TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- Rain from former Tropical Storm Lee drenched Alabama earlier this week on its northern trajectory.

By Tuesday and Wednesday it found Central Pennsylvania.

And stalled.

Now, just a day before Alabama and Penn State kickoff in remote State College, Penn., flooded roads, soggy parking lots and forecasts for additional rain mean trouble for the long-anticipated game. As many as 100,000 faced mandatory evacuations on the banks of the nearby Susquehanna River, and state transportation officials urged motorists in the eastern half of the state to avoid unnecessary travel Thursday.

Regardless, football will happen at 3:30 p.m., Saturday in Beaver Stadium. The impact from the days of downpour will certainly play a factor on the field, too.

Third-ranked Alabama (1-0) hasn’t faced much rain during games in recent years, though forecasts call for scattered thunderstorms Saturday with high temperatures reaching just the low 70s. Preparing for any circumstance was part of the practice formula this week in Tuscaloosa.

Quarterbacks have been dunking footballs in water in practice the last few days.

“That’s about all you can do,” Tide coach Nick Saban said. “Unless you want to go out and practice in the rain. And if it’s not raining too bad and the field’s OK, we do that.”

Practice Monday was moved to the indoor practice facility because of the heavy rain and unfavorable field conditions.

The precipitation ended Tuesday, but the fields weren’t safe, so the team went back to the building they call “the barn.”

“I don’t mind practicing in the rain,” Saban said. “I’d be fine with it. Players have to be able to handle a wet ball, and I think that’s the only thing the rain does in a game that’s a factor in the game -- not because it’s in the forecast, but because that’s what we do all the time.”

Senior wide receiver Brandon Gibson isn’t too worried about Alabama’s ability to work through adverse weather situations.

They do, however, change the equipment needs during the game.

“You really have to look it in, and you don’t play with the gloves,” he said. “They don’t really help you out when you have a wet ball.”

The weather is just part of the atmospheric difficulties Alabama expects to encounter. To deal with possibly the largest crowd to ever witness an Alabama game, the team brought large speakers outside to the Wednesday practice.

Again, the burden falls largely on the offense and its two young quarterbacks, AJ McCarron and Phillip Sims. Silent counts and hand signals are part of the countermeasures for noise.

“We certainly need to improve on it,” Saban said. “The older guys who’ve done it before do it better than some of the younger guys who haven’t had to do it. We added some noise to practice (Wednesday) so that they had to do it, and there was no way not to do it.”

For the 106,000-plus fans with tickets to the game, they’ll need walking shoes and a full tank of patience. Since the State College campus isn’t easily accessed from major cities in the state, options are limited for game-day traffic.

Add the flooding of the few state roads leading to campus, and trouble compounds.

Harrisburg, where many attending the game will stay, is located 100 miles southeast of State College on the banks of the Susquehanna River. Flooding is expected to crest today, the Harrisburg Patriot-News reports, at the third-highest level in recorded history. The only main road connecting Harrisburg to State College, Routes 22/322, was expected to be closed Saturday, the newspaper reports.

The Alabama team flight will land today in the small airport in State College, where flooding isn’t the primary issue.

It’s just a matter of saturation there. Approximately 2,500 parking spots in grass lots around Beaver Stadium are unusable, so tailgaters will be redirected to off-campus facilities.

A few Penn State students won’t need help finding pregame accommodations. Through the driving rain this week, the tent city known as Paternoville for coach Joe Paterno never broke down to miss out on the best possible seats.

Penn State officials confirmed the diehard students remained in place Thursday evening.