Scrolling through that ESPN top 100 newcomers list and not a single walk on story to be found. Tell me the last time a kid who showed up to camp uninvited, slept on a training room floor, and earned his way onto the two deep even got mentioned on one of those lists. Back in the 90s under Coach Alvarez, we built this program on kids from Wisconsin high schools who had chips on their shoulders and something to prove. Joe Panos, Mike Webster before him, all those guys who walked on and became legends because they loved the uniform not the paycheck.
Nowadays a kid transfers in from somewhere else because the NIL offer was thirty grand better and we are supposed to celebrate it. The portal killed the walk on tradition and nobody wants to admit it. Why would a kid grind for two years on scout team when he can just jump in the portal and start somewhere else next week? That 1993 Rose Bowl team had six walk ons on the two deep and we ran the ball down Michigan's throat for four quarters. You cannot buy that kind of heart in the portal.