Sitting here on a Tuesday morning in June and I just cannot shake the feeling of what Camp Randall used to feel like when the leaves were turning and the band hit that first note of "On Wisconsin." You remember the old bleachers before they renovated the south end zone? The way that whole stadium used to shake when we were grinding out a four minute drive agaist Michigan in 1992. You could feel the concrete vibrate through your boots. That place was a fortress, not a recruiting showcase with BBQ pits and NIL handshakes.
Now I see us sitting at No. 24 in the 2027 recruiting rankings and I wonder what Barry Alvarez would say if he walked into the stadium today. We used to develop three star kids into All Americans because they stayed four years and learned the system. Ron Dayne did not come here because of a fancy recruiting visit. He came here because he wanted to run behind that offensive line and punish people. The portal killed that. The rankings killed that. Now we are chasing five stars who will leave the second a bigger bag shows up somewhere else.
I will take the 1993 team that nobody recruited over this modern nonsense any day of the week. That team had heart. This team has a NIL collective and a transfer portal problem. Camp Randall deserves better than what this sport has become.