College Football Turning Professional, WVU's Rich Rodriguez Joins & Notre Dame 2025 Season Preview

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Triple Option Episode: College Football Turning Professional, WVU's Rich Rodriguez Joins & Notre Dame 2025 Season Preview
Hosts: Urban Meyer, Mark Ingram II, Rob Stone
Guest: Rich Rodriguez
Release Date: May 15, 2025

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1. Introduction and Episode Overview

In this engaging episode of The Triple Option, hosts Urban Meyer, Mark Ingram II, and Rob Stone delve into pressing topics shaping the landscape of college football. They explore whether Notre Dame can achieve 11 regular-season wins, discuss the implications of Rich Rodriguez's return to West Virginia University (WVU), and examine the current state of the transfer portal and NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) developments.

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2. Notre Dame's 2025 Season Preview

The discussion kicks off with an analysis of Notre Dame's upcoming season. The hosts use a "crystal ball" approach to predict the team's performance, taking into account their challenging schedule and new quarterback dynamics.

• Prediction:
  • Mark Ingram (55:22): "I don't see them over ten and a half wins."
  • Rob Stone (59:03): "I got nine."
  • Urban Meyer (58:59): "I don't see 11, though."

The consensus leans towards Notre Dame potentially finishing just below the projected 11-win mark, considering tough matches against Miami, Texas A&M, and Arkansas, among others.

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3. Player Motivation and the Transfer Portal

A significant portion of the episode addresses the evolving nature of player motivations in the era of the transfer portal and NIL opportunities.

• Jay Glazer's Insight (00:23):
  Jay Glazer highlights a new category in draft preparations where players are pulled for "doesn't love football," potentially influenced by the financial incentives of NIL.

  "Got guys off their board for quote, doesn't love football." – Jay Glazer

• Urban Meyer on Player Hunger (03:22):
  Meyer contrasts players from affluent backgrounds with those who see football as their primary means to support their families.

  "These guys are trying to eat... you are in survival mode."

• Mark Ingram on Genuine Passion (09:47):
  Ingram emphasizes that true passion for the game reveals itself during challenging times, unlike superficial commitment driven by financial gain.

  "If you don't truly love the game, you... you will be exposed."

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4. Characterizing Players: Takers vs. Givers

Urban Meyer introduces a framework to categorize players based on their dedication and attitude toward the game.

• Categories Discussed:

  • Energy Takers: Players who demand excessive attention and disrupt team cohesion.
  • Mouth Breathers: Coaches who lack passion for the game, leading to disengaged players.
  • Orange Eaters: Players indifferent to game situations, exemplified by not paying attention during critical moments like halftime.

• Humorous Banter and Insights:
  The hosts engage in light-hearted exchanges while underscoring the importance of genuine commitment.

  "They’re just killing the oranges." – Urban Meyer [05:27]

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5. Transfer Portal Realities

The hosts delve deeper into the statistics and realities of the transfer portal, discussing the challenges faced by players seeking new opportunities.

• Statistics Highlighted:
  A staggering 3,073 players entered the transfer portal, with 55% (2,204 players) finding new FBS schools, while 1,516 players struggled to find a new home or transferred to non-FBS institutions.

• Urban Meyer's Critique (15:31):
  Meyer criticizes agents who exploit the transfer system for personal gain, differentiating between those who genuinely support players and those who manipulate the market.

  "Agents out there... just trying to break in... it's residual damage to a situation."

• Mark Ingram's Counsel (20:29):
  Ingram advises players to focus on long-term goals rather than succumbing to instant gratification offered by transfers driven by financial incentives.

  "What is my ultimate goal? ... you'll get compensated for it."

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6. Rich Rodriguez's Return to WVU

Rich Rodriguez joins the conversation to discuss his decision to return to West Virginia University as head coach, bringing a wealth of experience from his tenure at Jacksonville State and other programs.

• Reason for Return (27:45):
  Rodriguez underscores the improved facilities, strong foundation, and the opportunity to vie for a national championship as key factors in his decision.

  "The only hard part is I've got two players on a team that have started games."

• Influence on Coaching (30:02):
  Urban Meyer shares how Rich's offensive strategies influenced his own coaching philosophy, particularly the spread offense that reshaped their approach at Bowling Green.

  "There's really no template for what you were doing when we started the spread offense at Bowling Green."

• Modernizing the Spread (31:56):
  Rodriguez discusses updates to his offensive system, maintaining core principles like tempo and quarterback versatility while integrating modern elements to keep the offense dynamic.

  "We're faster now than we were... by far."

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7. Culture and Leadership in Successful Teams

The trio examines the critical role of culture and leadership in building and maintaining successful football programs.

• Consistency and Accountability:
  Rodriguez emphasizes the necessity of a consistent culture where standards are upheld by players themselves, creating an environment of mutual accountability.

  "Culture has to stay consistent... it's non-negotiable." – Rich Rodriguez [37:26]

• Examples of Successful Programs (43:37):
  They cite Michigan and Ohio State as exemplars, highlighting mature locker rooms where experienced players self-regulate and uphold team standards.

  "With this nil and what I witnessed the Wolverines do and the Buckeyes do... you got grown ass men in that locker room." – Urban Meyer

• Mark Ingram's Insights (43:37):
  Ingram reinforces that successful cultures are not solely dictated by coaches but are a collective effort among the players.

  "The standard is set and executed and upheld within the locker room with each other."

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8. Hall of Fame Inductions and Personal Achievements

Mark Ingram shares his recent induction into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, celebrating alongside his co-hosts and guest Rich Rodriguez. The segment includes playful banter and reflections on personal accomplishments.

• Mark Ingram's Induction (48:58 - 52:17):
  Ingram showcases his Hall of Fame portrait and acknowledges fellow inductees, emphasizing his pride and connection to Alabama's rich sports heritage.

  "They know what's. I know the deal is, so let's go."

• Urban Meyer's Reflections (60:23):
  Meyer shares personal anecdotes about Pete Rose, expressing his emotions and stance on Rose’s Hall of Fame eligibility, highlighting the complexity of legacy and integrity in sports.

  "He should be in a Hall of Fame when he could, you know, hug his family and celebrate."

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9. Final Discussions and Takeaways

Wrapping up the episode, the hosts touch upon broader themes of hustle, effort, and authenticity both in sports and life.

• Hustle and Effort (62:38 - 63:57):
  Emphasizing the importance of consistent effort, the hosts share stories illustrating how genuine dedication cannot be faked and is essential for success.

  "You can't fake that. Nothing deters you from it." – Mark Ingram

• Closing Remarks:
  The episode concludes with well-wishes to Rich Rodriguez as he prepares to lead WVU, reinforcing the bonds within the football community and setting the stage for future episodes.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Jay Glazer (00:23):
  "Got guys off their board for quote, doesn't love football."

• Urban Meyer (03:22):
  "These guys are trying to eat... you are in survival mode."

• Mark Ingram (09:47):
  "If you don't truly love the game, you... you will be exposed."

• Urban Meyer (15:31):
  "Agents out there... just trying to break in... it's residual damage to a situation."

• Mark Ingram (20:29):
  "What is my ultimate goal? ... you'll get compensated for it."

• Rich Rodriguez (27:45):
  "What made you and your family decide that a return to West Virginia was the right move?"

• Urban Meyer (30:02):
  "There's really no template for what you were doing when we started the spread offense at Bowling Green."

• Rich Rodriguez (37:26):
  "Culture has to stay consistent... it's non-negotiable."

• Urban Meyer (43:37):
  "With this nil and what I witnessed the Wolverines do and the Buckeyes do... you got grown ass men in that locker room."

• Mark Ingram (43:37):
  "The standard is set and executed and upheld within the locker room with each other."

• Urban Meyer (60:23):
  "He should be in a Hall of Fame when he could, you know, hug his family and celebrate."

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Conclusion

This episode of The Triple Option offers a comprehensive examination of the current state of college football, highlighting the challenges and opportunities presented by the transfer portal and NIL landscape. Rich Rodriguez's insights on returning to WVU provide a strategic perspective on building a competitive program, while the hosts' discussions on player motivation and team culture underscore the enduring importance of passion and dedication in the sport. Whether you're a seasoned fan or new to the game, this episode delivers valuable insights into the evolving dynamics of football leadership and player development.

Transcript

[Mark Ingram]

Hey, friends, y' all ready?

[Rob Stone]

You got a medal?

[Mark Ingram]

Got my medal.

[Urban Meyer]

Put that bad boy on.

[Mark Ingram]

And I got that back.

[Rich Rodriguez]

Oh.

[Rob Stone]

Oh, yeah.

[Urban Meyer]

Big old head on that cabinet.

