So much of what makes Alabama football gigantic and great is about knowing what to expect.

The traditions of an old-guard, blue-blood perennial powerhouse program that spoils its fans from a young age to when they grow old.

At heart, its fandom has always feasted on familiarity.

That’s what makes the 2023 season so intriguing, so different from the norm, so hard to predict.

Spring camp is winding down in Tuscaloosa, culminating in Saturday afternoon’s A-Day Game (3 pm ET, ESPN+) at Bryant-Denny Stadium that will offer some clues but won’t come close to answering the many questions facing this Crimson Tide team as it tries to rebound from a Playoff-less season.

All of that familiarity won’t be present. And a lot of what we’ll see will be a departure from what everyone is used to falling back on.

There will be a new starting quarterback to replace Bryce Young, and nobody has any idea who it’ll be yet.

There will be 2 new coordinators roaming the sidelines in Tommy Rees and Kevin Steele.

There will be a new Alpha Dog on defense to replace Will Anderson Jr., and he might not even be on the field Saturday.

There will be a new headliner in the running backs room with Jahmyr Gibbs being a 1-and-done in T-Town, and there will be a new starting tight end to replace Cameron Latu.

There will be a slew of new offensive linemen to plug the holes left by graduation and transfers, and the wide receiver cast will look a lot different, too.

But all of these moving parts will be handled by the same legendary head coach who’s already in his 17th year at Bama, because time flies when you’re having fun.

And Saturday’s A-Day Show will be fun, too, because it’s a spring game, although we’re guessing Nick Saban probably won’t smile too much during the whole thing. There’s just too much of that unfamiliar uncertainty to be too casual.

There are also way too many A-Day storylines to count, so we’re narrowing it down to the top 5 storylines to watch for at Alabama’s annual April pigskin party.

1. The quarterbacks, of course

This is a tough one for Bama fans to swallow this spring. Almost always, especially during the glorious Saban Era, there has been rock-solid certainty at the quarterback position, and almost always there has been rock-solid security at this most-important position going into the A-Day Game.

Everyone knew the drill. You knew who you were going to see against Bama’s 1st-team defense, against the 2nd-team defense, and so forth.

You knew who the starting quarterback was going to be that fall because, well, he had led the Crimson Tide to a national championship or close to it the year before, and he was going to try to keep the momentum going full-throttle the next season.

You knew what to expect because the quarterback coming back the next year was already an established star who didn’t have to lift a finger, or his arm, to win the job back. There was no QB battle. The only doubt was whether the incumbent was going to light up the SEC the way he did the year before.

But not this time. Not this spring.

This spring, there is a full-fledged battle being waged for the honor, prestige and burden of being the starting quarterback for the Alabama Crimson Tide. It is between Jalen Milroe, the ultra-athletic bulldozer of a quarterback who stepped in for Young when he was injured last fall, and Ty Simpson, the former 5-star stud from Tennessee who threw all of 5 passes as a freshman in 2022 because of the presence of Young — and Milroe.

Or is it just between those 2?

Is there a diamond in the rough further down the depth chart or, just maybe, lurking in the transfer portal?

On Thursday, just 2 days before A-Day, Matt Zenitz of On3 wrote that neither Milroe nor Simpson have created enough separation during the camp, and that Saban could hit the portal to find a solution.

You just know that in today’s social media age, Milroe and Simpson have heard these whispers and know that performing well Saturday, or outplaying each other, is imperative if they want to be Young’s successor this fall.

2. The new coordinators, of course

The turnstile of coordinators that Saban has to constantly deal with is a necessary evil that stems from the sustained success of his program. He knows that. But honestly, the transient tendencies are everywhere now, whether you’re Alabama and Georgia or Vanderbilt.

On that note, Bama lost its offensive and defensive coordinators from last year, with Pete Golding now running the defense at SEC West rival Ole Miss and Bill O’Brien now running the offense of the New England Patriots. On Saturday, it’ll be Kevin Steele running the Bama defense and Tommy Rees running the offense, and surely the Crimson Tide fanatics in Tuscaloosa and everywhere will be dissecting (and overreacting) to everything they see Steele and Rees do.

