Florida is the perfect example. They managed to land the right guy (and keep him, barely), and he's keeping their program relevant. The frustrating thing is that Alabama has the talent, in-state, they always have. They just need someone who can keep the best talent within the state, and success will follow. But, the next step is of course doing something with that talent. Wimp for instance ended up with a lot of talent (one of his Alabama teams actually had 5 first round picks on it), but his teams never quite got over the hump.
That's what really makes it such a long shot. You have the talent, but you need a dynamic recruiter, and then you need a coach that's good enough to coach at an elite level to. That's not easy at a place like Alabama. Alabama's best shot is probably something like Auburn did, you try to get a bargain price on a great coach that comes with baggage.
That's where Alabama being a football school comes into play though... they won't do anything that might harm the football team.