Speaking about the portal exodus, a former Alabama standout says, “It’s no longer about winning.”
Alphonse Taylor is not happy.
Shank, the former offensive lineman for Alabama, has watched as his beloved Crimson Tide players have moved on to better opportunities. It isn’t the notion that athletes should move to get more playing time. He understands that.
It is distinct.
“Players move every day,” he wrote on the social media site “X,” which was formerly known as Twitter, on Wednesday. That is not concerning to me. Being one game away from the national championship game and choosing to transfer instead of running it back irritates me. You also get a coach who recently competed in the national championship game. Winning is no longer the focus.
Taylor, who performed from 2013 to 2016, received a lot of backlash for his remarks on social media. Wednesday night, he gave an explanation.
He told AL.com, “For me, people just kind of wrote us off at the beginning of the season anyway, seeing all the beasts we had returning and knowing the season we had.” We kind of went above and beyond. It was inspiring to hear (former Alabama coach Nick) Saban’s retirement speech, as he expressed his pride in guiding those players from their previous state to their current one. It seems unfair to me that after all of their hard work and getting so close to winning it all, they were unable to go back and complete what they had started.
“You can criticize Saban for his retirement. He is, after all, 72 years old. It was his retirement year. It’s not as though we abandoned you to the care of a stranger. We bring in (Kalen) DeBoer, who played in the national championship game and is aware of the level of performance required to win. The most annoying thing has been that I haven’t given him a chance.
“Having guys leave who were starters and weren’t in need of playing time or anything else is extremely frustrating as well.”
Naturally, the critics on social media attacked, but Taylor was prepared.
Jameson Williams left Ohio State to attend Alabama. The same thing, am I correct?
“Jameson Williams was wide receiver 3 or 4 at Ohio State,” he explained. “He instantly became wide receiver 1 at Bama. You can say the same thing about (Jermaine) Burton. … You comparing apples to oranges there.”
Critics to Taylor’s take point to relationships. Players don’t want to play for a coach they don’t know.
“Sorry, I just assumed teammates were part of relationships,” he countered. “You say it’s all about relationships. Well, you gonna have a hard time proving that to me when you leave 80 guys hanging to go play with 80 brand new guys.”
