Why Hasn’t Alabama Lost Players in the Transfer Portal?

If National Signing Day is like Christmas morning to college football fans, then the opening day of the transfer portal is like tax day. Players can decide to leave, and suddenly, a young prospect who generated buzz in spring camp is no longer on the roster. For Alabama, though, the spring transfer portal window has been relatively quiet.

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The 10-day window opened on April 16, and with four days to go, Alabama has only lost a few walk-on players. No one on scholarship (as of Tuesday morning) has entered the transfer portal, with Saturday's deadline to enter looming over the program. Defensive coordinator Kane Wommack credited Kalen DeBoer for the roster retention on a Tuesday morning interview with WNSP in Mobile.

"I think Kalen does a tremendous job," Wommack told WNSP. "He's very proactive, he's very engaging, he's very relational with people. Certainly, he understands the business side of this game, but he also keeps the main thing the main thing. We are trying to bring out the best in these young men to maximize their opportunities as individuals and our opportunities as a team. Those things go hand in hand."

"People think you either got to go get yours, right? Or you can sacrifice for the team. The truth is, high tides raise all boats. For us, keeping that mindset for these players - of course, everybody wants our starters - but they want our twos and our threes, as well. I think Kalen has done a really tremendous job of managing that to getting these guys to buy into this team and how that helps them as individuals."

While Alabama has yet to add any players in the transfer portal, the Crimson Tide does have a visit set up with Troy tight end Brody Dalton. According to head coach Kalen DeBoer, Alabama only had 'a couple of scholarships' available entering the spring window. Tight end and offensive line have been the two areas Alabama has been linked to the most in the transfer portal, but for depth purposes rather than searching for an immediate starter. If the Tide has no one enter by Saturday's deadline, then Alabama won't need to, nor will it have room for players at other positions.

For the Tide's coaching staff, this helps with self-scouting and post-spring evaluations.

"I'm looking at how are we going to build our roster?" Wommack said. "I'm looking at how many snaps do I think this guy can play against Florida State vs. midway through the season against South Carolina? Those are the things that you're asking yourselves these questions. So if one of the pieces on the chessboard moves, I got to figure those things out."

Right now, no pieces have moved on the board yet.

"Coach DeBoer has done such a great job of being proactive on the front end," Wommack continued. "We've had numerous meetings with players and reached out to their families and representatives to try to make sure we're all on the same page and we're not surprised by anything. I think to this point, we're in a really good place."

While Alabama lost 23 scholarship players in the winter transfer portal window, the Tide added seven from the portal and another 20 from the high school ranks.

"I think we navigated the [winter] transfer portal well," Wommack said. "We were able to retain a number of players via opportunities that maybe they had somewhere else... We were able to bring a couple of great players from the transfer portal in that we would, I would say we hit on as you look to this point."

Despite the lack of losses in the spring window, Wommack is not an advocate for the second window for players to transfer programs.

"I do think there does put a bit of a strain in the spring transfer portal window that you've already began the approach to that next season, and when you take those reps in spring ball and then you're not there to follow through on those reps in the fall, I think that hurts your team," Wommack said. "I do think we maybe need to look at that window specifically and see if we can figure out a navigate that better to where there is a time of what the NFL has - free agency and there's a time of building your roster. Once that roster is built, you know you're going to have that, barring injuries."

"Right now we don't have that because of the spring transfer window, and so that's something we need to look at."

Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.