The Alabama Crimson Tide lost 21 players to the transfer portal upon the conclusion of the regular season, leaving depth questions at numerous positions ahead of the new season.

Alabama Football Transfer Portal Tracker: Players Coming and Going This Winter

The Crimson Tide signed a top-five recruiting class in December, but turned to the transfer portal to replace its departing talent, adding 19 players to the roster ahead of the new season. Alabama overhauled the trenches by adding six offensive linemen and five defensive linemen, brought in a wide receiver, and heated the special teams room by bringing in a kicker. Here are the top five incoming transfers for the Crimson Tide.

Terrance Green is a 6-foot-5, 330-pound defensive lineman from Oregon. Green was a rotational defensive lineman for the Ducks this season and was considered the No. 30 defensive lineman in the Class of 2023. He totaled 23 tackles, including three for loss, one sack, and three pass breakups in 25 games for the Ducks.

Green’s size makes him an ideal candidate for Alabama’s starting nose guard spot after Tim Keenan exhausted his eligibility. Green was considered a top 10 defensive lineman in the transfer portal and brings experience playing high-level football. As a redshirt junior, he’ll stabilize a position group riddled with youth.

Racin Delgatty is a 6-foot-4, 300-pound center from Cal Poly. He was All-Big Sky Second Team in 2025 after starting all 12 games for the FCS Mustangs. The former 3-star recruit allowed just 11 pressures on 460 pass-blocking snaps last season and plays with a mean streak that stands out on tape.

Delgatty steps into the Crimson Tide center position after two-year starter Parker Brailsford declared for the NFL Draft. He offers the offense an experienced player, as he’s played in 21 games for Cal Poly over the last two seasons. Delgatty becomes the centerpiece in a revamped offensive line and will be snapping to a new starting quarterback.

Jayvin James is a 6-foot-5, 320-pound left tackle from Mississippi State. He was considered a 3-star tackle in the Class of 2023. James went to Akron before transferring to Mississippi State. He has 21 starts throughout his time in college football and he gave up three sacks in 2025 for the Bulldogs.

James likely steps into the Crimson Tide’s left tackle spot ahead of the new year. Alabama will be sporting a brand new left tackle for the first time in three seasons as Kadyn Proctor declared for the NFL Draft. He will be challenged for the position by Michigan transfer Ty Haywood and redshirt freshman Jackson Lloyd.

Ethan Fields is a 6-foot-4, 315-pound offensive lineman from Ole Miss. He was considered a 3-star prospect in the Class of 2023. He redshirted in 2023, played in four games in 2024, and appeared in five games in 2025.

Fields likely steps into one of Alabama’s vacated guard positions in 2026. The Crimson Tide saw Jaeden Roberts, Kam Dewberry and Geno VanDeMark all exhaust their eligibility, leaving both the right and left guard positions open. Fields brings SEC experience to the room and will challenge Will Sanders and Michigan transfer Kaden Strayhorn for a starting role.

Noah Rodgers is a 6-foot-2, 200-pound wide receiver from N.C. State. He appeared in 26 games, catching 68 passes for 919 yards and three touchdowns over the last two seasons and was considered the No. 8 wide receiver in the Class of 2023.

Rogers adds depth and experience to Alabama’s wide receiver room as he enters his redshirt junior season. His size and length make him an asset to a position group that lost Germie Bernard to graduation and Isaiah Horton to the transfer portal. The athletic pass catcher should thrive in opportunities opposite Ryan Williams and Lotzeir Brooks, as the coverage struggles to keep up with Alabama’s numerous options.

Honorable Mentions: Defensive lineman Devan Thompkins and edge rusher Desmond Umeozulu stand out as the two biggest names not to crack the top-five. Thompkins, out of Southern California is an experienced defender with 4.5 sacks in 27 games played. He will have an opportunity to start for the Crimson Tide at the defensive tackle position in Kane Wommack’s defense and could become key playmaker in the 2026 Alabama defense. Umeozulu played his last three seasons at South Carolina and looks to contribute as a pass-rusher along the defensive front. The senior was third on the Gamecocks in quarterback pressures last season, making him an exciting addition to Wommack’s side.

After leading the Bullock County football team on a historic playoff run, Jeremy Vines is leaving to take the Hueytown job.

Vines announced the move on social media Thursday.

“I am excited for the next chapter and challenge ahead,” he said.

