You talk about walk on culture and I just shake my head at what it has become. I remember back in the 1980s under Coach Dooley, we had walk ons who would run through a brick wall for the privilege of wearing the silver britches. Kids who grew up in Moultrie or Valdosta who would have rather died than transfer somewhere else for a scholarship. They earned their spot by getting bloody in August two a days, not by swiping right on the transfer portal.
Now you look at the way prograams operate today and the walk on is almost a forgotten species. NIL money and the portal have convinced every kid that if they are not getting a bag they should go find one somewhere else. We used to have walk ons who would stick around for four or five years, become special teams aces, and earn a scholarship through sheer determination. That is what built the foundation of this program, not whatever ESPN ranks as our offseason grade.
I think about a kid from the early 90s under Coach Goff who came in as a walk on linebacker and ended up starting by his junior year. That does not happen anymore because that kid would have transferred to Georgia Southern or somewhere after his first spring. The loyalty is gone. The idea that you earn your place by outworking everybody else in the weight room and on the scout team has been replaced by who has the best NIL deal waiting.
And do not get me started on how the elimination of the spring portal window changes things. Now these kids have to decide before they even go through a full offseason. The walk on used to be the heart of college football, the guy who loved the game so much he would pay his own way just to be part of it. Now that culture is dying and nobody seems to care except us old timers who remember what it meant.