After being removed from Alabama’s official roster, Antonio Alfano has now placed his name in the NCAA transfer portal. The five-star freshman has yet to play for the Crimson Tide this season and had been missing from the team’s practices for more than a month.

“He’s kind of disappeared a little bit,” Saban said on Sept. 18. “I talked to our team today about the fact that people make mistakes. We all make mistakes. I make mistakes, probably everybody in this room makes mistakes. We make mistakes as parents. We make mistakes as coaches. We make mistakes in just about everything that we do.

“But I think you compound the problem when you don’t confront the mistakes that you make and you create greater consequences for yourself because of the choices and decision that you make after you make a mistake. Hopefully, this will be a learning experience for all the guys in our team.”

Alfano arrived at Alabama in January as the No. 1 defensive tackle and No. 5 overall player in this year’s class. The 6-foot-4, 284-pound defensive lineman recorded two sacks during the A-Day game this spring.

If Alfano does transfer from the program, he will be the second former five-star prospect to leave the Crimson Tide this season. Sophomore outside linebacker Eyabi Anoma, the No. 7 player in the 2018 class, transferred to Houston in August.

In total, Alabama has had seven players depart by way of transfer this year including Anoma, quarterbacks Jalen Hurts (Oklahoma) and Layne Hatcher (Arkansas State), offensive lineman Richie Petitbon (Illinois), tight end Kedrick James (SMU), defensive back Kyriq McDonald (Cincinnati) and long snapper Scott Meyer (Vanderbilt).