With all the spring portal talk revolving around Nico Iamaleava and the number of players currently in the 2025 spring portal, it is a very welcome sight to see everything quiet on the outgoing transfer portal front in Tuscaloosa. I am sure some more names may jump into the portal before the end of this spring cycle, but usually, names start to appear on the list right after the spring game. It seems going into his second season as the head man in Tuscaloosa that Kalen Deboer seems far more confident with everything, and that is huge for this team.
There was quite a bit of uncertainty after Coach Saban retired last January, and there seemed to be that same uncertainty seemed to still exist after a less than stellar 2024 campaign based on the amount of players who left in the portal.
The players who haven't transferred and are still part of the program seem to have bought into what DeBoer and his staff are preaching. Having a more experienced offensive coordinator in Ryan Grubb has things looking far more normal as well.
Last year at this time, coaches were walking around on eggshells more so to make sure they could keep as many players from leaving as possible. It seems he has his fingerprint on the program and has the guys he wants filling out the roster spots. There were a lot of good things that seemed to come out of spring, outside of A-Day itself, and it seems that will bode well coming out of spring ball and into the transfer period, etc, before fall camp starts.
As far as additions out of the portal this spring, I would like to see a few more bodies added along the offensive line and the interior of the defensive line for depth purposes. Being able to switch players like a hockey lineup change isn't nearly as common as it once was in Tuscaloosa. But, even with the common explosion in the transfer portal, defensive depth will go hand in hand with how successful the Tide can be in 2025.
There are quite a few teams on the schedule that look like they will have prolific offenses, and addressing depth will help the 2025 defensive unit be even more consistent than they were the majority of 2024.