[Rob Stone]

It's a big head. Where'd those traps go? Mark Ingram.

[Urban Meyer]

No, Nat Kingdom. Light it.

[Rob Stone]

Dude. Like you're having a spasm over there, Mark, with that dancing lighting. What they. What they don't see is the drum work that you do before the song hits. Hey, welcome back. The triple option is here with you. We are presented by Wendy's. Try Wendy's new frosty fusions with flavors like caramel crunch, Oreo brownie, and pop Tart strawberry. So glad you're here with us. Rob Stone, Urban Meyer. Mark Ingram ii. Deuce Deuce. As always, thanks for joining us. Remember, rate, subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify. Wherever it is that you get your podcasts, you can find us on social media at 3X Option Show. New episodes typically come your way every Wednesday. We're a bit of an outlier this week. You can find us on YouTube and of course, wherever you get your podcasts. All right, here's some of the topics we're going to hit today. Can Notre Dame hit 11 regular season wins again? Rich Rod is back in West Virginia. He joins us for a conversation. And Pittsburgh. Yeah, he hasn't forgotten about. You can't wait to hear what he says about Pitt over there. But first, has college football and their players. Bears lost some of their fight. Guys, this is a great quote from and a tweet from Jay Glazer, our partner there at Fox Sports. That kind of puts us this conversation in perspective. We were going to hit it anyway. So Jay sent this out the other day. Interesting thing came up in my draft prep calls. For years, teams have pulled players off the board for A, injury concerns or B, character concerns. Got it. Get it. Understand it makes sense. However, a third category, slash reason has been added and most teams I talked to had guys off their board for quote, doesn't love football. This was the first time it was so prevalent. I asked around why this is and they thought maybe because of nil money. Guys have already been paid and some feel they don't need to grind to get paid. So the guys who capital letters love football are probably appreciated more. This does sound like another thing that we just want to blame on nil and blame on the transfer portal. Guess what, coach? It's kind of been around for a while, hasn't it?

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah, it has. And Mark, I remember Charlie Strong told me he was my defense coordinator and great friend at Florida, but we also worked together at Notre Dame. And when I first took the head coaching job at Florida, I remember me and him talking. He says, you know, the difference between a Notre Dame kid and a South Florida or Florida kid is a Notre Dame kid is there for an education. He's there for, you know, a lot of times they come from a, a well to do family and they're, you know, they want a career in the NFL, but you know, what if they don't? They're going to be in Wall street probably, or they're going to be, you know, have a great career. The guys coming out of the lake Okeechobee area, you know, Glade, Pohokee and Polk county. And he said, these guys are trying to eat.

[Mark Ingram]

Yes.

[Urban Meyer]

And I looked at my, I was like, damn. I never really looked at it. And boy, is that true.

[Mark Ingram]

Yes.

[Urban Meyer]

When you got a hunger that, that's your sir, you are in survival mode.

[Mark Ingram]

And your family's depending on you.

[Urban Meyer]

And I mean, and they know it. And I used to go down there recruit and I mean the hunger and I'm getting jacked up. The hunger for the love of the game, of football, as that's a means to an end. And you know what the means, what the end is to eat.

[Mark Ingram]

Yes.

[Urban Meyer]

Where, where you get another, you know, from a well to do family. And this is a mean to make a nice network system down the street and you know, in investment banking or, or. And I'm not, I'm not. I love Notre Dame, but it's reality. And so when you say the love of the game, we would have these sayings and I can't wait to see Mark's face on this. So we had, we had these nicknames for players and the taker, not in a giver. So if you're an energy taker, that means as a coach, you're spending more time with this player than you are your family. So you're with this player all the time. There is nothing worse than walking on a practice field or in a meeting room with a player that just. Nothing there. It's a dead fish, man. And you're. Let's go. Enough saying let's go. I used to. Enough. Quit saying that. But it's also same as a coach. If you're a coach and you don't love the game, you're spending what, 15 hours a day with that coach during the season and you walk in the meeting room, we just call mouth breathers. You know what mouth breather is? I just sit there and you know, just like a dead fish on a fricking dock, you know. And then finally, koi pond. You have takers, not givers. You have the mouth breathers. And then the final one, Mark, I.

[Rob Stone]

Love the mouth breath.

[Urban Meyer]

Is the orange eater.

[Mark Ingram]

Orange eater.

[Rob Stone]

What's annoying? This better not be a soccer reference.

[Urban Meyer]

The orange eater is this Mark. They're the ones that at halftime in that big ass game, where do they.

[Mark Ingram]

Know orange is a halftime?

[Urban Meyer]

They're going, yeah, they're not playing it down. They have no interest in what's going on. You know, you're over there working with the offense line and then. And everybody's working. You look over there and they're just killing the oranges. Oh, and one of my coaches called them orange eaters. Well, I, I had to, I had to stop the staff meeting for a minute. I was laughing so hard.

[Rob Stone]

They have the orange slices st gonna.

[Urban Meyer]

Oh yeah.

[Rob Stone]

They're not gonna play orange peel.

[Urban Meyer]

They're not gonna play it down, which is one thing, but they're not gonna play it down and don't care that they're not play it down and you're.

[Mark Ingram]

Eating all the snacks for the people.

[Rob Stone]

Who actually gone, man, I love Mark.

[Urban Meyer]

I was dying for that one.

[Mark Ingram]

Hey, no, but coach, you're 100% right. Like, you know, there's nothing wrong with having, you know, a well family. Like we all want that, right? You want to have well off family. But that's not the only option for them. When you talking about these kids that are coming from the trenches, football is really the only option for them to get out, to make a living for to make a better life for their family. It's their only option. It's not the only option, but that's their mindset, is that it is their only option. They're going to school, they're getting education, so they will have stuff to fall back on. But in their mind, the only option for them to make their family eat, to have a well off family, to create some wealth for their family is this pigskin, is this football? And that's what you see, the love of the game, the drive of the game. When stuff isn't going good for you, what are you going to fall back on? It's the love of the game. What is your why? It's my family. And that's what you see with some kids like that. You know when you talk about the love of the game and when you say about the draft board stoner, like maybe it was, maybe it wasn't as Prevalent in everyone's draft board, the love of the game. But I know the Ravens, they, they, they gave, they, they, they judge that. The Saints, Sean Payton, he judged that.

[Rob Stone]

Like how do you judge that though? I mean that's not a tangible thing that you can put a clock. All right, so how is it so easy?

[Urban Meyer]

That's easy. You, you go first, sit down and talk with the player and then, and then you sit down and talk to him. But the player can BS you.

[Rob Stone]

Correct.

[Urban Meyer]

It's as a coach, it's easy to see your jog out on a practice field in 110 heat index and. Or you just the day after day with a player. If you love something and that's your way to eat, you can see that hunger in a player. You can also see the distraction or lack of love in something from. And that's any given. What are we talking about? This is not just football.

[Rob Stone]

Correct.

[Urban Meyer]

This is real estate. This is attorney life. The doctor. This is a good mother, father. If you don't love it, you can fake it, but you can only fake it for so long and then in the most difficult times, you can't fake that, man. Yes, football is.

[Mark Ingram]

That's when you get exposed.

[Urban Meyer]

Violent, nasty sport. You can't fake that.

[Rob Stone]

Who are some of the hungriest guys that you coach that you play with?

[Urban Meyer]

All right. Hunger, hunger, hunger. I think Mike Thomas was a hungry player. You played with him, man. He was hungry. Yes, hungry.

[Mark Ingram]

That love, that passion for the game.

[Urban Meyer]

And then you know, Bosas came from, you know, they, they weren't like fighting to eat. What those you talk about Love of the game. The Bosa brothers. Their father was a first rounder too, but Nick, Joe, Nick and Joey Bosa, that was every day. Zeke was eat was. He was there to eat.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah.

[Urban Meyer]

And that was every day. So. And the pouncies. You know, I could go on and on it. We, we've always counted that. I'll take a lesser player that loves a game than someone. You have to have it freaking. It's a rook canal to coach the guy.

[Mark Ingram]

You have to have it because yes, you can fake the funk when it's all good and when you're winning games and when you're playing well. But when stuff hits the fan, when you have an injury or when you have to compete for playing time, you have to fall back on your love for the game. If you don't truly love the game, if you don't have a desire and a passion to be the best at what you do when tough when times get difficult, you will be exposed. That's not only in football, that's in corporate America. You said that's real estate. Sometimes the market's up, sometimes the market's down. If you love, are you, willy, willing to grind, to go sell that property, to go find the properties that's off market. When you love it, nothing will deter you from it. And if you only do it for conditional reasons, when times get tough, you will be exposed. If you don't have a true love, a passion and desire for it, whatever profession you're talking about, football, life, corporate America, real estate, whatever it is, if you don't have a true love for it, there will be some point where you can't fake the no more and you will get exposed.

