ESPN running a piece on how every 2027 five-star fits and I just cannot take it seriously. Twenty one kids who have never played a down of college football and we are supposed to believe we know where they belong. I remember when Coach Bryant would walk into a living room in Tuscaloosa County and tell a kid you are coming to Alabama because that is what men do here. No scouting reports. No crystal balls. No NIL pitch. Just a handshake and a promise that you would play with other boys who loved this state as much as you did.
This whole system rewards the flash and the hype and the early commit circus while programs like ours built dynasties on three-star kids from Mississippi and Georgia who wanted to hit somebody. I look at Oregon stacking five five-stars and Texas landing every elite arm in the country and I think about the 1992 defense that shut down Miami with a bunch of overlooked kids who played together for three years. That team would eat these modern recruiting rankings for breakfast and spit out the bones. We do not need ESPN telling us who fits where. We need to get back to developing men who care about the A on the helmet more than the dollar figure next to their name.