Gets me about this ESPN award candidate list they put out for every team? I scroll down to our Horned Frogs and I see they picked some names and I just start thinking about the 2005 squad. Back when we had guys like Jeff Ballard running the show, nobody talked about individual awards. You played for the name on the front of the jersey, not the name on the back. Coach Patterson would have benched you for even mentioning personal hardware. Now every kid walks in with a list of goals about freshman All-American this and award watch list that. It is all about the individual brand these days.
I miss when you found out who the good plaeyrs were by watching them on Saturday, not by reading some preseason list ESPN cooked up in May. The 2009 season taught us that. Nobody had Andy Dalton on any watch list before that year started. He just went out and won football games and led us to that Fiesta Bowl. That is how you build a program. Not by chasing NIL deals and award consideration but by earning it between the lines when the lights come on. These kids today want the trophy before they do the work.