The Triple Option - Can Andrew Luck Bring Stanford Football Back?

Episode Date: July 1, 2026

Andrew Luck — former No. 1 overall NFL Draft pick and current Stanford Cardinal football General Manager — joins Urban Meyer and Rob Stone to break down his mission to bring Stanford football back to national title contention, the collapse of the Pac-12, and what he fears could get lost in today's rapidly changing college football landscape. Plus, Urban and Rob deliver their 2026 college football season preview — naming the five coaches and players they're most excited to watch take the field this fall. 🏈 In This Episode: • Top 5 coaches and players to watch in the 2026 college football season • Andrew Luck on Stanford's path back to relevance • The Pac-12 collapse and its lasting impact on college football • What Andrew Luck hopes doesn't get lost in modern college football Chapters 00:00 Show Start 01:13 Players and Coaches to Watch 13:00 Andrew Luck, Stanford General Manager New episodes of The Triple Option drop every Wednesday. Make sure you’re subscribed on YouTube and following on all podcast platforms. Also make sure you’re locked in on social @3XOptionShow on all platforms for highlight moments, bonus content, and to engage with the guys and the TO community. (⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://tripleoptionshow.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠)   The Triple Option is presented by Wendy’s. Try Wendy's® New crispier than ever Spicy Chicken Sandwich. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://m-wendys.app.link/gm-spicy-chicken-26-display-banner ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ #AndrewLuck #StanfordFootball #CollegeFootball #CollegeFootball2026 #CollegeFootballPlayoff #CFP #SEC #BigTen #NFL #Pac12 #UrbanMeyer #StanfordCardinal #KyleWhittingham #MalachiToney #CurtCignetti #IndianaHoosiers #PennState #MichiganWolverines #FloridaGators Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Captain Andrew Luck stuff. It literally puts a smile on my face. I have a bobblehead of it, Rob. I will send you one for bringing it up. My hand trembles in fervor as I write to tell you that while in preparation for upcoming battles, we have unearthed a most surprising bounty of relics. 20,000 by more precise count.

I snorted. Light it. The triple option is presented by Wendy's. Wendy's invented the spicy chicken sandwich, and now we're reinventing it. Making it crispier than ever before, spicy chicken, we're so back. Welcome to another edition of

the Triple Option presented by Wendy's. He's the Hall of Famer, the national champion head coach Urban Meyer. I'm Rob Stone. Glad you're with us. And today, we're going to be joined by Stanford General Manager, Mr. Andrew Luck, former number one pick, discussed the names around college football that have

us excited for the 2020 season as well. Please rate, subscribe, send us your questions. We are on social media. 3x option show, new episodes coming on YouTube, and we're every it is you get your podcast. There are 59 days until we have any given Saturday. And in a little bit, we will be joined by one of the best college quarterbacks to ever do it, Andrew Luck at Stanford. So it got us thinking, Coach, about what guys we are most excited to see

this season. I'm going to focus on players. Coach wanted to focus on coaches. And there are some interesting coaching situations this season. Yeah, very unique. year, and a lot of this is very personal with me. Obviously, in order, the top five guys I want to see perform as a coach is the guy in Ann Arbor. That's one of my dear friends and former staff member, Kyle Whittingham. I've talked to him a lot. And why I'm so interested, number one, it's Kyle. It's Coach Whittingham, but it's also what in the hell happened up there. You know, that's not very unwovering like what's taking place there the last few years. So, you know, I grew up in the Bo Schembeckler era, and, you know, I grew up in the Bochembeckler era, and, you know, And Kyle loves his team. He loves his players. You know, the quarterback's got to get much better. But how he performs, and I'm going to say this, Coach Witt has been at Utah, and I love Utah. But Utah has done have the same pressures that that other place has up north.

So that's number one. Coach, real quick, before you move on, we at Fox Big Noon kickoff, we have Oklahoma at Michigan. Game two. Week two. Here's what I want. I want you with wit in his office for a feature. I want, I want Buckeye legend in Michigan's coach's office for the show.

I think that would just be amazing visuals and content, but I digress. All right, number two, I know also where you're going here. Let's go to Gainesville. Yeah, very interested in, and I was active in recruiting coach Summerall a little bit to come to Florida. I really admire the guy. I didn't know him at all. I just loved his toughness. loved when he talked about, talked to him.

