Your latest Crimson Tide news and notes.
Happy Friday, everyone. The transfer portal closes today, which means that players will not be able to enter. We will still see plenty of guys picking new schools, however, particularly over the next couple of weeks. Alabama has a “Spring 2” semester that starts February 9, which will be in time to get players enrolled so that they can participate in spring practice.
The trenches will be in the crosshairs this spring. Michael Carroll may just be a sophomore, but he will need to be the anchor for the Tide to contend.
“He kept flashing in practice when he’d go against our defense and go against our top guys,” UA offensive line coach Chris Kapilovic said of Carroll in December. “And he was doing some good things and so we started giving him more reps each game, and when he got out there, he did it. He did a nice job. He showed that he could play. He showed the moment wasn’t too big and we just felt like he brought something to the table that maybe some of the other guys didn’t have.”
For 2026, Carroll positively has to stay on the same path if Alabama is going to have a successful year. The Crimson Tide hasn’t found an obvious offensive line starter in the portal, so it will likely be relying on some young talent.
Alabama has a bunch of visitors coming in this weekend, primarily for both lines of scrimmage.
Six scholarship defensive linemen from 2025 remain: Fatutoa Henry, Steve Bolo Mbomoua, Isaia Faga, London Simmons, Jeremiah Beaman and Edric Hill, who combined for 811 total snaps, per Pro Football Focus, 59 tackles and 7.5 tackles-for-loss in 2025.
Young reinforcements were already secured in a five-man defensive line recruiting class headlined by top-60 Georgia native Jamarion Matthews. But Alabama sought experience to mend the gap between the youth movement and the present.
That desire turned into USC transfer Devan Thompkins and Mississippi State transfer Kedrick Bingley-Jones: two linemen with at least four seasons and 600 snaps of experience. Alabama also used the portal to build toward its future in Washington transfer Caleb Smith, who has four seasons of eligibility remaining.
The question of defensive line production isn’t solved. Alabama’s Bandit defensive end room is gutted and remains without a proven answer. Will Alabama continue to rotate inside with a mix of young and experienced players?
Cam Calhoun found a home in Columbus.
“You go back and you look, OK, what’s the best option to get the best two-deep across the board? How do we get the best players on the field? Cam’s certainly gonna be a part of that equation, probably in multiple areas. So, really proud of him and the work that he’s done in a year’s time to be able to contribute.”
Calhoun did get on the field a bit, playing most of his snaps on special teams, but did not make a major contribution on defense. He finished 2025 with seven tackles, a pass breakup and a fumble recovery.
He was the second Alabama defensive back to decide to hit the transfer portal. Calhoun joined safety Kameron Howard, who later committed to Boston College.
The NCAA has lost a bunch of lawsuits, but the courts still haven’t flinched on the five year eligibility period to play four, as long as all five were at the Division I level.
U.S. District Judge William L. Campbell wrote that the players did not make the case that they likely would succeed on their claim that the NCAA violates U.S. antitrust laws with its redshirt rule that restricts athletes to four seasons over five years.
“Accordingly, the motion for Preliminary Injunction … is DENIED,” Campbell wrote in the 20-page ruling.
Four of the five players testified in a Dec. 15 hearing that coaches wanted them back but would turn to the transfer portal for experienced replacements they can’t return.
All five have competed four seasons in four years without taking a redshirt year. They are: Vanderbilt linebacker Langston Patterson; kicker Nathanial Vakos, tight end Lance Mason and long snapper Nick Levy, all of Wisconsin; and Nebraska long snapper Kevin Gallic.
Everyone is talking about Indiana right now, as they seem primed to become the first national champion in decades without the customary number of blue chip recruits. Their success has made fans chippy.
Cignetti determined in October after Penn State opened that he had what he needed at IU, signing a new contract that will make him a top-three highest-paid coach in college football. Then he beat Ohio State, Alabama and Oregon.
Indiana became a good job, and other places that used to be above Indiana might no longer be. Should coaches be evaluated differently as a result?
“These organizations have to demonstrate who they want to be,” the second agent said. “If you’ve got money like Indiana and you don’t win, maybe you picked the wrong guy. But if you’ve got other obstacles, Cignetti got the obstacles removed from him. I don’t think everybody’s going to have that.”
It will be difficult for administrators to explain to fans that Indiana football has more resources and fewer obstacles than their given school. Big Ten peers Wisconsin and Maryland brought back their struggling head coaches for next season and announced they would need to increase roster spending. Those decisions were largely met with groans from fans.
“I think it’s independent to each situation,” a head coach said.
“We shall see, but my first reaction is absolutely (that patience is thinning),” a second Power 4 AD said.
Nobody is going to be feeling this more than Lane Kiffin at LSU. Much money has been spent on that roster and the expectations will be off the charts.
Brandon Marcello dug a little deeper into Indiana’s run.
“As Cig has said, he wants performance, not potential, which is exactly what he focused on,” Cuban told CBS Sports. “He put together a team where players knew their roles coming in, a coaching staff that could take those experienced players and mold them quickly, and an organization that understood exactly how to get the pieces they needed.”
The baker’s dozen from James Madison was charged with setting the tone, holding their new teammates to the standards they already knew.
“It’s a very veteran group,” said center Pat Coogan, who transferred from Notre Dame before the 2025 season. “It’s a mature group. It’s a group that’s been around the block, played a lot of football, and a group that knows how to take (Cignetti’s) messages and put them on the field,”
As I mentioned before, this really isn’t a team of free agents. The core have been together for multiple years, from James Madison to Indiana, and several of them wouldn’t be eligible without the COVID year. This is a special blend of players and it will be difficult to sustain once they are gone. Lots of schools have money to spend, but keeping young players around long enough to develop is the challenge.
Last, the late, great Cecil Hurt will again be honored posthumously.
Hall of fame honors are expanding for the late Cecil Hurt, known as the sports voice of The Tuscaloosa News for decades, starting in 1982.
On behalf of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, USBWA president Matt Norlander announced on Wednesday, Jan. 14, that Hurt is one of five writers to be inducted into the 2026 Joe Mitch Hall of Fame.
A longtime sports columnist and sports editor for The Tuscaloosa News prior to his death in November 2021, Hurt was also posthumously memorialized in the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame in April 2024. He was honored by the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2019.
He is missed.
That’s about it for today. Have a great weekend.
Roll Tide.
Category: General Sports