With the aforementioned uncertainty surrounding the quarterback position, it’s highly unlikely the fans at Bryant-Denny are going to see much of anything that’s going to be earth-shattering from Rees, especially with it being his 1st spring with the program. Rees probably has a few suitcases that are still not even unpacked yet.

The same goes for Steele, who’s had 2 spring scrimmages so far to try to figure some things out. The A-Day Game will hardly be the end game for Steele, who’s had multiple stints in Tuscaloosa and last worked under Saban as the linebackers coach in 2014. Yeah, Saturday will give some hints about this fall. But with linebackers Dallas Turner and Deontae Lawson both out following offseason surgeries and with both being key cogs and probable leaders on the 2023 defense, Bama fans should try not to overreact too much to what they see.

The Rees-Steele storyline will be there Saturday, even in its infantile stages, but it’ll also be there in fall camp and well into the season.

3. The quest for Justice

Five-star freshman running back Justice Haynes has turned a whole bunch of heads this spring, including Saban’s, and another strong performance on Saturday’s center stage will only increase the hype for the Buford, Georgia, product going into fall camp.

Whoever wins the Alabama starting quarterback job, it’s not going to be Bryce Young, and if it’s Milroe then everything points to Rees’ firat Tide offense being structured around the running game. If that happens, then it’s the more, the merrier type deal, which would only help the 5-11, 200-pounder try to squeeze into a crowded running backs room headlined by Jase McClellan, Roydell Williams and Jamarion Miller.

A big showing Saturday would also help Justice get the jump on fellow freshman-to-be running back Richard Young, a 4-star Florida product who will reportedly join the Crimson Tide this summer. Either way, a lot of eyes will be on Haynes at the A-Day extravaganza, and he’ll try to cap off an already memorable spring with a vengeance.

The kid really oozes with confidence, and so far he’s transferring that moxie to the field. We’ll see if it all explodes in a good way on Saturday.

4. Downs is looking up

Those same eyeballs (and maybe a few more) who will be all over Justice on Saturday will also be transfixed on freshman safety Caleb Downs, another 5-star phenom from Georgia who decided to cross the border into Alabama and help the rival school try to dethrone the 2-time defending national champions.

Downs chose Bama over Georgia, among other schools, and like Justice, he has been building momentum all spring toward a possible climactic end on Saturday. Downs was the top-ranked safety in the 2023 recruiting cycle, according to ESPN, and so far he’s proving that distinction right.

Saban hasn’t resisted complimenting Downs, either, calling him smart and mature, words that a stickler like Saban doesn’t throw around freely, especially for freshmen going through their 1st spring camp who haven’t even played a meaningful game for the Crimson Tide yet.

Could an A-plus performance on A-Day propel Downs into the fall conversation for a starting role — already, as a freshman? Saturday will certainly give more clues toward that possibility.

5. The level of intensity at Bryant-Denny

We can talk about what players to watch out for on Saturday, and that’s fine.

Or what freshmen are killing it this spring and possibly bound for stardom, maybe as soon as this fall.

Or those imperfect candidates for the starting quarterback job, or those 2 new coordinators who are trying to find a rhythm with Saban.

But what about the overall mood of the players on Saturday? Alabama doesn’t miss the College Football Playoff too many times. It’s like a lunar eclipse. And they definitely don’t want to make history by missing it 2 years in a row.

So, knowing that, what will the players, the veterans and new guys, bring intensity-wise on Saturday? Will there be a little extra in their tanks, in their strides, in their want to make the 2023 season very different from 2022?

And what about Saban?

Yeah, he’s probably intense when he’s walking to get the mail at home. He’s 1 of the most competitive humans on Earth.

And Nick Saban doesn’t like going 11-2 and seeing 1 of his pupils, Kirby Smart, suddenly rip off 2 straight national titles. Outwardly, he’ll praise Smart. But the fire burns. The whispers about Georgia becoming (or already being) the new Alabama are growing louder, and 2023 will be a defining season that either helps prove that premise correct or loudly refutes it.

So, will Saban coach Saturday more like it’s an October afternoon against Tennessee?

Will it look just a little or a lot different for Alabama mood-wise than your typical A-Day Fun Day?

It’s all so intriguing because that aforementioned familiarity faded a bit in Tuscaloosa in 2022.

On Saturday, Bama will aim to take the 1st step toward getting all that usual good feeling back.