Jumbo Package: Alabama reserve cornerback hits the transfer portal

Sorry for the late post today. We have A-Day and the draft coming up, so there’s a bit of a lull in sports news until both of those events happen.

Alabama defensive back Jahquez Robinson has entered the NCAA transfer portal, BamaOnLine has confirmed. Robinson is the second Crimson Tide player to transfer either during or after the spring, joining tight end Elijah Brown, who did the same on Monday.

A redshirt junior, Robinson played in eight games during his Alabama career, including six this past season. The defensive back recorded two tackles and one sack in 2022. He went through 12 spring practices and two scrimmages – recording an interception in this past Saturday’s closed scrimmage – before entering his name in the transfer portal on Tuesday.

I’m honestly kind of surprised Robinson made it this long. Once the veteran reserve was passed up by both Kool-Aid McKinstry and Terrion Arnold last season, the writing was on the wall unless he just had a desire to be a career special teams player.

Good luck to him at his next stop.

That said, though Alabama is set with the starting corners, there is a bit of a concern with depth at outside corner. There’s just not that many scholarship guys there. I imagine some players that have been primarily star or safety are going to be seen training at outside corner going forward.

Despite three starters moving on after the 2022 season, there hasn’t been much movement up front on the offensive line. Pritchett and JC Latham have manned the tackle spots, Tyler Booker has been the right guard and one of Darrian Dalcourt, Seth McLaughlin or Terrence Ferguson have filled the other two spots. Of those linemen, Pritchett is the least experienced, but he has held his own at left tackle through 13 practices and could exit the spring as a first-teamer. The A-Day Game will give us our first look at him with the ones after a redshirt year.

“He’s done a good job,” Saban said. “Elijah’s getting better. I think he’s one of those guys that’s a young guy that needs to be able to sustain his intensity, not get penalties, do the little things right. But he has done a really, really good job this spring. He’s played well, he’s made a lot of progress and improvement and he’s really competing hard for a position as a starter.”

I was very excited last year about Pritchett as a recruit as he was a guy that just played with a mean streak. A preseason injury put him behind the 8-ball, but he’s been getting a lot of love in the media lately and may well wind up as a starting tackle for the Tide.

Speaking of OL, the Tide picked up a commitment for two years from now:

Alabama earned its third 2025 commitment from soon-to-be Top247 offensive lineman Dontrell Glover from Fairburn (Ga.) Langston Hughes.

The 6-foot-5, 280-pound *sophomore* says it feels “great” to make his commitment now, picking UA over schools like Florida, Georgia, Miami, and a number of others.

“It felt like home, so I just thought it was time to commit, have a spot in the program,” Glover told BamaOnLine.

Can you imagine being a sophomore in high school and already being 6’5” 280??

More so than concepts, it’s in the area of mindset that the biggest change might come. Physicality has been a buzzword for the offense since Rees’ appointment as the successor to Bill O’Brien. As a part of an attack more rooted in the run game, it will be on the tight ends to do their part.

Even with the departure of Brown (and the current Portal window still open for another week and a half), UA shouldn’t need to go the converted offensive lineman route in 2023. After all, as the numbers sit today, Alabama is three-deep with scholarship tight ends. Something else that should help: the return of a coach — Joe Cox — to a position that had gone through four in a 13-month span.

If Tommy Rees comes in here and makes the TE matter again, it will all be worth it.

Alabama really has 4 TEs with legit potential: C.J. Dippre, Robbie Ouzts, Amari Niblack, and Danny Lewis. They all have different combinations of skills, but each are a player that I would be extremely excited about to have them on the field.

Roll Tide!