ESPN calling Osani Gayles a "needed jolt" for our 2027 class tells you everything about where college football is now. A needed jolt. I remember when we would just reload at receiver without breaking a sweat, when Coach Stallings had David Palmer doing things nobody had seen before in the 1993 season. Now we are celebrating one four-star like we just won the national championship in July. And that is not a knock on the kid, he seems like a good player, but the whole sport has flipped upside down on us.
You look at Oregon stacking five five-stars in their 2026 class and I just think about how we used to build programs through the trenches, through development, through kids who wanted to be here for four years and leave their mark. Now it is all about who can buy the best class through NIL and the portal. The spring transfer window getting eliminated next year might actually help some but the damage is already done. I miss when a commitment meant something, when a kid signed his letter of intent and you knew he was going to be in your progrma for the long haul. The 1992 defense did not need five-star recruiting rankings to win a national title, they needed toughness and loyalty and Coach Stallings holding them accountable. That is what I am missing right now.