This is an opinion column.

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Losing Nick Saban continues to shake Alabama football to its core.

On Friday, another big-time player decided maybe it was time to leave. This time it’s Julian Sayin, the quarterback who enrolled early to play for Alabama’s legendary coach. Sayin is rated as the No.1 overall quarterback prospect of the 2024 class. According to a report by ESPN, Sayin will enter the transfer portal on Friday.

It’s been a tough week for Alabama football and its fans. Receiver Isaiah Bond shocked the world when he left for Texas last Sunday. Since then, a constant stream of talent has made its way into the portal. On Wednesday, safety Caleb Downs, the national freshman of the year, decided it might be time for him to go.

Readers have expressed their concerns with me throughout the week. Emails have been pouring in. Some fans are in disbelief, some are angry, and some have questions. I can’t soothe the pain, but when it comes to questions, I can offer some answers.

I’ll publish a mailbag-style column every Friday if readers want to make it a thing. Send me your questions along with your name and hometown. I receive emails from all over the world, so anything goes. Sometimes Nigerian princes even reach out with investment opportunities. You never know these days. Ask me anything.

WILL ALABAMA EVER BE SPECIAL AGAIN?

Hi Joseph, my name is Brent. Just wanted to ask you a question please. Do you have any thoughts on why T-Rob would go to UGA to be co-DC instead of being DC at Bama? Also, I read Saban’s choice for coach was Sark. And that they offered it to him but he never responded. Do you know if there is any truth to that?

Is there any reason to think Bama will continue to be “special”? To me it seems like it will be just any other SEC team now. And UGA is going to rule for years to come unless Kirby pulls a Saban and goes to the NFL. Wouldn’t that be great? And if he fails like Nick did maybe in a year or two we could hire him!

Thanks, Brent

ANSWER: Brent, you have a lot of questions. Let’s start with the most concerning. Yes, Alabama will continue to be special because it has some of the best fans in college football. I know that’s probably not the answer you want to hear, but fans are what separates college football in Alabama from everywhere else. The same goes with Auburn.

I don’t know about Saban’s choice for a replacement, but Texas coach Steve Sarkisian was at the top of my board for Alabama’s next coach. There are some things to consider, though. Why would Sark leave Texas after building the Longhorns into a national-title contender that already went on the road and beat Alabama? Texas’ NIL collective has deeper pockets than Alabama’s. Receiver Isaiah Bond’s first order of business after arriving in Austin was to visit the local Lamborghini dealership. I don’t know of any Lambo dealerships in Alabama, and Saban, after all, is a Ferrari guy.

I enjoyed your musings about Kirby Smart leaving for the NFL. It seems like wishful thinking at this point, though. Kirby and Sark are in prime positions to compete for the SEC championship every year. College football is just like the pros only without a salary cap or limit on first-round draft picks. It’s why Saban left the Miami Dolphins for Alabama. Kirby and Sark are Saban protégés.

Hiring former Alabama secondary coach Travaris Robinson was a classic Kirby move. Kirby knows how to hurt Alabama in these vulnerable moments and so does Sark. Don’t forget that Kirby also hired away Scott Cochran from Alabama when Saban wouldn’t promote Cochran to coordinator. Sark has four former Alabama assistants on his staff: Assistant head coach, special teams coordinator and tight ends coach Jeff Banks, defensive line coach Bo Davis, offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Kyle Flood and co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach A.J. Milwee.

New Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer is a good coach, but he’s going to do things his own way. Frankly, that’s the only way it’s going to work. All the talk about Saban having 100 percent access to the program was just a way to hopefully keep as many of Saban’s players around as possible. That’s just my read of the situation. I was impressed with DeBoer’s ability to hire two head coaches to join his defensive staff. That’s says a lot about DeBoer’s ability as a leader. Kane Wommack of South Alabama and Maurice Linguist of Buffalo are two of the best young coaches in the country. Give Alabama time.

Something tells me that DeBoer is going to win a lot of football games at Alabama.

WORST WEEK OF MY FOOTBALL LIFE

Like you, I was disappointed in Bond transferring to Texas…but a Lamborghini??? In any event, NIL is with us …but we need the NCAA to reinstate the rule where you have to sit out a year if you transfer … you still get the money but you can’t play. That would solve most of this.

FYI, I got my Ph.D. at Arizona and Jeff Fisch left for Washington … 10 days after saying that he wanted to make Arizona a power … this is the worst football week of my life…

Skydog Fred Emerling, Ph.D.

Goodyear, Arizona

ANSWER: Skydog, good suggestion about the transfer portal. I think a lot of coaches agree with you. Here’s the thing … Jedd Fisch is going to be allowed to coach at Washington after leaving ‘Zona high and dry. Why should players be forced to sit out when coaches come and go, too? Thanks for the email for always stopping to pet dogs on your runs and bike rides in Arizona.