He didn't bitch and complain about NIL and about transfers. He talked about practicing. He talked about the weight room. He talked about the offseason. He talked about training camp. And he talked about how you went in the SEC and the offensive defense alliance. And I was like, whoa, this is exactly. He's your brother from another mother, man.

And we spent some time together. And then I went out watching practice. And I really liked their team. I don't love their team yet. I hope they, I love their, this new strength coach is a former, I believe Green Beret or Marine, I can't remember which one. It doesn't matter because they're both tough asses. I hope they have a great offseason because their offense and defense-al line has got to get much more SEC-ish, if you know what I mean.

And I made a note. Florida is a top-five job. I don't care what anybody says. They have it all. Now they have great facilities. So I'm hoping they wake a sleeping giant with John Summerall. Next, of course, Lane Kiffin. Now, the reason I bring up Lane Kiffin is, is his national championship or bust,

because if it's anything less, he's going to get hammered. I mean, the fans, they fail. Do you think that's the mantra, year one for him? It has to be? I think it has to be. I think with the investment. No, I don't, but I'm not a nut job LSU fan. Yeah.

I mean, they're nuts. I know they are. I feel like that he gets like a two-year cushion, but maybe it's like. No, no, no, no, no. No, okay. I mean, I doesn't have to win it, but he has to be. It's got to be better. It's got to be better.

He's got to be within a swing of it. Yeah. Or there's going to be, I mean, that's one place that I remember I retired. I said, good, I'm never going to go there again. That's the fans are nuts. The next one. And Matt Campbell, who's a friend of mine for many years, took a big step from Iowa State to Penn State. Again, he's not used to the hammering that you're going to take if you stumble.

And the question I have, and I've actually asked Jay Paternal this, because Jay really loves, he's been to practice. he admires coach Campbell. Can he do better than James Franklin? Because James Franklin won a lot of games there now, a lot. He's got a new quarterback. He's got new staff. And usually it takes a minute to get going, and he can't lose his momentum.

And he's got a lot of momentum going into the season, just can't lose it. And then finally, I put Sig. You know, Sigetti, how does he respond after a national championship? I remember those were tough years in my career, years after the national championship. just because expectations, the players change, the coaches change. You know, that fan base now, they're going to expect you to win.

How's you going to handle that? What's the one piece of advice you'd hand over to coach SIG going into this season? Boy, that's a tough one, man. I would say just hold your standards, you know, don't, which I think he will. That's the kind of guy is. You know, hold your standards. You know, I expect your team to practice the same way because people change. You start, everybody's getting agents.

You're starting to get, you know, You know, it's just got to stay on everybody, including the coaching staff. He's asked two coordinators that you tell me a phone calls, those guys took. Yeah. And they're excellent coaches, but we're all human beings. You start listening too much instead of being the same bulldog you were going into it. So I would just hold everybody to the same standard that got you there. Week one, we're in Bloomington.

Be excited to see what the atmosphere is there. I heard an interesting story about kids who went to, Indiana. Back in the old days, coach, a lot of them, when they would take their study abroad semester, they would do it in the fall because they didn't want to miss basketball season in the winter spring. That's over. And now that's over. How many Indiana fans you just see around the country now? Oh, so many. You see the shirts. You see the hats. And I even go up to them sometimes. I said, how were you several years ago? And they said, we weren't wearing us stuff. We were in assembly hall watching the basketball team or watching the soccer team. And Todd Yagley,

win national titles. And now it is a, it is a football town for sure. Looking forward to seeing in Blooming. We have a lot of Indiana potentially on our schedule. That's how highly we at Fox think about them. So coach, you hit your five coaches. I got five players for you. And I'm going to start where you just ended, Bloomington.

Their new quarterback. Again, it's another new quarterback for Sig in Bloomington. Josh Hoover coming over from TCU. No FBS quarterback is going to. enter the season with more career passing yards or passing touchdowns than Hoover. He's expected to be another great one and done in Bloomington under Coach Signetti. Let's go with the big boy, all right, to Miami. Big.

