of the infamous comment. "He just -- he knows how Bama is, and he's probably frustrated because he's a man that likes to win."

That much they have in common.

"I had some hard times; I had some down days," Sims says. "But I wouldn't want to end my last year any other way."

That way is clear: When Alabama faces Ohio State on New Year's Day, there will be no doubt who's leading the Crimson Tide into battle.