Ah the offseason. With the season totally behind us, the transfer portal closed, and even the Super Bowl finished up, football is well and truly over. Sure, we’ll start getting some NFL Combine stuff and then a push into Draft silly season, but with spring games going the way of the Dodo last year, the next 6 months of college football “news” will mostly just be speculation about the rosters.
Basketball is still going on, though. And in case you missed it, Alabama’s gotten themselves in the center of it all recently with the Charles Bediako situation.
I’m mostly going to avoid giving too much opinion into this one. I was never a fan of Alabama/Bediako trying to be the ones to push the NCAA here. Do I blame them for it? Not really. Every other school across multiple sports has also pushed lines and won. And it is annoying to be pretty much the first school in years to actually lose a court battle to the NCAA when it seems like everyone else has been allowed to sue their way into breaking whatever rules they pleased.
BUT, I guess one positive is that we’re finally seeing at least some kind of line drawn in the sand and upheld. If it somehow helps college sports figure out how to have some semblance of organization again, I’ll take it. But if they just turn around and keep letting other colleges push things further and further while taking out a one-off win on Alabama, then what are we even doing here?
In much more positive news, it seems the injury that Latrell Wrightsell sustained against Auburn isn’t a big deal.
According to Jon Rothstein, Oats told him that an ultrasound on Wrightsell’s knee revealed “nothing major” and that the senior guard should be able to play on Wednesday for Alabama on the road against Ole Miss.
Alabama’s Latrell Wrightsell (knee) should play Wednesday against Ole Miss after an ultrasound revealed “nothing major”, per Nate Oats.
Anyway, back to football, we have a few sites doing some opinion and analysis work for Alabama’s roster for next year.
Who will replace Cuevas’ production?
Cuevas caught 37 passes during Alabama’s 2025 season. The rest of the Crimson Tide’s tight end room combined to catch 25, with only one player reaching double-digit receptions. There will be more opportunities in 2026 with Cuevas moving on to the next level. Edwards, who was second among the tight ends in catches, is expected to assume an increased role. But who else will step up at the position? Lewis is the veteran in the room now, but he was never healthy in 2025. Cuevas said not to forget about Lindsey, while Pritchett is another player who could take the next step in his second year in the program. There are also the newcomers, with Ford and Sutter joining the fold. Alabama has options, but a few guys will need to step up.
“I think they have so much potential,” Cuevas told BamaOnLine at the Senior Bowl. “I tried my best to leave Alabama better than I found it, and a part of that is my room. So, with guys like Jay Lindsey, Kaleb Edwards, Marshall Pritchett, guys like that, and some new transfers are getting kind of trial by fire here, just jumping right into it. But I can’t have more trust in them going into this next season.”
The tight end position group is something that I’m actually watching closely for next season. Ryan Grubb ran a lot more 2 TE sets last year than we expected, and I felt like the group underperformed for the needs. Cuevas was an excellent receiving option, but struggled with perimeter blocking, while Kaleb Edwards had some major freshman inconsistencies, especially with his positioning in the blocking game. Meanwhile, Alabama’s best stretch of games last year came during the only few games that veteran Danny Lewis was healthy and playing snaps. Coincidence? Probably. But it’s something I want to watch.
In any case, I think the addition of Josh Ford in the portal might very well be one of the most important additions for 2026. Alabama HAS to get better at perimeter blocking.
Jeremiah Beaman’s impressive body transformation was the talk of the offseason a year ago, and the then-redshirt freshman was going to be a major contributor on the defensive line. He entered the 2025 season as the backup nose tackle behind Tim Keenan.
With Keenan out with an injury in the season-opener, Beaman earned the start at nose against Florida State. Unfortunately, Beaman suffered a season-ending injury in practice prior to the Crimson Tide’s Week 2 matchup against UL Monroe.
Alabama made some intriguing additions to the defensive line this offseason, most notably in Big Ten transfers Devan Thompkins (USC) and Terrance Green (Oregon), but Beaman will remain a big part of the Crimson Tide’s plans.
He’ll compete for a starting role, and in the very least, provide quality depth to the defensive interior.
Beaman was forgotten in 2025 after getting injured right after week 1. Would he have made a difference? Who really knows – but he sure got a lot of positive talk all during the summer and preseason. And with Tim Keenan and James Smith both moving on, there’s a lot of open snaps to fill next year and a need for someone to really step up into being a difference maker.
