Alabama offensive tackle Kadyn Proctor was at the center of one of the strangest transfer portal sagas in recent memory last offseason. The former five-star recruit out of Des Moines (Iowa) Southeast Polk transferred from Alabama to Iowa shortly after Nick Saban retired, only to transfer back to the Crimson Tide three months later. Proctor said he “messed up” by leaving Tuscaloosa in August and recently revealed what turned him off at Iowa.
“Coach Saban left, and I just started thinking: ‘Who’s going to be our new coach? What am I going to do?’ I came here to play for Coach Saban.” Proctor said on a recent episode of “The Tides that Bind,” a series chronicling the 2024 Alabama season.
“So, I went back to Iowa. A month-and-a-half into being there, it just didn’t feel right. I didn’t have no close relationships with none of the guys. I couldn’t relate to none of them. I never heard the words ‘national championship’ come out of their mouths. It just wasn’t the place for me. Three months later, I left.”
Proctor drove to Alabama’s football facility as soon as he entered the portal and walked straight to the office of coach Kalen DeBoer and apologized face-to-face.
“I definitely regret (leaving Alabama),” Proctor said in August. “It’s probably one of the worst decisions that I’ve made in my life. Looking back, I had so many people who cared for me here and were trying to tell me that this was the best place for me. I really wasn’t thinking it through…
I let Coach DeBoer and the staff talk to me, trying to convince me to stay, but I wasn’t really sitting there and listening to them. I was just so hell-bent on going back home; no one was going to change my mind. It was humbling because I’m not really the type of person to do that. I felt like that was the right thing to do because I realized I really didn’t listen.”
Proctor missed the first two weeks of the 2024 regular season with a shoulder injury but returned in Week 3 and started the final 11 games of the season at left tackle. It was an up-and-down sophomore season, featuring a near-perfect pass-blocking performance in the upset win over Georgia at home in Week 5 but low-lighted by a couple of tough performances to end the year.
Proctor allowed just six pressures in his first eight games of the season before surrendering eight in his final three. He allowed a season-high four pressures in an upset loss to Oklahoma in Week 13 and allowed three pressures and a sack in the ReliaQuest Bowl loss to Michigan.
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