Just saw that story about Alabama's new quarterback looking like a video game in their spring game, and it got me thinking about what makes a coach truly great. We've had our share of characters here, but when I look at the legends, I think of two types. You had the builders, like Coach Mike Brumbelow back in the 60s. That man built a prrogram from nothing, won a Sun Bowl, and did it with kids who stayed for four years and grew into men. He was the foundation. Then you had the fire, like Coach Bob Stull in the late 80s. He came in with that energy, took us to the Independence Bowl, and made people believe we could play with anyone. That 1988 team had an identity you could feel.
What we're missing today are the teachers. The coaches who could take a two-star kid from El Paso or Juarez and turn him into an all-conference player by his junior year. That was the magic. It wasn't about finding a ready-made player in some portal. It was about development. It was about the grind. I remember watching players like John Harvey or tight end Brian Natkin develop over years. You saw the progression every season. That was coaching. Now, you see these staffs bringing in fifty portal guys, like that mess over at Oklahoma State, and it's just a mercenary squad. There's no soul in that. A legendary coach wasn't a general manager assembling a fantasy team. He was a craftsman.
The great ones also understood this place. They knew you couldn't recruit like Texas or Alabama. You had to find diamonds in the rough and polish them. You had to build a culture that could withstand the heat and the travel. Coach Stull understood that. Coach Gary Nord in the early 2000s, for all the struggles, had those teams that fought like hell every single week because they believed in each other. That comes from continuity, from a staff that stays and teaches. These days, if a coordinator has one good year, he's gone for a bigger paycheck. How can you build anything lasting?
So when I see these spring game highlights of some five-star quarterback looking flashy, I just think about the long haul. A legendary coach's legacy isn't one spring game. It's the program he leaves behind. It's the men he shaped. It's seeing a player come back ten years later and talk about the lessons he learned that had nothing to do with football. We had coaches who provided that. Today's game, with the portal and NIL checks handed out like candy, it's creating managers, not mentors. And I'll take a mentor who can build a man over a manager who can rent a player any day of the week. The game has forgotten what made it great.
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