Saw that story about the new Florida coach talking about waking a beast. It’s all just noise now. You know what used to wake a program up? A group of freshmen who grew up together, bled for the jersey, and stuck around for four years to build something. Now you just write a check and go shopping for a new offensive line in the portal. It’s a fantasy camp for millionaire boosters, not a football team.
I remember our 1985 Millikin squad that went 8-2. Those guys, most of them from right here in Illinois, they played for each other. They played for the guy next to them. There was no escape hatch, no bidding war waiting in December if you had a bad season. You dug in and fixed it. That’s how you build character, that’s how you build men. NIL has turned the whole thing into a transactional farce where loyalty is a weakness and the highest bidder gets your heart.
These kids at these big schools are just mercenaries. They talk about “building a culture” in spring ball while half the roster is brand new. You can’t build a culture in one offseason with rented players. It’s a facade. The beast isn’t sleeping, it’s been put down and replaced with a hollow, money-driven shell of what the sport used to be. The soul is gone, sold to the highest NIL collective.