Alabama and Georgia Deliver, NIL Runs Wild, Week 6 Picks, and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Alabama and Georgia Deliver, NIL Runs Wild, Week 6 Picks, and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey"

Podcast Information:

• Title: The Triple Option
• Hosts: Urban Meyer, Mark Ingram II, Rob Stone
• Guests: Greg Sankey (SEC Commissioner)
• Release Date: October 2, 2024
• Description: Urban Meyer, Mark Ingram II, and Rob Stone delve into the evolving landscape of football, offering insights from leadership, player perspectives, and extensive sports coverage.

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1. Impact of Hurricane Helene on the Southeast

The episode opens with a heartfelt discussion about Hurricane Helene's devastating effects across the Southeast, particularly Florida.

• Mark Ingram [02:40]:
  "Six years of my life, Rob and Mark, I've never had to deal with it ever to say that I didn't respect mother Nature."

• Urban Meyer [03:32]:
  "The storm was five feet underwater and we had some damage. We lost a car. The Tesla's gone."

The hosts highlight relief efforts, partnering with organizations like Sinclair Cares Hurricane Helene Relief and the Salvation Army to aid affected communities. Urban Meyer shares his personal experience dealing with the storm's aftermath on Siesta Key, emphasizing the emotional and physical toll it took on him and his family.

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2. Mark Ingram II’s Eventful Weekend

Mark Ingram recounts his whirlwind weekend surrounding Alabama's game, illustrating the demanding life of a seasoned NFL veteran.

• Mark Ingram [05:22]:
  "After the Bama game, drive to Atlanta, about three hours, get there around like 5am I have a 9am flight to go to Baltimore."

He details his participation in a Baltimore Ravens event, engaging with fans, participating in interviews, and experiencing the electric atmosphere at M&T Bank Stadium. The camaraderie and support from teammates and fans leave a lasting impression on him.

• Urban Meyer [06:46]:
  "There’s only a handful of people on the planet, and it's a lot of who you are. You know, I've been around a lot of people, a lot of athletes, a lot of coaches, but the way you. You're a magnet, man."

Mark expresses gratitude for his support system, highlighting the importance of genuine relationships in his professional and personal life.

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3. In-Depth Analysis of Alabama vs. Georgia Game

A significant portion of the episode focuses on the intense Alabama vs. Georgia showdown, dissecting key moments, player performances, and coaching strategies.

First Half Dominance by Alabama

• Mark Ingram [14:07]:
  "Jalen Milroe going 11 for 11, 21 points in the first quarter, getting turnovers."
  "Milroe’s maturation as a quarterback has been tremendous."

Alabama set a commanding lead early, with quarterback Jalen Milroe showcasing exceptional performance, completing all 11 passes and accumulating 374 yards with two touchdowns.

• Rob Stone [15:42]:
  "Great protection in that first half."

The defensive prowess of Alabama stifled Georgia’s offense, leading to a 30-9 halftime score.

Georgia’s Remarkable Comeback

Despite the early deficit, Georgia demonstrated resilience, orchestrating a significant comeback in the second half.

• Urban Meyer [16:06]:
  "To rally your alphas and I mean, you get in their jog now and say, we’ve got."

Kirby Smart’s halftime adjustments revitalized the Georgian team, leading to strategic plays that closed the gap and eventually overtook Alabama in the final minutes.

• Mark Ingram [19:16]:
  "They made adjustments at halftime. They executed adjustments. They were. They got Carson Beck settled down by running the football."

Georgia's defense tightened, and their offense became more efficient, culminating in a thrilling finish where Milroe and Ryan Williams secured the win for Alabama.

Leadership and Coaching Highlights

• Urban Meyer [18:00]:
  "If I got me. If I got me Mark Ingram and some of those kind of like war daddies, I am grabbing their shirts and saying..."

The hosts commend Coach DeBoer’s leadership in maintaining team morale and focus, emphasizing the importance of championship-caliber leadership in navigating high-pressure scenarios.

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4. Georgia’s Strength and Future Prospects

The discussion shifts to Georgia's impressive performance and their future trajectory within college football.

• Greg Sankey [30:57]:
  "Georgia plays 10 of its 12 games against teams from the power conferences."

Georgia’s rigorous schedule against top-tier teams is highlighted as a factor contributing to their strength and resilience. The conversation touches upon the challenges posed by conference realignment and the implications for future strength of schedule considerations.

• Urban Meyer [24:58]:
  "I can promise you Kirby Smart and his staff 100%."

The hosts express confidence in Kirby Smart’s coaching abilities, asserting that Georgia is poised to remain a formidable force in upcoming seasons.

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5. UCF vs. Colorado Game Breakdown

The episode analyzes the UCF vs. Colorado matchup, highlighting Colorado's dominant performance despite challenging weather conditions.

• Rob Stone [36:24]:
  "What UCF did and how they showed up, that gives me great hope for that program going forward."

Colorado capitalized on their home-field advantage, leveraging their altitude and disciplined gameplay to secure a convincing 48-12 victory over UCF. Travis Hunter and Deion Sanders receive accolades for their standout performances and leadership.

• Urban Meyer [41:26]:
  "There's substance behind that program."

The hosts commend Coach Sanders for building a resilient and well-coached team, emphasizing the depth and preparation evident in Colorado's performance.

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6. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey’s Insights

Greg Sankey joins the hosts to discuss various aspects of college football, including strength of schedule, conference realignment, and NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) challenges.

Strength of Schedule and CFP Considerations

• Urban Meyer [49:44]:
  "Do you feel strength of schedule has always been supposedly part of it and BCS and the CFP?"

Greg Sankey acknowledges the importance of strength of schedule in the College Football Playoff (CFP) selection process, discussing how the SEC’s competitive balance plays a pivotal role in shaping national rankings.

• Greg Sankey [52:06]:
  "Georgia could be a top four or five team. And the question is, how will people examine those numbers versus another team that could be 11 and 1, 10 and 2."

He elaborates on the SEC’s efforts to balance schedules and ensure fairness in evaluations, particularly with the addition of new members like Texas and Oklahoma.

Conference Realignment and Future Projections

• Greg Sankey [54:33]:
  "We narrowed that discrepancy down to about 6 percentage points."

Discussing the integration of Texas and Oklahoma into the SEC, Sankey explains the analytical approach taken to ensure a balanced schedule, maintaining the conference’s competitive integrity.

• Mark Ingram [52:23]:
  "How do you see them fitting in? How do you think they have fit in so far?"

The conversation highlights the seamless transition of new members and the anticipated impact on the SEC’s dominance in college football.

NIL Challenges and Player Protection

• Greg Sankey [67:39]:
  "Anything that's changed over the last five years is the state level activity to tell us how to run college sports."

Sankey addresses the complexities surrounding NIL regulations, emphasizing the need for federal standards to ensure consistent oversight and protect student-athletes from unreliable endorsements and financial disparities.

• Greg Sankey [78:26]:
  "We need to recognize we're still developing young people. And that emphasis and accountability needs to be there."

He underscores the importance of fostering resilience and accountability among student-athletes, advocating for systems that support their academic and professional development alongside athletic commitments.

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7. Passing of Pete Rose

The hosts pay tribute to baseball legend Pete Rose, reflecting on his impactful career and personal interactions.

• Urban Meyer [103:58]:
  "I think he's the greatest player of all time. He impacted my. I actually not many people know this because I didn't make it very far, but I played pro baseball."

• Rob Stone [105:02]:
  "He had to go in. They have to put the man in."

The conversation acknowledges Rose’s unparalleled achievements and the unfortunate circumstances preventing his induction into the Hall of Fame during his lifetime. The hosts share personal anecdotes, highlighting Rose’s genuine character and enduring legacy in baseball.

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8. NIL Issues and UNLV Quarterback Controversy

The episode concludes with a critical discussion on NIL-related disputes, focusing on the UNLV quarterback’s transfer amidst broken promises regarding financial agreements.

• Greg Sankey [87:32]:
  "Anything that's changed over the last five years is the state level activity to tell us how to run college sports."

Sankey emphasizes the NCAA’s limited oversight in the current NIL landscape, pointing out the challenges of ensuring accountability and protecting student-athletes from exploitative agreements.

• Urban Meyer [89:15]:
  "The NCAA has become a toothless organization. And because I'm going to throw a couple of numbers at you, Mark, a decade ago, they averaged 10 million a year in legal fees. Now it's 234 million over the last four years per year."

The hosts express concern over the lack of enforceable regulations, highlighting cases like the UNLV quarterback who transferred due to unmet NIL promises. They stress the need for consistent national standards to safeguard athletes' interests and maintain the integrity of college sports.

• Mark Ingram [93:36]:
  "There's no contract. There's no. Who said it? Some agent or some uncle or some. Who said that's the he said, he said issue going on right now?"

Mark Ingram underscores the precarious nature of NIL agreements, advocating for transparent and binding contracts to prevent exploitation and ensure student-athletes receive fair compensation.

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Conclusion

The episode provides a comprehensive analysis of current college football dynamics, from game performances and coaching strategies to broader issues like conference realignment and NIL regulations. With insightful contributions from SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, the hosts offer a multifaceted perspective on the sport's present challenges and future directions.

Notable Quotes:

• Mark Ingram [19:16]:
  "Ryan Williams and Jaylen Milroe prevailed."

• Urban Meyer [30:57]:
  "We've put a new format together with single division, I would say someone’s schedule…"

• Greg Sankey [78:13]:
  "Our young people are asking for what is essentially consumer protection because some of these stories…"

• Urban Meyer [89:30]:
  "The NCAA has become a toothless organization."

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Note: This summary excludes advertisements, intros, outros, and non-content sections to focus solely on the substantive discussions and insights presented during the episode.

Transcript

[Mark Ingram]

Roll damn tide, let's go and shout out to you coach DeBoer. Cause you did that. But on to the next. We ain't even worried about that. We onto the next. Let's go coach. Uh huh. That part I don't give a piss about. Nothing but the tide. Let me clear my throat. Roll damn tie.

[Rob Stone]

We're back. Welcome to another edition of the triple option presented by our great partner, the Wendy's. Try Wendy's new saucy nugs. Today, another massive guest this week on the triple option, the commissioner of the sec, Greg Sankey joins us. And before we get underway, I want to remind you all out there, subscribe to our YouTube channel. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast, as well as across social media. You can find us at 3x optionshow. Mark, what do they need to do? They need to raise rate.

[Mark Ingram]

Follow, follow like, like, subscribe. Subscribe and tell a friend.

[Rob Stone]

Tell a friend and ask questions in the comment section. We're going to get to some questions in the future.

[Urban Meyer]

The only thing I know how to do is tell a friend, Rob. That's it.

[Mark Ingram]

You know, keep telling friends and you.

[Rob Stone]

Do it on your road telephone too.

[Urban Meyer]

My Rolodex.

[Rob Stone]

Yeah, your fingers all banged up. The Rolodex. Oh, I love a good Rolodex. All right, new episodes every Wednesday. And again we mentioned today, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey. Boy, lot to cover in college football with the commissioner. We're going to talk about how nil is impacting the sport that we love. Rehash the classic that was Alabama, Georgia, and look ahead to week six. We're also going to reflect on the passing of a legend, Pete Rose. Moving on. But let's start with everything that is going on in Florida and the Southeast right now and all those impacted by Hurricane Helene. Just brutal destruction and devastation all across the Southeast and in places that you really didn't think would get hit. And we work with Sinclair through the course of this podcast. And Sinclair is partnering with Salvation army for Sinclair Cares Hurricane Helene Relief. Salvation Army. They have teams operating in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia and Florida. Their highest need right now, clean water as well as food and cleanup kits. To donate, go to sinclaircares.com and you'll notice Coach is in a different setup this week. If you're watching on YouTube because you got kicked out of your house. Coach.

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah. Six years of my life, Rob and Mark, I've never had to deal with it ever to say that I didn't respect mother Nature. It's not like that at all. I just. That storm was 150 miles off of our property and it was 800 miles wide, coach. I mean, it was 800 miles, no one really wide. We really didn't batten down the hatches like we did on a couple others. And sure enough, the storm was headed towards the Panhandle at the Big Bend area. And the storm surge started coming and it didn't stop. And I live on a Siesta Key and it was five feet underwater and we had some damage. We lost a car. The Tesla's gone. The. You know, a lot of it broke your heart when I had to throw some. I mean, physically had some tears in my eyes. I threw away some memorabilia and, you know, kid pictures, couches and cars. Okay.

[Greg Sankey]

Yeah.

