I see all these recruiting rankings with 21 five-star kids and I think back to the 1992 team that went 10-2 with a bunch of three-star Georgia farm boys who just wanted to hit somebody. Coach Goff had those boys playing with a mean streak you cannot buy on the recruiting trail. Now every program is fighting over the same 20 kids and half of them will be in the portal before they ever start an SEC game. We got Kaiden Prothro coming in and I am excited about the talent but what I really want to know is whether he has that dog in him. I remember watching from the stands in the early 80s when guys would play through broken hands and separated shoulders because that is what you did. You earned your stripes in the weight room in June not on a recruiting visit with a hat on a table.
This whole system we have built is about collecting stars and flipping commitments but nobody talks about who is going to get after the quarterback on third and long in November. We have got spring practice going on right now and I am watching the film of our defensive line work and I see the athleticism but I am asking myself if any of these boys have that nasty streak that made the Junkyard Dawgs what they were. You cannot teach toughness in a spring practice. You either have it or you do not. I am tired of hearing about recruiting rankings when half these kids have never been hit in the mouth by a grown man who has been in an SEC weight program for three years.