[Urban Meyer]

You know, a unique guy, Mark, and you played against him, was Tebow. You know, he had everything going. He had his faith, he had his. You know, he had. It wasn't like he was in survival mode. But he, as I look back, he might have loved the game as much as anybody I coached. He would spend 12 to and up. It's. I tell people that they 12 or more hours a day on the game, whether it be training, whether it be taking care of his body, studying film. And he loved practice, man. He'd come out there and, you know, pushing the coaches around and throwing. You know, we would have a ball coaching that guy. And the two hour you coach guys like that, two hours go like this. You coach a mouth breather and it's.

[Mark Ingram]

A orange peel eater.

[Urban Meyer]

Mark, were you Rob? I know what mark was. Rob. You better be careful, coach.

[Rob Stone]

You better be careful here, my friend.

[Urban Meyer]

Okay, move on.

[Rob Stone]

You're coming for me. You coming for me? No, let me take my. Let me take my orange peel out. Then you get the little citrus stuff stuck in there too. Mark, every once in a while, you know what I'm talking about. A little pulp. Yeah. That shouldn't be in there. That shouldn't be in there. I was not an orange eater, coach. I was not a mouth breather. You. Would you educate these folks? I would have been a good special teams dude for I love yourself that guy. Maybe we'll throw.

[Mark Ingram]

Over there at Colgate.

[Rob Stone]

That's right, brother. I got my Colgate right over there. There's my Colgate. Hey, coach, tell them what you were doing.

[Mark Ingram]

You want no mouth breather? You wasn't the orange.

[Rob Stone]

No, no mouth breathing.

[Mark Ingram]

He was a difference maker.

[Rob Stone]

I do have a deviated septum, so it is kind of tough to breathe through the nose. So I do find myself sucking with the mouth every once in a while.

[Mark Ingram]

Lord, oh, Lord.

[Rob Stone]

Mark, what's your favorite day? What's that song? What's that song you sing when we're at.

[Mark Ingram]

And I'm gonna party and get my groove on. Get my groove on.

[Rob Stone]

So that's Mark. That's Mark's favorite day. My favorite day is Saturday during college football season. Coach. There's a lot of players out there, though, who have a different favorite day.

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah, I saw this when we were discussing this, but I remember when I first I started hearing all that matters is Tuesday and you go get your ass kicked in. And then all that matters is Tuesday and that's payday in the NFL. And I. I remember, you know, a coach told me that I was like, what? And then, you know, we just got. You just got our ass kicked in.

[Mark Ingram]

And we used to get paid.

[Urban Meyer]

All that matters is Tuesday. Mark, what's that?

[Mark Ingram]

I think. I thought we used to get. I think it's different for each team because I think we used to get paid on Friday. That's why that song hit different.

[Rich Rodriguez]

It's Friday.

[Mark Ingram]

And some teams pay you bi weekly, you know, so the check is a little bit bigger, but you wait a couple weeks. And some people pay weekly. When I was in New Orleans, it was bi weekly. So the check. You waited longer, but the check was fatter.

[Rob Stone]

Which one did you like? Did you like the fat check or did you like two multiple checks?

[Mark Ingram]

I like that. I like that weekly when that thing.

[Rich Rodriguez]

Each week.

[Rob Stone]

Just each week. All right.

[Urban Meyer]

To close this conversation, I think there's different forms of motivation that's available to all of us. And survival is none stronger. That's when you see moms pick up cars off of toddlers. That's where you see people protect their home. And then you see people from really a tough situation. And that's their. That is it to. To survive in the game of football and take care of your family. And it's fun to coach guys like that now.

[Rob Stone]

Yeah.

[Urban Meyer]

When you. When they. And. And. And that's not a reference to people that they have nothing to fall back on. Because I've coached Tebow and Boces have plenty to fall back on. And then other great players have, you know, but you get that cat that this is it. And it's also heartbreaking when they get cut or when they're not as good as they'd hoped they'd be. And they try for those coach. Because you want that you're. You start cheering for that player. You know, man, get them in position to have some success. So that's the ultimate to me, ultimate form of inspiration, motivation, survival.

[Rob Stone]

Matt, we'd all love a locker room full of those cats, right? Those. Those are the dudes you want on your team. It's time now to get strapped in. Presented by nhtsa and we're going to kind of carry on this conversation. Not wearing your seatbelt could cost you a ticket or your life. Don't risk it. Click it or ticket again, that message brought to you by nhtsa. So we're talking about players that went into the portal looking for a new home, right? And there's some staggering numbers in here, courtesy of. On 3,3973 players entered the transfer portal in the two open periods since the conclusion of the last season. I did some math here. 2,204 players, that's 55%, found new FBS schools. All right, so 55% stayed in FBS, whether that was a higher or lower team. 110 withdrew. All right, which left 1,516 59 players either not finding a new home or transferring to non FBS school. So everybody thinks this, this portal is this magic elixir out there where there's going to be more money and more fame and a bigger program and more playing time. But the reality, a huge percentage of these numbers don't quote, unquote, upgrade their game for whatever reason that is. And however they are looking to quote, unquote, upgrade. And there's some, there's some blame to be passed around here, coach. And I think, number one, there's some bad representation out there beyond just that, that third uncle that nobody knows. There are people out there that are in the business of making money, and they can only make their money when they're doing something for a player.

[Urban Meyer]

And Mark, this is not a shot on agents, because there are some incredible ones. Like any walk of life, you come across agents that save people's lives, that put them in great financial situation. I've experienced it with several guys and I've seen it with players, but I've also seen the opposite. You know, an agent's responsibility is to inflate the market and. And the only way that agent gets paid is if there's movement or that player signs something. And so if I'm, you know, the established agents, the guys that have been around a while, those are the guys to me that I think, man, what a great guy. I mean, they are really putting this player first because they can. Then you have like, all walks of life. You have an agent. We just talked about survival a minute ago. There's agents out there. They're just trying to break in. I'm going to go tell Mark Eaglemol getting more money somewhere. And he has no idea what he's talking about. And here, how about you? You said 16, almost 1700 players. That's called residual damage to a situation. And I'm, I'm anxious to see that. To me, that's heartbreaking because I hope someone, the media follows up on some of those players as much as they follow up with Will Howards that have incredible stories after a transfer or Dylan Gabriel. But what about the 1700 players that were told? I imagine, because I don't think when you're that age.

[Rob Stone]

That's the thing, coach. Yeah. Every player's got a different story, right? Like some maybe want to go home to an Akan right, or Toledo. Some want to go somewhere else to find playing time. So you can, you can take, you can take that quote unquote hit. But you're right, it's the majority of it, at least. The stuff that we talk about, the stuff that's in front of our eyes daily are these guys who are leaving a pretty darn good program to try to get to a better program. And, and I appreciate them if, if they're the right cats, the right guys that, that are doing it for the right reason, not just doing it because I can go from 1 to 1.1. You know what I love about the transfer portal right now is the military academies. Hey, you can transfer out, you can hit the portal, but the portal is only works one way. For the military academies, there's no portal to come in to army and Navy and Air Force. The portal is you as a human being having the academics, having the wherewithal, having the athletic ability. And once you're in there, you are locked and loaded, essentially. And as a coach, you get to build that culture, man. You get those guys. 99 to 100% of those guys, I would assume is close to that number for the duration of their college career.

[Urban Meyer]

Now step back, step back a few years, Mark. As a coach, you could never cut a player. Back in the day, you couldn't walk. You couldn't call the player and said, you have to leave here and your scholarship's gone. Now you could say you're not going to play. We'll keep your scholarship. But they're one of the 85. I've talked to many of my former colleagues and it's like great new when that player comes walking in, it's not very good or a pain in the ass, and he says, I'm hit the portal. They're like, this is the greatest.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah, they're cheering because they're gone.

[Urban Meyer]

Once a player says, I'm going to the Porter, they are null and void. You have a spot available now, but.

