I scrolled through that ESPN list of the top 10 receivers for 2026 and not a single Alabama name on there. Zero. None. Back in the 2009 season we had Julio Jones drawing double teams every snap and we still ran the ball down people's throats. Now we cannot keep a receiver in town long enough for him to learn the playbook. Three portal losses from the receiver room this winter alone and we are patching it together with transfers from who knows where. Coach Stallings would have sat these kids down and told them you earn your stripes in Tuscaloosa, you do not jump ship the first time a bag of cash shows up from some program that cannot develop its own talent.
The portal killed loyalty. I watched us develop Amari Cooper from a raw freshman into the Biletnikoff winner. That does not happen anymore because the minute a kid has a good spring game his agent has him shopping his name around like a free agent. We used to build something here. You stayed, you fought, you earned your spot in that rotation. Now every June we are scrambling to fill holes because some kid who got 12 catches last season thinks he should be the number one option somewhere else. NIL and the portal turned college football into a rental car lot and I am tired of pretending otherwie.