Heard DeBoer on Finebaum this afternoon talking about building momentum and carrying it into next season and I just sat there thinking about what momentum used to mean around here. Back in the 1992 season we won it all and the next year we did not need to talk about momentum because the standard was the standard. You did not need to manufacture enegy through press conferences. You walked into that locker room and saw the championship ring on every hand and that was all the motivation you needed.
Now we are sitting here in the summer dead period with a portal-heavy offensive line trying to learn how to play together before August and I am supposed to get excited about momentum. Coach Stallings never had to talk about momentum in May. He talked about it in December when we were getting ready for the Blockbuster Bowl or the Gator Bowl and you knew exactly what you were getting from that team because they had been together for three or four years. They had been through spring practices together. They had been through two-a-days together. They had fought in the Fourth Quarter Program together.
What we have now is a roster that changes every single winter and we are supposed to believe that momentum from last season carries over when half the offensive line is someone else's former player. I look at this team and I see talent no question about it. We went out and got guys in the portal and we recruited well and on paper we look like we belong in the conversation. But momentum is not something you can transfer. Momentum is built through sweat and repetition and knowing the man next to you is gonna be there in October when things get hard.
I will give DeBoer credit for one thing. He understands the game has changed and he is adapting. Coach Bryant would have hated every second of this but he also would have found a way to win anyway. That is what I am hoping for. That we find a way to win anyway despite all of this. Because the alternative is sitting here every May listening to coaches talk about momentum while we try to glue together a roster that might look completely different by September.