Kalen DeBoer explains Alabama football’s approach to retaining players during transfer portal window

Kalen DeBoer and Alabama football have not seen any of their scholarship players enter the transfer portal during its current window and are working to make sure the Crimson Tide are not hit hard by departures.

Alabama suffered some significant losses to its roster after Nick Saban retired in January. Caleb Downs, Isaiah Bond and Amari Niblack headlined the group of Tide departures. 

DeBoer said Alabama’s staff is meeting with players one-on-one Thursday during an appearance on The Next Round. 

“I’m proud of our staff for developing some relationships,” DeBoer said. “I’m proud of how they’ve really helped to show guys their role 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.”

Alabama could also be shopping in the portal with the offensive line, secondary and wide receiver being among the position groups the Tide could focus on.