Predicting life is like playing darts with a blindfold on, but there are a few things in this crazy world that are as predictable as the sunrise.

The flow of joyful tears at a wedding.

The incessant stress of a job interview.

Presidential elections and Olympics every 4 years.

And for nearly a generation now, the inevitability that Nick Saban will have Alabama football at least sniffing a national championship as the holiday season beckons.

Saban is already entering his 17th fall as the Crimson Tide head coach, because time does indeed fly when you’re having fun (another predictable fact of life). He’s captured 6 national titles in Tuscaloosa and nearly had a few more. Saban’s teams don’t always win it all, but they always win a lot, so predicting that it will happen yet again in 2023 is like saying that the sun will rise in the East tomorrow morning.

We already know.

But every season for every team in every sport has a million subplots, things we don’t see coming or things we never thought possible. So besides all the winning that will most certainly be going on again in Tuscaloosa this fall as Saban’s latest edition chases title No. 7, what else can we predict will go down between early September and late November?

SDS columnist Connor O’Gara predicted every game the Tide will play in 2023.

We’ll complement that by tossing out 10 bold predictions for the Tide in ’23 and let the darts fall where they may.

1. It’ll be Playoff time again

Since the current College Football Playoff format was instituted in 2014, Alabama has never been a spectator 2 years in a row. And that incredible streak of consistent excellence will persevere in 2023 despite the presence of a quarterback who isn’t Bryce Young, despite the presence of 2 new coordinators and despite the growing whispers — er, screams — that the end is near for the Saban Dynasty.

We’re not necessarily saying this team — with no more Young or Will Anderson Jr. as star bookends — will go undefeated (check below for that prediction). We’re just saying this team that is still stacked without Young and Anderson will be just good enough to be 1 of the 4 teams left standing when the Playoff quartet is revealed on Sunday, Dec. 3.

2. No Maxwell, but plenty of McClellan

Jase McClellan has waited 3 long years to be The Guy in Bama’s backfield, and his time appears to have arrived. The Maxwell Football Club believes that, too, as it placed the senior on its prestigious preseason watch list. McClellan is supposed to be ready to dominate and he will, even though he has company in a Crimson Tide running backs room that could be 1 of the best in the country.

McClellan will rumble for over 1,000 yards this fall, shattering his career-high 655 yards that he ran for last season. He’ll be 1 of the best players in the country in a season Bama needs him to be just that, and he’ll get Maxwell (and Heisman Trophy) hype. He just won’t take home either piece of hardware, to no fault of his own, but the Tide will still be richly rewarded for McClellan’s years of patience.

3. The rewards of Reichard’s return

Will Reichard has been around T-Town forever, and after last season’s Sugar Bowl win he decided he wanted to kick for the Crimson Tide for forever plus 1 more year. And Alabama’s all-time leader in points scored, who’s come close to winning the Lou Groza Award multiple times, will reward the program he loves so much 1 more time by making a last-second, game-winning field goal to beat LSU in early November. The kick (it’ll be in the 45-yard neighborhood) will give the Tide some appropriately dramatic payback for the gut-wrenching overtime loss to the Tigers 1 year earlier in Baton Rouge.

4. A quarterback revolving door

This isn’t the ideal outcome for 2023, but this also shouldn’t shock anyone who’s being honest with themselves about the Tide’s quarterback situation. We’re not saying who’s going to win the job coming out of fall camp, we’re just saying that whoever earns the right to be Young’s successor coming out of fall camp — be it Jalen Milroe, Ty Simpson or Tyler Buchner — won’t distinguish themselves enough to keep the other 2 off the field. It’s going to be a collaborative quarterback effort this fall in Tuscaloosa, a far cry from what the fan base is used to but a reality it’ll have to get used to.

