Who Does Nick Saban Wish He Had Back from the Portal? Just A Minute

Transcript

00:00 Alongside Katie Windham, I am Austin Hanna. This is Bama Central's Just a Minute.

00:04 Katie, last night, head coach Nick Saban talked about the transfer portal a little bit.

00:07 And out of the 21 guys that have entered the portal since the beginning of last year,

00:11 he mentioned that there was just one guy that he wished was still on the team this season

00:15 and kind of went on a little bit of a tangent about it. There was a lot of talk in the media

00:20 room about it. Obviously, there's a lot of talk on social media about it when it got out there.

00:23 I'm curious to hear who you think that player was.

00:27 Yeah, it's kind of interesting that he would single out just one person, even though I guess

00:30 I can't really say single out because obviously he didn't mention them by name. But with how many

00:36 guys enter the portal now, that there is just one he wishes would have stuck around. And based on,

00:43 you know, the question was kind of wide receiver related. So because of that, maybe that got his

00:47 brain thinking in the direction of the wide receiver room they have and maybe a wide receiver

00:51 he wished they still had. So I think maybe he was talking about Aaron Anderson, a highly rated

00:55 freshman last year that had a lot of talent, but that didn't maybe necessarily get things going

01:00 his freshman year and didn't get a lot of playing time, which isn't an indictment on talent at

01:05 Alabama because it's tough to work your way up the depth chart. And so I think he's probably a guy

01:10 that Alabama wishes would have stayed in the program and continue to develop and continue to

01:14 get better and maybe played a bigger role down the line. Of course, there are guys that contribute

01:18 and play big as a freshman. Think, you know, Julio Jones, Colin Ridley. But there's also guys

01:23 that come along later on. And so I think he's a guy that they obviously recruited him for a reason

01:27 in which he would have stuck around. I don't think Saban's blaming anyone for leaving Alabama.

01:31 There's multiple reasons guys enter the portal. And Anderson went closer to home at LSU. He's from

01:36 Louisiana. And so that could have been part of it for him. But I think that may have been who

01:40 Saban was talking about. Yeah. Anderson, one of the top players at a high school in Louisiana.

01:44 It's interesting you said receiver and especially with the way he's been talking about, you know,

01:49 drops this offseason and, you know, consistency at wide receiver, you would think that maybe

01:54 that is a position that he would like a little bit more depth that obviously Alabama also lost

01:57 Jojo Earl. I think that that's a name that a lot of people kind of were interested in hearing about.

02:01 He kind of looks pretty good in the time he got last year in his second year in Tuscaloosa.

02:06 Obviously, they lost TraeShon Holden as well, who was a little bit underwhelming

02:10 during his career in Alabama, but was still a player that contributed when he was in the game.

02:13 So we won't know. Probably he probably won't let us know on what that player exactly he's

02:18 talking about. But that's the Nick Saban fashion and we'll hear more from him next week. So for

02:23 Katie Windham, I'm Austin Hannan. This has been Bama Central's Just a Minute. Thanks for watching.

02:27 [BLANK_AUDIO]