A longstanding adage in college football recruiting is to worry about the ones you get, not the ones you don’t.
Now that players may freely transfer without penalty, recruiting extends beyond pursuing high school prospects. A coach must worry about the recruits he signs, worry about the players he fears will transfer, and worry about the transfer targets he aims to add.
Worry, worry, worry.
For Alabama coach Nick Saban, fifth-year senior linebacker Jaylen Moody at least should offer some peace of mind.
Moody entered the transfer portal in January, removed his name from the portal about a week later, and he’s contending for a starting linebacker spot alongside Henry To’o To’o.
Why did Moody stay?
“This is where I want to be,” he said Tuesday.
That’s as good a reason as any.
Alabama head coach Nick Saban.
By landing To’o To’o from Tennessee last spring and retaining Moody, Saban threaded a needle. He upgraded a position’s talent with a marquee transfer while managing to keep a valuable veteran, whose playing time was affected by the transfer’s arrival.
Navigating that tightrope might prove more challenging for Alabama than signing five-star recruits, but in the case of To’o To’o and Moody, Saban showed it can be done.
Saban is the best coach in college football history in part because he’s the best recruiter in the sport’s history, but his program isn’t immune to the roster turnover that increased after last year’s rule change made transferring more enticing.
“I don’t think our good players are going to be leaving, but I think we’ll be able to get some good players to join us when we have room to do that,” Saban predicted last April after the NCAA modified transfer rules.
Saban’s prophecy proved at least partially correct. Alabama has secured talented transfers, although not to the abundance of SEC peers like Ole Miss or LSU, but it also has lost “good players,” depending on one’s definition of the term.
Last year, To’o To’o and…