Link: 2026 Transfer Portal

[TiderJack]

C+, B- across the board for me. I still don’t understand Russaw and Smith leaving. They played a lot last year, except the injury to Russaw. I don’t get Horton leaving either. Those three are puzzling

Did you see where all three went? It was the money and if you read what Haha said you don't get paid for potential but for production. All three were fairly productive but we were not willing to pay them what they wanted and got.

 

[TiderJack]

Good size to be able to block in the backfield…

^^^^^ This. Agreed Ols. He was not brought in to get 10-15 carries a game.

 

[Bama9001]

Solid addition imo and especially this late.

His HS highlights look pretty solid and he has pretty good speed for a Power Back.

Not a ton of touches with Tenn but you can see he runs strong and physical and that’s a need for us.

He was a Top 50 HS RB recruit and had 4 offers from the SEC and was also offered by Miami and FSU.

Looks like all in all we addressed every position need this cycle.

When I watched some of his highlights I was surprised that nobody ever seemed to run him down. He's got enough speed. Jess mentioned him possibly joining the H-back group...interesting.

As long as we didn't overpay, I'm OK seeing these guys get one more chance to show what they can do. One thing we've definitely seen from all the portal madness is unknown guys moving up and turning into well known guys. These days we'll never know until the games are played. We've had some misses so we're due for a hit.

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

Did you see where all three went? It was the money and if you read what Haha said you don't get paid for potential but for production. All three were fairly productive but we were not willing to pay them what they wanted and got.

Lost track. Where did they go?

 

[JustNeedMe81]

Dumb question but this late in the Semester, will he be able to participate in Spring Drills?

Yes.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

^^^^^ This. Agreed Ols. He was not brought in to get 10-15 carries a game

In JessN's latest update, he said it seems he was brought in for mainly a "depth piece". I've seen other places say he could, possibly, be used as an H-back/ FB type of role. It's reasonable to even think he may never even touch the field in a regular game. He's not as talented as AK Dear, and Dear, outside of a few times, never touched the field. We've got Daniel Hill as the "big man" for short yardage situations, so this guy may just be a practice body before it's all said and done.

 

[KrAzY3]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2017801094500405368

I want to talk about this for a minute. It breaks my heart to see former players like him to make comments like this on social media. Everyone has the right to feel some certain way about how recruits and transfer portal went so far, but If Maze doesn't like what's going on, then he and former players need to step up by donating, come down to campus and work out with those guys. I"m curious to hear what @KrAzY3 has to say about this.

I think we have two things going on at once. One is something I remain a bit concerned about, Alabama has been a bit slow to adapt to the NIL era and some other schools that don't actually have more resources got out a bit ahead in that regard. So there is some understandable frustration when Alabama struggles to get a few guys they seemed to want.

However! Alabama has a chance with those extra scholarship slots, to add some kids they had to stop adding before. Some local 3 star kids and that sort of thing that they had to pass up because of signing limits. Nick Saban took on walk-ons and grey shirts when he could, it wasn't all 4 and 5 stars but the limits forced him to focus on those. I'm happy to have some more veteran in state kids in the locker room, and in those cases it isn't where the NIL money went, it was where the new scholarships went... You're not going to get highly sought after guys anymore with just a scholarship.

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

Yes.

I kind of figured since "academics" are separated from "athletics" more than ever...

 

[NoNC4Tubs]

In JessN's latest update, he said it seems he was brought in for mainly a "depth piece". I've seen other places say he could, possibly, be used as an H-back/ FB type of role. It's reasonable to even think he may never even touch the field in a regular game. He's not as talented as AK Dear, and Dear, outside of a few times, never touched the field. We've got Daniel Hill as the "big man" for short yardage situations, so this guy may just be a practice body before it's all said and done.

I'm hoping this guy makes the same impact for us that Jameson Williams did (irrespective of actual position).

 

[Power Eye]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2017801094500405368

I want to talk about this for a minute. It breaks my heart to see former players like him to make comments like this on social media. Everyone has the right to feel some certain way about how recruits and transfer portal went so far, but If Maze doesn't like what's going on, then he and former players need to step up by donating, come down to campus and work out with those guys. I"m curious to hear what @KrAzY3 has to say about this.

The former players, particularly those from the Saban era, are no different than the rest of our fan base in terms of having unrealistic expectations in this new era of NIL/portal. They might have a little more visibility to certain things, but probably not much. The reality is, and hopefully there will be a better understanding of this by our fan base at large, that we have a budget and out staff has to make the best use of that budget. I have no knowledge of what that budget is, but it seems to be quite different than what Texas, A&M, Oregon, Ohio State, Texas Tech and Miami have to work with. I'm not saying that we have navigated the portal flawlessly, but we have probably done pretty well within those budget constraints in terms of preserving players already on the team and bringing in new players from recruiting and the portal. Guys like Marquis Maze probably aren't thinking about the new dynamics of roster management, and are still under the old mindset that Bama gets who they want. Eventually, they will get there just like the rest of us have had to.

The only thing I worry about is that I do think we have a window where we are still a premier program in the eyes of current and rising players, but we can't fall back into mediocrity for long, or preferably at all. Nebraska is sort of the cautionary tale of this. It also happened to USC to some extent more recently. Their luster wore off after several years of very mediocre football. I recognize that there are many more factors at play in today's game, but I do think a team needs more than just a huge NIL budget to have a championship team, they also need notoriety to fill a roster that has quality depth. I realize that is in direct contradiction to what Indiana just proved, but I think that is much more the exception than the rule.

 

[TiderJack]

Lost track. Where did they go?

Smith and Russaw OSU and Horton A&M.

 

[JDCrimson]

Ultimately, team chemistry, discipline, physical play, and effective game planning won the NC over pure raw talent.

We cant afford to pursue the raw talent route, we will have to pursue the former route to remain competitive.

 

[KrAzY3]

The reality is, and hopefully there will be a better understanding of this by our fan base at large, that we have a budget and out staff has to make the best use of that budget. I have no knowledge of what that budget is, but it seems to be quite different than what Texas, A&M, Oregon, Ohio State, Texas Tech and Miami have to work with.

I don't want to get too caught up again in what is ultimately a debate (how the athletic department should spend their funds), but there are about 5 programs Alabama can't outspend at will in the NIL era. One or two of those though, are purely using booster funds to make up for weak athletic departments.

Ohio State, Texas, and Texas A&M all can outspend Alabama in such a way that it would be nearly impossible for Alabama to match them, if their boosters feel like spending! That last part is important, the programs are heavily subject to the whims of the boosters.

Other than that though, Alabama has a huge amount of leverage that programs like Texas Tech and Oregon do not have. Alabama's athletic department makes 100 million more than Texas Tech, they make 60 million more than Oregon. That includes about 50 million per year in donations to Alabama's athletic department.

So, ultimately this becomes a matter of priorities. If Alabama and the boosters collectively decide they really want to compete with NIL, they have the capacity. They just have to change how the money is flowing.