Six seasons in Tuscaloosa, three national championships.

That’s what Nick Saban has done with the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Under Saban’s leadership, the Tide have established themselves not only as the best program in the nation—by a wide margin—but also one of the greatest dynasties in the history of the game. And the thing is, there’s no sign that this is going to end anytime soon.

Coming off his fourth national title (of course, he also won one with LSU back in 2003), Saban will take to the field in 2013 with another squad that is more than capable of bringing the crown back to Tuscaloosa.

We’ll take a closer look at the Crimson Tide here, in our 2013 Alabama football preview.

The Basics: Alabama returns six starters on offense and eight on defense from the national title team of 2013. Leading the way among the returnees is quarterback AJ McCarron, who developed into a fine passer and great leader last season; Saban will be relying on McCarron to run the show for an offense that will feature a rebuilt offensive line and may have some early growing paints. As for the defense? Well, it will be awesome once again. After all, this is Alabama under Nick Saban.

The Schedule:

Aug. 31 Virginia Tech (Atlanta)
Sept. 7 Bye Week
Sept. 14 at Texas A&M
Sept. 21 Colorado State
Sept. 28 Ole Miss
Oct. 5 Georgia State
Oct. 12 at Kentucky
Oct. 19 Arkansas
Oct. 26 Tennessee
Nov. 9 LSU
Nov. 16 at Mississippi State
Nov. 23 Chattanooga
Nov. 30 at Auburn

Schedule Breakdown: The opener against Virginia Tech looks like a big game, but the gap between these two programs at the moment is quite frankly laughable. The Tide should cruise in that one, giving them ample time to prepare for what ought to be an absolute war in College Station on Sept.

14. The Aggies were the only team to topple the Tide in 2012, and you can bet the A&M faithful will be in full roar. If the Tide can survive that one (and it’s no sure thing), the rest of the schedule sets up pretty nicely: They get LSU and Ole Miss at home.

The Season Will Be a Success If …: They win the national title. Fairly or not, Saban has raised expectations in Tuscaloosa so high that anything short of a crystal football feels somewhat like a letdown these days. That’s insane when you really think about it, but again, we’re talking about a true college football dynasty here. Alabama is a machine. And we’ve yet to find anyone out there capable of gumming up the works.

The Season Will Be a Failure If ...: They don’t win the national title. Even taking into consideration the rebuilding that needs to be done on the offensive line, the Tide look like the best team in the SEC; by extension, they look like the best team in the nation. They should be favored to win every game on the schedule, with the possible exception of that A&M trip.

Prediction: Many believe that A&M can take another step forward and win the SEC in their second season in America’s toughest league. I’m not among that group. The Aggies were indeed outstanding last season, but Alabama still has the edge on everybody—not only in talent, but in coaching as well. This team may stumble once or twice along the way, but I have no doubt the Tide will win another SEC title, and play in another national title game. Look for 11 wins in the regular season, an SEC crown and one more crystal football for the trophy case.