After finishing outside the top 100 in rushing offense, Alabama had no choice but to address its ground game this offseason. Improvements, however, have been hard to come by.
Kalen DeBoer and general manager Courtney Morgan have six incoming transfers heading into the final week of the Transfer Portal window, and only two, offensive lineman Kaden Strayhorn from Michigan and tight end Josh Ford from Oklahoma State, are on the offensive side of the ball.
The Tide did, momentarily, secure one of the top running backs in the portal, NC State transfer Hollywood Smothers, but over the weekend, he flipped to Texas. That news came the same day as Auburn wide receiver transfer Cam Coleman’s commitment to the Longhorns, who heavily outbid Alabama for his services.
While DeBoer and Morgan’s high school recruiting has been strong, Alabama hasn’t been able to match the deep pockets of NIL era powerhouses in the portal, and that puts the team in a tough spot with 20 outgoing transfers, including five on the offensive line and senior running back Jam Miller’s graduation.
There are a few unclaimed targets still remaining in the portal, but the Tide will need to win a bidding war for the top remaining running back on the market, Michigan State transfer Makhi Frazier. Frazier is the 25th-ranked running back in the portal, according to Saturday Blitz, and the Tide’s best chance of adding a veteran to their backfield for 2026.
Frazier, though, was reportedly on a visit to Ohio State over the weekend and now, Texas A&M is in the mix.
Ohio State and Texas A&M pushing for former Michigan State RB Makhi Frazier
Frazier ran for 520 yards and two touchdowns on 116 carries for a wildly dysfunctional Michigan State offense in 2025, his sophomore year. The McKinney, Texas native entered the transfer portal after the Spartans moved on from Jonathan Smith and hired Pat Fitzgerald.
At 5-foot-10, 218 pounds, he’s a physical tackle-breaker with a low center of gravity and impressive contact balance. Plus, he has a season of experience making something out of nothing, which he could need to do at Alabama if the Tide can’t make major upgrades along the offensive line.
The excitement that Alabama fans had for Smothers dwarfs any anticipation for Frazier’s commitment, but if he can ease the workload on 2026 five-star freshman EJ Crowell early in his career, he’s a worthwhile addition. The only problem is that the Buckeyes and Aggies both view him as a complementary piece of their future backfields as well, and can likely outbid Alabama for his services.
Ohio State is one of the Big Ten’s biggest spenders and with CJ Donaldson out of eligibility and James Peoples transferring to Penn State, the Buckeyes need a player to offset Bo Jackson’s massive workload.
The Aggies have a deep backfield, so they may not be as motivated to spend big on Frazier, but if they are, it could be tough for Alabama to match. The Aggies were also in on Cam Coleman’s recruitment and were seen as a front-runner, along with Texas and Texas Tech, as three of the deepest-pocketed programs in the country.