| FTBL 🐘 Alabama Roster and Portal Management Chart (Domani Jackson is back for 2025.)

Justneedme81 · 2025-01-06T04:28:19-0600

Brandon Van de Graaff said:
As Bama’s portal door closes for the winter, let's look back at the team losses and gains thus far...

Players Transferring from Alabama
DL Jehiem Oatis (to Colorado)
DL Hunter Osborne (to Virginia)
DL Damon Payne (to Michigan)
Edge Keanu Koht (to Vanderbilt)
Edge Jayshawn Ross
LB/Edge Jeremiah Alexander
LB Serling Dixon
LB Justin Okoronkwo
DB Jahlil Hurley (to Kansas)
S DeVonta Smith (to Notre Dame)
S King Mack
QB Dylan Lonergan (to Boston College)
RB Justice Haynes (to Michigan)
OL Miles McVay (to North Carolina)
OL Elijah Pritchett
TE Ty Lockwood
WR Kobe Prentice (to Baylor)
WR Caleb Odom (to Ole Miss)
WR Kendrick Law (to Kentucky)
WR Emmanuel Henderson (to Kansas)
WR Jaren Hamilton
WR Amari Jefferson

The staff lost very few guys that they really made an effort to keep, and they did keep 2 that they tried hard to keep (Jaylen Mbakwe and Danny Lewis). DeVonta Smith was another that the staff tried to hold onto, but when family considerations are in play, that becomes extra difficult. Justin Okoronkwo leaving will hurt if they can't get him back. Overall though, Bama managed to get through the portal period pretty well. Despite what some may assume, they didn't fight to keep Pritchett. Or Odom. Or Haynes. There were a few depth pieces they'd have preferred to keep, but not enough to renegotiate deals irresponsibly or promise playing time. Certainly worth mentioning too, they held onto several key pieces on both sides of the ball that were key, most of which were tampered with by other teams in some form or fashion. In the end, they held onto their core group of guys, other than the NFL entries. If you've been following along and paying attention, that isn't a surprise. But that doesn't make it any less impressive. Morgan & Co. earned their keep the last few weeks. It may not have been completely perfect, but it could have been much, much worse without a plan and the staff locking some guys down.

Players Transferring to Alabama
EDGE Kelby Collins (from Florida)
LB Nikhai Hill-Green (from Colorado)
CB Cameron Calhoun (from Utah)
OL Kam Dewberry (from Texas A&M)
OL Arkel Anugwom (from Ball State)
WR Isaiah Horton (from Miami)

There's a mix there of players that should start on day 1 and also some depth help. A few more will be signed to fill out some areas of need. Pretty much any position on offense can be added to if they find the right guy, but they could really use another QB, TE, and OT. On the other side of the ball, DL is a priority. EDGE LB, ILB, and another body at corner are also need areas. They’ve got some time and another portal window to get it all ironed out. And they will.

This isn't bad at all. I want Justin to come back.

24and7 · 2025-01-06T05:53:19-0600

Brandon Van de Graaff said:
Another one in the mold of DeVonta Smith... Bama didn't want to lose him. Maybe they can reel him back in.

Wow… I thought they had really high hopes for him..Chris Stewart was even bragging on him during a broadcast…I guess the fans is really going to have to give CKD some time and patience now..

Rolltide24 · 2025-01-06T06:21:58-0600

Scrape&Search1032 said:
All the talent in the world, just couldn't get out of his own way. Wish him well, and hope he can bounce back.

One of the best A-Day performances by a Bama WR in a long time. Seems to have hung his hat on that scrimmage.

BamaFan615 · 2025-01-06T06:26:29-0600

CKD has really had only one full recruiting cycle, and he has pretty much flipped the entire roster - which was needed/expected given the differences in his system and Saban’s.

