Alabama Crimson Tide linebacker Shawn Jennings no longer with team

‘Tis the season.

Another Alabama Crimson Tide player is transferring out of the program and this time it’s redshirt freshman linebacker Shawn Jennings, according to al.com’s Matt Zenitz.

Jennings, a three-star player coming out of Dadeville, AL in 2016, was listed as an “athlete” by 247Sports, but ended up being placed with the outside linebackers in Tuscaloosa.

His older brother Anfernee, who played situationally in 2016, will most likely be the starting “Sam” or “Jack” OLB in Nick Saban’s 3-4 scheme. And while Shawn certainly showed promise this spring, he was probably not going to find himself in the two deep with guys like Terrell Hall, Christian Miller and Jamey Mosley (C.J.’s little brother) waiting in the wings.

Consequently, this begins what will most likely be the annual exodus of talent leaving the Capstone. Jennings is the third player in 2017 to transfer from Alabama and the 11th in the last year.

As we’ve stated before, attrition at Alabama is the way it goes when you’re top heavy with blue chips, but Reuben Foster, Ryan Anderson and Tim Williams are all gone and Shaun Dion Hamilton is recovering from a torn ACL.

After that, Rashaan Evans and Anfernee Jennings are the lone ‘backers with any meaningful experience and neither one started for a majority of 2016. This means there’s a whole lot of question marks at both middle and outside linebacker on Alabama’s defense and having a guy like Shawn Jennings to provide depth and competition would make the coaches feel better.

Still, they have to feel good about their situation with a guy like Hall making a play like this.