Kalen DeBoer believes Alabama is in 'a great position' with the transfer portal
The transfer portal could have led to a disaster for a program like Alabama that, over the past nearly two decades, had been built upon so much of that foundation that was Nick Saban. However, it wasn’t as much of an exodus as some could have seen it as heading into the tenure of Kalen DeBoer.
DeBoer spoke about portal movement from the Crimson Tide’s team during an appearance on ‘The Next Round’ last month. He said not losing as many players as others thought they might was good, even though, at the time, there was still some time to go in the spring window.
“Yeah, I would have hoped that it is what we’re going through right now,” said DeBoer. “Of course, we’ve still got couple weeks left of that. You know, things can change. Guys are still always trying to figure out where they’re at in there career.”
Still, DeBoer credited his staff for doing what they could to keep as much of the team together as possible. They had a lot of conversations and put in their time in trying to make a case to the players in order to get them back to Tuscaloosa rather than into the portal.
“I just think we’re in a great position considering everything, like you said, that has happened with a major transition,” DeBoer said.
“I’m proud of our staff for developing some relationships. I’m proud of how they’ve really helped show guys their role on the team and helped the buy in to those roles happen,” said DeBoer. “There’s 100, almost 130 guys on our team. We’re meeting with them individually and one-on-one, every single one of them. Those are important meetings that are happening right now.”
Alabama lost 33 players to the portal this offseason over the winter and spring cycles. Those departures featured some significant talent, which is the expectation from a roster like ‘Bama’s.
The Tide lost a pair of former five-stars in S Caleb Downs and QB Julian Sayin. Both of them were top-three players in On3’s 2024 Transfer Portal Top Players and each ended up at Ohio State. They also lost five former four-stars and 25 former three-stars. Of that total group, seven were in the Top-100 and 16 were in the Top-250 of On3’s Ranking.
That’s why, even with 11 transfer additions, Alabama’s class rated at No. 69th in On3’s 2024 Team Transfer Portal Rankings. Three of those had already committed prior to the news of Saban’s retirement. Four of those also followed DeBoer from Washington. Another, OL Kadyn Proctor, is returning to the team after leaving for Iowa back in the winter.
Again, the Tide could’ve had a mess on their hands had a vast majority of their roster decided to transfer. Instead, DeBoer and his coaches handled the change well enough to have what should still be quite a competitive team in the fall.