Kalen DeBoer’s first year as the head football coach at Alabama is underway. It marks the first season without Nick Saban since 2007. It is the start of a new era.
Although spring ball is still (more than) a few weeks away, winter workouts have begun. The Crimson Tide are back in Tuscaloosa for the new semester and their focus has shifted toward the 2024 college football season.
DeBoer, who was hired after two years at Washington, saw players hit the transfer portal upon arrival to the SEC. Many of them left before he even got to campus and the exodus could have been a lot worse.
The 49-year-old head coach spoke to that notion during an appearance on McElroy and Cubelic.
Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of that turnover happened before we even stepped foot on campus. 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.
— Kalen DeBoer
With that being said, there will be change.
Despite DeBoer’s ability to retain more players than he lost, and the addition of non-Alabama players through the portal, the roster will look different come Week 1. There are a few spots to fill during the next transfer window and some of the guys who stayed will leave. College athletics as a whole is a revolving door in the modern era and the Crimson Tide needs to keep up.
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. 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.
— Kalen DeBoer
The spring transfer portal officially opens on Saturday, April 15th and will close 15 days later.
Players who chose to stick around through spring practices with DeBoer are going to leave. DeBoer and his staff are going to have scholarships to distribute to players from other programs who seek new opportunity for the fall.
Expect turnover in Tuscaloosa, just like everywhere else!
Alabama is going to work!
As for the athletes who decided to stay, DeBoer is thrilled by what he has seen thus far. He feels like they are excited to prove wrong all of the people who think that the Crimson Tide can’t win without Saban.
Internally, you know, there’s not this feeling that guys didn’t stay the course once we got here. 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.
— Kalen DeBoer
A video from their workout on Monday has gone viral in the days since. Players can be seen power skipping during warmups and it led to a lot of criticism amongst the haters. They think that it reflects a new reality in which Alabama is “cooked.”
New staff locked in!! #RollTide pic.twitter.com/0E5yLnao7w
— Im a writer (@JayJDONDA) February 19, 2024
The people who are laughing at the Crimson Tide expense simply don’t know ball. Yes, power skips look funny. There is no doubt about it.
However, this is a very standard exercise. If you haven’t power skipped, you have never played football.
Alabama sees/hears all of the chatter and will use it as motivation. Like Kalen DeBoer said, they have a chip on their shoulder!