A day in the life of Nick Saban, Lane Kiffin and the defending champion Crimson Tide

— -- TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Preseason camp is heating up at Alabama, and Nick Saban has a million things on his mind as he points his Mercedes down his long, narrow driveway and heads toward campus.

Football is never far from his thoughts. But on this steamy August morning, one of his first orders of business is touching base with a former priest of his in Louisiana by phone to check on the flood victims. Saban and his wife, Terry, still have several close friends in the Baton Rouge area from his time as LSU coach, and Saban wants to know how they can help.

"It's amazing everything those people have been through in that state over the last several years, and they just keep bouncing back," says Saban, music from Michael Jackson's "This is It" softly filling the car.

It's just past 7 o'clock, and his mind is racing as he organizes his thoughts for his 7:30 staff meeting at the Mal M. Moore Athletic Facility.

"I usually make a lot of notes during the day, things we can do better and things we can do differently," Saban explains. "But it seems to me that things come a lot clearer to me in the morning. I think of stuff when I'm showering, when I'm shaving, when I'm getting ready to go to work, and on the drive, I'm putting it all together of how I want to implement it into the day."

Saban agreed to open up his program to ESPN.com for a day with full access to meetings, film sessions, guest speakers and practice. It was a rare peek behind the curtain at an Alabama football machine that is showing no signs of slowing down in what's been a historic run of four of the past seven national championships.