WHY in the wide world of Sports do we have the impression that a QB is what is needed??
How bout an OL. QBs value goes down hill if he is on his back.
How bout an RB. Ground Yardage will make a QB look good. The Scheme becomes a little easier.
How bout a Defense........corners, LBs, etc. Yes, Defense does Win Championships..........can you say Al Wilson.
So if today UT Nilled the world famous recruit 15 Star Peyton Manning and passed on Tee Martin, we would be set?
Yes it does take A Team and a staff to Win Anything. The QB is given WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY to much credit and to be fair........too much discredit.
Tennessee 2026 Season will not be made by whoever the QB is.
And here is the Fun Part. It starts over again in 27, 28, and on and on. Welcome to the NFL College Minor League, all of this Bidding for the QB will be an annual thing!!
I also don't feel like typing something to this effect again, on another thread. So I'm going to copy and past what I said to someone else below:
I get why this makes you sad, but being upset about this is about the same as being upset when you find out Santa is not real. College football did not suddenly become about money. The money just stopped being hidden. Players have been chasing dollars since at least the first major TV deals, and honestly even before that. The NCAA only centralized TV control in 1951, and once the Supreme Court blew that model up in 1984 with NCAA v. Board of Regents, college football officially became a market driven sport. That case directly led to conferences negotiating their own TV deals, which is why the SEC alone distributed over 800 million dollars to its schools last year. That money explosion did not come from loyalty or tradition. It came from tv and profit..
The idea that players used to be loyal but suddenly became mercenaries ignores how one sided the system was for decades. Coaches could leave whenever they wanted. Schools could cut players, process rosters, or pull scholarships. Players, meanwhile, were trapped. The “loyalty” you are referencing is closer to the loyalty someone has when they are stuck in a cage. If a player transferred, they sat out a year. That year could cost them film, development, and sometimes their entire career. That was not loyalty. That was a prisoner.
Now players have agency. They can leave bad situations, broken promises, coaching changes, or depth charts that shift overnight. They do not have to waste one of their limited years just to protect a system that never protected them. The average college football career is around three years. The NFL window is even smaller. Forcing someone to sit out was not about character. It was about control.
And the idea that everyone is cashing out is just not true. The portal is huge, yes, but most players are not getting rich. The median NIL deal is around $1,500 a year. A few stars skew the numbers upward, but the majority are getting gas money, meals, or local endorsements. Even with thousands entering the portal, a large percentage do not end up in a better situation financially or competitively. This is not some gold rush where every starter gets paid. It is a handful of names at the top and a lot of regular guys trying to find the best place to play.
As for development and team bonds, those still exist. They are built in locker rooms, practices, and games, not by rules that punish movement. Tennessee still has players who stay, grind, and grow. The difference now is that staying is a choice, not a threat backed by NCAA punishment.
This is NOT the death of college football, lol. This sport has been an unregulated professional pipeline for decades. The only real change is that players finally get a small slice of the value they generate. If there is anger to be had, it should be aimed at the lack of structure and leadership at the NCAA and conference level, not at players for doing exactly what coaches, schools, conferences, and networks have always done.
I'm NGL brother I am so sick of these threads. Saying the same thing... over and over and over.
