You see guys like DJ Lagway hitting the portal after one rough year and I just think about the 1994 team under Coach Stallings. We had players who took their lumps as sophomores, learned from it, and came back to win an SEC championship as seniors. Now a kid has a bad season and he's gone before the spring game even ends. That's not how you build a program.
The transfer portal has turned college football into free agency without the loyalty. I remember when we'd bring in a junior college kid maybe once every three years to plug a hole. Now you got teams like Oklahoma State bringing in 50 transfers at once. Fifty. That's not building a team, that's assembling a rental car fleet. Coach Bryant would have laughed you out of his office if you suggested that model.
What happened to earning your stripes? Sitting through two-a-days in August heat, learning the system, waiting your turn. Now everybody wants instant gratification. The elimination of the spring portal window helps a little but the damage is done. We used to develop men. Now we just collect mercenaries.