I guess my biggest concern from this portal season is that we’re losing a lot of experience. Not just game experience, but system experience. Bringing in a studly freshman class helps for sure, but losing kids that have been in our weightlifting system, film rooms, etc

During Saban’s run, he and many other programs were able to stockpile 5-stars upon 5-stars. Nowadays, if a 5-star comes in and doesn’t start right away, they’ll start to get $1M offers from multiple different schools and also get promised playing time.

Saban would be fighting these same battles - maybe he would be able to hold on to a couple more players here and there, but the days of stockpiling 5-stars is gone unless your school has the money to spend. And even then, playing time becomes an issue.

I think we’ve played this transfer cycle fairly well, but it becomes way more important nowadays to have a strong eye for talent - which, so far, DeBoer and Morgan have shown to have.

Hopefully they continue.

Crtuneman · 2025-01-06T06:58:05-0600

No matter what anyone says, we lost a lot of talent in the portal. Young talent, maybe unproven, but talent nevertheless. And like I said in an earlier post, there goes a lot of depth. I am still trusting KDB, and I have hope that next season will be better, but I don't like seeing all that talent leave.

24and7 · 2025-01-06T07:15:29-0600

There has got to be some kind of “mental health” effects on any football team, that loses 20 or 30 players quickly…A lot of close relationships suddenly changed…Maybe some shrinks need to be in close contacts with all teams, to try and understand the impacts of the transfer portal..

bamafan9201 · 2025-01-06T07:18:55-0600

I have some high hopes for Okoronkwo I think Lawson and Jefferson returning hurt our chances to retain him honestly.

PurlJam · 2025-01-06T08:12:07-0600

24and7 said:
There has got to be some kind of “mental health” effects on any football team, that loses 20 or 30 players quickly…A lot of close relationships suddenly changed…Maybe some shrinks need to be in close contacts with all teams, to try and understand the impacts of the transfer portal..

And how does that make you feel?

Slickmullet · 2025-01-06T08:33:14-0600

We’ve lost 24 scholarship players and brought in 6. Sugar coat it however you want, that’s terrible. So half our scholarship players are true freshman basically at this point? They have absolutely ruined college football.

From a quick glance we’ve replaced less players than anyone in the portal. For instance LSU lost 18 but got 14 out of the portal.

TerryP · 2025-01-06T10:12:46-0600

Slickmullet said:
From a quick glance we’ve replaced less players than anyone in the portal. For instance LSU lost 18 but got 14 out of the portal.

Without knowing how many spots a team has open it is an apples and oranges comparison to look at Bama vs any team. They may be looking at the next signing period. They may be looking at post spring camp.

JoseyWalesTheOutlaw · 2025-01-06T10:35:02-0600

bamafan9201 said:
I have some high hopes for Okoronkwo I think Lawson and Jefferson returning hurt our chances to retain him honestly.

In general, if a program goes to the portal for a player at a player's position, then odds are pretty good that player is going to look around for another program.

Sign one from the portal and expect to lose one from your roster at that position. In a sense recruiting each year (before NIL) was pretty much the same in that a staff saw the weakness in certain positions and recruited over young players or even veteran players on the current roster. Players didn't seem to get upset as much. Nick signed the LT from Vandy a few years back and I think we lost one or two tackles within a couple of weeks.

That old "we need some depth phrase" isn't going to fool these cats. I assume that when a HC goes to portal to get a player, he is counting on that guy to start and what the backup at the position does has already been weighed by the HC.

Brandon Van de Graaff · 2025-01-06T11:24:56-0600

Slickmullet said:
We’ve lost 24 scholarship players and brought in 6. Sugar coat it however you want, that’s terrible. So half our scholarship players are true freshman basically at this point? They have absolutely ruined college football.

From a quick glance we’ve replaced less players than anyone in the portal. For instance LSU lost 18 but got 14 out of the portal.

