2023 Alabama Crimson Tide football team

The 2023 Alabama Crimson Tide football team (variously "Alabama", "Bama", or "The Tide") represented the University of Alabama in the 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The season marked the Crimson Tide's 129th overall season, 90th as a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), and 32nd and final season within the SEC Western Division, with Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC on July 1, 2024. They played their home games at Bryant–Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and were led by Nick Saban in his 17th and final season as head coach.

Looking to build on the successes of the 2022 campaign, Alabama entered the 2023 season after winning the Sugar Bowl over Kansas State, and were the favorite to win the Western Division and meet the Georgia Bulldogs in the 2023 SEC Championship Game. They were No. 4 in the pre-season polls, but a loss to Texas and a narrow win against South Florida dropped them to No. 13 in the rankings. Alabama would recover and close out the regular season by winning its next 9 games, alongside a narrow win against Auburn in the Iron Bowl, to finish with an 11–1 record (8–0 in SEC play) and meet the Bulldogs for the SEC Championship in a rematch of the 2021 contest. Alabama was victorious by a final score of 27–24 to capture their 11th SEC championship title, ending Georgia's 29-game winning streak that started after a 2021 loss, also to Alabama. The following day, final College Football Playoff (CFP) standings were unveiled. Alabama, alongside the Big 12 Conference champions Texas, were selected ahead of Florida State for the College Football Playoff. No. 4 Alabama was defeated by the eventual national champion, No. 1 Michigan, in the 2024 Rose Bowl in overtime, 27–20.

This season marked the first time since 2007 that Alabama was not ranked #1 in any week in the AP Poll following the release of the final season rankings on January 9, 2024. The following day, on January 10, Nick Saban announced that he would be retiring as the Crimson Tide's head coach.

Team departures
Over the course of the off-season, Alabama lost 45 total players. 15 players graduated, 12 declared for the 2023 NFL draft, while the other 18 entered the transfer portal.

Outgoing transfers
21 Alabama players elected to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal during or after the 2022 season.

Note: Players with a dash in the new school column didn't land on a new team for the 2023 season.

Incoming transfers
Over the off-season, Alabama added six players from the transfer portal. According to 247 Sports, Alabama had the No. 60 ranked transfer class in the country.

Returning starters
* Bowl game not played. ^ Waiting decision for 2023 season. † Indicates player was a starter in 2021 but missed all of 2022 due to injury.

Recruiting class
Alabama signed 29 players in the class of 2023. The Crimson Tide' recruiting class ranks No. 1 in the 247Sports and Rivals rankings. 23 signees were ranked in the ESPN 300 top prospect list. Alabama also signed walk-ons during national signing period.

2023 Overall class rankings

2024 Recruiting class
*= 247Sports Composite rating; ratings are out of 1.00. (five stars= 1.00–.98, four stars= .97–.90, three stars= .80–.89) †= Despite being rated as a four and five star recruit by ESPN, On3.com, Rivals.com and 247Sports.com, Sayin received a five star 247Sports Composite rating. Δ= Left the Alabama program following signing but prior to the 2024 season.
 * Originally class of 2025, but reclassified to 2024.

2024 Overall class rankings

Spring game
The Crimson Tide are scheduled to hold spring practices in March and April 2023 with the Alabama football spring game, "A-Day" to take place in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on April 22, 2023, with the Crimson team beating the White team 30–21.

Award watch lists
Listed in the order that they were released

SEC media days
The 2023 SEC Media days were held on July 17–20, 2023 at Grand Hyatt in Nashville, TN. The Preseason Polls were released July 2023. Each team had their head coach available to talk to the media at the event on July 19, 2023, with Nick Saban (HC), JC Latham, (OL), Kool-Aid McKinstry, (DB) and Dallas Turner, (LB). Coverage of the event was televised on SEC Network and ESPN.

Media
First Team

Second Team

Third Team

Source:

Coaches
First Team

Second Team

Third Team

Source:

Sources:

Coaching staff
Alabama head coach Nick Saban entered his seventeenth year as the Crimson Tide's head coach for the 2023 season. During his previous seventeen years with Alabama, he led the Crimson Tide to an overall record of 188 wins and 27 losses (.870) and the 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2020 national championships.

Graduate assistants

 * Kobie Jones – Graduate assistant
 * Braxton Barker – Graduate assistant
 * Gary Walker Jr. – Graduate assistant
 * Kirk Barron – Graduate assistant

Analysts

 * Dean Altobelli – Defensive analyst
 * George Banko – Defensive analyst
 * Bert Biffani – Defensive analyst
 * Jake Long – Defensive analyst
 * Jamey Mosley – Defensive analyst
 * Charlie Strong – Defensive analyst
 * Nick Cochran – Offensive analyst
 * Derek Dooley – Offensive analyst
 * Ryan Finck – Offensive analyst
 * Zach Mettenberger – Offensive analyst
 * John McNulty– Offensive analyst
 * Ken Whisenhunt – Offensive teams analyst
 * Tony Billings – Assistant analyst
 * Thomas Fletcher – Special teams analyst
 * Nick McGriff – Special teams analyst
 * Todd Watson– Special teams analyst

Depth chart
True Freshman

Schedule
Alabama and the SEC announced the 2023 football schedule on September 20, 2022. The 2023 Crimson Tide' schedule consisted of 7 home games and 5 away games for the regular season. Alabama hosted four SEC conference opponents Arkansas, Ole Miss (rivalry), Tennessee (Third Saturday in October) and arch-rival LSU (rivalry) at home and traveled to four SEC opponents, Kentucky, Mississippi State (rivalry), Texas A&M and in-state-rival Auburn for the 88th annual Iron Bowl to close out the SEC regular season on the road. Alabama was not scheduled to play SEC East opponents Florida (rivalry), Georgia (rivalry),Missouri, South Carolina and Vanderbilt in the 2023 regular season. The Crimson Tide's bye week was during week 9 (on October 28, 2023).

Alabama's out of conference opponents represented the Conference USA, Big 12, American and SoCon conferences. The Crimson Tide hosted three non–conference games which are against Middle Tennessee from the C-USA, Texas from the Big 12 and to close out the regular season with Chattanooga from the SoCon (FCS) and traveled against South Florida from the American.

Middle Tennessee

 * Sources:

No. 11 Texas

 * Sources:

At South Florida

 * Sources:

No. 15 Ole Miss

 * Sources:

at Mississippi State

 * Sources:

at Texas A&M

 * Sources:

Arkansas

 * Sources:

No. 14 LSU

 * Sources:

No. 18 (FCS) Chattanooga

 * Sources:

At Auburn

 * Sources:

vs. No. 1 Georgia

 * Sources:

vs. No. 1 Michigan

 * Sources:

NFL draft
The NFL draft was held at Campus Martius Park in Detroit, MI on April 25-27, 2024. Crimson Tide who were picked in the 2024 NFL Draft: