It’s a relatively safe guess that Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne didn’t inquire whether Kalen DeBoer can juggle when he interviewed the new UA football coach.
Not in the literal sense, anyway.
But it won’t take long to know how well Alabama football’s new coach can handle multiple balls in the air. Assembling a coaching staff, recruiting, and retention of current players − who have three-plus more weeks to transfer freely due to the coaching change prompted by Nick Saban’s retirement − should be front and center on his to-do list.
House-hunting? For an Alabama coach hired in January, that’s for spring.
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The juggle for DeBoer, however, isn’t so much about how many balls he can keep in the air as it is about identifying the ones that would do the most damage if dropped. And on the roster front, that’s got to start with two names: Caleb Downs and Ryan Williams.
Downs, the dynamic freshman safety who was a staple in a very good Alabama secondary last season, should be DeBoer’s highest priority when it comes to retention. Not only because of his skill on the field, but because he’d be a potential leader in the locker room for more than one year to come. DeBoer needs both players and leaders right now. Downs has what it takes for both roles; Saban saw Downs as a future anchor in the locker room as well as on the field. And because he’s two years away from being eligible to declare for the NFL draft, he’s of greater value to the program than someone who could push the NFL draft button after next season.
That’s not to say there aren’t plenty of other important puzzle pieces on the retention front, but several have made it known they’re not going…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/where-ryan-williams-fits-alabama-002846993.html
Author : The Tuscaloosa News
Publish date : 2024-01-16 00:28:46
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