Alabama’s most significant newcomer through the 2024 college football transfer portal is barely a newbie at all, as offseason commit Kadyn Proctor spent his true freshman season with the Crimson Tide last fall. The left lineman left the program in January after previous head coach Nick Saban announced his retirement, signed to Iowa shortly after, and virtually completed spring workouts with the Hawkeyes. But on the eve of camp, Proctor announced his decision to re-enter the portal and return to Alabama.

It was a whirlwind experience for everyone concerned. New Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer filled a crucial position with the young standout who held it prior to his arrival, Iowa never reaped the benefits of its brief recruiting victory, and Proctor himself moved twice in the span of a half season.

Back and forth from Iowa to Alabama, the Kadyn Proctor bombshell fits college football’s absurd new normal

College football was never really a normal sport — the pageantry, marching bands, 100,000-seat stadiums, and so many other ingredients that make it feel more like a way of life than a game, not to mention the management messiness of it all — but if you’re looking for yet another example that the college football we knew isn’t even the college football we now have in front of us, Kadyn Proctor, all 6-foot-7, 360 pounds of him, squarely made that case Tuesday night.

For those unfamiliar, Proctor started every game at left tackle for Alabama this season. The former 5-star signee, a Des Moines native, earned True Freshman All-American honors and helped the Tide reach the CFB Playoff. Then Nick Saban retired and Proctor, like several other notable Tide players, ended up in the transfer portal, where he was ranked as the No. 2 overall prospect.

Proctor then went home to Iowa. Very normal: A homesick freshman goes back to the program he was committed to for long stretches of his high school recruiting process. Nobody should bat an eye at that sort of decision.