Twenty three five stars in the 2027 class and I am supposed to get excited about ESPN scouting how each one "fits" somewhere. You know what a five star used to mean back in the 80s? It meant you watched film on a kid from Mississippi or Georgia who ran a 4.4 and you hoped like crazy Coach Bryant or Coach Stallings could keep him away from Auburn and Tennessee. That was it. That was the whole recruiting battle. Now we got 23 of these kids and half of them are probably going to commit to Oregon or Texas or Colorado because of NIL packages and promises of early playing time before they even step foot on a college campus for fall camp.
I remember when we signed the 1990 class and we thought we had something special because we landed five Parade All Americans. Five. Now programs are stacking five stars like they are collecting baseball cards and half of them will be in the portal by their sophomore year aanyway. The whole system is broken. You cannot build a program the way Coach Bryant built this one with three star kids from Alabama who stayed four years and developed into All Americans. These kids today want a highlight reel and a bag of cash before they even enroll.
Fall camp is starting and I guarantee you half these five stars in the 2027 class have never run a full practice in August heat without air conditioning. Good luck with that.