According to a report from Matt Hayes and USA Today, Alabama football contacted Carson Beck after he entered the NCAA's Transfer Portal last week. While I'm sure that information was provided by a source to Hayes, the story makes little sense when you break it down.
First and foremost, Beck entered the Transfer Portal with a "do not contact" tag, meaning programs were forbidden from reaching out to him and signaling that Beck had a destination in mind already so anyone who did reach out would be wasting their time. Less than 24 hours later, Beck announced his commitment to Miami, the destination that was rumored the moment he entered the portal.
Alabama would certainly not be the first program to break the rules and contact players when they aren't supposed to. I have no issue believing they would do that. If you aren't cheating in today's college football, you aren't trying. And you're falling behind.
Beck is certainly a good enough quarterback to warrant the risk of alienating Ty Simpson, and if Alabama did reach out to Beck it doesn't bode well for the confidence the staff has in Simpson and the rest of the QB room in 2025.
But why would Beck have been the first QB Alabama contacted in this transfer cycle? If Kalen DeBoer was genuinely concerned with the Crimson Tide's QB room and had his doubts about Simpson's viability as the team's starting QB next season, wouldn't Alabama have been aggressive in the portal from the jump?
Guys like Washington State's John Mateer, Cal's Fernando Mendoza, and USC's Miller Moss were proven starters that would seemingly be good fits in DeBoer's offense and an upgrade over what Alabama had at QB this past season.
There was no contact between Alabama and any portal QB that was reported until today's USA Today piece on Beck.
Hayes' source is clearly someone in Beck's camp. I believe he told Hayes that Alabama reached out to Beck. But that doesn't make that statement true. For many years, recruits have been placing Alabama hats on the table when they announce their college destinations despite not having a commitable offer from the Crimson Tide.
Why? Because Alabama is the biggest brand in the sport and holding an offer from the Crimson Tide means something. It also means something for other schools to be able to claim they "beat" Alabama for a prospect.
Beck was undoubtedly a hot commodity, and it makes him even more so if the Crimson Tide were reaching out to him.
Whether or not this story is actually true is something that will never actually be known except by the parties involved. Beck's camp leaking an Alabama phone call makes sense. Alabama reaching out doesn't make a ton of sense, but if they did it's not something they would want out there anyway so as to not alienate Simpson.
But the story doesn't make a lot of sense from here with what is currently known.