You see this ESPN piece on the 2027 five-stars and where they all fit, and I just shake my head. Twenty one kids who have never played a down of college football and we already know where they are going, how they fit, what their NIL bag looks like. Back when Coach Dooley was still on the sideline, recruiting was about relationships. You showed up at a kid's high school with a film projector and a handshake. You watched his mama cook Sunday dinner. You earned that commit over three years of showing up, not by winning a bidding war on some app.
Now we are landing elite tight ends and stacking classes with five-stars and I am supposed to be excited. But what is the point when half of them will be in the portal by their sophomore year? The loyalty is gone. The roster turnover is insane. We used to build a team over four years like the 1980 squad that won it all. That group of seniors had been through three seasons of heartbreak together before they finally broke through. You cannot manufacture that chemistry with a recruiting class built on a spreadsheet and a checkbook.
I get that we have to play the game the way it is played now. Kirby Smart is doing what he has to do. But I miss the days when a commit meant something more than a placeholder until the next offer comes along. These kids commit to three different schools before signing day and nobody blinks. The whole thing feels hollow. Give me the old way every time.