Nick Saban shares message to players considering entering transfer portal
As spring practices wrap up across college football, the transfer portal remains open. The window opened April 15 and closes April 30 as players find out what their roles might be for the fall.
Ahead of Alabama’s A-Day spring game, Nick Saban shared his message to players considering the portal.
Saban met with reporters Thursday and discussed his thoughts on the portal. He pointed out that when players transfer, two things happen. They’re looking for new opportunities and teams, as a result, look to replace them. That’s why Saban compared it to NFL free agency.
“We don’t want anybody to get in the portal,” Saban said. “We’d love to keep everybody on our team, on our team. I think sometimes, my experience with this, it’s a little bit like free agency in the NFL. But NFL players kind of know they’re expendable.
“I think some college players sometimes think the portal’s a one-way street. But it’s really not because we have an opportunity to bring guys in and replace them, too, if we choose to do that. We’d rather make it work with the guys that understand the culture in our program, but that’s just another resource that you look at players and see if there’s any way that you can help your team and strengthen your roster.”
Alabama has brought in two transfers from the portal this year. One of them is former Maryland tight end CJ Dippre — the No. 43-ranked transfer to enter the portal this year, according to the On3 Transfer Portal Rankings. The Crimson Tide also landed a commitment from former Georgia linebacker Trezmen Marshall.
As for Saban’s approach to the portal, he spoke about that last month as spring practice got underway. He and the staff want to be deliberate when looking at transfers, and pointed out the amount of players who’ve made an impact at Alabama out of the portal.
“What we’ve tried to do when it comes to the portal is look at guys that we think can make an immediate impact on our team,” Saban said. “We have always tried to build our team with good recruiting of good, young players who sort of fit the culture of what we want to do. … I think most of the players that we’ve taken from the portal, and I think there’s been six prior to this year. Five of those guys all made significant impacts on the team. One guy got injured and probably didn’t have the opportunity to do it or he probably would’ve made an impact, as well.
“We’re going to continue that same philosophy of how we bring guys in to the team. We still have to manage the roster, we still have to manage numbers. I think you’ve always got to take that into consideration when you’re dealing with the portal, as well.”