[Mark Ingram]

Like you said, Coach, this all comes down to who is guiding these young men. Where are you getting your information? Where are you getting your advice from? At the end of the day, what is the ultimate goal for or a young athlete that's at one of these FBS programs? I'm sure that they want to be successful and so they can go to the NFL and possibly have a career at the next level, right? So the main objective should be, where do I go that's going to put me in position to develop, to grow, to play to get me to that level. It shouldn't be, where am I going to go that's going to pay me more than this dude that's sitting to the left of me because he's a true freshman. I've been here for three years and he's getting paid more than I'm getting paid. So. Because at the end of the day, if you put the work in, if the results show and your work and everything, you're blessed, sweat and tears, and it pays off and you get the results on the field, I promise you, you're going to get your worth. You're going to get compensated the value that you want. But everyone wants instant gratification right now. No one wants to go through the hard days, the competitive days. They want to find the easy way out and leave to see who is going to give me the. Who's going to guarantee me playing time right now? Who's going to guarantee me $500,000? No, go to the place that best suits you. That's going to. What's your ultimate goal? Is it go to the NFL? Is it? What is it? You know what I mean? Because that's what you have to focus on. What is my ultimate goal? And if I put in the blood, the sweat, the tears and the hard work and I get the results that I want on the field, you will get compensated for it. So quit trying to shortcut it. Quit trying to leave. Go here to here to here to here. Stay where you at. Work your butt off. If you have a legit reason to leave, go ahead, do a leave. But make sure you have a plan. You know what I mean? So I think that's the end of the day. Where are these young kids getting their advice from? And what does this person want from you? Do they want the truly the best for you or do they want to benefit from you leaving?

[Urban Meyer]

I see. Like Nico is the most famous of the stories out there where I always tell people this can be one of those deals. A couple of years from now they're going to say, now whether it be father, whether it be uncle, third uncle, or whether it be an agent. Now tell me again why I did that. You know why? Because let's go back here and view what happened. Why did I just do that? Because a 17, 18, 19, 20 year old, all due respect, they're not equipped to make that decision. They can't. That's why they call parents parents. That's why they call coaches coaches. Someone's got to advise and help them. That's been through the wringer a little bit. And then all of a sudden you wake up one day and you find yourself in a really bad situation. You're gonna be like, what in the hell did I do that for?

[Mark Ingram]

But coach, you go back even one year, coach, you go back even one year to Isaiah Bond, University of Alabama, he's their number one receiver. He goes to Texas, transfers for whatever amount of money he gets a Lamborghini. He goes there, doesn't have the, doesn't have the season that you think that you're gonna have. Then you go to the draft and you go undrafted from a guy who's that Lamborghini. Yeah, like you were number wide receiver, Alabama. So like there is several people who are showing you like what not to do, you know what I mean? It's not always greener. You just don't always chase the money, you chase the opportunity and the platform. You have to get to the next level. The ultimate goal for Isaiah Barr was to get to the next level. And he got, he went undrafted, he's there, you know, but he should have been a top two, three round pick, you know what I mean? So like you said, man, it's going to be continue to be examples of this and it's all about the people that they're getting advice from. You know, you got to go to what we gonna do, coach, what we gonna do?

[Rob Stone]

Here's the dudes mark that I like in college football now are the guys who, who maybe started here as like a three level and through a year or two at college boosted themselves up to maybe, let's say now they're a four level type talent and they get those overtures from Other programs, there's another interest out there, and they decide, no, no, no, where I am is the right place for me. Yeah, if I'm a coach, those are the cats that I'm super excited about coaching. If I'm a teammate, these are the guys I want to surround myself by. Josh Hoover, quarterback at tcu, who I think we're going to be talking a lot about next season, is one of those guys. He had. He had people pulling on him and he said, you know what? I'm pretty good here in Fort Worth. And you look at his numbers, what he did last year, he's more than pretty good. He's. He's. He's almost elite type quarterback. These are the type of players that I think programs can build around and stick around, man. Stick around. You. You don't need to always be hustling after a year or two. But sometimes you're right. It is worthwhile to move right. Sometimes you got to leave. But sometimes, guys, those country roads call you back, man. The country roads say, you know what? Rich Rod come back home to West Virginia. Remember Rich Rod, 01 to 07, head coach of the Mountaineers, guided them to four final top 25 finishes in the AP poll. He left and he's back mid December of last year, returned to Morgantown. He has been busy. The nears, they lost 51 dudes in the transfer portal. Mark. Guess how many they brought back in?

[Mark Ingram]

Tell me.

[Rob Stone]

51.

[Urban Meyer]

51.

[Mark Ingram]

51 out. 51 in one.

[Rob Stone]

In our triple option conversation with Rich Rod, you. It took place earlier in the spring, and that's coming up next here on the triple option. By the way, Pittsburgh fans, you might want to listen to this one.

[Urban Meyer]

Stirring it up, light it.

[Rob Stone]

If you love Wendy's Classic Frosty flavors, we have got some big news for you. There are all new Frosty Swirl and Frosty Fusion flavors. So, yeah, it's the same creamy treat that you've always loved now with a flavor refresh. So what are these new flavors?

[Mark Ingram]

Well, Stoner, thanks for asking. There are a lot, so I'm just gonna list them. Okay, we've got the Frosty Swirls strawberry brownie batter and caramel. Then we've got the blended Frosty Fusions, Caramel Crunch, Oreo Brownie with Swirl thick brownie batter sauce and crunchy Oreo cookie pieces and Pop Tarts, strawberry with a street strawberry sauce and chunks of crazy good Pop Tarts pieces.

[Urban Meyer]

You know your flavors. Not to mention that, yes, you can still get your classic vanilla. Try them all and find your favorite.

[Mark Ingram]

Are you going to be a Strawberry Swirl Girl? A Caramel Craze Fanatic Brownie Batter Buff Pop Tart Strawberry Fanatic Oreo Brownie Steak?

[Rob Stone]

These are all really, really good questions, Mark. Anyway, whatever flavor you're craving, odds are we've got a Frosty for it. So check in for sweet treat time with Wendy's. All new Frosty Flavors. A refresh on a classic. Gotta be Wendy's. We all know what speed dating is, right? Well, if you're the owner of a growing business, what if there was a feature like speed dating only for hiring? In other words, you could meet several interested qualified candidates at once, all at a designated time.

[Mark Ingram]

Well, Rob, I have good news. There is. It's zip intro from ZipRecruiter. You can post your job today and start talking to qualified candidates tomorrow. And right now you can try Zip Intro for free at ZipRecruiter.com option Zip Intro.

[Rob Stone]

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[Urban Meyer]

They have the tools you need to.

[Rob Stone]

Start and grow your business. From designing a website to marketing to selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into sign up for your $1 per month [e-mail] special offer. Welcome back to the triple option presented by Wendy's Rob Stone, Urban Meyer, Mark Ingram the second and hey you know what guys? Who says you can't go home again? Not Rich Rod man. Rich Rodriguez, the now two time head coach at West Virginia University joins us. Man and coaches, it has been so fun to watch your career. I know some of the pockets have been more fun than others, but man, when you had West Virginia going in the early 2000, that was, that was absolute must see TV and I was so happy for you. And what you guys succeeded at Jacksonville State to give yourself the opportunity to come Back home to West Virginia. But in the end, what made you and your family decide that a return to West Virginia was the right move for you?

[Rich Rodriguez]

Yeah, it's been an interesting journey. You know, since I left, I've been out out west in the desert, been in the bayou, been in the hills of Alabama, everywhere in between. But it was, you know. You know, I. I was. We absolutely loved our time at Jack State. You know, he had transitioned up from 1 double A to 1 A. We were having success going to bowl games, won the conference and all that. And so I've been perfectly happy just finishing my career out there. But when this came open, it was like, you know, we were close the last time we were here. I think we can win a national championship. I hadn't seen the facility since I left, and they a fantastic job with the facility. And so all the pieces are in place for us to have a chance to win it all. And ultimately, that's it. You know, this is my last stop. You know, it didn't take me long. You know, sometimes you take a new job and it takes you a while to acclimate to yourself. Know where all the bodies are buried and the traps are laid. It didn't take any time. One day. I knew that because I'd been here, done that. So it was an easy transition from that. The only hard part is I've. I think I've got two. Two players on a team that have started games. That's it. So we've got a whole new roster, but it's been fun. The best part is that the facilities are in place now. You know the. I know the town, I know the school. I got a great staff put together and we're constructing our roster every day. So we'll get after it and see what happens.

[Urban Meyer]

Hey, let's go. I'm not. Mark and Rob don't even know this, but Rich, Rod and I go back to the 80s and Rich started this. He was at, I believe, Glenville, wasn't it Glenville or something like that. And you started. Started doing the style of offense that I was really intrigued by. And then I was at Notre Dame and. And Dan Mullen and I, we take the job at Bowling Green after studying a lot of Rich, Rod and. And Rich. Coach Rodriguez don't get enough credit as I don't believe we do. But there was really no template for what you were doing when. When we started the spread offense at Bowling Green. Robin marked it. It's not like, let's go study these other teams. It did not exist. That's what I try to tell people. And the whole idea about reading the defenders and all that and the tempo that Rich Rod uses. So are you still. I can't wait to see. I didn't see at your previous job. Obviously we're going to see you now. Are you still running that spread? How much different is it 15 years ago, 20 years ago?