Again, they had to let a lot of these guys go. Like Terry said, it was a numbers game. There was no other way around it. Out of the 24 that left, only a handful did UA try to keep. They did end up keeping 2 of them, lost some others. They could have overpaid for them, but would that have been responsible? They could have made them false promises. Is that healthy? As far as bringing guys in, they aren't throwing offers at everyone they contact and bring in for visits. Some of them, quite frankly, aren't worth the asking price. Others aren't good fits. They'll get the depth in the needed areas backfilled before summer, but they aren't going to rush it... and they shouldn't.

TerryP · 2025-01-06T11:56:49-0600

Brandon Van de Graaff said:
They could have overpaid for them, but would that have been responsible?

I get this image of Milton Waddams: "...they've moved my desk four times this year." Ya think they were trying to send ol' Milt a message?

If player X is seeing more money than player Y for the same position, basically in the same rotation (see Okoronkwo with Jones and Alexander rotating a lot last season) player Y is going to get the message: "we don't think you are worth as much as 'X' is..."

Just an idle thought...

Brandon Van de Graaff · 2025-01-06T12:03:21-0600

TerryP said:
I get this image of Milton Waddams: "...they've moved my desk four times this year." Ya think they were trying to send ol' Milt a message?

If player X is seeing more money than player Y for the same position, basically in the same rotation (see Okoronkwo with Jones and Alexander rotating a lot last season) player Y is going to get the message: "we don't think you are worth as much as 'X' is..."

Just an idle thought...

And this doesn't apply across the board to all of the departures, but it applies to several, including some high profile ones:

Fan: Alabama needs a culture change and must get some of these distractions out of the program.

UA: [Gets rid of some of the players that were problems and distractions]

Fan: All these players leaving is a major concern, I don't care how you dress it up and try to serve it!

24and7 · 2025-01-06T12:09:00-0600

Crimson&WhiteGecko · 2025-01-06T12:40:17-0600

Brandon Van de Graaff said:
And this doesn't apply across the board to all of the departures, but it applies to several, including some high profile ones:

Fan: Alabama needs a culture change and must get some of these distractions out of the program.

UA: [Gets rid of some of the players that were problems and distractions]

Fan: All these players leaving is a major concern, I don't care how you dress it up and try to serve it!

I'm sure some of the disparity in fandom is due to not being aware of the full context. And full context is hard to come by. And I am not saying that should be all out there for fandom consumption or consternation. But it does, easily help feed speaking out of two sides the mouth.

All though, there are those that if flat out given the information as clear as could be, thhere will be those that extrapolate whatever they want. Then there are those gaslighters of the world who do it just to get clicks.

Back to the real topic at hand. . . . . This is CKD's program. If he is going to be shot down, he damned needs to be sure he gets shot down with the program being his program, not frankenstiens monster with remants of CNS. So I am 100% fine with him clearing out the roster to make it his program. I'm done kicking & screaming that CNS is gone. And he is not coming back.

And to be completely honest, factoring in his last 3 years, I think he made the best call to retire because he cannot run a program like he was used to running. And that's OK.

Secondand26 · 2025-01-06T20:55:03-0600

mando · 2025-01-06T20:55:32-0600

Brandon Van de Graaff said:
Fan: All these players leaving is a major concern, I don't care how you dress it up and try to serve it!

Put me into this category

.... Whether they replace them or not buidling a team needs continuity. Attrition can also take a toll on an organization. Building a team that has trust and are committed to each other is important. In some cases it can be ok to let some folks move on. In my profession it occurs and you wish them well. However there are some you lose that have the relationshops and credibility that impacts the organization in a negative way. The more losses you have the more likely some of those will fit into that category.

At this point it is what it is and it is time for CKD to earn his pay.

Did I say how much I hate the portal and NIL? Completelt ruined college football.

TideatMileHigh · 2025-01-06T21:10:40-0600

mando said:
Put me into this category .... Whether they replace them or not buidling a team needs continuity. Attrition can also take a toll on an organization. Building a team that has trust and are committed to each other is important. In some cases it can be ok to let some folks move on. In my profession it occurs and you wish them well. However there are some you lose that have the relationshops and credibility that impacts the organization in a negative way. The more losses you have the more likely some of those will fit into that category.

