Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer confirms that one offensive weapon is no longer on the roster, and hasn’t been ‘for quite a while’
Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer confirmed that one of the Crimson Tide’s wide receivers is no longer on the team.
The Alabama Crimson Tide have a loaded wide receiver room. Going into the season, many believed it was one of the best and deepest groups in all of college football, which should be expected when you combine your top two returning players with key pieces who were either injured, highly sought-after additions from the transfer portal or underrated freshmen.
On Wednesday, we received news that Alabama star wide receiver Ryan Williams would return from his concussion against Wisconsin, but it wasn’t all good news for that room. Head coach Kalen DeBoer also confirmed that second-year pass catcher Aeryn “Bubba” Hampton is no longer with the program, and in fact, he wasn’t been in quite some time.
“Bubba has not been with us for quite a while,” DeBoer said. “Going into early fall camp.”
What Hampton’s departure means
Alabama came into fall camp with 10 scholarship wide receivers. With Hampton’s departure, that leaves the Crimson Tide with nine. I wouldn’t say that’s an ideal number considering how many have been on the roster in year’s past, but the group that they do have are all high-quality pass-catchers who should seeing playing time, whether it’s meaningful or in mop-up duty, throughout the season.
In fact, Hampton was widely considered to be WR10 amongst the 10 receivers on the roster. The starters were Williams, Germie Bernard and Miami transfer Isaiah Horton while some of the expected rotational pieces included Rico Scott, Jalen Hale, Cole Adams and possibly cornerback convert Jaylen Mbakwe. We also knew that true freshmen Lotzeir Brooks and Derek Meadows were good enough to make an impact, and while that has been the case for both to an extent, Brooks has gone as far as being a starter against Louisiana-Monroe.
So in other words, the room remains in good hands. Yes, former Alabama head coach Nick Saban had once described Hampton as, “Kind of a dog,” after flipping the former four-star from Steve Sarkisian and the Texas Longhorns back in Dec. of 2023, but it had become clear that Hampton was falling behind others in the pecking order. This type of thing is what college football has become with NIL and the transfer portal.
Either way, Alabama is going to be fine.