Vines led the Hornets to a 9-4 record and the first two playoff wins in school history. His team beat Oak Grove 21-7 and Mobile Christian 21-0 in the Class 4A playoffs before losing at No. 1 St. Michael in the quarterfinals.

Bullock County had never won a playoff game and only been in the postseason twice before this past season.

“When I arrived at Bullock County, my goal was simple: to leave the program better than it was when I found it,” he said. “Together, we did that.”

Vines was 18-16 in three seasons as the Hornets’ head coach. The Alabama Sports Writers Association named him the Class 4A coach of the season for 2025.

He will replace veteran coach Greg Patterson at Hueytown. Patterson stepped down earlier this month after seven years at the school. The Gophers made the playoffs in each season and reached the 6A championship game in 2021.

This is a guest opinion column

Alabama parents are right to be alarmed about what their children encounter online.

Anxiety, exploitation, compulsive spending, and exposure to adult strangers are documented realities with life-altering consequences. And, unfortunately, these harms are no accident – they’re the deliberate product of an online world designed to profit from kids’ innocence and parents’ unfamiliarity.

Luckily, the Alabama House, led by Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter and Representative Chris Sells, is taking real steps to protect kids online. Last week, the Alabama House opened the 2026 legislative session with a unanimous committee vote to advance House Bill 161, the App Store Accountability Act, a child safety bill supported by more than 170 child advocacy organizations across the country, including Heritage and Moms for Liberty.

House Bill 161 will finally give parents a fighting chance at protecting their kids from bad actors online by establishing clear, enforceable, and parent-centered guardrails that apply equally across the digital ecosystem – no carveouts, no exceptions. Under the bill, app stores would be required to securely verify users’ age and, for underage users, require app stores to get parental approval before children can download apps or make in-app purchases.

In order to ensure parents can make confident decisions of which apps they allow their kids to download, House Bill 161 will also require accurate, transparent age-rating information parents need to make a well-informed choice about whether a platform is appropriate.

These protections are simple but effective. They work within app stores’ secure infrastructure and protect free speech by targeting app stores’ contracting practices – not individual apps’ content.

Most importantly, House Bill 161 is a solution that most Alabama parents actually want. According to a poll by the Alabama Policy Institute, 83 percent of Alabama parents and voters support requiring app stores to get parental approval before children can download apps – one of the key components of House Bill 161. With strong, bipartisan support, House Bill 161 is commonsense legislation that will immediately help Alabama parents.

Apple and Google’s app stores form the gateways to all kinds of online risks. They distribute sexualized AI chatbots, dating and hookup apps, and even apps that appear harmless on the surface, such as rogue Bible or weather apps, that investigations have shown offer children backdoors to obscene content. In the process, they make no distinction between vulnerable youth and consenting adults, brokering contracts between minor users and developers that any judge would deem unenforceable.

App stores aggressively promote risky platforms to underage users under labels like “Must-Have Apps” displayed in prominent locations. Plus, recent Federal Trade Commission complaints outline how app stores often know when a user is a child, and yet fail to share that information with app developers, causing apps to default to adult settings that subject children to exact location tracking, contact from strangers, and even more of their personal data. This is why House Bill 161 is desperately needed – to put parents back in charge.

Unsurprisingly, rather than investing time in improving their products for families and children, the tech industry has chosen to instead introduce their own, misleading bill that does nothing to actually empower parents or protect kids. Big Tech’s alternative bill, House Bill 219, is a distraction and stall tactic lacking the accountability mechanisms that make House Bill 161 (the App Store Accountability Act) the most effective solution.

House Bill 219 attempts to replace House Bill 161’s secure age verification and verifiable parental consent with self-declared age and opt-in age signaling, allowing kids to lie about their age while app stores turn a blind eye.

App stores are not bystanders; they are powerful enablers. As the gatekeepers of the online world, they decide when an app can be downloaded, what information parents see, whether a child is treated as a minor or an adult, and how easily money and data flow out of a family’s home.

Alabama families are asking for clearer rules, real transparency, and a fair chance to protect their children before harm occurs, not after. House Bill 161 does exactly that – empowering parents with real authority at the point of access and offering the strongest, most effective solution to keep Alabama’s children safe online. It is time for the Alabama House and Senate to pass House Bill 161, the App Store Accountability Act.

Melea Stephens is a practicing marriage and family therapist in Alabama and a board member of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.