Alabama center Seth McLaughlin enters transfer portal after high-profile misfires

Updated Jan. 3, 2024 5:17 p.m. ET

Associated Press

Alabama center Seth McLaughlin, who struggled with errant snaps against Michigan in the College Football Playoffs, has entered the transfer portal.

McLaughlin started all 14 games in his fourth season with the Crimson Tide, who lost to the Wolverines 27-20 in the Rose Bowl. But his snap was low on the final fourth-down play, when quarterback Jalen Milroe was stopped trying to run up the middle.

McLaughlin also had two poor snaps on a drive early in the second half, a problem that had crept up multiple times during the season. He didn't speak to reporters after the Rose Bowl, but Milroe was asked why the snaps were still an issue.

“With anything it takes preparation, whether it’s pass protection, whether it’s the running game, the passing game,” Milroe said. "The quarterback and the center have to have a great relationship and that’s something that we tried to build throughout the whole season.

“There’s a multitude of things that me and Seth talk about in that regard. That’s something that we do talk about.”

McLaughlin started 25 games over the past three seasons and got into two games in 2020.

He's the most high profile of more than 10 Alabama players to enter the transfer portal so far, including wide receiver Ja'Corey Brooks and quarterback Tyler Buchner, who entered as a lacrosse player.

The group includes reserve offensive lineman Terrence Ferguson Jr., defensive backs Earl Little Jr. and Kristian Story, defensive lineman Monkell Goodwine, wide receivers Malik Benson and Shazz Preston, tight end Miles Kitselman and quarterback Eli Holstein.

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