Kalen DeBoer reveals some of his biggest priorities over the coming months

Kalen DeBoer knows his biggest priority for Alabama over the next few months: closely evaluate the roster.

Sure, the Crimson Tide lost some players to the transfer portal, but more of them left before DeBoer even got to campus. Still, there are some spots to be potentially filled, but the new Alabama coach likes what he sees so far.

DeBoer wasn’t overly worried about the roster turnover when he came in.

“Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of that turnover happened before we even stepped foot on campus,” DeBoer said on McElroy and Cubelic. “I think at one point numbers may have changed, you know, maybe one or two guys here and there but I think 18 or so of the guys were in the portal before coach (Saban) even retired. It’s just like you said the nature of college football right now, college athletics. 

“Maybe a couple others that weren’t in yet but maybe had even put their name in and just takes a day or two for that to happen. And so you know, there’s probably four or five guys that really I got a chance to be around and meet. And just, they decided to kind of move on and test the waters elsewhere.” 

In fact, DeBoer loves what he sees so far, but it’ll be constant evaluation as they get closer and through spring practice.

“Internally, you know, there’s not this feeling that guys didn’t stay the course once we got here,” DeBoer said. “We love who we have here and then you know, yesterday just being in the indoor going through our fourth quarter workout, it was electric … (Guys who have been here), they got a little chip on their shoulder. There’s a little bit of noise here and there that, you know, they might hear and we’re going to use that to our advantage just to help us be motivated, go to another level. 

“But we do have a couple spots and you naturally, just kind of keep your eyes and ears open for what those are going to be and we’re going to go through our spring ball and continue to evaluate our team,” DeBoer said. “I think there’s some good young players that will step up and do a great job. But we do have a couple extra scholarships. Not a lot, but we do have a couple extra scholarships still available that we could utilize when that time comes.”