Just saw that ESPN piece asking if the portal killed QB competitions and they actually used us as the example of how it used to be done right. And you know what? They are not wrong but they do not get why it matters. Back in the 1992 season we had a three-way battle between Jay Barker and Brian Burgdorf and I think David Smith was in there too and Coach Stallings made them earn it through two full-a-days in August heat with no air conditioning on that old grass pactice field behind the stadium. You did not get the job because of what you did at some other school the year before. You got it because the coaches watched you bleed for the team day after day in the humidity and the huddle knew you could be trusted when the game was on the line against Tennessee or Auburn or whoever.
Nowadays you bring in a transfer quarterback and he is handed the keys before he even learns the fight song. The ESPN article mentions us and Tennessee both having these open competitions that are disappearing and I just think about how that 1992 team we had did not even name a starter until the week of the first game. And that team won a national championship because every single player in that locker room knew the quarterback had earned it the hard way. You cannot buy that kind of respect with NIL money. You cannot transfer that in from some other program.
I do not care what the analysts say about the modern game. The reason we were Alabama for so long is because we built men who competed for everything. Now you just scroll through the portal and pick your starter from a menu like you are ordering fast food. And people wonder why the product on the field does not feel the same as it used to. The ESPN piece is right that these battles are fading away but they do not say the real loss. The real loss is the soul of the sport. The real loss is the summer nights when two kids who loved the same team went head to head in 95 degree heat and one of them came out the other side ready to lead. That is gone now and I am not sure it is ever coming back.