You may have heard something at midnight.
It began like a creaky basement door slowly swinging open before something out of Star Trek opened a wormhole with all the smoke and laser sounds.
Not a nightmare or a Comic-Con fantasy, but a playground for the football nerds.
That midnight commotion was the transfer portal swinging back open with a few pressing storylines to follow.
From April 16-30, the second of two off-season portal windows for open-minded, option-seeking undergraduates.
For Alabama, it’s one of those Revenge of the Empire Strikes back scenarios.
After rivals attempted and partially succeeded in plundering the locker room in the black hole created by Nick Saban’s retirement, we’ll see just how well-oiled the Kalen DeBoer regime will be restocking the cupboard.
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This was a program that lost 24 scholarship players to the portal since last season. That doesn’t include the old-fashioned senior graduates or early NFL draft entrants that further depleted a program that was a play away from the national championship game.
This was a roster that survived the attack but was unquestionably wounded.
Also, Roydell Williams, Amari Niblack, Earl Little, Trey Amos and Dezz Ricks.
These were former or future starters -- a few of which are budding superstars. And while Alabama got a few notables in return, mostly from Washington, there’s a lot of room to improve over the next few weeks.
That was evident in Saturday’s A-Day game.
It was practically an advertisement for cornerbacks considering a portal plunge. After losing a pair of potential first-round picks in Terrion and Kool-Aid McKinstry and five others to the transfer portal, the deficiencies were glaring even through leftover cardboard eclipse glasses.
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DeBoer addressed those needs last week before the spring game.
“I mean, you guys can look at our roster and see scholarship numbers -- I know you guys all track it,” DeBoer said. “I would say the defensive backfield we’re probably a guy short or so. Offensive line, we’re probably a guy short. Just from the numbers that you typically would see and also where we want to be.”
The Crimson Tide appears to be getting left tackle Kadyn Proctor back from the portal black hole a line that can never have enough depth. It’ll also be interesting if there’s a marketplace for a pass rusher after losing Dallas Turner and Chris Braswell going to the NFL.
It’s also worth noting the portal door swings both ways and DeBoer said “there might be some guys from our roster surprise us.”
So, there will be subtractions within the additions.
Auburn also has some work to do after making many portal moves before Hugh Freeze’s first season. The Tigers have needs on the defensive line and at receiver with the work already underway. Grad transfer Philip Blidi, most recently of Indiana who began his career at Texas Tech, reportedly arrived for a visit beginning Monday.
“I think inside is where we’re still a little thin,” Freeze said on April 2. “We’ll be looking, maybe, for some portal help there.”
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At receiver, supplementing a landmark freshman class is the plan. Five-star freshman Cam Coleman already flashed his potential at the Auburn spring game with classmates Perry Thompson, Bryce Cain and Malcolm Simmons have potential.
Adding experienced talent isn’t a bad idea with Payton Thorne back for a second year at quarterback after transferring last year from Michigan State. They already added Georgia State’s Robert Lewis and California’s Sam Jackson in that regard but there’s room for more.
Still, after adding nine transfers in the first window, Auburn doesn’t figure to be as aggressive as its in-state rival in this spring’s portal party. Hugh Freeze has always said he plans to build his program the traditional way, through high school recruits as opposed to the portal but will use it as necessary.
Well, Alabama has more clear and present needs after January’s bank run on its post-Saban roster.
It must be said the spring transfer window hasn’t always featured household names like the other one so it’s unclear just how earthshattering the headlines of the next few weeks will be.
This is also the NIL era and all precedent means absolutely nothing.
So, throw on your Storm Trooper helmets and grab your laser swords because the transfer portal is officially open.
Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.