re: Lessons that can be learned from this Bama exodus?

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t tells me that loyalty to your school and program is at an all time low. But we knew that.

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Are the kids leaving from Alabama?

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As long as the portal is set up the way it is now you must figure out a way to clot the bleeding going from one coach to another.

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I think they already cracked the code with Jay Johnson. Hire a great coach and have all his great players follow him.

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I know the coach in waiting model hasn't seemed to work out in the past, but maybe that transparency and foreknowledge helps smooth the transition

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This would definitely take the edge off, but Bama's problem is you are replacing the GOAT coach.

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It’s almost like the majority of Alabama players didn’t grow die hard fans of Bama. I’ve wondered with NIL what is to stop Stanford, Duke, etc. to become powerhouses in football. Lots of booster money in those schools. Just lower academic requirements and start fundraising.

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Not quite so simple as that

Teams remain brands... people in La (Houston, I-10 corridor to about Destin) grow up wanting to play for LSU, as that's the closest SEC school (you do have Fla State of the ACC on the East end of that).
NIL will be competitive with the rest of the SEC powers, so as long as the program isn't cratering, it will get the lion's share of those guys.

Saban affected that dynamic, because you had a chance to play for Saban the living legend, as well as an improved shot at a natty. He's now gone, and by the way Bama has lost a bit of it's luster to UGA. So frontrunners now look at UGA maybe a bit more than Bama, and there's no lure of an alltime great coach either. DeBoer isn't "bad", but neither is Kiffin if you want offensive genius. And Kiffin has the local ties in place. And if you want a defensive coach, they're now looking at Kirby.

Otherwise, players will revert back to their recruiting zones more- LSU will own it's region, etc.

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The majority of those kids went to Alabama because of Nick Saban.

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And now they realize he's gone and they are in the state of Alabama.

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The best way to counteract that is to focus more on instate recruits. It doesn't eliminate the problem, but it mitigates it

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Yep.

Shop local;buy local.

This is a unique situation for several reasons:

1. It’s Saban, as many folks have already said.

2. He wasn’t fired; he retired. Usually when coaches are fired, it happens earlier.

3. Alabama was a CFP team.

When you combine these three things you get a perfect storm. Many (probably most) of the top portal prospects they would target have already committed elsewhere, and those who haven’t won’t be available for spring camp because of the academic calendar.

But how often do we really expect to see a legend retire after a CFP run? The more common scenario is successful coaches hired away for NFL jobs, which is something you can’t really control anyway.

Also I think people are making the situation out to be more than it really is. In the transfer portal era, every new head coach has to rebuild. Have we forgotten what LSU’s roster looked like when Brian Kelly took over? Yes, Alabama has lost an unprecedented amount of talent. But the talent that’s left on the roster is also better than what most coaches inherit. It’ll hurt them this year because of the timing, but if DeBoer doesn’t have any success after 2-3 years that’ll be because of DeBoer, not because of this exodus.

Fire coach mid-season.

New guy makes debut in bowl game.

Assume it is like stocks and primarily, not solely however, your worst enemy is fear of the unknown.

Obviously not applicable to gumps current situation.

Other than that re recruit the roster, playing time AND teammates, and the brand as a whole. We would have a leg up recruiting brand due to every coach except the current one in this century has won a championship.