[Rich Rodriguez]

Yeah, there's, there, there's, there's a lot of new elements to it but the core of it. Urban would have been the same that you, that you came with, with dan, you know, 30 years ago and Urban came for. Now most guys come for a day, you know, Urban stayed for like a week. That's because I was feeding him, you know, I was feeding him out. So he was hell, I couldn't get him out of there. He goes back and takes our stuff and does it better than we were doing. I'm like hell, we, we gotta turn around and study Urban now because he took our and made it better.

[Urban Meyer]

So every, every think about that every year. We went to each other's school for 10 years.

[Rich Rodriguez]

That's right we did. We went back and forth and it's been a blessing. But the core of what we're doing, the tempo part of it I still think is a non negotiable. We're going to do that. I think it's the most overlooked factor in football is conditioning. And we want to make it a factor in every game. And the spread part is still there. We're a lot more 11 personnel than we used to be 10 personnel, now it's 11. But our 11 is our tight end is all over the place. He's not just. He's attached, he's detached. He's always more of a bigger athlete. But the base of what we do of playing with 11, having our quarterback be a factor, be a willing runner is always going to be the core of what we do offensively. Because that guy Jack State last year we had a guy, Tyler huff is probably a 4, 7 guy but he was a willing and a tough runner. So he might not have got 30, but he was going to get 10. But they had to defend him and the pace of it, the tempo of it. I want to. Every day I think about how can we go faster, how we go faster. The genesis behind that is that, you know, teams aren't used to doing it and used to seeing that we want to do that as fast as we can. For three quarters we have a two score lead in the fourth quarter. Then we're Going to milk it and take the, you know, take the clock down and win the game. So. But the tempo part of it, we're faster now than we were five years ago and 25 years ago by far.

[Mark Ingram]

Coach, what's your favorite TikTok dance?

[Rich Rodriguez]

You know, if. That. If the guys could dance like you, I probably will allow it to complain. Actually, I had a couple players say, coach, this is embarrassing. They're dancing in our own locker room. They think it's, you know, I think it's cool.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah, I'm with you on it, coach. I'm with you on it.

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah.

[Rich Rodriguez]

This is my point on the dancing part. Like, people say, well, you're ruin, you know, limiting their opportunity to make money. I'm like, make money? Do you think somebody's gonna pay their ass to see them dancing in tights on Tick Tock? I want them to make money. Be good at football, right? Really good at football. And now you can get paid here and at the next level if you're really good at football. I'm not going to pay you if you're really good at tick Tock dancing, but I'll pay you if you're really good at football.

[Mark Ingram]

You know, I love it.

[Urban Meyer]

Coach, what's Tick Tock? I'm sorry.

[Mark Ingram]

They'd be doing all type of little dances on their social media.

[Rich Rodriguez]

I would like to see Urban Meyer's reaction if he was in Ohio State or Florida and his players were in tights, you know, doing a choreographed dance, which, you know, I'd be like, are you kidding me? That 10 minutes that he spent right there could have been 10 minutes in the weight room. You know what I mean?

[Mark Ingram]

I know what you mean, Coach. I'm with you. Hey, you, right when you write and you write about this one, I'm right behind you on this Tick Tock stuff.

[Urban Meyer]

Yeah.

[Rob Stone]

Hey, coach, what's life in the. In the Big 12 going to be like for you and West Virginia this upcoming season? And where is the Big 12 kind of in. In the hierarchy of college football in this day and age?

[Rich Rodriguez]

What's interesting to me is that I probably know the Big 12 better than most other leagues because most of the teams in there I play. While I was at Arizona, you know, like half the Pac 12 is now there. And then we played BYU a couple times as well. So I know a lot of those teams with our programs. But every year is different. You know, Arizona State went from last to first last year, and it will be picked somewhere near the bottom. I don't say we're going to be first but you know there's going to be. It's not there was one team is just going to dominate. You know, I think it's going to be kind of wide open and probably going to be that way for a couple years. So our expectation is to win and compete for the championship every year, including our first year. That'll be. This will be the hardest year. Without question the hardest year is the first year. But that being said, you know, the Big 12 is pretty wide open I think.

[Urban Meyer]

You know we did a big new in Penn State, visited West Virginia last year and I coached at West Virginia. When done I'm coached at Notre Dame and we played West Virginia and I remember that crowd back when I was at Notre Dame and then last year and Neil Brown was such a good dude. He had that great quarterback. I picked him to win the damn game and that just didn't happen. How far off are you?

[Rich Rodriguez]

Well, there are days like this morning's practice that I was like gosh, I thought we'd make, we'd be further ahead. But I'm, I'm pretty critical anyway looking at after every practice. So I'm trying not to make all the judgments now. I do think the guys have a good attitude. I think you know, they've bought in, they ain't got a choice but I think they're, they're trying hard. It's just, you know, I like to say my roster is set but we got another portal period coming open. We got another handful guys that aren't here yet. So it's, it's that's. There's still too many unknowns for, for me to know where we're at. And there's so many guys that haven't played. I mean hell, two guys have started to start in the whole roster. So it's a little bit of different dynamic. But I gotta again, you know, the staff is in place, we have all the stuff that you need to have to recruit them, you know, facility wise. All the stuff I wanted to get done got done while I was gone. So the facility wise is here and I think you probably saw there most of it. And then we're going to be in the rev share business. You know, we're going to, we're going to have enough that we can fill out a roster and pay our guys that have earned it in a pretty good clip there. So I think that we can get there quicker than maybe in the old days where it take you a couple two, three years. But now is it all going to happen this first year, that, that'll be the hardest challenge.

[Mark Ingram]

Hey, coach man, I feel like we have a small connection because I remember I'm from Michigan. I remember you took the job in 08 at Michigan and it was kind of like late in the signing period and Michigan never offered me a scholarship. They didn't even recruit me. And when you took that job, Michigan started coming to the school. You sent Fred Jackson to the school and kind of had an offer for me. And I always appreciate it.

[Rich Rodriguez]

Damn time they started.

[Mark Ingram]

You started recruit me a week before signing day.

[Rich Rodriguez]

Like I might still be the coach there if you said yes.

[Mark Ingram]

I appreciate you though because you believed in me even when Michigan didn't. Autumn years.

[Urban Meyer]

But no, I do remember watching your.

[Rich Rodriguez]

Film and it was like, what's the problem? What, what are we waiting on? You know what I mean? And Fred, my running back coach, he agreed the same way. He's like, yeah, there's, I mean what the heck, this is a no brainer. Like sometimes you got to watch a guy's film and it takes you, you know, 10, 15 minutes and sometimes you watch it and it takes 10 seconds. You know, you're like 10 seconds, what are we waiting on?

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah, I appreciate that. But no, after coaching that Jacksonville State coach, like what are, you know, it's a new day and age. Nil transporter, all this. So you have a unique perspective from going from Jacksonville State now to, you know, West Virginia. What are the lower level programs going through with nil transfer portal. And like is it sustainable?

[Rich Rodriguez]

Yeah, like last year, Jack State, you know, we had a pretty good second year, first year being eligible for bowl game. We went to a bowl game, won the bowl game and then all of a sudden, you know, we had, you know, a handful, maybe seven, eight players that got moved, went to a power, four teams just got bought and we knew it was coming and so we had 60 new players, last year's team. And so when we started off 03, everybody was kind of panicking. I'm like it, we're going to be okay. It's just taking these little guys. Most of them hadn't gotten there till the summer. It's taking us a little longer to acclimate them. So I learned that we better speed that process up. But. And once we got on a roll and those guys got comfortable with the system and they kind of took off. So I think the group of five is going to have. Everybody's got turnover now, but I think they know that you're going to lose a guy I remember talking to Coach Saban about this a couple years ago. He said, if you sign a really good player out of high school, you know he's going to play really good for one or two years. Somebody bigger school is going to take him and poach him up. And I said, yeah, but at least we had him for one or two years. That's the approach you're taking. Like if I can get a guy for one or two years and he moves on, I don't want that to happen. But at least I had him for one or two years. So I tell our, our formula here. I tell our coaches, I said, I don't have like so many high school, so many portals, so many junior college guys get the best players you can get. If they got four years to go, that's great. They only got one year, well, we'll take them, but we just got to get the best players you can get. And then our culture has to stay consistent. Everybody talks about that stuff. Everybody knows what I'm talking about. But do you really make your guys adhere to your culture? Culture? Do your coaches make sure that is the standard every single day, every single rep? Everything you do, you know, that's for us is non negotiable. And people say it's old school, whatever. I think it's just coaches being coached, right, doing their job. I say players. I never knew what a players coach was. My shit. Coaches coach players. Player administrators administrate. I mean, that's our job. I told my team this morning, I said, we are hired to coach you, to make you better than you thought you could ever be. And I said, that's the way we're going to do things here. And good players want to have it that way.

