TRENDING: Newly Cemented Alabama Football Head Coach Kalen DeBoer Uses ‘Relationships’ to Navigate Transfer Portal; ‘We Are Meeting With Them Individually, One-on-One’ – REPORT – 2024 Offseason
The transfer portal has become a way of life for every team in America, including the juggernaut Alabama football program. With fewer rules than ever regarding the portal and player compensation through name, image, and likeness (NIL), college athletes don’t feel obligated to stay at one school, even the Alabama Crimson Tide.
On the heels of longtime head coach Nick Saban retiring after 17 seasons and six national titles, the Crimson Tide lost a wave of players to the transfer portal. However, newly hired frontman Kalen DeBoer is trying his best to combat the portal. DeBoer led the Washington Huskies to the College Football Playoff Championship in 2023 before falling to the Michigan Wolverines. He will lead Alabama in 2024.
Alabama Football HC Kalen DeBoer: Unique Approach to Transfer Portal
Kalen DeBoer, the newest head coach for the Alabama football program, seems more focused on the players on his current roster than those in the transfer portal. DeBoer has made it a point of emphasis for him and his staff to form relationships with the players already enrolled at Alabama in hopes of meeting their needs and the team’s needs while keeping them out of the portal.
During an appearance on The Next Round Live internet show, DeBoer said, “I’m proud of our staff for developing some relationships. I’m proud of how they’ve really helped to show guys their roles in the team and helped the buy-in to those roles happen. There is almost 130 guys on our team, and we are meeting with them individually one-on-one, every single one of them, so those are really important meetings that are happening.”
