Why former Alabama player likes dynamic of Tide having ‘young’ roster, new staff members

Former Alabama quarterback and now ESPN college football commentator Greg McElroy is a fan of the Crimson Tide having some young and talented players on its roster and new staff members ahead of the 2026 football season.

The Crimson Tide is expected to have a young roster in the fall. Alabama will also have new coaches instructing its offensive line, quarterbacks and tight ends. Bryan Ellis moved from the Tide’s tight ends coach to Alabama’s quarterbacks coach after Nick Sheridan departed from the program. Alabama hired Richard Owens to be its tight ends coach and Adrian Klemm to be its offensive line coach.

McElroy is a fan of the dynamic of having a young roster and some new coaches in Tuscaloosa.

“They are going to have a lot of new faces, a lot of young players,” McElroy said on “Everything College Football.” “I also think there’s a lot of guys on this roster that are eager to prove that they want to show up. They want to maintain the standard that’s been expected at Alabama for a very long time. I like the dynamic around the facility. I like the dynamic around the wide receiver room, which is extremely talented. I like the dynamic along the offensive line, where you have so many new faces that are eager to kind of get that thing going in the right direction, new coach, new quarterback, everyone’s got a chip on their shoulder, and sitting there at 27 to 1 right now, the odds are a little bit longer than you usually get when it comes to Alabama and a team that you feel pretty confident that Kalen DeBoer has his guys now in a position to kind of get the ball rolling in the right direction.”

Kalen DeBoer commented on the Tide having a young roster while talking to reporters at the Senior Bowl.

“We just want to take the best players, the ones that fit, the ones that were hungry, the ones that really wanted to be here and be a part of it,” DeBoer told reporters at the Senior Bowl. ” I think we did that. Probably younger again, but that’s something we got to use as an edge and try to make kind of our thing. Let’s continue to grow up faster. Let’s have the Lotzeir Brooks and Dijon Lees and Michael Carrolls and London Simmons and the guys that were true freshmen last year, take that next step along with a lot of our guys who are upperclassmen in our program.”