Gets me? That ESPN piece about the portal killing QB competitions. They used us as the example of how it used to be done and I just sat there shaking my head. Back in the 1992 season we had a three-way battle between Jay Barker, Brian Burgdorf, and Danny Woodson that went all through fall camp, and we won a national championship because the best man eared the job in August heat not through a transfer portal transaction in December.
Nowadays you just plug a portal guy in and hand him the keys before he even learns the fight song. The loyalty is gone. The competition is gone. These kids show up for spring practice and if they are not starting by the third scrimmage they are in the portal shopping for a new home. Coach Stallings would have thrown his headset into the stands if a backup QB transferred mid-season because he was not getting enough playing time.
I watched that piece and they talked about how we used to develop quarterbacks for three or four years before they even sniffed the field. Now you got guys transferring in and out like it is a rental car agency. The spring transfer window is gone thank goodness but the damage is already done. The whole sport has lost its soul. You cannot build a program on mercenaries. You build it on men who bleed for the logo.