You want to know what I miss more than anything in this era of bag men and transfer portals and kids jumping ship the second they don't start as freshmen? I miss the walk on program at Georgia. I mean really miss it. Back in the 1980s under Coach Dooley we had kids who grew up in this state dreming of wearing the red and black and they would show up to fall camp unannounced with their high school film under their arm and earn a spot on the scout team. No NIL deal. No guarantee of a scholarship. Just a dream and a willingness to get knocked around on the practice field for three years before they ever saw the field on Saturday.
We built the foundation of this program on those kids. Guys who played through high school and loved this university more than they loved their own highlight tape. Now you got 50-man portal classes at Oklahoma State and Colorado and the whole concept of earning your stripes is dead. A kid shows up as a preferred walk on and the first thing he does is check his phone to see if some program across the country will promise him playing time and a bag of cash. The loyalty is gone. The patience is gone. I watched a kid named Mack something or other back in 1994 walk on and become a starter by his junior year because he wanted it more than the blue chippers. You do not get that story anymore. You get a transfer portal entry and a tweet about being excited for the next chapter.