[Rob Stone]

Has anything changed in your culture format from your first stop at West Virginia to where you are right now in Morgantown?

[Rich Rodriguez]

Here's what's the difference. I was telling a group this last night. I said, 25 years ago, urban Meyer, Rich Rodriguez could tell a guy, hey, run through that wall and he'll run through that wall. Now they'll still do it, but they want to know why. And if they don't give the right answer, they'll say, well, ain't what it says on Google right here. Some damn guys are smarter than us. They're walking around with a computer. So you better know why. You better know why. This is the why. And so I'll tell them, so, this is the why. But I'm still going to coach you hard. But this I sometimes you got to explain a little bit more, but you can't sacrifice. It's like, there's our guys if there's. I tell our coaches if there's one play in practice or game, but in practice especially, because that's where football teams get made, where a guy is loafing or he's soft and you don't say something when you see it merely you've created a problem. It has to be immediate. It ain't like, well, you know, I don't want to upset him right now, or I remember about it. Like, I say it and I see it, I say it, then it's over with.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah.

[Rich Rodriguez]

You have to address it every time. Every time. Not most of the time, but every time.

[Rob Stone]

What's been an unexpected, pleasant or negative surprise about returning home to Morgantown and taking the program back over again for a second time?

[Rich Rodriguez]

You know, it's a fair question. I don't know if there's been a whole lot of surprises. I think, you know, everybody, you know, they'll assume, well, he got hired because what we did here the first time here, and I know that was a little bit of. Little bit of that, but I would like to think we got hired because we won a Jack State, and if we had lost a Jack State, nobody was going to call me.

[Urban Meyer]

Right.

[Rich Rodriguez]

But we won in a. In a tougher situation at Jack State. So that allowed us to. To take this move and everybody. It doesn't bother me. People want to bring, you know, the excitement of the. Of the 2000s back, and we had the Pat Whites and Steve Slayton, Noel Devon, all those guys, they were great players, but we had. What we want to have back is we had really, really good players that played really hard, and it didn't matter, you know, who got the credit for it or anything like that. And so that has always been the staple of our. Of our programs. And that's what's got to be the staple going forward.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah, tell them. Tell them, Stone, what we got for him?

[Rob Stone]

All right, Coach, we've been peppering you with questions, right, for the last. Whatever it is, 15 minutes. So we like to give you the opportunity to throw. Throw one at us. Usually it goes to the two other guys, which is totally fine. It's the way it should go, to be honest with you. So you have free reign to fire off a question at the three of us right now.

[Rich Rodriguez]

I appreciate that. This is what people say. Well, they want to. I said, I'm not the same Coach I was 20 years ago. I'm not the same coach I was 20 days ago. I went the same coach it was a year ago. I better be now than I was then. But when my players get better, I want to be better. I'm a better coach now than I was last time I was in West Virginia. But anyway, so that's my question and you guys may not want to. Do you see it out there in this new era of transfer report, nil, unlimited free agency, all this kind of stuff. The teams that you guys have covered or coaches you've covered that have had success, what's the common factor other than having really good players that they, they bought, what's the common factor to those teams that have been better than everybody else in the last two years?

[Urban Meyer]

I, I'm going to answer that first. I think it's a no brainer. I think with this nil and what I witnessed the Wolverines do and the Buckeyes do the last two years, you got grown ass men in that locker room. My best teams were when I had men, not boys in the locker room. And you look at the Wolverines and Buckeyes, those all kids all came back. So you know it's not the 17, 18, you got 21 year old dudes that have been through the war. So I think the machine. Then I started reflecting back as I'm watching these teams. Well, my best teams are the same way. I had the Pounces or these, you know, guys that didn't put up with any shit. And I mean the locker room was the locker room because they were grown men. And I think that's the way to. I know Penn State's trying to do the same thing this year because they, a lot of those kids came back where in the old days they all left because they had to get paid. Now they're getting paid.

[Rich Rodriguez]

Yeah, that's a good point.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah, I agree with coach. I think it would have to start with the culture. You talk about what Michigan had, they had a culture. You talk about Ohio State, they had a culture. The guys in that locker room, they were leaders, they policed themselves, they held each other accountable. And so when you have guys who have a standard and the standard isn't set by only the coaches, the standards is set and executed and upheld within the locker room with each other. I think that's what I've seen the past two seasons. It's only my second season being able to cover, cover big noon college football with, with my guys right here. But those two years with Michigan and Ohio State, you had grown dudes like you said. Coach who. Who were alphas who upheld the standard, they knew the standard. They been through the standard for four or five years, and they weren't going to let somebody come in and not live, live up to the standard and, you know, compromise what they came back for, which is ultimately to win a national championship. So I think it was the locker room and them being able to execute what was being what the message is from not only the coaches, but they policed it and enforced the message within the locker room themselves.

[Rich Rodriguez]

Probably had a culture where guys love football, not like it.

[Mark Ingram]

Yes.

[Rich Rodriguez]

Loved it and needed it. If you take it away from them, it broke their heart. Right? I mean, that's kind of. I tell guys, I mean, there's. It's different dynamic. But I said, you know, in the Midwest and down south, you see dudes that just love it and need it. If you threaten to take something away from it, it crushes them. You know, some. Some other guys just like it. Yeah, they might like the. The fame, the attention, the money, whatever, but they don't really love football.

[Mark Ingram]

Right.

[Rich Rodriguez]

And hopefully you get the. I guess you guys have probably seen the. You get the really talented teams that love football, just love getting after your ass. You probably got what you need.

[Mark Ingram]

Yes, sir.

[Urban Meyer]

Good to see you, brother.

[Mark Ingram]

Well, we appreciate your time.

[Rob Stone]

I want to throw one date at you. September 13th this year.

[Rich Rodriguez]

Yeah.

[Rob Stone]

Week three.

[Rich Rodriguez]

Yeah. Yeah. Each hit pit Pitts. I say, I say too many four letter words. There's none that's worse than Pitt.

[Mark Ingram]

Eat pit.

[Rob Stone]

This is why I love college football. This is why I love having Rich Rod back and in our domain and in the Big 12. And coach, you've been an absolute pleasure to. To cover and watch from afar through the years. You. You've been just one of my favorites. And. And I'm so happy that we're this close. We're this close to getting back to West Virginia, man. Coach had a hell of a time in West Virginia last year. Now he became a big fan of Morgantown and company. We got to get our tails back there, man.

[Rich Rodriguez]

Urban, I'm expecting to see you, brother.

[Mark Ingram]

I'm the one that had the mountaineer and the musket.

[Rich Rodriguez]

You too. You're welcome as well. Everybody's welcome.

[Rob Stone]

Hey, man. Week three. Let's get big noon to Morgantown.

[Rich Rodriguez]

We need to have you here.

[Rob Stone]

All right. In charge of the dinner reservations. Coach Rich Rodriguez. Welcome back to Morgantown and thanks for joining us this week on the triple option.

[Rich Rodriguez]

Appreciate you guys.

[Rob Stone]

Driving without a seat belt could cost you everything. But despite that there are still drivers on the road who just won't buckle up. Some of those drivers will be pulled over and they'll be given expensive tickets by law enforcement. Some of the drivers not wearing their seatbelts will be involved in crashes. Some will survive, some won't. Wearing your seatbelt could be the difference between making it home to your loved ones and not making it at all. Every day when you get in your vehicle and decide whether to buckle up, remember that it is the single most effective way to protect your life in the event of a crash. Make it home safely to the people you care about. Don't risk it. Click it or Ticket paid for by NHTSA this postseason, BetMGM, authorized gaming operator of the NBA, is making first field goal score wagers more exciting with Second Chance. With BetMGM Second Chance promotion, you'll get your stake back in cash if your first field goal score scores second instead. Yeah, that's right. Simply bet on any player to score the first field goal during any playoff game. Any game. Doesn't matter. And if you're right, you win. But if your pick scores second instead of first, you get your stake back and you get it back in cash. Grab the chance at getting your stake back at BetMGM. See betmgm.com for terms. This U.S. promotional offer not available in D.C. mississippi, New York, Nevada, Ontario or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER available in the U.S. for New York, call 877-8-HOPE NY or text Hopeny 467-369. For Arizona, call 1-800- NEXT STEP for Massachusetts, 1-800-327-5050. For Iowa, 1-800-Bets off for Puerto Rico, 1-800-981-0023. For West Virginia, visit www.1-800gambler.net Subject to eligibility requirements in partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Welcome back to the Triple option presented by Wendy's. Rob Stone, Mark Ingram, Urban Meyer. Back here with you now. Time for Treat of the Week, presented by Wendy's. Try Wendy's new Frosty Fusions with flavors like Caramel Crunch, Oreo Brownie and Pop Tarts Strawberry. Have you had the Pop Tart Strawberry yet? I'm taking Pop Tart Strawberry. Bang out some Pop Tart Strawberry Pop Tart Cinnamon. Now that's the call. You're welcome. You're welcome, Wendy's.

