Nick Saban’s declaration two days before Alabama’s 2022 season opener that, “I like this team, I really do,” was received as warning to the rest of college football by Alabama fans.

Saban — praising his team’s leadership, intangibles and attitude — had that twinkle in his eye again. But then there was a disclaimer.

“I’m not saying we’ve got the most talented team,” he said on his “Hey Coach” radio show Sept. 1. “We’ll see about that part of it.”

Two months and nine games later, Alabama has its answer. The team it assembled for 2022 ultimately was not good enough, with the season’s second loss Saturday night to LSU effectively marking the end of its national title hopes barring a highly improbable run to an SEC title.

“I like this team,” Saban reiterated after the 32-31 overtime loss in Baton Rouge. “I think this team is very capable. I think if we played with a little more consistency — sometimes we beat ourselves too much and it’s kind of hard to overcome. It’s a tough loss, but there’s nobody that feels worse about it than our players do. They work their tail off, they compete for their tail off and they just came up a little bit short.”

It was the fourth different rival to beat Alabama in less than 13 months. Texas A&M upset the Tide in College Station in October 2021, Georgia finally broke through in the national championship game, Tennessee snapped snapped a 15-loss streak to Alabama last month and LSU got its piece Saturday.

Saban railed against his team’s inadequate preparation and lackadaisical attitude before its trip to Kyle Field last season, but struck a different tone after the past three defeats. There were no angry rants or podium-pounding from Saban, who said Thursday night his players did a “good job” in their two weeks of preparation for LSU and pushed back Saturday night against the premise that it did not translate to the field in Baton Rouge.

“I don’t think there was a disconnect,” Saban said.

After Alabama’s promising first drive ended with a Bryce Young interception in the end zone, its next seven possessions ended either in a three-in-out or a field goal after a stalled advance. It was not until the fourth quarter that the Tide scored its first touchdown.

On defense, Alabama committed the sort of penalties that doomed it three weeks earlier in Knoxville, extending LSU drives that led to scores. One of those touchdowns came on a mental mistake by the defense, Saban said.

Junior captain Will Anderson brushed off one explanation for Alabama’s doomed season and provided another.

“No matter the outcome of the game, I’m super proud of all those guys because Monday through Friday, we work our ass off,” he said. “There’s no bullshit and all those guys are locked in. Effort is not the issue.

“We just have to lock in. It’s all mental.”

Hours before Saturday’s game, ESPN aired an interview with Young in which the junior captain expressed optimism his teammates had turned a corner from whatever ailed Alabama in its first loss and closer-than-expected wins this season.

“I think now we’re all more locked in that we have been,” Young told ESPN. “There’s an intensity and a focus about the team.”

No matter where Alabama fell on the spectrum of preparation, effort and mental focus this season, one underlying fact prevailed: the team was just not good enough.

In what will almost certainly be their final college seasons, Young and Anderson were supposed to be the cornerstones of a national-title contender. Both continued their exceptional play but the talent around them did not fully materialize. One transfer in running back Jahmyr Gibbs became the centerpiece of the offense but a pair of wide receivers in Jermaine Burton (two catches for 19 yards Saturday night) and Tyler Harrell (dressed but no role in the offense) did not develop into the contributors some imagined before the season.

Young and Anderson both own a championship ring for being part of the 2020 team, yet a second title eluded both. They are projected top-10 NFL draft picks in April whose time at Alabama will soon end, along with other players’.

“I think everybody kind of needs to kind of check their goal card and what we need to do to individually improve your stock to finish the season the right way,” Saban said. “I told each player they can develop value in their stock by continuing to try to play well and improve, and we can create value as a team if we continue to do the things we need to do to get better as a team.”

Anderson wants the focus to remain on the team.

“I think the biggest thing is that we need to get rid of all the individual stuff and make it a team effort,” he said. “Make sure that everybody is locked in. Make sure that everybody has two feet in, and we make sure that they keep Alabama football the main thing while they are here and think about the future.”

Alabama, seemingly bulletproof for most of the 2010s, has shown flaws in three of the past four seasons — both in the games it has lost as well as some of its nail-biting wins.

With the aspirations of another season coming to rest in Death Valley, Saban chose positivity.

“I’m not going to second-guess what we did in the game,” he said. “We had a chance to win in the end. Whatever we did, we put ourselves in position to do that and just came up short.”

Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.