For Alabama football fans, there is always a fallback to disappointment. The rare-to-fail remedy is to make fun of the Auburn Tigers. It seems some Alabama football fans added to the Rose Bowl embarrassment with panic responses to missing out on two or three Portal targets. Most notable was former Auburn 5-star wide receiver Cam Coleman. Texas kicked Alabama twice by landing Coleman and flipping NCSU transfer and Alabama commit and enrollee, Hollywood Smothers.
A knee-jerk ‘look at Auburn’s mess’ was not available to soothe Crimson Tide fans. Auburn does have the lowest Transfer Ranking among SEC teams, at No. 67 nationally. Alabama could not make fun of that because, without Coleman and Smothers, Alabama was sitting at No. 60. The Tigers and the Crimson Tide had the SEC’s two lowest transfer rankings.
The Crimson Tide added two transfers on Monday: offensive lineman Ty Haywood (former Alabama commit and Michigan transfer) and NCSU wide receiver Noah Rogers. The additions boosted Alabama’s ranking to No. 56. That is still close in proximity to Auburn, but now two SEC teams, Missouri and Auburn, trail the Crimson Tide.
More serious and potentially more troubling is a perspective from Andrew Hughes about what the Tide and the Tigers might share. Hughes discussed that Alabama and Auburn share a disadvantage in landing transfers: “Throw a dart on the nearest U.S. map outside the southeast, and there’s a good chance you’ll land in a region that has a program that can dwarf the Tigers and Tide’s spending….The margins of error are extremely thin for most SEC teams. Auburn and Alabama included. That’ll be the case as long as the Cody Campbells, Larry Ellisons, Mark Cuban’s, Phil Knights, and Les Wexners of the world are throwing their wallets around to buy rosters.”
Is the Alabama Crimson Tide not in a ‘Champions Club’?
For most SEC teams, the only productive response is explained by Hughes: “SEC teams outside of Texas, and perhaps Baton Rouge, need to have efficient, culture-setting head coaches and position coaches who can actually develop talent…. Otherwise, the high-roller champions’ club is now more exclusive, and it appears neither Auburn nor Alabama got the invite.”
It is a sobering thought if Hughes is correct. He usually is.