SI:AM | Alabama’s Concerning Talent Drain

Plus, grading the Pacers’ trade for Pascal Siakam.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I’m a little surprised Jerry Jones decided to keep Mike McCarthy.

In today’s SI:AM:

🐘 Alabama stars in the portal

🏎️ Pacers get Siakam

☘️ Wemby in Boston

DeBoer’s first big test

Just a week after Nick Saban’s retirement, the Alabama Crimson Tide are feeling the impact of his departure in a major way.

Nearly 30 players on Alabama’s two-deep depth chart have entered the transfer portal since Saban decided to step down, and more could still decide to leave over the next three weeks. (The NCAA gives players 30 days to decide to enter the portal after a coaching change.) It isn’t just the sheer number of players exploring their options via the portal that’s noteworthy—it’s the quality of the players who are looking to leave or already have left. As Richard Johnson writes, some of those in the portal are among the best players in the sport:

Bama has had plenty of players enter in previous cycles under Saban, but they weren’t at the level of the difference makers that went in today. Large blows came Wednesday when elite safety Caleb Downs entered the portal as did freshman left tackle Kadyn Proctor, who started every game this season. Receiver Isaiah Bond, who caught the famous pass from Jalen Milroe to beat Auburn, has already gone to conference rival Texas and Dezz Ricks has committed to Texas A&M. Second leading rusher Roydell Williams is on the move, as is starter Trey Amos. These aren’t just depth pieces; for instance, Downs is one of the best players in college football at any position.

Replacing that talent will be Kalen DeBoer’s first big challenge as coach. That’ll be especially difficult because DeBoer and his staff don’t have deep recruiting ties in the South. Many of his assistants are following him to Tuscaloosa from his previous job at Washington, although he did poach a pair of FBS head coaches with experience in the South to join his staff as assistants (Kane Wommack and Maurice Linguist).

That talent drain shows just how tough a job this could be for DeBoer. Under Saban, Alabama was a perpetual motion machine. His reputation as a coach allowed the school to land top recruiting classes year after year, which helped the team win nearly all its games, which increased its standing among recruits, which led to more top recruiting classes, and so on. But what is there to separate Alabama from other top programs now? Will brand recognition and a robust base of enthusiastic boosters willing to pony up NIL money be enough to maintain the Tide’s talent advantage? Plenty of other schools have those things, and they haven’t been as consistently dominant as Alabama.

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Over the past decade, the only other program that has won as much as the Tide is Ohio State. Georgia, LSU, Texas and Notre Dame have all had down years, to name a few. The biggest names in college football are not immune to periods of mediocrity. Saban made Alabama immune to that during his tenure. It’s been 16 years since the Tide finished a season ranked outside the top 10 in the AP poll. That’s an outrageous run of success, and it’s raised expectations in Tuscaloosa to a ridiculous level. The challenge for DeBoer will be to build a roster capable of meeting those lofty expectations, and as we’ve seen this week, that’s not as easy as Saban made it look.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Jessica Rapfogel/USA TODAY Sports

• Rohan Nadkarni loves the Pacers’ trade for Pascal Siakam, writing that he’ll be a great fit alongside emerging star Tyrese Haliburton.
• Greg Bishop has a profile of Ravens star Kyle Hamilton, who’s listed as a safety but plays all over the field.
• Mitch Goldich ranked all 16 of the possible remaining Super Bowl matchups.
• Ohio State hiring Texas A&M’s Ross Bjork as its next athletic director is a very questionable decision given what he’s done at his previous stops, Pat Forde writes.
• Chris Mannix was in Boston last night, where Victor Wembanyama excelled against the Celtics even as the Spurs lost handily yet again.
• Jon Wertheim’s latest tennis mailbag leads with a question about what to make of Naomi Osaka’s showing at the Australian Open.
• Here are our experts’ picks for the NFL’s divisional round games.
• Warriors assistant coach Dejan Milojević died yesterday in Salt Lake City after having a heart attack at a team dinner the night before. The team’s game against the Jazz was postponed.

The top five...

… things I saw last night:

5. TNT’s broadcast of Red Wings–Panthers. The usual announcers were stuck in Buffalo due to weather, so Liam McHugh, Henrik Lundqvist, Anson Carter and Paul Bissonnette called the game from the studio.

4. LeBron James’s vision on this assist.

3. Cole Caufield hand-eye coordination to bat a puck out of midair for an assist.

2. Bristol City fans’ reaction when their team scored against West Ham in the FA Cup. Bristol City, which plays in England’s second tier, hung on to win over the Premier League side.

1. Dejounte Murray’s game-winner for the Hawks against the Magic.

SIQ

On this day in 1973, who became the first player in MLB history signed specifically to play as a DH?

• Frank Robinson
• Orlando Cepeda
• Harmon Killebrew
• Ron Blomberg

Yesterday’s SIQ: The Denver Broncos beat the Cleveland Browns in the AFC championship game on this day in 1988, thanks in large part to a red zone fumble by which Browns player?

• Bernie Kosar
• Ozzie Newsome
• Kevin Mack
• Earnest Byner

Answer: Earnest Byner. The game was a dramatic one, with the Broncos racing out to a 21–3 lead before the Browns tied it at 31 in the fourth quarter. Denver took the lead late in the quarter on a John Elway touchdown pass to Sammy Winder with about four minutes left. But Cleveland wasn’t dead yet. Bernie Kosar led the Browns down the field, and they had moved the ball deep into Denver territory when, on second-and-5 from the 8-yard line, Kosar handed to Byner. As Byner neared the goal line, Broncos defensive back Jeremiah Castille stripped the ball from him and fell on it.

The turnover all but squashed Cleveland’s hopes of a comeback and sent Denver to its second straight Super Bowl. The Broncos had beaten the Browns in the previous year’s conference title game after Elway’s 98-yard touchdown drive that became known simply as “The Drive.” Similarly, Byner’s turnover is remembered as “The Fumble.”