You scroll through that ESPN top 100 newcomers list and I guarantee you the majority of those kids never set foot in a weight room at 6 AM in January without a scholarship guarantee. Back in the 1993 season when Barry Alvarez was building this program from the ground up, we had walk-ons from small Wisconsin towns who would run through a brick wall for a chance to earn a jersey. Chris McIntosh? Walk-on turned All-American. Mark Tauscher? Undrafted free agent who became a starter. That culture is dead and buried now. These kids want everything handed to them on a silver platter with a NIL deal attached before they even step on campus.
I watched this program win Rose Bowls with three-star recruits and walk-ons who developed into NFL players because they had something to prove. Now we are chasing the same transfer portal mercenaries as everybody else and pretending that is the path back to relevance. The walk-on program at Wisconsin used to be the backbone of this team. Guys who grew up dreaming of playing for the Badgers, who understood what that W on the helmet meant. Now we are bringing in 15 transfers a year and hoping they care about the program as much as their paycheck. Coach Alvarez would roll over in his grave if he saw what we have become.
Give me a kid from Waukesha who will bleed for this program over some portal kid looking for the highest bidder any day of the week. That is how you build something that lasts. Not this transactional nonsense.