5. Justice arrives just in time

Yes, Jase McClellan should run wild, as long as he’s healthy, and, sure, fellow senior Roydell Williams should be McClellan’s solid complement. But it’ll be Justice Haynes, the turbo-charged freshman who raised eyebrows in April at the A-Day Game, who will be a difference-maker this fall in helping the Crimson Tide avoid becoming the first Bama team to miss the Playoff 2 years in a row. While Richard Young will shine on his own time, Haynes will rush for over 500 yards and score 7 touchdowns, glossy numbers considering how talented this Bama backfield is and how touches will be so hard to come by. The Haynes Hype this spring and summer will translate to the fall, and while we’re at it we’ll also say that Haynes will break a touchdown run of over 75 yards.

We’ve heard so much about Haynes being the goods. Well, he will be and more, in a season when Bama will need to lean on its backs so much.

6. Dallas will get a dirty dozen

After exploding onto the scene as a freshman with 8.5 sacks in 2021, Dallas Turner regressed last season in his pursuit of the quarterback. But after posting only 4 sacks last fall, the junior linebacker from Fort Lauderdale will back up his big words from this summer, when he boasted that he was already the best defensive player in the SEC without even proving that he can step out from Will Anderson Jr.’s shadow. This fall, Turner will officially become the next great Alabama linebacker by posting double-digit sacks, we’ll say 12, and he’ll get 3 of them in 1 game (we’re not going to say which one, though). If Turner does get to 12 sacks, it would tie Jonathan Allen (2015) for the 4th-most in a single season in Tide history — only 15 sacks behind Derrick Thomas’ 27 in 1988.

7. Picks (and TDs) will be aplenty for Kool-Aid

Kool-Aid McKinstry has been an all-everything player with the accolades to prove it over the previous 2 seasons, starring in both the defensive backfield and as a punt returner. But for all the plays he’s made on defense and special teams, the guy with the funky nickname has come up a little short in the interception department, snatching only 1 pick in each of his first 2 seasons in Tuscaloosa. We think, because he’s a year older and a year wiser, not to mention the sheer odds factor, that Kool-Aid is due to bust out and start picking off some passes this fall. He won’t set any Bama single-season records (it’s 10, by Hootie Ingram in 1952, by the way). But we’ll say McKinstry will snatch 5 interceptions, and he’ll also do the rare double of scoring a defensive touchdown while taking a punt return back for a score.

8. A home loss, at long last

It’s been a while since Alabama lost at Bryant-Denny Stadium — Nov. 9, 2019, to be specific, when Joe Burrow and eventual national champion LSU conquered in T-Town in a 46-41 thriller. And while we previously said there would be a Playoff spot waiting for the Tide in 2023, there will also be a rare home loss, and it’ll come rudely on Oct. 21 to rival Tennessee. The Vols are back on the rise, as Bama found out last fall in Knoxville, and a Tennessee team that was ranked 10th in the preseason Coaches’ poll — and could be higher by Oct. 21 — will do it to the Tide again in ’23. Alabama hasn’t lost 2 consecutive games to Tennessee since 2003-04.

9. Kobe will keep blossoming

Kobe Prentice, the kid from Calera, made quite a first impression last fall as a freshman, catching 31 passes for 337 yards and 2 touchdowns. And despite the uncertainty at quarterback in 2023, Prentice will be undeterred. He’ll complement Jermaine Burton and Ja’Corey Brooks while carving out his own space as the passing game transitions to … whoever wins the starting QB job. Prentice will catch over 40 passes and triple his TD output with 6 scores this fall. He’ll build on the upward trajectory he immediately set as a freshman last fall.

10. The Crimson Tide will finish 11-1, but win the West

We mentioned the forecasted home loss to Tennessee, but the Tide will grind out 11 regular-season wins despite having a new quarterback and 2 new coordinators. Bama will fend off Texas in Week 2 (again) and remain undefeated in the SEC until the Vols remind the Tide (again) that they are back to stay. But facing a season crossroads, Alabama will outlast LSU (thanks to Will Reichard) 2 weeks after the loss to Tennessee, which will set the Tide back on course for a trip to Atlanta and a return trip to the Playoff after a 1-year hiatus.