Texas the ‘Team to Watch’ for Alabama Transfer WR Isaiah Bond
With the world of college football changing faster than most of us can keep up, there are unseen consequences to almost everything that happens in the sport today.
A move as monumental as Nick Saban deciding to hang it up after 17 seasons doesn’t just mean there’s a coaching vacancy to be filled. Washington is now looking for a head coach, and whoever the Huskies decide to go with will leave a void in their place as well. The coaching carousel that results from a vacancy of this magnitude could affect a half-dozen teams without breaking a sweat, and that’s not just because of coaching changes.
When a coach is fired, retires, or takes a position elsewhere, the transfer portal becomes a factor, as players can enter for a certain period afterward without facing a transfer penalty.
One of those players is Alabama wide receiver Isaiah Bond, the Crimson Tide’s leading wideout for 2023.
Listed at 5-foot-11, 182 pounds, Bond tallied 48 catches for 668 yards and four touchdowns for the Tide in his sophomore season but is looking for another opportunity after Saban’s exit from the program.
That opportunity could lie with one of the two teams that defeated Saban in his final campaign. According to 247Sports’ Chris Hummer, Texas is “the team to watch” with Bond hitting the portal, and what a pairing that could be.
The Longhorns will lose each of their top five pass-catchers from 2023, including wideouts Xavier Worthy and Adonai Mitchell. The former four-star prospect out of Buford (Ga.) was the No. 52 player in the country and the No. 2 athlete in the class of 2022. With elite speed and athleticism, Bond could be an immediate fit as the Longhorns’ vertical threat next season.
With Quinn Ewers set to return for Texas in 2024, Bond would certainly have an experienced quarterback to work with, and he’d be playing for one of the best playcallers in football, Steve Sarkisian.
While the transfer portal is about as unpredictable as it comes, Texas has all the things that a young, experienced wide receiver could want, and it sounds like Bond is very aware of that.
