The college football regular season is just about over. After the Army-Navy game on Saturday, the regular season will come to a close and give way to bowl season and the College Football Playoff. But that doesn’t mean that college football won’t be out of the spotlight. Now is the time for the transfer portal to start popping, and is it popping. Just
about 3,000 players have put their names in the transfer portal looking for greener pastures elsewhere, which could come in the form of more playing time or playing closer to home, or maybe just a change of scenery. As always, the teams at the top of college football are going to be the ones to look for many players in the portal. Alabama football surely qualifies as one of those teams.
Since Alabama was one of the four teams that advanced to the College Football Playoffs, they are currently not concentrating on the transfer portal. However, they will undoubtedly remain occupied in the portal and try to extort players from there. They’ve had success there before; after transferring out of Georgia, Jermaine Burton, Alabama’s top receiver this season, was acquired through the portal. Players will want to visit Alabama, the NFL factory. Whom should the Tide try to reach through the portal, is the question.
With 777 yards this season, Jermaine Burton led Alabama football in receiving. However, the Tide could use another receiver to play alongside Burton and Isaiah Bond or possibly replace Burton, who could leave for the NFL after this season. Purdue’s Deion Burks is arguably the best receiver on the portal. Although Burks hasn’t been mentioned as a possible suitor yet, the transfer portal already has him in high demand. If Bama wanted to, and probably should, they could enter the Burks sweepstakes.
Burks’ stats don’t stand out on the screen. In his three college seasons, he has amassed 804 yards; this season, he has gained 629 of them. But, there’s a rationale behind that. In Purdue’s offense, Burks was not a top player in 2021 and 2022, trailing Charlie Jones and David Bell. In the NFL Draft, those two players were selected. Additionally, Purdue’s pass attack appears to have left with head coach Jeff Brohm when he left for Louisville and quarterback Aidan O’Connell declared for the NFL Draft. While they threw for at least 3,900 yards in each of the previous two seasons, Purdue only managed 2,534 yards this year. Burks was overworked.
