Kalen DeBoer says Alabama upgraded roster, spent less via transfer portal
Published:
Imports and exports are all the craze in this era of college football, and teams across the nation are proudly proclaiming they accomplished everything they could have wanted and more during the recent transfer-portal cycle.
Alabama and Kalen DeBoer in particular needed to hit home runs in the portal, and the Crimson Tide’s head coach believes that he may received the best bang for his buck back in January.
DeBoer & Co. lost 22 players to the transfer portal while pulling in 20, but despite the unbalanced figures, the third-year head coach emphasized that he believes the team upgraded at various spots while spending less money.
“A lot of the guys we added are better than what we had, and we got them for a lot less money,” DeBoer said.
Linebacker Caleb Woodson (Virginia Tech), wide receiver Noah Rogers (NC State), defensive lineman Devan Thompkins (USC) and offensive lineman Ethan Fields (Ole Miss) are some of the headliners of Alabama’s 2026 portal haul, a group that will be counted upon to right the ship with pressure mounting on the program.
And to DeBoer’s point, the majority of the players that the Tide lost to the portal this offseason weren’t frequent contributors. If this quality-over-quantity strategy pays off for Alabama in 2026, teams across the nation will likely take note.
Will Alabama make it back to the College Football Playoff? Kalshi is taking action on preseason predictions!
Parker is currently the sports editor for the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