At this point it is what it is and it is time for CKD to earn his pay.

Did I say how much I hate the portal and NIL? Completelt ruined college football.

Out of curiosity, what was the logic behind the creation of the transfer portal? NIL got imposed by the courts, but I feel like the transfer portal was created to souly benefit shit mid tier teams.

Cynical rant: You know what else ruined college football? Idiot fans that are openly manipulated into thinking that college football today is better than what it was in the 1990s. These fucking mouth breathing 75 IQ shitbags have no idea they are doing the bidding of disgusting organizations like ESPN when they openly promote these horrendous changes that have ruined the sport. Sometimes I hope this sport dries up and dies so a reset can happen, but then I realize that millions of fans are too retarded to understand just how much this sport has fallen.

Crtuneman · 2025-01-06T21:17:40-0600

My biggest concern is depth. I think we have some really good starters returning and we have good experience, especially on defense. But losing that many young players means that you’re relying on true freshmen with zero experience to provide depth. That’s troubling

Position	Seniors	Juniors	Sophomores	Freshmen	2025 Signees	Departures
Quarterback		Ty Simpson*	Austin Mack*		Keelon Russell	Jalen Milroe*^
Running back	Jam Miller Dre’lyn Washington+		Daniel Hill Richard Young	Kevin Riley*	AK Dear
Tight End	Josh Cuevas	Danny Lewis Jr.		Jay Lindsey*	Kaleb Edwards Marshall Pritchett	CJ Dippre# Robbie Ouzts#
Wide Receiver	Germie Bernard	Isiah Horton+	Ryan Williams Cole Adams Jaylen Mbakwe Jalen Hale*	Rico Scott* Bubba Hampton*	Derek Meadows Lotzeir Brooks
Offensive Line	Jaeden Roberts* Geno VanDeMark* Kam Dewberry+	Parker Brailsford* Kadyn Proctor	Wilkin Formby* Roq Montgomery* Olaus Alinen* Arkel Anugwom*+	Casey Poe* William Sanders* Joseph Ionata*	Micah DeBose Michael Carroll Mal Waldrep Jackson Lloyd	Tyler Booker^
Defensive Front	Tim Keenan III* LT Overton	James Smith	Edric Hill* Jordan Renaud* Keon Keeley*	Jeremiah Beaman* Isia Faga*	London Simmons Steve Mboumoua~	Tim Smith# Jah-Marian Latham#
Edge Linebacker		Kelby Collins+	Qua Russaw* Yhonzae Pierre*	Noah Cater*	Justin Hill Kevonte Henry~	Que Robinson#
Inside Linebacker	Deontae Lawson* Justin Jefferson Nikhai Hill-Green+		Cayden Jones	QB Reese*	Darrell Johnson Abduall Sanders Luke Metz	Jihaad Campbell^
Safety	Keon Sabb	Bray Hubbard Kameron Howard	Red Morgan Zay Mincey Dre Kirkpatrick Jr		Ivan Taylor	Malachi Moore#
Cornerback		Domani Jackson DaShawn Jones*	Zabien Brown Cameron Calhoun+		Dijon Lee Chuck McDonald

| FTBL 🐘 Alabama Roster and Portal Management Chart (Domani Jackson is back for 2025.)

Justneedme81

24and7

Rolltide24

BamaFan615

Crtuneman

24and7

bamafan9201

PurlJam

Slickmullet

TerryP

JoseyWalesTheOutlaw

Brandon Van de Graaff

A defensive deity, inventor of the Concussion.

TerryP

Brandon Van de Graaff

A defensive deity, inventor of the Concussion.

24and7

Crimson&WhiteGecko

Secondand26

mando

TideatMileHigh

Crtuneman