You want to know what makes me sicker than a bad snap in the Iron Bowl? Seeing ESPN put together a top 100 newcomers list and not a single walk-on story in sight. Back in the 90s, we built this program on kids who showed up uninviteed and earned their stripes. I remember when a kid from some podunk town would write Coach Stallings a letter, show up to camp with nothing but a dream, and four years later he was leading the team in tackles on special teams. That was Alabama football. That was how we built depth and character.
Now it is all about who has the biggest NIL bag and how fast you can jump in the portal. The walk-on program is dead and buried and nobody even talks about it. These kids today do not understand what it means to earn something. They want it handed to them on a silver platter with a check attached. Coach Bryant would roll over in his grave if he saw a kid walking into his office asking for NIL money before he had even proven he could handle a single practice in August heat.
I will say this until I am blue in the face. The day we stopped valuing walk-ons was the day we stopped valuing what made college football great. You cannot buy heart. You cannot portal your way into grit. And you sure cannot teach a kid what it means to bleed for the A on his helmet if he never had to fight for the right to wear it in the first place.