It is important to remember that Alabama has already accepted four transfers, one of which came from Washington this past week and followed DeBoer.
If the Tigers did not feel they had a qualified candidate internally and looked at an external hire, then it is very likely that the program would have similar departures to what Alabama has seen in the past ten days.
We should note that Alabama has already taken four transfers, including one this week from Washington who followed DeBoer. With the ripple effect Saban’s retirement has created, there has been a new influx of players into the portal.
It is reasonable to believe that DeBoer and his staff will be looking at and taking several more transfers to fill out their roster. Alabama is still Alabama too. They might not be annual Top 3 finishers in the recruiting rankings, but they will still pull talented groups.
Time will tell how this impacts the Tide in the big picture, but there is a good chance this is just a bump in the road. It could be the same for Clemson if Swinney were to decide to relax and enjoy his retirement.
It pulled quarterback Austin Mack from Washington, and now Kalen DeBoer has added his second player from the Huskies to his roster for the Crimson Tide. Parker Brailsford, an offensive lineman, committed to Alabama on Saturday. The 6-foot-2, 275-pounder is one of the top centers in college football. He guided Washington’s offensive unit to capture the Joe Moore Award in 2023, pushing the Huskies’ offense to 14 victories, a Pac-12 Championship, a win over Texas in the Allstate Sugar Bowl, and an appearance in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game against Michigan.
Brailsford protected Michael Penix to account for 4,903 passing yards and 39 total touchdowns.
He set up blocking schemes for Dillon Johnson to total 1,195 yards rushing and 16 touchdowns on 233 carries. Brailsford’s excellence up front helped Washington have two 1,000-yard receivers.
