Just saw that ESPN piece about replacing first-rounders and it got me thinking about how we used to build a team back in the 80s. You'd find a kid from some small Missouri town who grew up dreaming of playing for the Tigers, not the highest bidder. He'd show up in August, earn his stripes on scout team for two years, and by his junior season he was hitting people through the wall at Faurot Field. That's how you built depth, not by scrambling every spring to plug holes from the portal because half your roster bailed the second the season ended.
Now we're sitting here watching the draft and counting up who left early while trying to figure out who's even on the roster for spring ball. I remember when we had the same core group for three or four years running. You knew the offensive line by name, you watched them grow together, you saw the chemistry build. That's gone. The portal killed it. NIL made everyone a mercenary. We're just trying to keep the ship afloat while Oregon and those programs buy entire new rosters every offseason.
Coach Pinkel would be rolling in his grave watching this. We had walk-ons starting for us in the 2007 season who played with more heart than some of these transfers will ever show. They stayed because they loved Missouri, not because some collective promised them a truck. The whole system is backwards now. We lost all that production and now we're crossing our fingers that the next man up from the portal can learn the playbook before September.