You see all these programs throwing 40 and 50 transfer portal guys at the wall and calling it a rebuild and I just think about what we used to have with walk ons. Coach Patterson built the 2010 Rose Bowl team on the backs of kids who showed up uninvited with a duffel bag and a dream. We had walk ons starting at linebacker and safety on a top five defense. They earned every snap in August two a days with no guarantee they would even dress for a game. Now a kid cannot even think about walking on because the roster is full of portal mercenaries who will leave the second a bigger NIL bag shows up.
The walk on culture is dead and nobody wants to admit it. That kid from Aledo who grew up dreaaming of playing for the Frogs and would have run through a brick wall for a practice jersey? He does not exist anymore because we have to save those scholarship slots for some transfer from a G5 school who is already looking at his next move before fall camp starts. I remember when we had the best scout team in the country because those walk ons wanted to prove something. They made our starters better every single day. Now you cannot even build that kind of culture when half the roster turns over every winter window.