[Urban Meyer]

But when you see your. Your daughter's, you know, I actually told her I saved her baseball hat. As, you know, I just. I'm nuts. I'm a hoarder about my kids. And. But then Shelley and I went to Siesta Key for dinner in the Village and we saw the devastation. We made it out very unscathed compared to what I saw. And Mark, it was devastated that I started watching the news last night. The folks up in the Tennessee or the North Carolina mountains, I mean, devastated. So prayers. There's a loss of life, there's a loss of stuff much more important than cars. So prayers and obviously, please donate out there to help these folks out.

[Rob Stone]

Mother Nature is a powerful force and water always.

[Urban Meyer]

She's undefeated, man. She's undefeated.

[Rob Stone]

Water always wins, man. It's awful looking at some of these images. And we know a lot of this is happening in a great part of football country, in our. In our beautiful country. And it's. It's tough to see, it's tough to swallow. So we're doing what we can here at Sinclair and the triple option to help those people that are impacted. And we know, you know, we understand the gravity of the situation. We know how serious it is, but we are kind of a fun loving podcast, right? So we're going to do our best to pivot. And if anybody knows about fun and who had himself quite a weekend, it was Mr. Ingram. I tell you what, Mark, it was hard to keep up with you this weekend. We were talking last week and all of a sudden you were kind of doing the math in your head. You're like, wait a second, I might be able to get to Tuscaloosa on Saturday for the game, right? And that was like, I thought that was your big travel Project, right? And then I forgot what you had on the back end of the weekend. So let's go in reverse order. Tell us about your Sunday and part of your, like. It was like the coach. It was like the Mark Ingram reunion tour, right? And Sunday, Deuce Deuce was in Baltimore, man.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah, Deuce Deuce. But I'm Deuce one in the Ravens. You know what I mean? Two. One, two. One for the Ravens. But. So we'll start after the. We'll start after the Bama game. So after the Bama game, drive to Atlanta, about three hours, get there around like 5am I have a 9am flight to go to Baltimore. I was like, all right. I have. I have. I was like. I looked. There was a 7am flight, so I just jumped on a 7am So I didn't have to wait as long. Got to Baltimore, ate a good breakfast, took me a nap, woke up, got to the stadium, did my legend of the game rounds, went to Ravens, walked with all the fans, did a little interview, did some interviews, went did the pregame show with Torrey Smith and Shelby, and then went down to the field for pregame. And it was crazy. So after, right before the kickoff, after they announced everybody, they announced me. I came out there, had to hype up the stadium and obviously the Bank M and T Bank Stadium at night, all black uniforms, black helmets shining on the black. It's just so right. It's just so right. And the stadium was legendary. The energy was legendary. It was a special place for me. I only spent two years there, but it felt like I played many, many, many, many, many years. The impact that they had on me and what they tell me, the impact that I had on that organization and those fans as well. So a lot of love. And it felt good to be back with the flock. And they got a big. And they got a big win, too. So.

[Urban Meyer]

Hey, hey, Mark, I'm speaking as your friend now. It. I. I know. Rob and I. To see you do that stuff, it warms our heart, man. There's only a handful of people on the planet, and it's a lot of who you are. You know, I've been around a lot of people, a lot of athletes, a lot of coaches, but the way you. You're a magnet, man. So congrats. I really.

[Mark Ingram]

I appreciate that, coach, man. And when I'm around genuine people, authentic people, I'm allowed to be myself. So I'm thankful to the people who are around me, who support me, who love me like Ewan Stoner and people in the raves and people at the Saints and people on Big Noon and people at Bama. I got a great support system of people who help me thrive. And it's because of you I'm able to be me.

[Rob Stone]

To coach's point, Mark. It's amazing. I don't think I've told you this. Every week I get people, whether it's in my community or wherever I am, who watch the show and they're like, I really like Mark. Like, I wasn't sure if I was going to like him. They've never met you. I'm like, wait till you meet him. Like, if you think you like him on television, wait till you get a big sweaty bear hug from. From Deuce Deuce.

[Mark Ingram]

I was sweating my whole wardrobe, man.

[Rob Stone]

We'll get. We'll get to sweaty Saturday.

[Urban Meyer]

He was sweating through his sport coat.

[Rob Stone]

It was insane Saturday in Orlando. We're going to get. Get to that later. But let's go back to. So. So Baltimore was on Sunday.

[Mark Ingram]

Yep. And they got a big win on Sunday night. I'm able to. I'm able to come back and be the legend of the game again.

[Rob Stone]

You're undefeated.

[Mark Ingram]

Yes. Let's go. Let's go.

[Rob Stone]

So. So now let's. Let's rewind and go to Saturday afternoon, evening. And you found your way. And this was like playing trains in automobiles. I was kind of proud of you how you were able to pull this trip off from Orlando to Tuscaloosa in time for kickoff.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah. So after the show, I was like, we talking. We're all on threat. We're like, we'll be done at noon. I'm like, wait, we'll be done at noon. I'm like, game in Belma.

[Rob Stone]

Brain is spinning.

[Mark Ingram]

I'm like, how can I get there? And so there was a non stop from Tampa. So me and my boy, we drove from Orlando to Tampa, jumped on the Tampa flight, straight to Birmingham, got to Birmingham, jumped in the whip. Our boy had the SUV straight to Tuscaloosa, parking 10 whore west lot. You know what I mean? Right. Right there by. Right there by Publix, right across from Brian Denny. We go in. Hey. And it starts. I'm in the locker room saying what's up to everybody. I'm on the field saying, what's up to everybody. The energy was electric. You could just feel it. You could just feel something legendary is about to happen between these two teams. You could feel it in the air.

[Rob Stone]

Not bad, man. You feel yourself a pretty good life, brother. You got a pretty good Life.

[Mark Ingram]

I was blessed. I was thankful I was back in Tuscaloosa. It was my first time back in Tuscaloosa since 2019. They were having a 10 year anniversary. The last time I went there, my wife was like, almost about to. My wife's about to have a baby, right? But they send the jet because I'm the guest captain. So they fly the jet. I'm like, wife, you're not. She never been. So she wanted to go. I'm like, you're not about to have this baby, right? She's like, no. The doctor says no. So we fly there, we fly there. We watched the game. We have a bama bell, a bama baby girl. In 2019, we had a baby in Alabama because my wife, who said she wasn't going to have the baby in Alabama, had the baby in Alabama. So that was my first time back since then. And man, it was electric, man. Obviously two of the top teams in the country going at it head to head in Tuscaloosa, you know, it was. It was fun, man. It was fun. I had a great football weekend.

[Urban Meyer]

Light.

[Mark Ingram]

It's.

[Rob Stone]

You've had Wendy's nuggs dipped in sauce, right, Mark? You've had the Wendy nuggs.

[Mark Ingram]

I've had them.

[Rob Stone]

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[Mark Ingram]

Ooh, more than 10?

[Rob Stone]

More than 10.

[Mark Ingram]

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[Rob Stone]

Are you man enough to try the spicy ghost pepper? By the way, do you think you could pull that off?

[Mark Ingram]

That's not for me. I'm the honey barbecue type guy.

[Rob Stone]

Yeah, I can do the peppers, pick a flavor, grab some extra napkins, and then go back and get a few more napkins and prepare to nugget. Apparently, the word nug is a verb now. So, Mark, prepare to nug like you've never nugged before for a whole new way to nug. It's gotta be Wendy's at participating US Wendy's Keep on nugging America.

[Mark Ingram]

Nug city.

[Rob Stone]

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[Urban Meyer]

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[Rob Stone]

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[Urban Meyer]

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[Rob Stone]

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[Mark Ingram]

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[Rob Stone]

How are there still people paying two.

[Mark Ingram]

Or three times that much? I'm sorry, I shouldn't be victim blaming. Here give it a [e-mail] save whenever you're ready.

[Rob Stone]

$45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per.

[Urban Meyer]

Month new customers on first 3 month plan only taxes and fees, extra speed slower above 40 gigabytes CD tails we're.

[Rob Stone]

Going to talk about the greatness of Saturday and let's do it right now. On any given Saturday we're going to talk first up about that Bama Georgia Classic. I was watching the first half on the plane and I got my like little cheat sheet notes that I was writing down. I was like Georgia zero touchdowns allowed all season, conceded three in the first quarter. Touchdowns on the first four drives for Alabama, three of them from Milroe. He completed his first 11 passes. Alabama's running backs getting to the edge and around the edge at will. Carson Beck first multi interception game. He had two in the first half. It's just like that. Bam. It's 30 to 9 at halftime. So I want two different perspectives on this because if you watch the first half you're saying to yourself, do I need to stick around for the second half? Obviously we know the answer was yes. But Take me through Mark first. The vibes, the energy in that stadium, the way that first half went. Because I don't think if you were a Bama fan, you could have script it much better.

[Mark Ingram]

Well, I think all of us, if you said, we're going to be up 210 in the end of first quarter, I think, you know, we all would have been like, yeah, okay, like, whatever.

[Rob Stone]

Put that down.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But when I was in the locker room, though, the energy, the speech Coach DeBoer had for those. For those players, like, ooh, what was the speech, man? He was like. He was just like, we a tough bunch. We a physical bunch. Let's go out there and we gonna give them hell all day. And the players was like, ooh. So he must not talk like that too often. You know what I mean? Cause they was like. They were always like, ooh. Like, they was ready to roll. They was ready to roll. And they walked out, and the stadium was crazy electric. I'm recording, going through. I'm like, I'm getting them feels again, Coach. I'm getting them feels again. And I ran out with the team. I'm like, ooh, this is. And so you can feel the energy in the stadium. And, coach, when you have a game like that, what's the one thing you want to do? You want to start fast. You want to start fast, and that's exactly what this team did. You mentioned that Jalen Milroe going 11 for 11, 21 points in the first quarter, getting turnovers. The team, even when they were behind the chains, Milro and his ability to improvise with his legs like the. His ability to go through his progressions, find his receivers, hit the running backs on the wheel routes. His maturation as a quarterback has been tremendous. It has been extraordinary. He's going through his progressions. You talked about that earlier in the season, Coach, on Big Noon. On our show, you talked about him growing as a quarterback and having to go through his progressions. And you can see it. You can see him going, 1, 2, 3. Oh, check now.

[Rob Stone]

Like, it helps when you have a lot of time, too. By the way, great protection in that first half.

[Mark Ingram]

Yep, yep. So what you want to do in a matchup like that, you want to start fast. And that's exactly what they did.

[Rob Stone]

So on the flip side, Georgia coach got punched in the mouth, right? I mean, everything went wrong. Kirby Smart takes them into the locker room. What is that halftime speech and management like, from a coaching perspective?

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah, I just. I've been a Coach, my entire life and I watch things, you know, I don't. You know, and we'll talk about this in a minute, but coaching to me is when someone makes an incredible catch, makes two people miss. And that's. That's called recruiting. And that's. God touching an athlete to say, you're different than most coaching. To me there, There is a. During a year, during a season, during a game, and during moments you got to earn. I used to do this, stare at our coaches and go like this. You know what that means? You're earning your coaching stripes right now. You know, you're. You're earning them right now. And that means you have to raise up and get your guys. Whatever you gots to do, you gots to do. And Kirby's smart to me, and people are going to listen to say, what is he talking about? That might be the coach of the year moment. To bring that team back. Yes. And get their minds right. Because you have a bunch of people right now just got obliterated and they're not used to that. They got athletes who haven't. I mean, they got smoked in a tough environment. They come back and took the lead. The young freshman, John. I'm sorry, Williams.

[Mark Ingram]

Ryan Williams.

[Urban Meyer]

Right. The right Williams.

[Rob Stone]

The Alabama wide.

[Urban Meyer]

You're not. You can't stop that. That's the Percy, Harvard, Mark Ingram. That's. Those are freaks of. You know, that was not a coaching era. That was just a guy. I'll say it again. The coaching moment of the year. And there's going to be. People roll their eyes because they lost. I get that. But to when. When you earn the stripes like Kirby Smart and his staff to get that team back. Think about that. I guess I've never really been in that scenario, but you're in Tuscaloosa, Alabama against an elite team and somehow you got your feet back on the ground and they went and fought and fought and they got back to. And got the lead. So coaching of the year 2024 goes to Kirby Smart and staff to bring that team back.

[Rob Stone]

Coach, in that process, what are the necessary steps that you have to take?

