You watch ESPN previewing the 2027 quarterback class with all these big names like Arch Manning and Dante Moore and CJ Carr and I just think back to how we used to build a quarterback room at TCU. It was never about landing the five-star kid with the higlhight reel who is going to leave after two seasons. It was about finding the kid who wanted to be a Horned Frog, who understood what it meant to put on that purple jersey and run out of the tunnel at Amon G. Carter on a Saturday afternoon when the sun was beating down and the band was playing.
Nowadays every quarterback worth his salt is looking at the portal before he even finishes his freshman year. You cannot develop a kid anymore because they are gone the second they have to compete for a job. Back in the 1990s under Coach Sullivan we had quarterbacks who sat for two years and learned the option offense before they ever took a meaningful snap. They knew the playbook inside and out. They knew their receivers. They knew the protection schemes. They knew what the defensive coordinator was trying to do to them.
That is gone now. Completely gone. You look at what Oregon is doing with Dante Moore and Dylan Raiola and you tell me that is sustainable. One of them is going to transfer out before the season even starts because they cannot handle sharing reps in the spring. Meanwhile we are sitting here trying to build something the right way and the national media acts like we do not exist because we are not buying quarterbacks off the shelf like everybody else.
I would rather have a three-star kid who bleeds purple and wants to be here for four years than a five-star mercenary who is already planning his NFL Draft party before he even throws a pass in a real game. That is the old way and I will die on that hill.