[Rich Rodriguez]

All right.

[Rob Stone]

The only thing that tastes as good as a Frosty is knowing you're going into a Hall of Fame coach in December is going into the College Football hall of Fame Mark, you'll be there right after him. I know it. But we want to congrats you, Mark, on being inducted into the Alabama Sports hall of Fame. That happened, what, like a week and a half ago?

[Mark Ingram]

It was like. Yeah, it was two weekends ago, perhaps.

[Rob Stone]

Two weekends ago. Birmingham. Yeah.

[Rich Rodriguez]

But.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah, in Birmingham. Alabama sports.

[Rob Stone]

Did they erect a statue of you out there?

[Mark Ingram]

They have a nice portrait. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Let me show y' all. Hold on.

[Rob Stone]

Let me show you a nice portrait.

[Mark Ingram]

Hold on. Let me get myself.

[Rob Stone]

Let's see this portrait. Here we are. Let's see it.

[Mark Ingram]

Hey, friends, y' all ready?

[Rob Stone]

I'm ready. You got a medal?

[Mark Ingram]

Got my medal.

[Urban Meyer]

Put that bad boy on. There you go.

[Mark Ingram]

Leave it on for the segment. Got my medal. And I got that.

[Rob Stone]

Oh. Oh, yeah.

[Urban Meyer]

A big old head on that cat.

[Rob Stone]

Look at that. It's a big head. There's some traps there. Where'd those traps go? Mark Ingram.

[Urban Meyer]

No neck Ingram.

[Mark Ingram]

Hey, man, it's just the traps up there, man. So hide the neck. You know, I got a neck. I could turn left and right. You know what I mean? But, man, what an amazing event. Shout out to the Alabama Sports hall of Fame. Man, it was an amazing event. I thought. I didn't know what I was expecting going into it, but, man, what a first class event. Hundreds of people at the. At the banquet. Everyone's super welcoming. And when I tell you when you want to be a part of a hall of fame, this is one that you want to be a part of. Let me just tell you some of these names. Stoner Joe Louis.

[Rob Stone]

Yeah.

[Mark Ingram]

The heavyweight champ of the world.

[Rob Stone]

Let's go.

[Mark Ingram]

Paul Bear Bryant, John William. Heisman. Who? The Heisman Trophy. That trophy is named after. And we obviously. You got Bear Bryant, you got Jesse Owens, got Hank Aaron, Joe Namath, Bobby Bowden, Pat Sullivan, Ozzie Newsom, Bo Jackson, Carl Lewis, Charles Barkley, Mia Hamm. How did Mia.

[Rob Stone]

Oh, that's right. I think Mia might have been born in Alabama.

[Mark Ingram]

Yes. Mia Hamm.

[Rob Stone]

Yeah.

[Mark Ingram]

Sean Alexander, Nick Saban, Evander Holyfield, another heavyweight champ to Dabo Sweeney, Jorge Posada, Coach Ben Wallace, DeMarcus Mayor, DeMarcus Ware, Philip Rivers, Justin Tech, Roman Harper, Roddy White. So I'm.

[Rob Stone]

Are you reading every name? Are you reading every name that's in that holiday?

[Mark Ingram]

No, no, no, no, no, no. That's just some notable.

[Rob Stone]

That is loaded, man.

[Mark Ingram]

That's. Hey, you talk about how real hall of Fame, man. Shout out to the Alabama Sports hall of Fame. I appreciate y' all nominating Me, I appreciate y' all inducting me and it's much love, man. Roll Tide. Alabama's a special place. A great place to meet. Always home.

[Rob Stone]

So how many hall of Fames are.

[Mark Ingram]

You in right now? Only two. The. The Greater Flint.

[Rob Stone]

Only two.

[Mark Ingram]

Hall of Fame.

[Rob Stone]

Deuce Deuces. Only two hall of Fames.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah. The great. I just. I just stopped, what, three years ago? This is my third season out.

[Rob Stone]

I know.

[Mark Ingram]

So great. We're gonna get you in the Sports hall of Fame. Alabama Sports hall of Fame.

[Rob Stone]

Yeah. Not the University of Alabama. Just the Alabama.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not the university yet.

[Rob Stone]

So the university is to come.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah. Universities to come. College football.

[Rob Stone]

So you're into two to come.

[Mark Ingram]

College football is to come. New Orleans Saints to come.

[Urban Meyer]

Pretty good stuff.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah. So we still brewing? We still brewing. We still working. College football. College Football hall of Fame wanted to hate on your boy. They didn't want me to go in with Coach Meyer and Coach Saban. They wanted to hate on your boy.

[Rob Stone]

No, because that gets a two year party window.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah. They didn't want to. They didn't want a Heisman National Champion running back in their hall of Fame this year. There's other running backs in there that don't have those accolades, but we'll save that for later. But yeah, man. Shout out to the Alabama Sports hall of Fame. They know what's.

[Rob Stone]

All right.

[Mark Ingram]

I know what the deal is, so let's go.

[Rob Stone]

They know. Roll down, put in the Hall. All right. Can we take out the Christmas.

[Mark Ingram]

You could click that and say that.

[Rob Stone]

To them if you were. We're going to yell at them in Vegas in December when Coach goes in the triple option crystal ball it is brought to you by BET mgm. The NBA playoffs are heading into the deeper stages of the playoffs right now. And here's an offer for basketball fans that you won't find anywhere else. Pick the player you think will score first in the game. If it's not your player but he scores the second field goal of the game, you get your stake back in cash. The NBA playoffs have been a ton of fun. Let's talk about Notre Dame right now. What a season they had last year. Right? Marcus Freeman getting his troops to the national championship game in just year four of his time in South Bend. So what is in store this coming season for Notre Dame? All right, we got the crystal ball where BET MGM currently has the over under on regular season wins set at ten and a half. Okay, plus 1:30 for the over, minus 1:55 for the under ten and a half regular season wins. Remember eleven and one in the regular season last year, that only loss, the home one to Northern Illinois. They were able to kind of pick themselves up off of that early loss and, and continue to kind of run the table up until Ohio State. They did have ranked wins over Texas A and M, over Louisville, army and Navy. Then they went 3:1 in the college Football Playoff. Here comes the schedule mark. And you had a quick little look at it and there's, there's some potholes out there. And it starts, it starts week one in Miami.

[Mark Ingram]

Man, you got that crystal ball stone. That thing looking a little, a little cloudy. Cloudy today.

[Rob Stone]

Cloudy.

[Mark Ingram]

You're not gonna look a little cloudy for Notre Dame. And ten and a half wins.

[Rob Stone]

Ten. Well, how about this? Do they get a week one win at Miami? And again, remember the, these are the things that always give me pause. Coach, when you got a new qb.

[Mark Ingram]

Yes.

[Rob Stone]

It's hard for me to like buy in at, at this, this juncture of the season.

[Mark Ingram]

It's a retro freshman.

[Rob Stone]

What you're going to be like, right. And remember he's been poaching all these cats from the acc and finally, you know, Marcus Freeman kind of has his, his own in house QB if you will. Redshirt freshman C.J. carr looks like he's going to be the guy leading them into a schedule that is definitely challenging. And it starts with a big one on the road at Miami. Sunday, August 31st. Do we want to rip through the.

[Mark Ingram]

Schedule here, guys, against a experienced Carson Beck who wants to prove himself from last year? I'm gonna go with the experience in a week one battle. I'm gonna go with the experience of Miami over Notre Dame. Cause I think you have a quarterback of what three years of starting experience going against a newly red shirt quarterback.

[Urban Meyer]

The other thing you look at that Miami. Now Notre Dame is a much different climate than August 31st in the deep South. So that's also advantage Miami. I just saw that there.

[Rob Stone]

Yeah.

[Urban Meyer]

At Miami August 31st. And when I coached Notre Dame for a long time, that, that was horrible. That was a problem because you're going to have a nice cool. You know, it's going to be hot, but it's not going to be Miami hot. When you're training, getting ready to play that game.

[Mark Ingram]

Oh that August 31st in Miami. That's going to hurt you. Oh, that's going to hurt you. All right. So that's one loss. We go, we're agreeing on one loss. That means they only got.

[Rob Stone]

Okay, one more correct. And Guess who they have week two home, Texas A M. You want to put that one on the back burner?