[Urban Meyer]

It all depends on your team. It all depends on. I'm getting fired up now. So if I got me. If I got me Mark Ingram and some of those kind of like war daddies, I am grabbing their shirts and saying, listen, I need you, pal. We used to say, when I needed the most, you gave us your very best. That was a saying that we had. When I needed you. I don't need you. When we're up by 40 points. I could care less what you do. Go sit on the bench when we're getting bloodied up. Right now, I need you to go rally because there's some guys in this locker room, Mark, you know that. That were not ready for this, right? They were not ready for that second half. And so you rally your alphas and I mean, you get in their jog now and say, we. We've got. If this is going to get real bad unless you guys decide to nut up now and get this shit going.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah.

[Urban Meyer]

And that's. That's exactly what they did.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah. And, coach, I agree with you 100%. And, like, that was my sentiments exactly. Like, I'm like, okay, we're up 30 to 7. Like, this can't be complacent. We can't be satisfied because this is a football team that has Kirby Smart leading it. Kirby Smart ain't just going to lay down. He's a competitor, he's a grinder, and he has the players, like you say, they got some alphas on their team, and they came out and they fought and they were. Had the lead with a little bit over two minutes left to go.

[Rob Stone]

Two and a half left. Georgia took the lead for the first time. Yes.

[Urban Meyer]

Wow.

[Mark Ingram]

They made adjustments at halftime. They executed adjustments. They were. They got Carson Beck settled down by running the football. They started running the football effectively, efficiently. It got him kind of settled in his rhythm. The defense made. The defense made adjustments. Georgia, they start. They started rushing three spying two on Jalen Milroe. And Alabama's offense kind of got conservative. Kind of got conservative. You got to keep the pressure on. You got to keep trying to score points. You can't just try to survive. They got kind of conservative and Georgia came back. Georgia came back. But at the end of the day, Ryan Williams and Jaylen. Millie Milroe prevailed.

[Rob Stone]

Let's go back to the other day. We're going to get to that in a second. I'm curious about the comeback in Tuscaloosa, Mark. At what point did the stadium and you, to a point, start saying, oh, this is starting to shift back. Was there a moment there where you said, we might be in a little bit of trouble now?

[Mark Ingram]

Man, you could kind of feel it in the second half. You kind of just feel it, like, brewing, like, all right, it's 30 to 14. We're good, but we need to do something on this drive, right? And we. And then we get stopped and have to punt it. And then the crowd would be in it And Kirby was going for it on fourth down since halfway through the second quarter. So the whole second half they were getting third down stops. Alabama's defense was. But they were not stopping him on fourth down. I think they went five for five on fourth down. They got bailed out for about two or three penalties that got thrown. And they just kept moving the ball. They kept moving the ball. Carson Beck got a new rhythm, started finding people and you could just feel it like now it's 30 to 20, now it's 30 to 21. You're like, oh damn, oh damn, we need to do something here. Then we got a field goal. We're like, okay, it's two possessions. Okay, we good. And then, oh damn. We muffed the kick, we muffed the kick, you know, but you could just kind of feel the momentum. You can kind of feel it. It was an eerie feeling in the stadium. They, the fans kind of got a little quiet. Uh, the offense wasn't moving the ball. The defense couldn't stop them. They've been on the field a lot. They was getting fourth down conversions. You could just kind of feel the momentum like kind of shifting towards Georgia. But we had enough in the tank where we were weather able to weather the storm. So shout out to those guys, man, because it could have got ugly, it could have been a bad. It could have been a different topic of discussion had they not came through the way they did there.

[Rob Stone]

There's a ton to discuss at the conclusion of this game. I'm going to get to that in a second. But Bama loses the lead and they turn to a 17 year old phenom who comes up with one of the plays of the year in college football. And this kid is special. And I think we're really in a. Speaking of special coach, I know you feel this way too. We are seeing elite freshman receivers, two of some of the best receivers we've ever seen at this age playing college football right now. And they're doing it right out of high school. One in Jeremiah Smith and one in Tuscaloosa.

[Mark Ingram]

Ryan Williams, two dogs, two beastlys.

[Urban Meyer]

I got opinion, I got an opinion on that. And that is because a lot of these guys are getting really well trained. You know, some of these, it used to be you played football and then the other sports, which by the way, I'm a fan of. But a lot of these guys, I mean the training, the weight training, the specialty training, and I don't know Ryan Williams or his background because that cat, that play is one of the greatest Football plays you'll ever see ever. And you can't Caitlin DeBarri or I mean Kirby or you can't say, well they should have. No, no, no, you, you can't stop what that kid did. You just can't do that. I mean that was one of those plays that you know, that you just can't stop. So I think there's a reason, there's a reason why you're seeing some of this. That kids are really, really well trained coming out of high school.

[Mark Ingram]

They are.

[Rob Stone]

And well coached, right? And well coached.

[Mark Ingram]

Well, coach, I train, I train throughout the week, you know, down here at a local facility like all summer long. And like it's a Wednesday like and I'm and I'm seeing like some high school football players in here with me at like 10am training. I'm like, aren't you supposed to be in school? I'm like, like why aren't you in class right now?

[Rob Stone]

Don't you have chemistry right now?

[Mark Ingram]

He's like, oh well I do online school or I do home school. I'm like, so you get to train all day? Like imagine, I can't imagine if I just got to train all day when I was in high school, middle school, et cetera. Like these young kids are coming out as specimens, as aliens. You see Jeremiah Smith making two one handed catches in the end zone. Ryan Williams doing gymnastics stuff with his body control, catching the ball, sprinting, accelerating, make two hit each other and then accelerate for the touchdown. I mean these dudes are aliens, man.

[Urban Meyer]

Like I will say this too, that if I'm an evaluator or in this college football place or just as an evaluator, which is what I do now, that loss is so much more important for the development of team and I think more valuable than beating a team. I see some of these ridiculous schedules that same teams have played. You know, I'm picked by 50, I'm picked by 50. And then you go to Tuscaloosa, Alabama and go a comeback win to me that I'm going to keep doing this. That's going to bear a little signal on our, on our show from it. That's a coaching stripe earned beating a team by 64 to whatever. It doesn't, you know, move on to the next because that, that has, you have better checkers than every person on that field. Don't even. So I just keep going back to Kirby, smarting that staff 100% man.

[Mark Ingram]

Shout out to Georgia, man. Like what they're able to do to come back from 30 to 7 in the second half. Like, like you said, coach, this thing could get out of hand quick. You thinking Bama could put up 50, 60 points? At the end of the day, they only put up three until the last possession. So much kudos to Georgia, the Bulldogs. These are two teams. These are the two best teams in the country right now. Coach, what you think? Coach, what you think?

[Rob Stone]

There's a team in Columbus that would like to have a conversation with and.

[Urban Meyer]

Texas and Austin, Texas. But you don't. Columbus and I'm a Buckeye. But you don't know.

[Mark Ingram]

They haven't played to know.

[Urban Meyer]

They haven't started to know.

[Rob Stone]

They've got eye sweet like that.

[Mark Ingram]

They haven't been in a fight.

[Rob Stone]

Oregon.

[Urban Meyer]

Yep, yep.

[Mark Ingram]

But hey, but I gotta show love to Jalen Milroe, man.

[Rob Stone]

Just okay.

[Mark Ingram]

The growth that he has shown as a quarterback. Listen to this, listen to this. Stoner, he became the first player in the AP Poll era to reach 300 passing yards, 100 rushing yards and run for two touchdowns against a top five opponent. He went, the man just went absolutely Insane. He went 27 for 33, 374 yards, two touchdowns, one interception. At 98.5 QBR, they only graded up to 100. Stoner. 98.5 QBR, only graded up to 100. And guess what?

[Urban Meyer]

Against Georgia.

[Mark Ingram]

Against Georgia and guess what, and they say an exceptional, an Excellent number is 75.

[Rob Stone]

Oh, wow. Speaking of, speaking of Milro, right. He is your new Heisman favorite per bet. MGM at plus 200. Let's talk about Georgia. Here they are 45 and three since 2021. I'll give you one guess, Mark who those three losses are to roll down tight. Yeah, those three losses to Alabama, that's your saucy nug of the week. Try some at your nearest Wendy's. There's a couple things I want to get into on Georgia right now and I think, coach, you could make a compelling argument that Georgia is going to come out of this loss in maybe better shape than Alabama. Having been absolutely punched in the face in the first quarter on the road, everything went wrong and they were able to flip the script and take the lead in the second half. Knowing everything that they went against and everything that was going against them and you get that loss. That kind of, I think is a wake up call. Right, coach? But also it shows you, hey guys, we're not all that. But look what we just did. I actually came out of that game thinking that Georgia is in a better place than Alabama, which is it Sounds insane, but. And I know how tough that schedule is for Georgia coming up, Coach, but I think Kirby Smart and company walk out of Tuscaloosa saying that that loss is going to serve us well down the road, and I think this team is going to be better for it.

[Mark Ingram]

Yes.

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah, I've been in those situations, maybe not exactly like that. And the world's coming to an end in Athens, Georgia, right now. I mean, you can't see that far ahead. I can promise a Kirby Smarts right here. He's got those. You remember the horses? Wear those blinders.

[Rob Stone]

Yeah.

[Urban Meyer]

You know, you're.

[Mark Ingram]

You're.

[Urban Meyer]

You're staring right now at that film and. And the anxiety and your. Your heart physically hurts when you see a player, too, that could have flipped that game. And then as a coach, here's what happens. You go back and you watch that. And this is where. Why I'm on Big Noon and I'm doing this because, I mean, it just beat me to death. And I'm watching that play saying, did we practice it? I never blamed a player. I never said I would blame coaches. All the time. I would say I blame myself. Did we practice that in practice? Did we do it? And if we didn't do it, then why not? And I would. You know, that just wears you out. So, yes, I agree with everything you just said. I can promise you Kirby Snart's not feeling it that way. Or his staff. His staff right now. Cause they're good. That's what. That's a great coaching staff. They're saying, what could we have done differently to give these players one more chance to win that game, for them.

[Mark Ingram]

To come back from 23 down in a hostile environment where everything was going against them? It just says about the character and the resilience of that football team. You're in Tuscaloosa. It's not an easy environment. It's 102,000 out there. Yelling, screaming. You got a great, talented team on the other side who just ambushed you in the first half. And you come out and you just do what you need to do. You just chip away, chip away, chip away, chip away. You find yourself winning the game with over two minutes left to go in the game. So I think they can walk out of that Tuscaloosa with their heads high, and it's going to be dangerous. They're going to be dangerous.

[Rob Stone]

Right now, let's talk about Georgia real quick. Well, they got that opening win over Clemson, right? A very commanding win. And I think it was. Everybody was like, Apparently Clemson's not all that. But by the way, Clemson is showing up now. I think that win looks better and better for Georgia. Because now you're thinking, hey, SEC championship game is at risk, right, For Georgia to get in there. Particularly when you look at what's still to come on their schedule. They got the homecoming game with Auburn, Mississippi State, home, Texas in Austin, Florida in Jacksonville, Ole Miss in Oxford, big one at home with Tennessee.

[Mark Ingram]

Wow.

[Urban Meyer]

Geez.

[Rob Stone]

Yeah. I mean, so like, we think I feel good about Georgia. I really, I really do. Like, they're a, they're an absolute playoff team to me right now.

[Urban Meyer]

If they win those games.

[Rob Stone]

Absolutely.

[Urban Meyer]

Either one or two in a country.

[Greg Sankey]

Yeah, no problem.

[Mark Ingram]

100%.

[Rob Stone]

The question then is how many losses can they sustain and get themselves in there? Because now that margin for error is so much thinner. I think two losses, they're fine. But when you get to three losses, now you're talking about, wow, are we letting in a three loss team into the top 12 playoffs? And that's where things, I think, get to your point, coach. Blinders on and things get a little tight.

[Urban Meyer]

There's some schedules out there, Mark, and that's where I can't wait to talk to the commissioner of the sec, Greg Sankey, about this. There's some teams that won't play a ranked team or a top 10 team.

[Rob Stone]

And won't be punished for it.

[Mark Ingram]

And they'll be 11 and 1 and Georgia will be 9 and 3. Hypothetically. Georgia 9 and 3 will lost to.

[Urban Meyer]

Tennessee and playing 5, 5 top 10 teams.

[Mark Ingram]

Yes, yes. That 9 and 3 outweighs the 11 and 1 that didn't have a. You know what I mean? Hypothetical.

[Urban Meyer]

I guess why I'm so passionate about that is back in 06, we had the number one most difficult schedule in the country. And think about what happened. The number one most difficult schedule in the country. We lost one game at Auburn and they tried to keep us out of the bc. There's only. It was back in the BCS era and all the people are saying, well, they don't belong, they don't belong. And I'm like, wait, what in the hell are you talking about, not belong? Look at that schedule. So I'm, I'm gonna, I'm gonna swing hard, man.