THE GOOD

That was a great article [on Caleb Downs], but I do believe some of the blame can be laid at the feet of DeBoer, who is acting like the staff and coaches we already have don’t know how to win at the level we are already on.

Making it to the playoffs after the rocky start we had was a magnificent feat in and of itself. If I were a defensive player, I would not stay and play for coaches from South Alabama and Buffalo. We already have a culture of winning. We didn’t need a savior in DeBoer, just someone to steer the ship.

Surprised he hasn’t replaced Cedric Burns, as he is getting rid of player personnel staff and the like, but he better not try to replace Cedric, who knows where all the bodies are buried, LOL. When he came in and said we were going to build a culture, I knew that the ghost of Mike Shula was upon us in an even more insidious form. I worked with the Tide for almost eight years in the 80s and 90s as a tutor, beginning with Coach Perkins, and this wholesale replacing of A-list people is tantamount to Coach Perkins removing Coach Bryant’s tower from the practice field.

The good thing for me is that maybe the price of tickets will fall so low that I will once again be able to afford to attend a game in the enterprise built by people that I kept academically eligible.

I love reading your articles — always thought provoking.

Sharon D. Hall

ANSWER: Sharon, thanks for being a tutor for all those years. Academic tutors are the real MVPs behind the scenes. I’ve known a lot of athletic tutors through the years and they’re the biggest fans of all (along with the members of marching bands). Some people are irreplaceable. Tutors, of course, but also Cedric Burns.

I was trying not to draw comparisons between DeBoer and Curry, but I see that some long-time Alabama fans are already looking for parallels. I don’t think that comparison is fair. Curry was a Prickly Paul from everything I’ve heard and DeBoer has a reputation for being down to earth and approachable. My initial impression of DeBoer is that he’s a natural leader and a genuine guy with quiet confidence.

THE BAD

Your article on Caleb Downs is well written, enjoyable, and I believe accurate with exception to the notion that any individual player ever in the history of the sport is irreplaceable. Including this in the title of the article is a mistake at the ridiculous level.

Downs wasn’t on the team for 16 of Saban’s 17 years, not to mention the 100-something years before that, and now Alabama will simply collapse without him?

To quote an essentially dead man leading a nation, “C’mon Man!”.

You should follow this article up with a devil’s advocate POV response to yourself. Not only would that be an interesting read, but also a correction to your faulty logic.

R Jay Driskill

Fort Payne, AL

(Ironically a graduate of the University of Florida)

ANSWER: Jay, you make a great point. I think maybe you missed my play on words in the headline. Perhaps give it another read: Losing Caleb Downs would sink Alabama. You’re right … questionable headline at best!

THE UGLY

Your perspectives are so clearly driven by liberal/progressive political propaganda that it’s like neon signs are flashing with hundreds of bulbs going off and on. Yeah right, Caleb Downs is a victim. Poor Caleb. The lens you see things through are so skewed. Please go read the quote by Lou Holtz about what the difference is between today’s players and players from earlier eras. Lou is wise. You are woke. You for sure should be covering some team on the West Coast or upper East Coast. They would love your entitlement, woke, victim-consistent narrative. Down here, not so much.

David Underwood, Harding University

ANSWER: David, apparently the expression “go woke and go broke” doesn’t apply to college football. Let’s use our brains for a change and work through these things together.

COLLEGE FOOTBALL POETRY SLAM

Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter, Joe Goodman’s SPORTS! Happy Hour at the top of this column. SPORTS! Happy Hour is the only newsletter that hits like 4:20 and at 4:20 p.m. every Thursday. We’ll keep the mailbags for the Friday column on AL.com, but the Thursday newsletter is a whole different kind of fun. SPORTS! Happy Hour is currently taking submissions for our college football poetry slam.

Here’s the premise. Back in the day, writers like Tennessee native Grantland Rice used to sprinkle poetry throughout their sports columns. Two of my recent columns have featured short, four-line poems and readers have enjoyed them.

From my Rose Bowl column …

The crimson and white.

The maize and the blue.

Inside Pasadena’s sunset forum,

Alabama’s defense was undone by Michigan running back Blake Corum.

And from my column on Isaiah Bond’s transferring …

Is it too late for Saban to un-retire?

Can His GOAT-ness pull an Urban Meyer?

Hold my beer while I stick my head in the oven.

Take away this pain with a blindside concussion.

Send me your four-line college football poems and we’ll enjoy them together at SPORTS! Happy Hour. The submissions are already rolling in.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama”, the book about Nick Saban’s dynasty at Alabama and what he called his ultimate team.