re: Caleb Downs

If that's the case, why would you post something so concrete as, "He's staying"? Considering you were apparently PERSONALLY part of an NIL deal with this player.

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He staying.

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This was 14 hours ago.

I don’t blame Coach Kalen for any of this. Anyone who is blaming him needs to chill out and accept what college football has become.

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When the NCAA finally brought the hammer on Bama in 2002 the roster stuck with Coach Hold the Rope.

Think about that.

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The era before NIL and the portal and after NIL and the portal really can't be compared.

Back then, guys would have had to sit out a year, after a transfer, regardless of the scenario. There wasn't even the graduate transfer rule yet.

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accept what college football has become.

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Other schools are dealing with the same variables (outside of the 30 day coach change window).

If we can't compete well enough to keep our best player, who has already been in the system for over a season, we aren't going to compete in recruiting going forward.

Some of you need to realize we don’t have the NIL funds other schools do. We’re not poor but we’re also not top tier when it comes to money.

It sounds crazy with how successful the athletic department has been but the truth is our donors aren’t as rich. We don’t have literal billionaires funding it

These guys also want to go to an OSU or UGA or whatever other school that is more stable. They don’t know for sure what will happen here.

It sucks but it’s the two most important things on their minds:
1. NIL
2. Coaching stability and development

The real question is where do we actually stack up in the new NIL world? Top 10? Top 15? Worse?

Expectations need to shift now that we don’t have the “Saban factor” to combat higher offers for players.

TAMU lost a shite ton of players to the portal. We ain't to that level (yet) but it has been happening across the board.

Evan Stewart is/was a dude. We even took some folks from the portal, as well. It is what it is.

If Harbaugh leaves that is going to start another shitstorm that we may can take advantage of.

It’s painful the way some of you guys are reacting….

Regardless of who we hired, this was always going to happen. The 2025 recruits have a whole new staff, we have to rebuild relationships. They know absolutely no one.

UW lost about 20-30 guys almost immediately, a huge chunk of those guys being starters. We’ve lost 8? With only three being starters and the rest split between a DB logjam and some older linebackers who were depth pieces.

Some guys came here for individual coaches. Downs for instance with Saban. Saban’s gone, Downs was a tight finish between us and Ohio State, and now Downs is checking his options because his main reason for being here made the choice to retire.

We’ve seen this multiple times with other coaching changes and frankly we’ve done a really good job holding the ship together comparatively. The fact people are already pitchforking just tells me you’re either ignorant or looking for a reason to raise a pitchfork in the first place.

This is like the Texas melt when all the stupidity decided to come out of the closet. “8-4 season, Saban needs to retire, etc.”.

We have both a full quarterback room. We have the whole line. We have a good chunk of WR/TE talent. We have a whole defensive line returning. We have our key linebackers. We lost some DB’s. Whoop Dee fricking doo, we’re still a top 5 roster.

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UhOhOreo

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Preach