Alabama junior DT Jeheim Oatis will redshirt this season and enter NCAA transfer portal

Alabama defensive tackle Jehiem Oatis has decided to redshirt for the 2024 season and will enter the NCAA transfer portal.

The junior told ESPN that decreased playing time was the primary factor in his decision. Oatis, listed at 6-foot-5 and 325 pounds, appeared in five games for the Crimson Tide this season, accumulating one tackle and one pass defensed. In his three seasons at Alabama, he has 57 tackles, 1 1/2 sacks, three tackles for loss and five passes deflected.

“Getting the reps and looks that I’m getting,” Oatis said to ESPN’s Pete Thamel. “I feel like it’s better for me to move on somewhere new.”

Oatis, a former four-star recruit and the sixth-ranked defensive tackle in the 2022 recruiting class, played an average of 16 snaps per game this season. By comparison, he averaged more than 22 snaps per game last year and more than 24 during the 2022 season.

In Alabama’s two biggest games so far this season against Wisconsin and Georgia, Oatis played 25 total snaps. Oatis didn’t play in the Tide’s upset loss to Vanderbilt on Saturday due to a knee injury.

During the spring, he had surgeries on his shoulder, knee and ankle which limited his ability to practice. Alabama defensive coordinator Kane Wommack referenced Oatis’ injuries when discussing the matter with reporters on Monday.

“He’s been battling some injuries and, you know, has not been able to perform or produce the way that any of us would like,” Wommack said, via The Tuscaloosa News. “But my focus is really on the players that are going to do everything they can to help us win football games. And so that’s really where my focus is at right now.”

At his Monday press conference, Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer said coaches felt Oatis’ was leaning toward this decision.

“Felt like it was going that way,” DeBoer said. “I think what we also have to understand is there’s other elements to this, right? There’s health elements, there’s life elements. I love these guys, they’ve worked hard. Jeheim’s choices and things, there’s reasons for that.”