ATLANTA — Before Nick Saban approached the podium at the College Football Hall of Fame, the smattering of a morning downpour overwhelmed the main media room. The pounding on the facility’s roof was so loud even Greg Sankey’s introduction of the Alabama coach sounded muffled. But then once Saban stepped up, somehow, the rain stopped.

The first question Saban received was from Arkansas Democrat-Gazette legend Bob Holt, who quipped, “I don’t know if you noticed, it stopped raining right before you came up. I don’t know if you had control over that or not.”

Saban chuckled and said, “I don’t think so.”

Contrary to Tuesday morning’s precipitation developments, Saban doesn’t control the weather. Contrary to what every preseason poll from Tacoma to Piscataway will say, Saban’s path to winning another ring is far more daunting than one would think.

Before Saban answered a question about if he had god-like abilities, he said something about those preseason expectations.

“As we always do, it’s kind of like here we go again in making predictions about how young people, adolescents, will perform in the future,” Saban said. “So that’s why we play the games, that’s why we have a season, so that we can sort of see how we grow and develop, how the team develops, sort of all the things you need to develop on a team, the togetherness, the positive energy and attitude, people being responsible for their own self-determination, the work, preparation, ability to overcome adversity, pride in performance that allows the team to play with the consistency you need to be successful for the entire season, especially in the SEC, which is a very challenging league.”

Wait, why was that significant? Doesn’t Saban always downplay how good his team is? Yes, though Saban did admit that having 2 returners as proven as Bryce Young (noted Heisman Trophy winner) and Will Anderson (noted best defensive player in America) is different.

But go back to what Saban said. “Here we go again in making predictions about how young people, adolescents will perform in the future.” History tells us that we’re pretty bad at that. I say “we” in reference to the media.

In the past 17 years, only 1 preseason AP No. 1 won a national title. It was 2017 Alabama, which dealt with hurdles galore to get there. You know, like losing the Iron Bowl and missing out on an SEC West title, needing to sweat out the Playoff selection show, failing to score a first-half point in the national championship game, etc.

Will Alabama be a preseason No. 1 this year? Absolutely. In fact, the only question is whether Alabama is going to become the second unanimous preseason No. 1 in AP Poll history (2015 Ohio State was the first). It’ll be a forgone conclusion that the Tide will roll to another national title.

Saban isn’t downplaying his team by saying the path is daunting — even though Bama has been to 6 of the past 7 national championships and returns the top 2 players in America.

But he’s right. Predicting adolescents is especially difficult, especially in the past 17 years. The fact that it coincides with the internet boom probably isn’t a coincidence.

Granted, Young and Anderson are wired about as perfectly as you’d want individual superstars to be. Anderson famously didn’t take an NIL deal in 2021 and Young talked about his doubters during a Heisman speech. That’s the way you’d ideally build around a national champion.

Still, though. Saban talked about the pieces to replace on the offensive line, receiver and cornerback. I wouldn’t really worry about the receiver position, which was addressed through the transfer portal. Louisville transfer Tyler Harrell won’t be Jameson Williams 2.0, but he’ll stretch the field while Georgia transfer Jermaine Burton is the type of route-runner Young will become more and more reliant on.

And at corner, life does tend to get a little easier on those outside guys when you’ve got quarterbacks being pressured regularly without sending additional help. Go ask 2021 Georgia about that. You can overcome questions at corner if you have game-changers up front, which Alabama has in Anderson and Dallas Turner.

But offensive line? Yeah, that’s Alabama’s biggest hurdle. In a post-Evan Neal world, that can absolutely be the thing that trips up the Tide. It was in that lone regular-season loss to an inferior A&M team, and was we saw in the Georgia rematch, that was anything but a vintage Alabama offensive line.

Alabama ranked No. 12 in the SEC in sacks allowed per game. Sure, part of that was volume; Alabama attempted a program-record 571 passes last season — 99 more attempts than the previous mark in 2007. Part of it was because Young scrambles to throw instead of scrambling to run. Having a Year 2 starter should help that. Somewhat.

The offensive line was the biggest reason Alabama played in 1-score games in the 4th quarter in 6 of 8 SEC games. Seeing Anderson get taken out of the spring game because the offense couldn’t get looks with him being so dominant was, in a word, telling. Though Saban referenced that Alabama will be adding pieces who weren’t there in the spring — mainly Vanderbilt transfer Tyler Steen at left tackle — and the welcome addition of new offensive line coach Eric Wolford from Kentucky, it still can’t depend on Young’s mobility saving the day.

“We’ve got some significant challenges in replacing some offensive line people. Bryce Young is a great player, a great leader, a great quarterback obviously. But quarterback is also a position that may be one of the most difficult positions in all of sports to play if you’re not surrounded by good people,” Saban said. “So the challenge for us is to make sure we do an outstanding job of developing the players around him so that we can continue to be a very productive offensive team.”

Cliché? Sure. True? Absolutely.

The hurdles are indeed there. We saw Alabama lose to a non-top 15 team for the first time in 11 years last year. We’re a year removed from watching the Tide grind its way through a title-berth season in ways it never has. That team was preseason No. 1. It dealt with ebbs and flows well despite those aforementioned offensive line issues. It was the 3rd instance in which Alabama started No. 1 and lost in the title game.

That doesn’t include the 2010 flameout, which saw Alabama lose 3 regular-season games. That team — with its reigning Heisman Trophy winner (Mark Ingram), its bevy of preseason defensive All-Americans and its returning starting quarterback — didn’t handle the ebbs and flows of a gauntlet midseason schedule. It didn’t matter that 54 of 60 first-place preseason votes went to the Tide.

That’s what Saban is referring to as it relates to this team. There’s a grind with being a preseason No. 1 that takes place before a season starts. It’s strange to say that about a team that has all the “revenge” angles necessary. Go figure that the 2017 squad was also Saban’s only team to bounce back from a national championship loss by winning it all the following season.

This year’s team would gladly take the 2017 path, as bumpy as it was at times. All that mattered was that it ended with confetti in Atlanta.

Saban’s time in Atlanta on Tuesday began with him silencing the noise. He talked through it when the clouds opened up in the middle of his media availability.

It won’t be sunshine and rainbows for this year’s Alabama team — Saban can only hope his team weathers the storm as well as he did Tuesday.