What I read was Morgan initial offer was lower than expected when Smothers arrived on campus. If that's the case, can't blame the kid and unfortunately a black eye on this staff.
Link: 2026 Transfer Portal
- Thread starter AlistarWills
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A safe guess would be about the NIL budget. It's always about money. It would be extremely insightful to be a fly on the wall and have privy to the money and where its allocated.
I don't keep up with Recruiting that much from HS, but how is our transfer portal incoming vs. what we've recruited in various positions? Currently according 24-7 we are ranked #2. How is that affecting the Depth Chart currently?
So I guess, that brings up what is the NIL plan? Do we have different levels for HS recruits as opposed to transfers? What's the budget? etc....
I think we're all aware of what we're up against, for sure.
But to other people's points (and I don't know the answer to these questions because I'm not in the meeting rooms) do we have a plan B when we strike out on these targets that EVERYBODY wants? Do we have people scouring the portal for the diamonds in the rough (a Josh Jacobs or Javier Arenas)?
Indiana has shown that you do not have to have a team of 5 stars to win.
Do we have the staff that is able to evaluate players in such a way to find the diamonds in the rough?
Do we have a staff that can develop these diamonds in the rough?
Those are the things I want to see along with consistency as well as a willingness to make changes (meaning philosophical/scheme changes) when the west coast finesse stuff doesn't pan out (if it doesn't pan out).
I will say I appreciate this conversation back and forth and your input on this.
They'd be signed, that's how.If they are a sleeper, then they are under the radar anyways, so how would we know?
This is a bit like greyshirts. This is something that even Saban, with his top ranked classes with 4 and 5 stars would employ when he had the chance. He'd sign some 3 star that wasn't as highly prized and basically stash him. The signing limit made that harder, for instance one of them went to another school when Saban wasn't allowed to sign him and became All-SEC. But that's the thing I'm looking for here. Put that almost 10 million dollar staff to work and find a few hidden gems, and while we wouldn't know until later if they pan out, we'd know they did something.
The thing here is if anyone wanted DeBoer to fail they'd be cheering on this weak portal class. I don't though, I want him to succeed. The issue is last year this staff admittedly failed in the portal (and looking at it, it was a weak portal class, limited impact, no four stars remaining) and now they have another small and rather unimpressive looking class. Trust has to be earned in this case, if you fail once and look like you're failing again, people can't be blamed for thinking it's what it looks like.
As far as the hyped four stars type thing everyone is getting lost in. Look, I get Alabama can't match Texas dollar for dollar. I said that as people in this very thread said NIL wouldn't be a problem. So yes I'm aware, but that's only for the overhyped, overpriced players. If Alabama is putting all their eggs in that basket, they already failed. So the excuse can't be they don't have enough money, we already knew that. That's why a lot of their evaluations should have been with lower ranked players they believe to be under-ranked and I'm still waiting to see movement there because it's getting late in the game to make a run.
I will put this in another context. The excuse for failure this year in the portal would be (assuming things continue as they are) that there just isn't enough money right? Well this staff makes 4 million more than the staff at Indiana makes. You tell me what that extra four million is buying Alabama?
I don't know if this is the case anymoreEvaluations take time on the under the radar guys. When you find them and offer, then the other programs notice that and evaluate then offer those guys more money and then you are right back to square one!
I remember a rival coach telling his staff that if Bama offered a player, then they were going to offer the player as well. We were being used then and we are still being used now...
TBF, It's not the staff's fault that we don't have the money...
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Hollywood Smothers flip to Texas just announced.
They could donate all that money they're being overpaid to the NIL collective.BF, It's not the staff's fault that we don't have the money...
Problem solved.
Not really worried about cam or smothers. We need O linemen. We need at least 15 and have only 11 at this point. So, let the froghorns spend all their money on kids that matter less to us and hopefully we move toward signing some difference makers in the trenches.
Agreed. But don't think we have a problem in the RB room. Got probs in the O line room. That should be our focus.
I agree to some point but Bama, has no momentum and is looking less and less like a destination that a stud o lineman would want to be. You need some of the wins, if for nothing else, for PR purposes.
BTW, we are not the only team struggling in the portal. I think most are. Thing we got going for us is a top 5 recruiting class coming in focused on making us better.
This is like the best golfers in the world suddenly have to use a 4 oz heavier ball. And then those dominating suddenly start failing and those who could swing for distance suddenly can.
These kids aren't looking at that. We need dudes. Problem is that we need a way to evaluate thousands of kids we know nothing about because most are competing at lower levels. But they are out there. Just need to find them and bring them in.
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