Alabama football added two transfers to its roster this off-season, and Nick Saban discussed the Crimson Tide’s thinking when pulling from the portal during his Monday press conference after the Tide’s first spring practice.
CJ Dippre and Trezmen Marshall recently transferred into the program. Dippre is a tight end, and he is coming from Maryland, where he caught 30 passes for 314 yards and three touchdowns last season. Marshall is a linebacker, who played for Georgia for the last three years. He had 19 total tackles and one sack for the Bulldogs last season.
Saban dove into his thoughts when looking for those two and previous players in the portal Monday.
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“What we’ve tried to do when it comes to the portal is look at guys that we think can make an immediate impact on our team,” Saban said. “We have always tried to build our team with good recruiting of good young players who sort of fit the culture of what we want to do. If we feel like we have a need at a position where we see someone who can come in and make an immediate impact. I think most of the players that we’ve taken from the portal, and I think there has been six prior to this year, five of those guys all made significant impacts on the team. One guy got injured and probably didn’t have the opportunity to do it, or he probably would’ve made an impact as well. We’re going to continue that same philosophy of how we bring guys into the team. We still have to manage the roster. We still have to manage numbers, and I think you always got to take that into consideration when you’re dealing with the portal as well.”
Both Marshall and Dippre are expected to challenge for playing time this spring and fall.
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