Nick Saban addresses Lane Kiffin's use of the transfer portal to build roster

One of the biggest winners in the transfer portal over the offseason were Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss, who used the portal to help build the roster after some key departures. Nick Saban will get a good look at those newcomers this week when Alabama heads to Oxford, and he had some interesting thoughts on balancing the portal with high school recruiting.

Saban brought up the comparisons to the NFL. He said NFL teams use the NFL Draft and free agency to build out rosters, and he alluded to high school recruiting and the portal as the “draft” and “free agency” in college football now.

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“I think you could go through all the teams that we play and they have significant players that have come in from the transfer portal,” Saban said. “And Ole Miss certainly has significant players. LSU had significant players last week that made their team better. It’s almost like can you only build your team in the draft or is there such a thing as free agency now in college football? For years, NFL teams used both of those things to help build their teams, and I think some teams are doing that. Some teams probably need to do it more than others.

“But I think it creates a lot of parity relative to how fast you can rebuild a team, how fast you can sort of get your team where it needs to be to be very, very competitive. I think Lane’s done a great job of that. He’s got a lot of significant players, and you couple that with some good recruiting and it helps your team be really good and they’ve got a really good team.”

Ole Miss had 17 players come in via the portal prior to this season, led by running back Zach Evans and quarterback Jaxson Dart — the No. 7 and No. 10 players, respectively, in the 2021 On3 Transfer Portal Rankings. The Rebels also brought in the No. 24 recruiting class in the nation from the class of 2022, according to the On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Ranking.

Alabama also hit the portal to bring in some talent, landing three of On3’s top 10 transfers. Running back Jahmyr Gibbs led the group as On3’s No. 3-ranked player to hit the portal during the 2021 cycle. In addition, the Crimson Tide had the nation’s No. 2-ranked recruiting class, headlined by five-star EDGE Jeremiah Alexander — the No. 15 player in the nation from the class of 2022, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.