Three years. THREE YEARS of watching ESPN grade our offseason based on who we pulled from the portal and how many stars the recruitign services slapped on some 17-year-old kid. I remember when Coach Stallings would take a kid from a small Alabama town who nobody else wanted and turn him into an All-SEC performer over four years. You built a program through relationships and development, not through who had the biggest NIL bag in May.
The 1992 team that won it all had walk-ons and overlooked kids who bought into something bigger than themselves. Now we got kids committing to us in June and flipping to Oregon in December because Phil Knight wrote a bigger check. The portal killed the idea of a four-year player. You used to watch a freshman grow into a senior and feel proud of that journey. Now you are lucky if a kid stays two seasons before chasing a bigger payday somewhere else.
Coach Bryant would roll over in his grave if he saw what recruiting has become. You used to earn the right to wear that crimson jersey through sweat and blood in August two-a-days. Now these kids are negotiating contracts before they even step foot on campus. The whole thing makes me sick.