A former ALABAMA standout now on the coaching staff just dropped a blunt question that’s turning heads across Tuscaloosa: what is the Crimson Tide really losing to the transfer portal right now?
Former Alabama safety HaHa Clinton-Dix, who serves one of the team’s director of player development, offered an opinion Tuesday about the players the Tide has lost to the transfer portal through its first five days of being open.
“Go watch the tape and tell me what guys y’all are upset about leaving based off production? I’m in the office all day. I’ll wait,” Clinton-Dix wrote on X.
Added Clinton-Dix in a reply: “Potential this is a production business we have to develop & Win in this collegiate game we don’t check off a box called potential.”
Alabama has lost 16 members of its 2025 roster to the portal since it opened Friday, although it’s possible players could choose to return. Among that group are three players with significant starting experience in defensive tackle James Smith, linebacker Qua Russaw and offensive lineman Wilkin Formby.
Former Alabama coach Nick Saban has spoken in recent years about how teams like Alabama do not often lose their best players to the portal but rather backups, and noted how that can thin a program’s depth over time.
Clinton-Dix joined Alabama in a player development role before the 2023 season, following his retirement from the NFL. Two other former Alabama players, Josh Chapman and Denzell Devall, are also part of the player development staff, which is not part of the coaching staff and includes mentoring players’ off-field well-being.
Clinton-Dix was similarly outspoken in the middle of the 2024 season when then-defensive tackle Jehiem Oatis left the team to enter the transfer portal. Wrote Clinton-Dix at the time: “Players are opting out to redshirt a year because they didn’t get playing time? What about creating good habits and working on your craft? Just quit. No more reps at practice no more routines? Just go into the portal rusty? Got it.”
