Read that ESPN 100 days piece and they're already crowning Oregon as the CFP favorite with their five 5-stars and their flashy roster. All I can think about is how Coach Dooley would have looked at that and just laughed. Back in the 1980 season when we won it all, Dooley built that team around guys like Herschel Walker and a defense that just refused to break. He didn't have a portal to plug holes or NIL money to buy a roster. He had a philosophy. He had discipline. He had a system that made kids want to stay and fight for their spot.
Now I watch what Coach Smart has built and I see shades of that old Dooley toughness but it's getting harder every year. The portal and the NIL money have turrned this into a rental market. You get a guy for a year maybe two and then he's off to the highest bidder or chasing a bag somewhere else. We landed Kaiden Prothro at tight end and that's great but I remember when we recruited a kid out of high school and he was ours for the whole ride. You built something together. You watched him grow from a freshman who couldn't find the practice field to a senior who could lead the team.
The real difference between Coach Dooley and what we see now is loyalty. Dooley demanded it and he gave it back. These kids today see a bad first half and they're already in the portal by Monday morning. Coach Smart has done a remarkable job keeping this program stable but I worry about the foundation. You can't build a house on sand and that's what the portal feels like sometimes. We're still Georgia. We still have the best fan base in the country and the best game day atmosphere anywhere. But I miss the days when a commitment meant something more than a placeholder until a better offer came along.