[Rob Stone]

But coach, to your point, man, it's. It's tough to see the three in the loss column, right?

[Mark Ingram]

I'm not worried about Georgia.

[Urban Meyer]

Not, not really.

[Rob Stone]

Hard to overlook it.

[Mark Ingram]

I'm not worried about Georgia, no.

[Urban Meyer]

But I'm on the field.

[Mark Ingram]

I'm just saying, like, I think their team is going to be a problem moving forward.

[Rob Stone]

From what you've experienced, Carson Beck is not going to have that type of first half again. Right. He has moved on from that. Let's talk about Alabama. Let's end with the team that won the game. Oh, by the way, what this was, this was Coach DeBoer's first big SEC shout out to Coach Alabama moment. Right. So, Coach, what does getting that first big win on that level, on that stage do for you as a, as a, you know, as a young head coach with that particular program going forward?

[Urban Meyer]

Oh, I love this thought. So, so in the south is different now. And if you're not from the South, Mark, you're not. I'm not. I mean, obviously we came part of the south, but it's a little bit like the North. You hate to say that. Or the west or the east if you're not from there. It takes you a minute now for people to accept you. And when I went down to Florida, it was who from Utah. Utah. Where is that? You know, who is this guy? I can imagine Alabama. All of a sudden, Nick Saban leaves and all of a sudden who this guy coached? Where? Fresno. Where's Fresno State? You know, Sioux Falls. Yeah. Where's. Is Pullman there? Where's Washington? Is Washington coach in Washington, D.C. yeah. Right. Yeah. Who's this guy? They know who he is now that, that's how important that win. And more importantly, the recruiting piece, every recruit now knows not who is this guy. It's Kellenborg. That guy beat Georgia. So, you know, I can compare it to, what was it, 0605. We were really struggling and we were. Our program was going like this. We just lost to South Carolina. We lost three games. Lsu, lsu, Alabama and South Carolina. And I mean, I thought they were going to, they were going to throw us off the side of the stadium. And we beat Bobby Bowen's top five. Florida State team beat him handily. I want to say 38, seven or something like that. And in the locker room, Mark, after the game, I remember saying, let them all in. Let all the. And all of a sudden 50 recruits come pouring in our locker room and everybody's committing. I remember shaking hands, Percy. And you know, we're, we're just taking. And all our coaches say, no, take him, not him, him. And I didn't care. I was. Took every. I think I took 100 commitments that day.

[Rob Stone]

And that was the sign here, the sign here.

[Urban Meyer]

The, the program and our coaching staff did this it flipped.

[Rob Stone]

Yeah.

[Urban Meyer]

And that's exactly what happened in Tuscaloosa.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah.

[Rob Stone]

There was 100 recruits there, Mark.

[Mark Ingram]

Right. And big time recruits. I'm meeting. Four, five, six, seven, eight of them. I'm like, hey, I know you.

[Rob Stone]

I thought you were saying these were like four, five, six, seven, eight star guys. I'm like that high now.

[Mark Ingram]

No, no, I'm not. I know you coming to Bama. Hey, I know you coming to bama. I'm seeing DBs that are 6, 4. I'm like, you play DB? Like no. But let's go back to when Saban retires, right? Alabama's program is unstable. Right. It's, it's rocky. You don't know what's going to happen. Hired DeBoer, he retains the roster. They just go to work and then now week what, what is this? Week five week. What was this? So they, they had three wins, they had the bye week. Now they come and have a validating, certifying win against the Georgia Bulldogs at home. And Kurt and Coach DeBoer validates himself as the man to run in this program. They have a solid foundation, they are stable. The recruits are there, the players are bought in. He has the support of the fans, support of everyone in Crips and Tide Nation. Alabama is here to stay. Alabama is still on top of the college football world and they hate to see it, but we love to say it. Roll damn tide. Let's go and shout out to you coach DeBoer, because you did that. But on to the next. We ain't worried about that. We onto the next. Let's go, coach. Uh huh. That part I don't give a piss about nothing but the tie.

[Rob Stone]

Oh my God, I love you so much. All right, you mentioned a cool term, validating win. And guess what? We had another validating win this week and it came in Orlando and it. Yeah, SKO Buffs. What coach prime and his Buffs were able to do in Orlando. I think maybe the most impressive win of the Dion era in Boulder. Let's get to that in just a second. But can we talk about the scene in Orlando at ucf?

[Mark Ingram]

Oh my goodness.

[Rob Stone]

What that crowd, what that campus did for us at big noon kickoff. Biggest crowd we've had. DJ Khaled was there.

[Mark Ingram]

DJ coaches.

[Rob Stone]

One of Joe. I can't wait till coach puts out like one of those K tell mix albums.

[Urban Meyer]

Right?

[Rob Stone]

Do you remember the old K Tell stuff? It was like a greatest hits album that would come out during the holidays. I want Urban Meyers K tell his greatest Hits. And it's going to be nothing but dudes that have performed live on Big Noon Kickoff mg, mgk, right? And all the other guys. Shotgun Kelly.

[Urban Meyer]

I'm trying to. I'm trying to add all these. I'm trying to add all these artists and music to my ipod.

[Rob Stone]

So many great ones.

[Urban Meyer]

But do people still have ipods?

[Rob Stone]

No, I found one because I just moved.

[Mark Ingram]

Ipod.

[Rob Stone]

I do have one over there. But seriously, can we give full props. We'll talk about the heat and the humidity in a second. But what UCF did and how they showed up, that gives me great hope for that program, that university going forward.

[Mark Ingram]

UCF showed up and they showed out. And that campus is beautiful. The support they have from all they students was tremendous. I'm sitting here like two and a half hours from Central Florida. I'm like, I wouldn't mind if my kids go here. You know what I mean? It was a great, beautiful campus, great, beautiful atmosphere for Big Noon. And I was very, very impressed with ucf. That program is going to continue to.

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah, I was at Florida in 05 and they were just starting to invest in South Florida and Central Florida. And you stumble over good players in the state of Florida. I mean, you, when you walk in, you know, you got some academic stuff and some other stuff, you can't take them all. And obviously just sheer numbers. And I was like, man, those two programs, if they get the right backing of the support administration, which Central Florida don't give George, George O'Leary now, he pushed a lot of people, he built a stadium when everybody said there's a.

[Rob Stone]

Statue for him there for a reason.

[Urban Meyer]

And there should be. And, and I just. Will there ever be a time that they overtake some of the three power schools? You have Miami, Florida State and you have the Gators. And right now they're the second best team in that state. And you know, will there ever be a time where they'll go? I asked her athletic director was great, by the way. And will there ever be a time that they can go toe to toe with the Gators, Florida State or Miami and beat them in recruiting? When that happens, watch out. Tide has changed in this league.

[Rob Stone]

The same goes for usf, right? If they get that on field or on campus stadium and the conversation about them changes a little bit. Let's just talk about the weather real quick in Orlando. All right? So for those who saw the show, we were sweating and it was insanely warm and hot. And then you magnify things when you put the TV lights on, when you're on the set, and we're going to get to Mark sweating in just a moment. But I like to pride myself in not being much of a sweater, right? I don't have a whole lot here to get rid of, right? I'm pretty lean and mean, and when I spring a leak, we're in trouble, right? Because it's not going to stop. So our producer, Scott Riddell, he and I were joking after the show. He's like, rob, you know, you came on set to test your communications with LA and Bruce Feldman, right? And I'm looking at you, Rob, I'm like, ooh, wow, he is. He's kind of sweating. You know, the face is a little sweating. You know, we got the shirt on, the tie on, the sport coat. He goes, and then you put your hand up to kind of like block the brightness of the lights, right? And this is just rehearsal. And I put my hand up here so my eyes are not burned constantly. And he goes, your hand and forearm were just dripping sweat. He's like, that's when I knew we were in trouble. And then I look at Mark coming in with the headgear on and walking in a mini horse nugget with a K, and I'm like, oh, we are in a world of sweat right now.

[Mark Ingram]

I was drenched. I'm like, I got.

[Rob Stone]

You had angel wings. You had the angel wings on the back of your blazer.

[Mark Ingram]

I didn't know I was sweating like that. It was like, you need to put your jacket on, your sweat. And I'm like, I don't need to put my jacket on because I'm a sweat through it. But I saw the TV copy. I was like, ooh, I was sweating.

[Rob Stone]

You were sweating.

[Urban Meyer]

I've never seen that. I've never seen that before. You turned around, your back was sopping wet through your sport coat.

[Mark Ingram]

I should have wore a darker color. Poor decisions, Poor decisions.

[Rob Stone]

We'll sort that out. Let's get to the game, right? Colorado blew out UCF in these conditions. Colorado's got that home field advantage with the altitude. And we thought. We thought the heat and the humidity would slow down Colorado. We thought that the running game for UCF would just be too much for the Buffs to handle. They were two touchdown underdogs per bet. MGM. And they won it in convincing fashion, 48 to 12. Joel Klatt said that might have been Colorado's best win, I think he said, in two decades. On our conference call the other day, I was like, whoa. But Coach prime got himself a win. Which speaks volumes. Coach speaks volumes to what he is creating there in Boulder.

[Urban Meyer]

You know, I went last year, Mark, to see him practice, because I know we had him some games and I just thought, do my job. This is unchartered waters. I've known coach Brian for a long time. We've been friends. And he invited me in. I went to meetings, I went to practice and I texted you guys and called you guys, said, guys, this is not a 1 in 10 program. They have good players, a couple of great players, and there's some substance behind what shows up in press conferences and all that. And I see him tear into the players. I see the coaches coaching hard, which I think is a sign of a good program. There's not. It's not a huggy feely feeling at all there, Mark. He coach, they coach. And you're starting to see the rewards of the substance behind the stuff. You know, I'm not a big fan of the watches. I'm not a big fan of the. I'm not. It really. It's almost uncomfortable for me seeing some of the stuff. And if I didn't go to watch the practice and see prime coach and see the coaching staff coach and the players respond, I would have sold my stock on that a long time ago. As you notice, I never sold my stock, even last year when they kind of fell apart. So there is substance behind it. I don't know how good they continue to, you know, what's the. What's the number on wins? But I'm telling you, there's substance behind that program.

[Mark Ingram]

There's men, there's a ton of substance. And he's creating young men. He's. He's pushing these young men to be the best versions of themselves, both on the field and off the field. And yes, they are a little flashy, they got a little swagger, they got a little bit of that. But that's Deion's son. That's Coach prime, son. That's your dur. And you know, it's the Shadur away. But shout out to Shadur, man, just look at the game. He had. He balled out, man. What. What is it? 28 of 35, 290 and three touchdowns. Then you talk about Travis Hunter. 123 snaps in that.

[Rob Stone]

Strike the pose. Strike the pose.

[Mark Ingram]

Heisman again. Do I need to go grab my. My. Do I need to go grab that thing again?

[Rob Stone]

Give him that. Give him that September Heisman.

[Mark Ingram]

Grab that thing again. No, we in October now.

[Greg Sankey]

So he.

[Mark Ingram]

We in October now. We in October now, what that man had, what he had, 8, 9 catches, 89 yards. Had an interception again.

[Rob Stone]

And struck the pose. And struck the pose and struck the pose.

[Mark Ingram]

And then the defense, man. How about to the defense? They caused four turnovers. Opportunistic. Slowing that rushing offense down to average 375 yards a game. Slowed them down, controlled them, man. Shout out to Colorado, man. A big dub. Shadur Sanders. Coach Prime. I need my prime glasses. I don't know where they at, but, yeah, Travis Hunter, him and Jalen Milro. One and two for the Heisman right now. And you got Cam Ward up in there, boy, Ashton Gentee toting that rock, man. You know what I mean? So I think we in for a great Heisman race this year. We got some real good ballers up for it.

[Rob Stone]

How about Colorado?

[Mark Ingram]

Ryan Williams.

[Rob Stone]

Yes. Colorado sitting at the top of the Big 12 with BYU and Arizona, those three programs at 2 and O in conference play. And Coach Prime's got a week off to kind of sit and enjoy and heal and rest his Heisman contender. And then they get back on the field, sitting there at 2 and O on top of the Big 12 and charging. Coach charging towards that bowl game.

[Greg Sankey]

Yeah.

[Urban Meyer]

And I hope he takes the Lou Holtz advice. And he would always tell me, you coach your team hard after a big win. You never don't because your team's fragile. When you lose, when you win, that's when you kind of turn the screws on them. And I'm sure they are. That would be my advice to prime, is because byu, now, that's a real team, no joke, they better, you know, enjoy the win. But I got. I used to give him 48 hours. That's it, pal. I don't want to even hear about that win again.

