You scroll through that ESPN offseason ranking and they talk about portal hauls and recruiting rankings and I just get tired. I remember when Bill Ferrario walked on in 1994 and by 1998 he was a Rimington finalist. That kid from Kimberly Wisconsin who nobody offered except us. He did not enter any portal. He did not shop his NIL around. He just wanted to wear the motion W and punish people for four years.
Now every spring we have to figure out which 15 guys from last year jumped into the portal and which 15 new faces are showing up for summer workouts. You cannot build a line that way. You canot teach a pulling guard the buck sweep in one spring practice. The old way was slow and patient and it produced kids who would run through a wall for Camp Randall. I miss when recruiting was about relationships not bank accounts.