Saban: Transferring Alabama players declined chance to play in Sugar Bowl

NEW ORLEANS — Alabama didn’t have to deal with any opt-outs from its current players, but its depth still took a hit heading into Saturday’s Sugar Bowl.

The Crimson Tide has had 12 scholarship players enter the transfer portal this season, including 10 who have entered since the end of regular-season play. None of those players will be available against Kansas State on Saturday, much to the dismay of their head coach.

“I gave them all the opportunity to play in the game if they wanted to, and they didn’t,” Nick Saban said during his Sugar Bowl press conference Friday. “I don’t know if that’s a good thing for players, not to have to stay committed to their team for an entire season.”

Four of Alabama’s transfers started at least one game this season. Javion Cohen started 11 games at left guard before announcing his transfer to Miami earlier this month. Receivers Traeshon Holden and JoJo Earle started five games apiece before announcing their departures to Oregon and TCU respectively. Cornerback Khyree Jackson, who is committed to Oregon, also started a game but hasn’t played since the Nov. 5 game against LSU.

“The transfer portal has created a real challenge for all of us in terms of how to manage rosters,” Saban said. “Name image and likeness is something I think is great for the players if we can keep it in the context of them being able to do that. When you start using it to get guys to come to certain schools based on how much money they can make, I’m not sure — That’s the reason that you go to college is to create value for your future. So that’s going to trickle down to the high schools in terms of some guys are going to say ‘I’m not going to play for my team in high school because I’m going to get this much money to go somewhere and go to college.”

Five of Alabama’s transfer portal entrants came on the offensive line while four were wide receivers. That creates a bit of a challenge at both positions in terms of game prep heading into Saturday’s Sugar Bowl. Alabama is currently left with 11 scholarship linemen and nine scholarship receivers available against Kansas State.

“Anybody who wants to be here he’s going to be here, and everybody who’s going to play is going to play,” Alabama right tackle J.C. Latham said Tuesday. “That’s how we handle that. The guys who are invested into the team, the guys who are committed to the team, they’re guys who I know are going to give their best effort. And that’s really all you can ask for in any sports organization that you have. You want guys who are going to compete and go all out and things of that nature.”

Starting receiver Ja’Corey Brooks shares a similar mindset with his position group.

“We loved all the guys that were here but, you know, as a team they’re not here anymore so the guys that are in the room know they had to step up,” he said. “We all had to step up. Really nothing had to change. Everybody still plays their role and everybody has to do their job.”

Despite the challenge presented by transferring players, Saban called this week “the most enjoyable bowl practice experience we have ever had,” outside of the team’s playoff appearances. During an appearance on his radio show Thursday night, the head coach said much of that has been due to the complete focus of the remaining players.

“All the blinking lights are gone,” Saban said. “You know what I mean by blinking lights? You know when you look at a Christmas tree and one light’s blinking and that’s all you look a is the blinking light? You don’t see the beauty of all the rest of it.

“Well, when you have guys on your team sometimes that I call ‘energy vampires,’ you use all your energy on these guys trying to get them to do what they’re supposed to do. Those are the kind of guys that don’t end up playing in bowl games and don’t end up doing the best thing and make the best choices and decisions for the team and all that because they’ve got other motives, which I’m not being critical of. But this team has really worked hard and done really, really well, and a lot of players on our team have made a significant improvement.”

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