You want to talk about loyalty in this program? I will tell you what loyalty looks like. It looks like the 1992 squad that went through spring practice together, summer two-a-days together, and then went to the Florida Citrus Bowl together because they built something the old fashioned way. Now we got kids entering the portal before the spring game even ends. I see what Oregon is doing with Raiola coming in from Nebraska and I just shake my head. That used to be called quitting when things got hard. We called that a lack of character in the Dooley era.
The portal has turned college football into a free agency circus and I am tired of pretending otherwise. You watch these kids jump from school to school chasing a bag and tell me that builds anything lasting. We had walk ons in the 1980s that would rather sit on the bench for four years at Georgia than start somewhere else because they understood what the G meant. Now we got quarterbacks transferring twice before they turn 21. The NIL money is fine for the kids who earn it but this portal nonsense is destroying the fabric of what made us great.
I remembre when a scholarship meant something. You signed that letter of intent and you were a Bulldog for life. Now it is just a rental agreement until something better comes along. Coach Smart has done a good job holding the line but I worry about where we are headed. The spring transfer window being eliminated is a start but we need to go further. Make these kids sit a year again. Let them think twice before they pack their bags every December. That is how you build a program that lasts.