[Mark Ingram]

I'll put it on the back burner. I'll put it on the back.

[Rob Stone]

We can put these on the back.

[Mark Ingram]

That's impossible.

[Urban Meyer]

That's your 0.5. That's your 0.5, right?

[Rob Stone]

There's your 0.5. The next one home to Purdue. Let's give them a win. Congratulations. Then they dip their toes into SEC land on the road at Arkansas. Sneaky, sneaky. Tough game.

[Mark Ingram]

Arkansas is always shiesty man at Arkansas. Woo pig Sui. Is that what they say? Woo pigs.

[Rob Stone]

Yeah, they. They've always got something up their sleeve.

[Mark Ingram]

I don't have them winning ten and a half games. I see two losses on this thing somewhere. Just in the first four games.

[Rob Stone]

In the first four games they could be one in three.

[Mark Ingram]

I don't have them very easy. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the fighting Brady Quinns. I don't have. I don't have you guys over ten and a half wins.

[Rob Stone]

Brady likes the hate though. Brady says bring it on Brady. Brady doesn't run.

[Mark Ingram]

I love Notre Dame. I like Marcus Freeman. I like the Irish. I like the floral leaf clover. I like Rudy. I like the gold helmets. But I. I don't see. I don't see a lot of wins. I gotta go under in the crystal ball. I gotta go under.

[Rob Stone]

It's a really top heavy schedule as far as front loaded after Arkansas home to Boise. Right. We correct the Boise State is not the same Boise State we saw last year. But again this was a Boise State team that won the Mountain west, went to the college football playoffs and they're home to NC State. NC State. Depends what wolfpack team you get home to. USC by the way. Usc. Great recruiting class. There is some real momentum needed. Momentum building in Southern Cal. That's another like question mark. A half one. Put it over here. We've already got at BC two to three questions at bc. I'll give him that one. We know history between those two programs is messy. Same with the next game. Home to Navy messy. Navy complicates things at Pitt. We know what Rich Rod thinks about Pitt home to Syracuse. We think Syracuse is going to be better. And then they close at Stanford. I think that over under 10 and a half is. Is a stretch.

[Urban Meyer]

I'm going to take a different swing. There's only three teams on that roster that will have the same checkers. Those Notre Dame. That would be my look at the sideline. There's only three teams to recruit that level player. USC, A&M and Miami.

[Rob Stone]

Yeah.

[Urban Meyer]

And USC still a year away from being that level, in my opinion. A and M, I don't know enough about with all I got to study them. Miami is going to be a tough one. So I, I, I think Vegas is right on it with 10. I don't, I don't see 11, though. I know. That's why I said that's.

[Mark Ingram]

Yes. I got 10 wins for Notre Dame, not 11. I got 10.

[Rob Stone]

I have nine.

[Mark Ingram]

I got nine.

[Rob Stone]

I got nine. Nine.

[Mark Ingram]

Basically we all taking the under.

[Rob Stone]

Yeah. Right now. Right now. But, but guess what? If the kid comes up and balls week one at Miami, we reserve the right to change our position on Notre Dame.

[Mark Ingram]

I mean, we are in May, so.

[Rob Stone]

Can ball right off the bat.

[Mark Ingram]

I will renege my statement immediately. We're in May, right?

[Rob Stone]

Slow your roll, man. So, hey, you can fake the funk in May, you can't fake the funk in late August and September. Coach, let's close with, with a really interesting nugget that just happened recently. Major League Baseball announcing that the lifetime ban for Pete Rose in the Shoeless Joe Jacksons of the world has been essentially lifted and they are now eligible for the hall of Fame. I would say too little too late, but better late than never.

[Urban Meyer]

I think it's very cowardly. I'm a friend of Pete Rose. He was my idol growing up. He was our family's idol because he played the game. He checked, you know, as a kid when he played and everybody emulated Pete Rose. That was the era when you ran to first base after, after a walk. That was when you went diving into second base when you hit a double. You know, that was this effort. You talk about energy. He, he gave energy. He didn't take energy as we talked about.

[Rob Stone]

He was not a mouth breather.

[Urban Meyer]

I, I'm so pissed off about this that, you know, there, there's people have done some horrific things that are in the hall of Fames and all that. And I mean, Pete Rose, it, it was bad. I mean, but he bet on his team to win games and that's dead wrong. But he should be in a Hall of Fame when he could, you know, hug his family and celebrate. So it's a cowardly, you know, I, I, that bothers me because this is very personal with me. I grew up in Ohio and the big Red machine and I, I became very good friends with Pete Rose and I love the guy. I love what he stood for as far as baseball and was he A broken person. Did he make mistakes? He did. I got news, Mark. There's a lot of people out there like that. So I, I know he's going to be in the hall of Fame, I'm sure immediately, but damn.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah.

[Urban Meyer]

Then when I saw that news, I'm like, the guy died a month, whatever it was ago. And you. I don't know. I don't know.

[Rich Rodriguez]

I don't like.

[Mark Ingram]

Yes.

[Urban Meyer]

I like the fact he's going.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah. Just don't like how it was handled. Yeah.

[Urban Meyer]

No.

[Rob Stone]

And the timing. Yeah.

[Urban Meyer]

Mark, he changed the world.

[Mark Ingram]

Yeah.

[Urban Meyer]

I mean, you. You obviously weren't around in the 70s, but he changed the world.

[Mark Ingram]

Any athlete knows the story of Pete Rose.

[Urban Meyer]

Oh, man.

[Mark Ingram]

Any athlete knows the story of Pete Rose.

[Rob Stone]

The. The front of the jersey was always dirty, right. There was always the dirt on the front and. And the upper thighs. He was.

[Urban Meyer]

Quick story with our family. We all played sports and that was, you know, my father had the same rules. You know, don't have to be the best, but you certainly out working out. Hustle, everyone. The word hustle, Charlie hustle. And my son Nate was really struggling in baseball one time. Real quick story. And I was a head coach at Florida, and he was in Jacksonville, and he didn't know I was coming to the game. And our rule was just, you, you sprint on and off the field. You sprint the first, you sprint everywhere. And he was really struggling. And, you know, playing ninth, he ended up being a great player in high school. Bat ninth and playing right field and not very good as a little kid. And I show up and I see him walk into the outfield and the whole ballpark heard me scream, get your ass running. And so we got home and he had to run laps around the house for an hour. Because one thing you can't do as a Meyer is not hustle.

[Mark Ingram]

That's the A. And coach, I'm in you right now. My kids and I don't care.

[Urban Meyer]

You hustle.

[Mark Ingram]

One thing that you can control is your effort and your attitude. And if I see lack of effort and attitude, I'm going to lose my split out there at 7U baseball.

[Urban Meyer]

Hey, but I was at the Orioles, Orioles, Pittsburgh, spring training game here in Sarasota, and I see major league baseball players walking on and off the field. I see a guy not run out. He hit the ball, they threw him out of first base and he thought it was a foul ball. And he didn't even break. He didn't even leave the batter's box. He walked back to the dugout I really, I kind of looked at Shelly. I said, I gotta go. I can't. Well, I don't want to watch this. I, I don't want to watch that kind of effort attitude. And you're playing. You're a major league baseball player, pal. Sprint your ass to first base. Hustle on and off the field. Do it.

[Mark Ingram]

Just give me my son. We watched, we watched, we watched the big leagues. We watched major leagues. And he'd be like, dad, why isn't he running the first. First base? I'm like, because he thinks he's going to get thrown at her first. But he's like, yeah, he could have probably made it.

[Rob Stone]

And Mark, by the way, when they're thrown out at first base, it's like by this much, right?

[Mark Ingram]

It's like bang, bang.

[Rob Stone]

And like, hey, you know what? Just another little extra charge a little, little faster out of the gate. Guess what? You're probably.

[Urban Meyer]

You get four to five at bats in major league baseball, you can't hustle. You right. If you get four, is that exhausting? Yeah.

[Rob Stone]

If you get. Well, here's what I'll say. That turnout in Cooperstown when Pete Rose goes in is going to be epic.

[Urban Meyer]

I gotta be red.

[Rob Stone]

And it is gonna be triple option.

[Mark Ingram]

Right there with a triple option in Cooperstown.

[Rob Stone]

Triple option. Road trip to Cooperstown has just been booked.

[Mark Ingram]

Let's go, Wells.

[Rob Stone]

Go find Wells. Go find us some sponsors. Let's take it on the road again. Make sure to follow subscribe rate us on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast as well as across social media media. You can find us at 3x option show. Thanks as always to our Wonderful sponsors, Wendy's, BET, MGM, ZipRecruiter and NHTSA. And we will see you again next week on the triple option.