[Rob Stone]

There was a. There was a cool clip last week of Coach prime talking to his team leading into the UCF game and how upset he was and frustrated. He said, start practice over. Right? Start it all over. Everybody go back to the opening stage, the opening script of this practice. So, Deon, he's got the glitz, he's got the smile, he's got the sexiness. But there is real, real substance going on with Colorado right now.

[Mark Ingram]

Sco Buffs.

[Rob Stone]

SCO Buffs.

[Mark Ingram]

SCO Buffs, lady.

[Rob Stone]

Well, as you all know by now, we have teamed up with our great friends at BETMGM this season, and we're going to be using BETMGM lines to make all of our picks. We'll also have special offers for our listeners each week. Mark, you're listening, right? You're listening to this?

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah, I'm listening.

[Rob Stone]

Pay attention. Pay attention. All right, so if you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, we urge you to use the Bonus Code option or go to betmgm.com option and you will get up to $1500. First bet offer mark on your first wager with BetMGM, we're talking 1500 bucks, mark 1500.

[Mark Ingram]

But here's how it works. Download the BetMGM app and sign up using Bonus Code option. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. You'll receive up to $1,500 in bonus bets if your bet loses. Just make sure you use Bonus Code option when you sign up or go to betmgm.com backslash option.

[Rob Stone]

It's all about the option, Mark.

[Mark Ingram]

It's all about the option, especially the triple option.

[Rob Stone]

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[Rob Stone]

All right, since 2015, this gentleman has been the commissioner of the SEC. Commissioner Greg Sankey, who was almost almost my athletic director at Colgate University. I just found out a few minutes ago. Commissioner, thanks for joining us. Love to have you on here this.

[Greg Sankey]

Week Good to be. Good to be with you. And I made a good Decision back in 2004 and Colgate seems to be fine without me.

[Rob Stone]

They're doing okay, but so is the sec, my friend.

[Greg Sankey]

No, we've. We've had a good start.

[Urban Meyer]

Well, Greg, great to see you again. You've been a friend for, since 2005 and we've had many, many deep conversations. I want to hit you right out of the jump with this because in 2006, I was the coach at Florida and we, we almost got edged out of the national championship game. I remember a lot of commentators and fans wanted Ohio State and Wolverines to have a rematch. And back then I thought, you know, I remember the meetings said just this conference has got to start getting respect because I've been around both and the level of talent high to low in that conference is second to none. And so here you have four of the five top teams in the country in the sec, you just saw Alabama and Georgia put on a show. You know, do you feel strength of schedule has always been supposedly part of it and BCS and the cfp? I never really felt it is. I, you know, you see Georgia lose to Alabama, that's not a loss in my mind.

[Greg Sankey]

Right.

[Urban Meyer]

That's a minor setback. I mean, I think it's partly, I know it's a loss, but the way they play, do you think there's enough weight and the fact that you have four of the top five, the reality is some of those teams are going to lose because they play each other. Is there enough weight for that strength of schedule that the SEC plays?

[Greg Sankey]

That's a really important question, particularly in the 16 team sec. So in the modern era, we've had this now what, 17, 18 year run of success in the postseason with teams being in the cfp. Last year, in fact, during our media days, I observed, I thought Georgia was one of the top four teams. So they lose to Alabama and our championship game. The nature of that game and you both urban mark, you both been there is very different than anything else you experience. You look at this year and you look at schedules. So Georgia plays on the road at Alabama, on the road at Texas, on the road at ole Ms. At 9 and 3, they could be a top four or five team. And the question is, how will people examine those numbers versus another team that could be 11 and 1, 10 and 2. And I've raised that issue. I do think we've benefited from strength of schedule. You look at Georgia this year, who plays 10 of its 12 games against teams from the power conferences. They open with a big win over Clemson. They'll finish against Georgia Tech, and in between play games against our league. And you certainly hope that, for example, earns a level of respect with the committee. But we have that over and over and over in our league. It's not simply Georgia, it's the schedules. When we put the new format together with single division, I would look at somebody's schedule and say, wow, that's a really tough schedule. I look at somebody else's schedule and say, that's a really, really difficult schedule by comparison. So I think so is the direct answer. We've asked the question. I think we've earned respect over time and a lot of football still to be played. To answer the question of how the strength of schedule will be viewed and eventually the selection committee has to put its foot on the base, if you will, on what that really means.

[Mark Ingram]

Hey, we appreciate you being with us, Commish, but you talk about the strength of schedule, you talk about the growth of the conference. Texas and Oklahoma are new to the conference this year. How do you see them fitting in? How do you think they have fit in so far? And where do you see this conference being in five years we've worked hard.

[Greg Sankey]

Because it's been a three year transition process. I think the longest change from announcement to entry of a new member ever that I've experienced. And that's because of contracts and media agreements. But that's allowed us to prepare. So the transition has been close to seamless. I'll go back to during those three years, we wanted to be respectful. There wasn't a lot of flag waving. You didn't see our logos in Norman or in Austin. We certainly were talked about. And then when we came to June 30, July 1, we had a couple big celebrations and now they want to beat our teams that are conference members and our teams want to beat them. The natural order of things, I think, for example, you saw in Austin, they played Mississippi State, ends up being a tough game just because of talent and focus on conference games. Oklahoma lost that first game, but just a tough game to Tennessee at home. And across the board, I think just really, really good fits. As I look out five years, I'm not focused on numbers. I think the quality of our 16 members stands unique by comparison. In other words, above, in a unique way. Competitively, across the board, we have 22 championships, 11 of those sports, so 11 of the sports we sponsor have the defending national champion in our league this year. So Last year our 16 teams won half the national championships and that's we didn't win football last year, which was disappointing. So I think there's great strength, great attention, we've had a great viewership so far. We have a new relationship from a media standpoint that's working well and I'm really excited about our future and we can stay at 16. I am highly attentive to what happens around me though and we'll be prepared if further adjustment is needed.

[Mark Ingram]

Just one quick follow up on that. You spoke with coach Urban about the strength of schedules and you have two new members and Oklahoma schedule is much different than Texas schedule. You look at those, what goes into choosing those schedules and how does Oklahoma get introduced that way and Texas get introduced a different way?

[Urban Meyer]

Sure.

[Greg Sankey]

We spent years. So during those three years we weren't just sitting back waiting for membership entry and we ran through a set of analytics and you have to pick a date. So we actually looked post expansion of our 14 teams after the single division format was decided. So keep in mind that the east west format created huge imbalances strength of schedule. In fact, if you were to have a perfectly balanced schedule for each team, their opponents would essentially be 500 with win loss record. They would have won as much as they lost. Well, if you got a team like Georgia that's 1, 1, 1, it's impossible for them to play each other. If you have a team at the bottom that's had a lot of losses, it's impossible for them to play each other. So that creates some variances. What we used to have is a range from about 44% winning percentage in a schedule up to about the low mid-60s. So an 18 percentage point variance in the divisional format between the easiest schedule and the hardest schedule over that post expansion timeframe using the single division format. What we did is narrow that discrepancy down to about 6 percentage points. In other words, we go 6 to 8 percentage points. We go from about 47% winning percentage to about 54% winning percentage. So the bandwidth is narrow. You're never going to have perfect symmetry and schedules. And then what you have on a year to year basis is somebody may have gone 10 and 2 last year. That over a 10 year period was underperforming by comparison. So you take Missouri from about 2014 to 2023, but in 2023 they go 11 and 2 overall. That makes the schedule look more difficult. Now what you have to do is play this year's team, not the last decade's scheduling analysis and by through our work. The schedules are much more balanced than our divisional format. But you're going to have those analyses, particularly in a transfer portal era where rosters can change rapidly and it's much more unpredictable.

[Rob Stone]

Commissioner, you consider yourself a football fan, correct?

[Greg Sankey]

Yeah, I.

[Rob Stone]

There was some hesitation.

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah.

[Greg Sankey]

It's worked. I mean, it's work.

[Rob Stone]

All right, so.

[Greg Sankey]

But ask Urban, like, are you a football fan? Sure. But man, when you're in it, it's work.

[Rob Stone]

Okay, So I remember.

[Urban Meyer]

I remember at times, Greg, I hated football. Yeah.

[Greg Sankey]

I've looked at my wife a couple times around events and said, I hate sports. So it's a wild swing from time to time.

[Rob Stone]

Right. So I'm. I'm curious how you handled the amazing game in Tuscaloosa. Right. As a football fan, with the ebbs and the flows, the moments to stand up and scream and yell and sigh and exhale, but also having that commissioner hat on at the same time. So how. How did you take in this amazing game? That was Georgia at Alabama.

[Mark Ingram]

He wanted the tide to roll. I mean, he's riding Birmingham right in Birmingham. It's just natural.

[Greg Sankey]

I rolled in from Oxford, so I'd been at the Kentucky Ole Miss game to start the day. And I'll just tell you my favorite part of the week when I'm able to, is to attend the early kickoff game, stand in the end zone by myself for about 10 minutes and just appreciate the game. So the deep answer, Rob, to your question is I actually love that few minutes to watch. And then when you're in the end zone, like, I don't know why teams are on the sideline because the best views from the end zone, you can see the line play in a whole different way. You can see receivers breaking or being covered and you can see where the quarterback's looking. I just think like the high coaches end zone view is the best way to see a game, in my opinion. That said, I had on a green sport coat, so let's be clear about that. And for a conference game, you kind of go numb. And there's a couple pictures that people sent me where touchdowns were scored right in front of me. And it's an expressionless moment. My hands might be in my pockets or my arms crossed, but you appreciate the competition. And people had asked me what I thought about that game. So this is the Georgia Alabama game from this past weekend. And there are times I wasn't convinced to believe what I was seeing play out. Like the early run of Alabama to build up that lead and then the comeback of Georgia. But that's the drama that's inherent in college football that I think is so unique in the emotion in the stadium that pours out the emotion on the sidelines. There's a lot of football played at different levels, but I don't think there's anything that compares to that type of experience.

[Urban Meyer]

Hey, Kamish, we've been friends since 05 and on record, you're one of my close friends that we've had some deep, deep conversations about the. How to make the game stay great. And I appreciate that. And I found out it's. I guess it's public now that the Big Ten and SEC ads and the you and commissioner Petit are going to meet. It's. This is a mesmerizing to me because I grew up in Ohio, Big Ten guy, but I'm also an SEC guy. Is that you just see a future that potentially two power conferences. You know, I'm not sure what you can speak to about that, but I think the world is going through a north, potentially north versus South, Big Ten versus SEC once again. I know you gotta be careful what you say, but just your thoughts on that.

[Greg Sankey]

I'm happy to speak to that. So when you go back to the introduction, I started in this role in 2015, and even though, you know, I knew all the commissioners at that time, I'm the new guy in the chair. And it is different to be in the chair. You can be as close to it as you want. And I've told staff in our office the most cherished words are. I think that right. So urban. You've worked with coordinators and assistant coaches. Hey, coach. I think that. And like whatever comes after that is great, but then somebody has to make the decision. You have to make the decision on fourth down, you have to make the decision to. To start a particular quarterback. And you're at the end of the hall making that decision. So in 2015, I'm new. I knew Jim Delaney, I knew John Swafford, Bob Bowlsby, Larry Scott. And then when you go through Covid, we'd had a change in the Big Ten, and then post Covid, everybody else changed. So all of a sudden I'm the longest tenured among those commissioners. Then We've had the Pac 12 as we knew it. Evaporate, if you will. And so just looking around, Tony is someone who I knew from his work with cbs, but just at kind of a low level and then with Major League Baseball. We were in some meetings together when I was the SEC commissioner and he reached out to me pretty early on and part of my observation relative to our meetings, and it's an outgrowth of an advisory group we formed in the spring, is if we can set a direction that we can agree on, others have the opportunity to participate and follow. So that's the fundamental urban. And it's not as if we're just going to unilaterally change the world in an athletics directors meeting, but we do need to talk about issues around legal settlement to the extent we're permitted to. Legally, we have to be careful about the boundaries. There was a report like nobody called me. There was a report report. The day before we record this podcast about we're going to have a scheduling agreement. Well, we play. We've played basketball challenges with people. Should we be talking about those things? I think certainly. Will that change things? Tony and I have talked about how playing rules are made. We've talked about how decisions are made in the ncaa. And I think one of my learning lessons over the last decade is we have enormous challenges in front of college sports. We have enormous opportunities and enormous support. We're not going to meet the challenges in front of us in big rooms filled with people, which is kind of the NCAA way, because there's so much disparity among the programs. And this ability to move from the way we've always done things to the way we're going to need to do things is accelerating more rapidly. And so that causes us to narrow the conversation a bit. What we want to do is bring people into that conversation eventually. But it starts with in the two conferences. Can the two conferences come together around some common thoughts?

