2026 Roster Preview: Will Youth Serve Alabama?

[JessN]

TideFans.com | By the Fans, For the Fans. - 2026 Roster Preview: Will Youth Serve Alabama?

Spring football practice is upon us, and the close of the 2025-2026 recruiting cycle brings about our annual first look at the team Alabama will take into spring practice. While the transfer…

news.tidefans.com

 

[The Ols]

TideFans.com | By the Fans, For the Fans. - 2026 Roster Preview: Will Youth Serve Alabama?

Spring football practice is upon us, and the close of the 2025-2026 recruiting cycle brings about our annual first look at the team Alabama will take into spring practice. While the transfer…

news.tidefans.com

Curious and cautiously optimistic…

 

[TDBama78]

With all these younger linemen and other positions, the off season and s&c couldn't be more important, how bad do they want it.

 

[davefrat]

The next couple years of NIL and transfer portal will probably tell us a lot about whether high school recruiting remains a primary method of putting together a roster or becomes a secondary concern.

I wonder how many of the players at Indiana this past season were actually recruited out of high school by Indiana.

 

[Tideflyer]

The next couple years of NIL and transfer portal will probably tell us a lot about whether high school recruiting remains a primary method of putting together a roster or becomes a secondary concern.

I wonder how many of the players at Indiana this past season were actually recruited out of high school by Indiana.

Had the impression that it was…..not many.

 

[tideindc]

Other than the DBs, we have a LOT of question marks at important positions.
Major potential….for sure! . Fingers crossed.

 

[Ledsteplin]

I didn't see any mention of JUCO WR, Tyler Henderson.

 

[RdunawayTX]

I think, until the laws around the transfer portal and NIL are changed, this is a sucker's bet. We'll develop then and someone else will swoop in with enough money to pull them away.

 

[Tideflyer]

I think, until the laws around the transfer portal and NIL are changed, this is a sucker's bet. We'll develop then and someone else will swoop in with enough money to pull them away.

Probably differs from team to team, depending a great deal on well heeled they are, but I wonder what the average tenure would be for a player with a Div. 1 team ? Two years, maybe?

 

[Bamabuzzard]

I think, until the laws around the transfer portal and NIL are changed, this is a sucker's bet. We'll develop then and someone else will swoop in with enough money to pull them away.

This is the concern that a lot of head coaches are expressing and rightfully so. They spend the resources investing into the player, only to have the player transfer when the coaches are starting to get a return on their investment. People can say, "Well, Alabama can do the same thing to other schools." But here's the problem, players coming in from other programs have been coached and developed by another program. Alabama coaches have no idea if what and how they've been taught is going to conflict with how the Alabama staff does things. You could bring in a transfer from another school that has "developed" but get to your school and underperforms because they were developed under another schools system. It's a mess, no doubt.

 

[Bama Lee]

I think, until the laws around the transfer portal and NIL are changed, this is a sucker's bet. We'll develop then and someone else will swoop in with enough money to pull them away.

NIL and transfer portal also serve as a culling feature. This allows teams to trim nonproductive and costly players that are not meeting the team needs

 

[JessN]

I didn't see any mention of JUCO WR, Tyler Henderson.

I'm not sure why I left him out unless it was because of how late he was added to the roster.

I expect him to be somewhere around Chirgwin or maybe above him. Still sort of in "group 3" if that makes any sense.

 

[Ledsteplin]

A lot has been said about 5* Freshman RB, EJ Crowell. But we may be overlooking a nice surprise in Freshman running back Trae'Shawn Brown. He has all the ingredients to earn him a spot on the talented RB room rotation. It's gonna be crowded (8), and everyone wants to play.