Watched that ESPN piece naming our award candidates and I had to sit down for a minute. They pick a couple names with the biggest recruiting stars and the flashiest highlight reels and call it a day. But they never mentioon the walk ons that built the backbone of this program. Back in the late 80s under Coach Wacker we had a kid show up to tryouts with his own shoulder pads, no scholarship, no nothing, and by his junior year he was starting on special teams and playing meaningful snaps against Texas in the old SWC. That kid never got his name in any preseason magazine and he never transferred when he got buried on the depth chart either. He just showed up every day and earned his spot the old fashioned way.
Now you look at the walk on culture around here and I am not sure it even exists anymore. The transfer portal killed it. Why would a kid spend three years grinding on scout team when he can jump in the portal and go somewhere else for a bag of cash and a promise of playing time? I get it, I really do, the system changed and kids have opportunities now that my generation never had. But something got lost along the way. The 2010 Rose Bowl team had walk ons that never saw the field on Saturdays but they pushed the starters in practice every single day because they had something to prove. They were hungry. They were grateful just to be on the roster. That kind of culture does not build itself overnight and it sure does not survive when every marginal player is looking for the exit door the second things get hard.
The coaching staff talks about building through the portal and I understand that is where the sport is headed. But I hope somewhere in that building they are still giving a chance to the kid from some Texas 3A school who grew up dreaming of wearing purple and is willing to bleed for it. Those are the guys who made this program what it is. Not the award candidates. Not the 4-star transfers. The walk ons who did not care about the spotlight.