Greg Byrne addresses Alabama players entering transfer portal after Nick Saban's retirement

Alabama has seen a number of key players enter the transfer portal since coach Nick Saban announced his retirement one week ago. Names such as receiver Isaiah Bond, running back Roydell Williams, safety Caleb Downs and offensive lineman Kadyn Proctor are just a few.

Athletic director Greg Byrne moved quickly to hire Saban’s replacement, bringing in Kalen DeBoer from Washington. Solidifying a new coach so fast should give players a better idea of what to expect if they stay, and Byrne is already coming up with a pitch to keep athletes in Tuscaloosa.

”You absolutely don’t like it,” the Alabama AD said on The Paul Finebaum Show on Wednesday. “You don’t like it for the team. Paul, you’ve been around. Alabama’s such a special place. The investment we make in our young men and young women across the board for our sports and what we do from an academic support, medical support, mental health, nutrition across the board is as good as any place in the country.

“We’ve had young men and young women transfer in here from very prominent universities and have said, ‘my gosh, I didn’t know how good I was gonna get treated at Alabama compared to where I came from.’ And we’ve had young men and young women transfer out of here who have called back and said, ‘I didn’t know how well I had it at Alabama.’ Obviously, we don’t want that. We understand why young men and young women at times explore their options and we try to be very transparent and honest with them during that time. That’s the best thing that we can do.”

The fall transfer portal window ended on Jan. 2 for most college football players. However, due to Saban’s retirement, Crimson Tide players are granted an additional 30-day window to change schools.

Wednesday saw a big blow for the Crimson Tide as both Downs and Proctor announced their intention to enter the transfer portal. Downs started as a true freshman this past season and led the team in tackles (107) along with two interceptions to win SEC Defensive Freshman of the Year. Proctor, a former five-star prospect and the top offensive tackle in the 2023 cycle, started as well.

For Byrne, the focus now is to lessen the number of players that follow suit to the portal. He made sure to emphasize that NIL plays a large part in that and why support for the Crimson Tide’s NIL Collective, Yea Alabama, is so important to the transfer portal pitch.

“We say it with all the good intentions and the truth that we think this is the best place in the country for a student-athlete to come to the school and compete at the highest levels in everything that they do,” Byrne said. “So it’s part of it. It’s reality. NIL’s part of it. We try to be progressive with our NIL approach. I’m wearing my Yea Alabama polo right now, which we’ve had almost 1,000 new members since we’ve announced coach DeBoer.

“We have to continue to get people to sign up and be a part of that because it’s a reality of the world we’re facing. Coach Saban did such a great job of continuing to adapt to the realities of what the world are. We’re gonna continue to do the same thing. So if a young man goes into the transfer portal, we try to be very transparent with him and talk with him through that and be strategic with him. At the same time, we certainly won’t fault somebody if they are interested in it. But we also are very confident that we think this is the best place in the country by far for anybody to go to school.”