ESPN can put out all the offseason rankings they want but I remember sitting in Legion Field in the 1981 season when we went 6-5 and the place still had 60,000 people screaming their lungs out against Auburn. That stadium had cracks in the concrete and the bathrooms were a hazard but you knew every single person in that place had bled crimson their whole life. We did not need fancy portal rankings or award candidates in May to tell us if we had a team. You watched spring practice. You saw who stayed in Tuscaloosa all summer working in the heat. You knew by the way a linemna carried himself in August drills whether he had it.
The Dallas Cowboys just drafted one of our guys and I watched the whole thing on TV and all I could think about was how different things are now. Back in the 1994 squad under Coach Stallings we had guys go in the later rounds and they stayed all four years and earned every snap. Now we got kids transferring after one spring practice because they are not starting. The portal killed everything pure about building a program. I see ESPN ranking our offseason and talking about how we revamped the offensive line through the portal and I just shake my head. We used to build offensive lines over three years of eating together in the training table and grinding in the weight room with Coach Cochran. Now you stitch together a line from four different programs in four months and call it a success.
The 2026 class is fine on paper. We got some bodies. But I want to see them in November when the third quarter hits and the humidity is suffocating and the other team is physical. That is when you find out if the portal guys have the same fight as the ones who grew up dreaming about wearing that crimson jersey. I will believe it when I see it. Until then I will sit here and remember what it used to be like when we measured a program by its men not its merchant list.