[Urban Meyer]

I think this is really compelling. I didn't mean to interrupt my partners here, but I've always felt. I wouldn't mind you hitting that a little harder. Is that the disparage, the differences between the top 20 and the. And it's not. I coached a Bowling Green. It was incredible. But it's a whole different set of problems, solutions, conversations, really, that you have to have at that level. And there's the other level that I would pull my hair out. Greg, at those meetings, the AFCA coaches and I'm like, wait a minute, who's on this committee? They have no idea. And I would stand up and everybody thought I was a bad guy because I was speaking, because I lived it. Wait a minute. We don't. So please speak to that. And once again, we're not being disrespectful for anybody. It's reality.

[Greg Sankey]

Yeah, I'll take one of these issues that's been over time is I was commissioner of the Southland Conference 25 years ago. One AA football, FCS. Now really great football. I mean, some guys. Jeremiah Trotter, who played linebacker at Philadelphia, played Stephen F. Austin, Joe Dumars played at McNeese State, played in the NBA for the Pistons. Great experiences, but a different world. And I show up here and there's all these accusations about, hey, coaches are bumping people in the hallways. I mean, Irvin, you and I live this and, like, you look at it and say, well, really, who cares? You can't walk in as the head coach at any of our universities and not have people talk to you. I remember somebody complained about Lou Holtz walking through a high school hallway. It was like my first month. And, like, I have to deal with that. That doesn't happen every place. And that's like a microcosm to me of the lack of understanding that exists nationally, where I actually think we should be having those types of conversations in high schools between our coaches and kids in ninth grade. Give them an aspirational goal, come play for our program, and then you get down to the expectations, the pressure and the support. Right. And I didn't put those in any order. There's great support for our programs, but with that great support, there were a different level of external expectations. And Urban, you as a coach at Bowling Green, had an internal drive. Right. To succeed, but different external expectations. Yeah, you know, we want you to do well, but, hey, if you don't win them all, doggone it, we're happy to have you. You go to Utah and you set a new standard there. Right? But that internal fire, you know, that. That. That flame burned brightly, and then you go to Florida, you still have that internal expectation. I think this is across the board for our coaches. But then you have all of these external expectations, you have great support, and that's a whole different way of living, way of thinking, way of dealing with things. And I respect greatly. In fact, I've gone to coaches to say, hey, thanks for being part of the sec because you came here from someplace else and you had a decision whether you wanted to jump into this and challenge yourself that way. And I have great respect for those folks who do that in whatever sport it is. The reality, though, is when you show up in a room and are trying to debate when we should recruit, how we should recruit, it's a whole different reality. Some in Division 1 sponsor sports just so they can build their enrollment profile. That's not our reality. Sure. It's an enrollment process. But there's a lot more happening here and those differences have to be recognized. And that's where I think the decision making process nationally has to change. And if it doesn't change, that's when the threats of kind of just divergence are real. That we're going to have to, we're going to have to figure something out under the big tent. And if we can't and if we're going to have to explore it, then we're going to have a very different reality in the future.

[Mark Ingram]

We're in a new day and age of college football. You know, topic is nil players getting paid. And we've seen over the last few weeks that some of these players are starting to red shirt themselves to transfer to another program, possibly make more money. Is there anything that the NCAA could do or is it on the individual conferences or even the US Congress to be able to stop this and put some regulations on it? What's your take on that?

[Greg Sankey]

Well, we're dealing with a set of realities. So anything that's changed over the last five years is the state level activity to tell us how to run college sports. And that's combined with federal lawsuits, federal litigation and outcomes that have forced change. Forced change. And Mark, some of that change is what you're talking about. I'll just go back to something that the NCAA did a few years ago, which was everybody was in love with this four game red shirt rule, let everybody play four games. We can figure it out. Well, now you're seeing there are now, we've now created a deadline to say, hey, you know what, either it's another leverage point in addition to the transfer portal and should that remain so, the NCAA has certain authority. It's changed, it's been reduced. Conferences can have certain authority on how they do things. Like we change our rule and don't have a spring transfer portal for intra conference transfers. I think that's made our environment a bit healthier. We have to deal with litigation. So there's a settlement that would allow potentially, if it's approved by the court, which we don't control, some oversight of name, image and likeness activity and some institutional opportunities to provide economic support to student athletes. We still have though varying state laws. We have state attorney generals who have filed some lawsuits that limit transfer regulation, that have limited nil oversight. And that puts you into this congressional conversation. You know, Congress is a place where you can set a national standard so we can have final Fours, college World Series and college football playoffs without a national standard. I think that's going to become more difficult. And our student athletes are saying, hey, I just want to know that when I across the line of scrimmage from somebody, they're held to the same set of standards I'm held to.

[Urban Meyer]

Right.

[Greg Sankey]

I think that's a fair ask.

[Mark Ingram]

100%.

[Greg Sankey]

Our young people are asking for what is essentially consumer protection because some of these stories that we've seen over the last few weeks indicate that promises were made that weren't fulfilled. There's no protection for a young person in this system. They have no idea the credibility of the so called agent representing them. Those are not healthy environments. And this is not some 60 year old conference commissioner with gray hair and that gray hair being on fire saying, we can't do it this way. Everybody get off my lawn. We have to change that. Change is happening, but we have to have a system that defines the right competitive environment. What's the structure that provides some protection for the participants in a new way and allows us to have national competition? Because, hey, it's pretty cool when Texas goes up to Ann Arbor and plays a football game. I've never been there. I went to the game, you know, that should continue to happen. We want that to happen, but we need that national standard to help that happen.

[Rob Stone]

You keep mentioning the word change. Change in college football, change off the field in college football. Do you forecast a time in the near future, say five years, 10 years, where college football has a commissioner right now, like the NFL does, that is looking upon all of college football and making the decisions that are best for the game?

[Greg Sankey]

It's interesting because it used to be called a czar. And I'd point out like the czar thing didn't work really well for like.

[Rob Stone]

That'S why I went with commissioner. It's a little soft.

[Greg Sankey]

Yeah, Rob, that's the Colgate education.

[Rob Stone]

That's that Colgate education.

[Greg Sankey]

Drug czars didn't really solve the drug problem.

[Rob Stone]

No, they didn't.

[Greg Sankey]

We're into the commissioner label. I'll go back to Covid. So it's a simple observation. Somebody should be in charge, right? Okay, go back to Covid. That wouldn't have worked very well. And we had to make some decisions based on the information we had that I think have been justified as being appropriate to provide opportunities, keep people connected to their team, rather than this notion of just canceling things and losing a year in life and you never get the year back. And I identify that to say that means that people are going to have to give authority someplace other than Their local group, which they've agreed to be a part of voluntarily. I think that's a big conversation. I think there's probably more of that conversation happening now because of the disdain for what's happened in some compartments. But just having a commissioner wouldn't solve the transfer portal and the legalities around that. It wouldn't solve the name, image, and likeness issues. It wouldn't resolve lawsuits. And so we have to deal with what's in front of us. We're gonna have to deal with that in the system we have, and it's going to have to adapt. Would that lend itself to some kind of central coordination? I think that's a lot more difficult proposition than people understand. And that's why I go back to the COVID example to say that didn't work so well. And you could put in these independent entities, some central authority, and have your own level of walk away, if you will, from decision so it'll be talked about. I've studied it a little bit, and I come back to. I don't want to dumb down the Southeastern Conference to be part of some super league notion with 70 teams that some people speculate would happen. They want to be us, and that's on them to figure it out, not on me to bring myself back to earth.

[Rob Stone]

I'm coming to you, though. I'm coming to you, Commissioner Sankey, with the offer that I want you to be the commissioner of college football. All right. That I somehow have accrued this power to make that decision. Is that something that you would accept?

[Greg Sankey]

I love my job here, so I'm going to be commissioner of the Southeastern Conference. And I avoid hypotheticals like that because I know the work that's needed to achieve that type of outcome. And I think generally, and I mean this respectfully to the question, Rob, there's a naivete about what that means, and that's why I try to go back to a tangible example of what it would have meant during a period of time. Like I once said, yeah, we could make our own decision in May of 20 about playing that fall. And, like, the world flipped out, but we had the independence to make our decision. So people have to think long and hard about what it actually means before they sign on. And that would include me.

[Rob Stone]

I'm curious. Go ahead, coach.

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah, I just got a question regarding our favorite topic, enforcement, NCAA, and what's happened in the last 15 years with the litigation and, you know, and I. I almost defend the NCAA now because I went through so much watching it and meeting with you and you know, you'd see stuff like you said. And you know, I think probably half of it was nonsense when people told me. But I saw a number that the NCAA has paid on litigation. Everything. Every decision they made for the last 15 years was litigated. And really they lost, majority of them, the amount of resources that had gone to attorneys and just that. And as a result, you're getting memos and you're getting really something without guardrails right now. I watch, I listen, I have many colleagues still in this game. You are operating right now with very little guardrails. And I'm not saying it's bad. I mean, watch tv. It might be the best college football's ever been, but I worry about life without guardrails.

[Greg Sankey]

Same. And it is often difficult for people to conjure up sympathy for the nca. It's like, you know, I'm from the federal government, I'm here to help. I'm from the nca, I'm here to help. Are kind of the same things that, that people judge. But you do need a set of national standards. I think what's happened collectively is this push and pull from a system that worked. It was perceived as really well for decades. The money escalated, the external pressures increased, and collectively we didn't react. And so we should all point fingers at ourselves to a certain extent. And that's now causing us to make decades worth of change in a matter of months. And we just have to be honest about that reality. And I would just observe more deeply that we should be concerned about the impact of lack of guardrails. And we talk about the game, we talk about the environment around college sports. I'm actually concerned about individuals like I remember my maturity level at 19 and 20 and 21 years old. And maybe it was better than average, but it still wasn't great. I don't know how you go from the six figure nil deal as part of a team where in that sport you have this small chance of playing professionally and the majority of people won't, even in my league won't have that professional opportunity. Then they go to that entry level job and their boss says, I need you here at this time. They've learned that playing football. Football, right. They've learned about accountability, they've learned about teammates, but all of a sudden they're making $45,000 a year for a full time job and they're being asked not to just work like 8 to 5 because those jobs don't exist if you have that fire. We talked about when you were coaching. Right. Part of it started when you were a GA and nobody cared that you were making $800 a month. So how do you go from this experience at the college level where everything's provided. You have concierge medical care, concierge medical or mental wellness care. You have nutritionists around you, you have nil deals, to an entry level job where you're lost. And we're not going to understand the impact of that reality for a number of years. We should be concerned about that because I think what will happen on the backside of this, there's going to be this next wave of criticism that, wow, look at what you did. This sense of perhaps entitlement's a word that's used. I do think education happens in our programs. You guys have lived it. People go from adolescence to adulthood in college sports. We have to make sure that continues to happen. And then we set them up for success, not build these expectations up about what life is when you enter society outside of the basketball arena or the football stadium, and those expectations can't be met. That's a hard reality.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah.

[Rob Stone]

Commissioner, give me two, three things that you would like to see changed in college football to make it better for the players, for the institutions, for the coaches, for the fans.

[Greg Sankey]

I want young people to line up across the line of scrimmage and understand that the people on the other side are held to the same set of standards that they are. Let's start there. I think that's fair for everybody.

[Urban Meyer]

Yes.

[Greg Sankey]

And I think our young people are asking for that. That's not some naive conference, Commissioner. That's one second. The young people involved deserve protection around their economic interests. So as it's opened up, it sped up their realities and the oversight is not kept up. And I think we have some opportunities to achieve that depending on directions of settlement outcomes. And I think the third is we need to recognize we're still developing young people. And that emphasis and accountability needs to be there and needs to be allowed to be there. The development of resilience, the development of grit, the development of an educated mind, the development of growth, the ability to even come back if you didn't achieve that during your four or five years on campus. That needs to be focused. So I would identify those three as early priorities. And they tie into national standards to having the right kind of oversight and accountability, to defining a competitive framework that can work for college athletics.

[Rob Stone]

We were just yelling at Mark the other day about finishing up his degree.

[Urban Meyer]

Right.

[Rob Stone]

You promised that to mom. And it's not as easy as it sounds, right, Mark?

