Miami University HC Says Alabama 'Stole our Kicker' in Transfer Portal in Viral Video

Miami (Ohio) head coach Chuck Martin dropped a scathing accusation of Alabama tampering in the transfer portal this past offseason.

In a preseason video released by the school's athletic department on Wednesday, Martin was asked about having to replace kicker Graham Nicholson, who transferred to Alabama on Wednesday. Martin didn't hold back in his response.

"We didn't lose him. He's at Alabama. We know exactly where he's at," Martin said of Nicholson, per The Athletic's Justin Williams. "Alabama stole our kicker. They illegally recruited our kicker and stole him from us. That's a fact, but that's college football. … Everybody knows what's going on. Yeah, Alabama stole our kicker."

While the kicker position is usually low on the totem pole for most football rosters. Nicholson isn't just any kicker. As a junior in 2023, he connected on 27 of his 28 field goals and 35 of his 37 extra points on his way to earning the Lou Groza Award, which is presented annually to the best kicker in college football. He became the first kicker from the Mid-American Conference to achieve the honor.

Nicholson announced that he will be spending his senior season at Alabama, giving new head coach Kalen DeBoer another new addition that will benefit him in his first year replacing the legendary Nick Saban.

DeBoer was asked Thursday about Martin's comments about Nicholson and he replied, "I don't know anything about [Martin's comment]. He entered the portal and we reached out to him, that's how it goes right? So we did everything the way we were supposed to."

Martin is understandably not a big fan of the transfer portal. Per Williams, Miami has had a dozen players transfer to power-conference schools over the past four seasons. This offseason, three other key players joined Nicholson in transferring, as running back Rashad Amos left for Ole Miss, wide receiver Gage Larvadain joined South Carolina and defensive lineman Caiden Woullard landed at Oklahoma.

Still, Martin has the RedHawks in a position to compete for another MAC championship. After going 11-3 and winning the conference title last year, Martin is aware of the talent on his team and said he takes pride in the way other schools covet his players.

"Listen, if you're not losing good players at this level, you probably don't have a good team," Martin said. "If they come after 15 of my guys, I probably just had a pretty good year. Last year, they came after about 15 of my guys and we won the MAC. There's a reason. We had good players."