[Mark Ingram]

It's not as easy as it sounds, but I got some people in my corner, right? You got some peeps like commission saying that want that for me, who is important to them back on campus, back at the university. So I'm working to get that done, and I am going to get that done. But it's thanks to exactly what commission is saying. Just to remember that you're developing young people. And if they don't get it in the first four to three, four or five years, then they could come back and get it. And in Alabama, they have a great staff, great support from the academic side, and I got people who care about me and want to see me do well, and it's important to them. So I am going to get that done. Stoner.

[Rob Stone]

It's going to be an awesome graduation party. Commissioner. You're invited to it.

[Mark Ingram]

It's going to be.

[Greg Sankey]

I will take that. I'm going to tell you a story. Wilbur Hackett. Mark, you would have run by him. He was an umpire in my league, Urban. He officiated your games. He was one of the guys that broke the color barrier at the University of Kentucky back in the late 60s. Wilbur got his degree just a few years ago, in his 60s. That's okay. You know, my mom finished her college degree. She had kids in her 20s, finished her college degree in her late 40s. That's what we do. But there's an attachment. And one time I was in Tuscaloosa, and it happens over and over. I saw Paul Skenes at the All Star Game. I said, hey, where are you going to live? He said, baton Rouge, because that became special to me. I saw one of your teammates once, Mark, in the hallway when I was speaking to a class at the University of Alabama, and he was playing in the NFL and it was a Monday and he was an off day. I'm like, why are you here? He said, this is home. Those are the things that are done right. Those are relationships that are made. And sometimes it takes a while for people to figure it out. Right? That's okay. We talk intentionally about Mark, what you're describing. Work to bring people back, invite them back. That's our responsibility.

[Mark Ingram]

So when I graduate, you gonna come celebrate with me?

[Greg Sankey]

You sent me an invitation. I don't know if I can. Can hang with you in the celebration.

[Mark Ingram]

Part, but why not?

[Rob Stone]

We'll get around surfing with us.

[Greg Sankey]

I don't know how late it's gonna go, but I'll be there for the.

[Rob Stone]

It'll have an early start and a late conclusion.

[Greg Sankey]

I'll be there for the gray haired part of it. How's that?

[Mark Ingram]

Hey, that's fair enough. Hey, stoner, you know, you know what we do when we wrap it up?

[Rob Stone]

Yes, sir. Commissioner, we've been bombarding you with questions here for like the last 35 minutes. So we like to conclude with offering you the opportunity to throw a question at us.

[Greg Sankey]

Urban. I was in. That's it.

[Mark Ingram]

It always goes to Urban.

[Greg Sankey]

Yeah, I'll start there. When I was in that stadium in Phoenix and I walked in with John McCain, Senator McCain introduced myself and he predicted you were going to win. And he described why. The defensive line, speed. But what was it like after your career to stand up with that crystal football in that moment?

[Urban Meyer]

I wish you would have tapped your head or gave me some signal that said we were going to win. Because, you know, who actually thought we were going to win?

[Greg Sankey]

Charlie went to the house right away.

[Urban Meyer]

I know.

[Greg Sankey]

So that was not a good start.

[Urban Meyer]

Charlie Strong, you know, the assistant head coach and dear friend of mine said, we're good, you know, because we started watching who they played and who we played and again went to. What we talked about earlier, we're playing, you know, our, our. We're playing Auburn, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, you know, bam, bam, bam. Right in a row. So our guys are weathered. So to answer your question, after that game, I summoned my father and my Earl Bruce, my mentor. The coach had followed Woody Hayes. And we sat in the bowels of the stadium in Phoenix and I looked at him and I said, this is unbelievable. I get the coach for fun now. We did it. No more stress. That might have been the most incorrect statement ever to come out of someone's mouth because Mack Brown and I talked about it. Commish, everything you do is national championship or bust. Everything. And this. Yeah. So it was incredible.

[Rob Stone]

Well, commissioner, since 2016, it just means more is the. Is the motto that you and your conference have lived by. And we appreciate everything that you do for college football. You are one of, if not the strongest voice in college football out there. And for you to join us on the triple option. We really, really appreciate it and continued, continued success. Hope you guys get a lot out of that meeting. Coming up with the Big Ten.

[Greg Sankey]

No, I appreciate that. We've got great colleagues all across the country. Look forward to that meeting and thanks for the opportunity to have a conversation and hopefully I'll see you guys on the road at one of these matchups we have in the future.

[Urban Meyer]

Good luck.

[Rob Stone]

We appreciate you we appreciate you, Commissioner, but you missed. You had a big whiff in your career. You could have been the Colgate athletic director. But maybe at some point you can still go back. You can still. I was.

[Greg Sankey]

That was the year after they went to the 1 AA National Championship game. So I was thinking about working at a football power.

[Rob Stone]

Oh, yeah. Yes. They lost to Delaware. Joe Biden was at that game. I interviewed him for that.

[Greg Sankey]

Yeah.

[Rob Stone]

That was not a. That was not a nail biter. We got run. We got.

[Greg Sankey]

I know we're at the end. I'll also say one of the great selfless things I've seen is a guy named Don Vaughn, who was the hockey coach.

[Rob Stone]

Yes.

[Greg Sankey]

Who had a great team and stepped in the interim AD role that year when. That. When Mark Murphy had left. And I think those are the moments that are unappreciated in college sports. And it happens at our level where people are selfless and how they contribute.

[Rob Stone]

Well, we saw Bob Stoops do that with Oklahoma a couple years ago. Right. As well as. Well. Who knew there would be so much Colgate talk On this interview with the SEC commissioner, I wasn't expecting it.

[Greg Sankey]

If you can survive a winter in central New York York, which Urban has done, you can do great things in life. And Bob Iger, Rob Manfred, I mean, there's a lot of people that have lived that life, Roger Goodell's western New York guy. But you survive a winter in central New York, you can do great things in life.

[Rob Stone]

Yes.

[Urban Meyer]

Thanks. Commission agree.

[Rob Stone]

Commissioner, thanks so much.

[Urban Meyer]

Peace.

[Rob Stone]

All right, welcome back to the triple option brought to you by our great partner at Wendy's. And let's talk about the madness that took place in Las Vegas. Not on the Strip, but over at unlv. Their quarterback, Matthew Sluka, a disagreement with an nil promise. He was said he was going to receive $100,000 to transfer from that football powerhouse in Worcester, Massachusetts. Holy Cross did not receive all of it. The school collective was going to pay about 3k a month for the next 4 months, but that's $88,000 less than what was verbally promised to him. The NCAA had a statement about how all of this went. The NCAA fully supports college athletes profiting from their nil. But unfortunately, there is little oversight or accountability in the nil space. And far too often, promises made to student athletes are broken. So UNLV goes without their starting quarterback. They were unbeaten, and guess What? They're still unbeaten. 4 0. For the first time since they became a D1 football program, they pounded Fresno State 59 to 14. The new QB, give it up from Mickey Keene, threw for 316, had a touchdown. UNLV this week for the first time ever is in the AP rankings coming in at number 25. So congratulations to that staff and to those players able to overcome all the off field chaos and noise and get a win over a respectable Fresno State program, get themselves into the top 25. But coach, this type of stuff is, it's thorny, it's very he said, she said and the NCAA feels very much kind of handcuffed coach to do anything about this.

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah, you're in a world of. And the commissioner and I, we talked about a life without guardrails and the people when you start making promises and I think Brady Quinn said it on Big Noon and I don't know all the intricacies of the agent world but some of these people aren't really registered agents. So there's people making decisions and I used to call them the third uncles, whoever those people are. People making promises. That's real money. If that's all true. Once again, if that's all true, that's real money. However, this is a person, this is a player, this is a young, was he 21 probably or 20 years old making life changing decisions. What happens? He leaves UNLV. UNAV wins with their backup quarterback. Throws 300 plus yards against Fresno State. Now they're ranked for the first time in maybe history. I don't know that there's four and.

[Rob Stone]

Over first time ever in history.

[Urban Meyer]

So I, I mean this pains me a little bit because I've given my life to college football. I love players, I love, you know, I, I everything about this but it makes me, it breaks my heart that this is really happening and it's not going to stop. Rob, I have a story that I know a coach that called me, his voice is shaking. His best player was going to step out on the team last week and he didn't do it. You know why? The peer, the players went to him and he ended up playing but this, until they get this thing under control. Mark, I'm. Can you really leave your team right in the middle of a run? I don't, I don't get that.

[Rob Stone]

Yeah, it's hard to swallow but coach, the legal ease out there, the numbers that are being spent by the NCAA to defend themselves is astronomical.

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah, let me go there and then I want Mark's opinion on the player element of that. But so the NCAA when I first started coaching was they were by far they were in charge. It was the ncaa. Everybody was horrified of the ncaa. I was.

[Rob Stone]

Everybody's frightened by him.

[Urban Meyer]

Everybody. DEZ Bryant, I believe he was at Oklahoma State. He lied to the ncaa. They. He never could play again. I mean, coaches, you had to sign stuff and player. I mean, you could not. We. You had a rule book like that and you memorized it. We had to take a test every year. You memorized the book. You know what? The NCAA has become a toothless organization. And because I'm going to throw a couple of numbers at you, Mark, a decade ago, they averaged 10 million a year in legal fees. Now it's 234 million over the last four years per year. 20, 23, 61 million in legal. Legal fees. And they're spending legal fees. But they're losing. They're losing the litigation. That's why, as of right now, on October 1st, there are basically no rules in the sport of college football, in recruiting tampering and what you can give players. No rules.

[Mark Ingram]

234 million over the last four years just in legal fees. And they're taking L's and they lost.

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah, come on. Those aren't winning. Those aren't winning legal fees. They've lost.

[Mark Ingram]

Those are losing legal fees. But listen here. Like, this is. It's just crazy right now what's going on. But, like, you can't expect to tell a player to transfer from his school and not live up to the compensation that you promised you were going to give him. But at the same time, that's what's wrong with this thing. There's no contracts. It's just a handshake. It's on a promise. Like, this is just crazy right now. But at the same time, like, you can't expect a player to go play and you're not giving him what you said you were going to give him. But at the same time, as a player, I don't know how you're three and, oh, four and zero, leading your conference, leading your division, and shoot, you just quit on your guys. Like, it's just. It's the day and age that we're in, man. It's just the wild, wild west out here. Like.

[Urban Meyer]

It'S like, Mark, you just said something interesting. You can't say you're going to do it and not do it. UNLV saying that didn't happen. There's no con. Here's the thing that's.

[Mark Ingram]

There's no contract.

[Urban Meyer]

There's no. Who said it? Some agent or some uncle or some. Who said that's the he said, he said issue going on right now?

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah, yeah. But as the player, I know, like, okay, if you told me 300,000, I was spending 300,000. If you told me a hundred thousand, I'm expecting a hundred thousand. If you give me what I asked for, I'm good. But like, you can't just lie to me. But at the same time, I ain't. I develop relationship with these players and like we winning, we're doing good. Like, I can't just walk out on you. But it's just wild, man. It's a wild day and age. I'm built a little different, man. I'm old school, man. I was raised by OG you know, my pops coach. And he wasn't going for none of that, man, you know.

[Rob Stone]

And these players are leaving now at this juncture in the season because they can salvage another year. They can raise your say to themselves. Yeah, that, hey, my price point is going to rise. I'm going to be more valuable going forward next year. If I can save this season, somebody else is going to want me, is going to want to pay me more. And these are the type of decisions that they are being made. And who knows you're right, Coach, like, who's guiding these people? Who knows if these are really the right decisions? But I know if I was a head coach, if I was in charge of a collective, and I know somebody bailed on a team earlier, I'd be a little hesitant to bring that player in.

[Mark Ingram]

Coach, I still want to know.

[Rob Stone]

Maybe that's just me.

[Mark Ingram]

Coach, I still want to know. You said you want to see the numbers on players who enter the portal. How successful has that been for them? How has that decision gone for them? There needs to be a study on that.

[Rob Stone]

It's a mixed bag for sure.

[Urban Meyer]

It's mysteriously not published. I don't get that. Because, yeah, they're going to tell the story of Dylan Gabriel who transferred and he's having a heck of a year, which is great. But what about. There's 3,000 people wanted a portal.

[Mark Ingram]

There's not that many.

[Urban Meyer]

And a lot of them get left without scholarships.

[Mark Ingram]

Yes.

[Urban Meyer]

Certainly end up in places that are not as good as they just left. And just because the way I was raised academically, network and all that, that's more important than the 25 grand you're going to get. Because I got news nil for the 95% of college athletes. It's done. When they're done playing college football, they're done. So they gotta go work for 45, 50 years.

[Mark Ingram]

So yeah, ain't nothing worth me risking my relationship with my university. I love my university.

[Urban Meyer]

I look, the way they treat you.

[Mark Ingram]

Yes.

[Urban Meyer]

The way they treat you.

[Mark Ingram]

The networks, the relationships, all of that. Like it's something that goes with that. Staying at a program, building those relationships, building those networks, getting involved with the alumni. And I'm blessed that I went to B because we got a great network and a great net worth.

[Rob Stone]

Net worth as well. All right, let's talk pick six. Brought to you by BetMGM. Place your money line prop parlay and same game parlay bets over at BetMGM. Just download that app today as always, please Gandal Gamble responsibly. All right. Six games against the spread. Mark always he's got his deuce deuce dog of the week subdued. Maybe it's a maybe. Dog of the week hasn't been fed yet. The blood sugar's a little low. Remember, all of these lines are current as of Tuesday. They can change. We're excited to find out where Mark's underdog deuce deuce dog of the week is. Let's start in Columbus. Coach with you Iowa three and one at the Buckeyes. Buckeyes favored by nineteen and a half. Coach your team sitting at number three again. And next Saturday they have that big game, that big trip to Oregon. But they have to take care of business at home with a good Iowa team first.

[Urban Meyer]

I still think arguably the best roster in college football but you know, Alabama, Georgia, you got to keep them above them. And same with Texas just because they, they, you know, they've been in a street fight. Ohio State has not. I. Iowa's tough, Iowa's rugged. They got us one time we went up to Iowa City at night and it was a tough loss. But, but they're so one sided right now. They have one of the best running backs, Caleb Johnson. He is a mark. I don't know if you watched him yet. He's a fricking manster.

[Mark Ingram]

Yes.

[Urban Meyer]

Running back at Iowa a man. But they're going against the number one defense in the country and I just think with lack of balance they still can't throw the ball. Can you stop the run? Yes, you can stop the run. Anybody can stop the run. You put physically more people up there, that's what's going to happen. They're going to, they're going to stop Iowa's run game in Ohio State. I'm going to take Ohio State at the point spread is now down to. What is it? 19 5. I'm taking Ohio State to cover the.

[Rob Stone]

COVID that Oregon distraction out there. It's not going to impact them.

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah, sure it will a little bit. But no, I think, I think it's a veteran team. Maybe the most veteran team of the big boys in the country right now. That's how many veterans they are back.

[Mark Ingram]

They're built for. They are built for it.

[Rob Stone]

Just one ranked game this week, guys. Number nine. Missouri at number 25. Texas A&Mizzou four. No. A&M. Four and one. And the Aggies at home favored by two and a half. They've won four straight games after that season opening loss. But those last two wins, E E right, Bowling Green, Arkansas, less than impressive fashion. E Mizzou as we mentioned, unbeaten coming off a bye week. But they've looked vulnerable as well over the course of their last two games. They've made second half comebacks to beat BC by 6. And Vanderbilt and double OT. You need double OT to beat Vanderbilt. Sorry Vandy, but that's the reality of who you are on Big Noon last Saturday. We had planned for, we never executed but we had planned to talk about the most overrated teams out there. Let's just say Missouri attracted a lot of attention among our experts in talking about that. I agree with them. I like the Aggies to win and to cover Ole miss off their first loss of the season, now down to 4 and 1. They are at South Carolina. Ole Miss favored by 9. Five unbeaten ranked teams fell last week, including Ole Miss. They did that to Kentucky. The rebels down six spots to number 12. And they're. They're in a tough place. Coach, you know how or mark, you know how tough it is to win down there in South Carolina. Am I hearing some barking or grumbling?

[Greg Sankey]

There it is.

[Mark Ingram]

What's the line? 9. 9 and a half.

[Rob Stone]

9 and a half. 9 & 9. I'm sorry, down to 9.

[Mark Ingram]

Down to 9. That means people are betting Gamecocks. There it is. The Ole Miss is coming off their only loss of the season at Kentucky. Tough loss and they got to go on the road to a tough place to play ball. A tough place to get you a victory in South Carolina. South Carolina, the Gamecocks, they're getting their quarterback back. Lenora Sellers are coming off the bi week. He had an ankle injury in the first half and that heartbreaking loss to lsu. And they're in their defense. They got two edge rushers who are all world, who are all sec. Listen, this team, this defense, these edge rushers, they the real deal. They the Holy Field. They the real deal. Holy Field. And I just think, man, I'm gonna take South Carolina with the points. I am. And that's gonna be my dog of the week. And I got Ole Miss in the fighting. Lane Kiffins bouncing back this week. I got him bouncing back off. Tough loss. Jackson dart. I got him bouncing the back. I think they're gonna win this game, but I do think it's gonna be a close game. South Carolina is never an easy game. Might come down to the end, but I'm definitely taking the Gamecocks with the points. And that's your RR.

[Rob Stone]

Okay, let's stay in the SEC. Coaches favorite team in Orange, Tennessee. Four and oh. A 13 and a half point favorite on the road at three and two, Arkansas.

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah, I'm still a Tennessee bandwagon guy. I think they're top four team in the country. It'd be hard to rank those four, though. Maybe top five.

[Mark Ingram]

But.

[Urban Meyer]

But Nico, I. I've talked about him over and over again. He's certainly a Heisman candidate. He won't win it with the other performances. But I'm going to talk about the Tennessee defense. Number one total defense in America. And that's the thing that's overshadowed because everyone's talking about that offense. So it's one of the two or three most balanced teams in America as far as offense. Defense. I'm going to pick Tennessee to cover the spread. 13.5, 13 and a half point favorite. I'm taking Tennessee.

[Rob Stone]

Rematch of last season's national championship game won by the team up north. Michigan 34, 13 over Washington. This time it's in Seattle. Wolverines up two spots to number 10. They're at four and one and they have their first road game of the year. Here we are, October, and Michigan finally goes on the road. Last week the defending national champs defended the Little Brown Jug. They won at home over Minnesota. But the passing game certainly still a concern. Alex orgy last week, 10 of 18, 86 yards, touchdown and an interception. So the last two weeks as a starter, he's. He's won, right? That's all that matters. He's two and oh, they've thrown it 30 times for a total of 118 yards. Sharon Moore, the head coach saying it's a work in progress. Thank you for the understatement of the college football season. As for Washington, 3 and 2, but both of those losses by less than a touchdown. They're number 10 in total defense, number 21 in total offense. Better rankings I think, than you would assume for a 3 and 2 team. They are really good at home. Guys, 17 straight home wins. It's a purple out in Seattle. Saucy nugs in Seattle. I think Michigan's program record 27 consecutive Big Ten win streak comes to an end. Huskies, watch this one. Huskies win it by three, courtesy of a walk off field goal. I'm calling it right now in Seattle. All right. Hey, how about Friday night down in the hotel?

[Mark Ingram]

Hotel bar.

[Rob Stone]

The hotel.

[Urban Meyer]

Oh, I'm sorry.

[Rob Stone]

I was going to call it the lobby, but yeah, the hotel bar.

[Mark Ingram]

We were watching live music.

[Rob Stone]

Frantic. Yeah, the saxophone guy was played in Orlando. The frantic finish in the ACC as Miami able to hold off Virginia Tech remain unbeaten. Now they go cross country. Mark to meet surprise side three and one Cal.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah, man, it's. They gotta go to the west coast, you know what I mean? But it's fine. They'll gain some time. I don't think it's gonna be that big of a deal for them.

[Rob Stone]

Cam ward, favored by 10, favored by 10 is Miami.

[Mark Ingram]

Cam Ward, this offense, they've been electric all year long. He's throwing for 356 yards a game. Oh, let me clear my throat. Let me clear my throat. He had 356 yards passing per game, 18 touchdowns, four interceptions. He's in the Heisman conversation for a reason. Their defense has a nasty front four. They're averaging eight tackles for loss per game going against a Cal offensive line who isn't as good as they were last year. But they do have two good runners. They have three good runners actually in their backfield. So I think they will be able to put up some points, feel like they'll be able to be successful running the football. At the end of the day, man, I think the hurricane is going to be too much for the Golden Bears. And I got them covering. I got them covering, man. Cam Ward and the Hurricanes, they the real deal. And Cal's in the acc. This is the conference game now. Ain't that crazy, right? But yeah, I got the Hurricanes covering this one. Sorry. Golden Bears. Go Bears.

[Rob Stone]

That's all right. That's all right. Hey, let's talk about the passing of a sporting icon, a sporting legend, Pete Rose. I know, coach. You're a, an Ohio guy. You're a big baseball fan. My dad grew up in Columbus. He was a huge fan of the Reds. And when you talk about the Cincinnati Reds, so many great legends have come through that program. But there's one that stands above the rest. Pete Rose.

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah, I think he's the greatest player of all time. He impacted my. I actually not many people know this because I didn't make it very far, but I played pro baseball. Tell him coach my game. I pattered my game after Pete Rose, you know, head slides in the head first slides and the, you know, as a little kid playing little league baseball and Charlie Hussey's favorite player, I met him, we became very good friends. I have stuff over my house that he signed and my son, you know, grew up, you know, as a huge fan is so I know there is some stuff going on. He's not in a Hall of Fame. I hope they put him in the hall of Fame. A matter of fact, they have to put him in a Hall of Fame. He's the greatest baseball player of all time. And I know there's great ones, but I'm, I'm somewhat biased, but I think there's a lot of people that stand up and say from A to Z, he's a winner, he's a hustler, he's a team first nut job on the field that just gave everything he had. Mark you, I, you didn't probably know him and I don't know how much you ever watched him play.

[Mark Ingram]

I didn't know him, but I know he's a legend.

[Urban Meyer]

That's a bad boy. Now that was a. He played the game the way he do. You know, Kobe Bryant was. That's why I'm such a Kobe guy. He was the Kobe Bryant of baseball. In my mind, the most competitive maniac that I've witnessed.

[Mark Ingram]

Legends deserve their flowers. And if he's legendary like I know that you say he deserves to be in baseball heaven.

[Rob Stone]

So the numbers around him are just, are just staggering. 17 time All Star. 3 time World Series champ. 3 time National League batting titles. He won 2 time Gold Glove. The biggest one though, coach. Nobody with more hits in the history of baseball than him. 4200.

[Mark Ingram]

He has to go in. They have to put the man in.

[Rob Stone]

It's so sad that he's not there right now. It's so sad that he could not have that moment in Cooperstown and enjoy it and that if it does happen, it's going to be after his passing. I think, you know, four or five.

[Urban Meyer]

Years I would go really did him wrong. He lived in Vegas and he would do autograph signs at Manalay Bay.

[Rob Stone]

He did one just the other day. Did the other one the other day. Ken Griffey Jr. Concepcion Ken Griffey.

[Urban Meyer]

Handful of times we went out there and sat with him and A genuine guy.

[Rob Stone]

Yeah. So, coach, I know I told you guys, I was down with my parents in Florida for a couple days and my mom's got like the stack of all the, you know, we saw Mama Stoners. That's what they do. The newspaper clippings and the old pictures from wherever. And I went through them, coach, and I found it amazing. This one picture, I'm going to raise it up right now. Let's see how well I do. I found this picture. Look at him. Black and white, old school photo. And there's Charlie Hustle signing an autograph. And a picture taken by my parents. That must have been like a spring training. And one of those kids up front was probably me. But, yeah, Charlie Hustle, a legend. Mama Stoner in black and white. Mama Stone keeping some old school pictures.

[Mark Ingram]

Man, I love Mama Stoner.

[Rob Stone]

An absolute great, an absolute great has left us and he worked with us at Fox Sports as well. And yeah, we miss. We miss Pete Rose and what, everything he did. But we thank you for joining us for another edition of the triple option. Remember, please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts, as well as across social media at 3x option. Show new episodes every Wednesday. And as always, we love our sponsors. We love you, Wendy's. We love you, bet mgm. We love you, Zip Recruiter. We thank you for everything you've done to make us an elite podcast. Charlie Hustle, we learned Charlie Hustle. Thank you.

[Urban Meyer]

Hey, I got my little bird dog on. You guys got bird dog?

[Rob Stone]

I, I don't, but I'll have it on next time. I'll have it on next time. I got my new hat.

[Mark Ingram]

The merch.

[Greg Sankey]

There it is.

[Mark Ingram]

Where's the merch?

[Rob Stone]

Thank you, Triple option. Thank you, Greg Sankey. Thanks, everybody behind the scenes. We'll see you next week on the triple option.

[Mark Ingram]

The.