Big. Jackson Cantwell, 6-8-330. 6'8, 330 pounds. Like, that's W.W.E. material right off the bat. The highest rated offensive line siney in Miami. program history. Most figure he's going to start immediately at that left tackle spot to protect their new QB, Darian Mentsa. So a lot of people are saying that he's a franchise changing type

lineman that you can build around. So Miami, like, they're ready to get back there, right? They are ready to keep flexing those muscles. How about another quarterback? We talked about this young man a couple weeks ago on the triple option, Jared Curtis, fourth ranked overall player and the second ranked QB in the 26th class. Remember, got flipped, right? He was going to Georgia. Vandy got him instead. He's ready.

He's six foot three and a half, 225 already. Had that verbal to Georgia. Vandy comes in as a big moment for them. And the early reports out of spring say he is looking apart. He's like the real deal. We know this cat's the real deal.

The real deal. Baby Jesus. My favorite player in the game right now. Yep. Is Malachi? Tony? Yeah, he's not only just the skill set, but his toughness. I love everything about this guy. True freshman had over 1,200 receiving yards, program record 109 catches. Boy, the ceiling for this kid is absolutely enormous. And then for my fifth one, we're going to go to Columbus. And that wide receiver room coach, right?

Like just... Non-stop. Spoils, right? Is it Jeremiah Smith? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're all looking. forward to seeing Jeremiah Smith. That doesn't count. How about the freshman, Chris Henry Jr., the top rank receiver in this class? Nope, I got somebody else for you, coach. White Lightning, yeah, I've heard about this guy. Brock Boyd, white lightning. It went viral during the spring practices. My boys have been yelling at me about White Lightning for months right now. It became the first freshman of his class coach to shed the Black Stripe. Yeah. That says something. I'm hearing great things out of class.

Columbus about that guy. What do you hear it about him? I can hear he's mature for his, obviously, he's a freshman. So much of it's not talent, it's maturity of taking care of your body, take because of the wear and tear, and this guy takes care of himself. And he's got an excellent quarterback throwing. The one thing you can guarantee, he's going to have single coverage because there's going to be two cats on that other guy, Jeremiah Smith. So the best thing about white lightning, he's going to see single coverage. And he's got a quarterback can get it to them. Coach, what were some of like the track and field numbers that you needed or wanted? Did you need those?

Like, hey, what's his 100 time? 10-5. 10-5 was always the difference maker. You go below 10-5, that's fast, fast. 10-5 is what, in the what? What is he running? 100-yard dash? Yeah, 100 meters.

That equates to sub, that's a 4-3-4. You know, you're getting way down there. All right, so I got one time, I got one time for you. His 200-meter time in high school is 21.7. Excellent. Yeah, that's great. And you talked about his maturity. You know where that comes from? Home.

Talk to me. Right? His dad, Chris, tight ends coach at South Lake Carroll High School at that great football factory in Texas. So get ready for some white lightning, Columbus. I can't wait to see him. That was never cutting corners presented by Wendy's. Wendy's new spicy chicken sandwiches,

crisper, crunchier, and more flavor pack than ever. Wendy's, we are so backed. And coming up next, we are joined by the general manager at Stanford. Andrew Luck joins us on the Triple Option, presented by Wendy's next. Light it. Welcome back to the Triple Option

presented by Wendy's, Robin Urban, and this week we are joined by two-time All-American. 2012, number one, overall picked by the Indianapolis Colts and the general manager of Stanford football program since 2024.

Oh, we are headed to the farm. Mr. Luck. Andrew, look. I see that number 12 behind you. Give it some clear. clarification. That is not you, my friend, right? No, I'm proud of worrying 12, but this is the great John Brody who passed away earlier this year, great Stanford and 49er quarterback. And what I've loved about this job, amongst the many things,

is re-engaging in Stanford football history, like Brody, Bob Matthias, who, him, Bob Matthias, and they get an all-time great athlete in this country. And I had no idea about him until I came to Stanford. So I'm proud to be part of the University of John Elway, Jim Plunkett, John Brody. People forget how good Stanford is at athletics across the board, not just football. I mean, men's and women's soccer and I'm assuming swimming and diving and everything. Like Stanford used to be, and to a point it still is, like a real powerhouse, but football has dropped off. Is that a fair assessment? Sure.

Okay. So football has dropped off. What are some of the things that you have in play or in place to get Stanford back up on the food chain and being a regular. contender inside the ACC and beyond. Yeah, no, it's a great question. And look, it's why I'm back, right? Us dropping off is in large part why I'm back here on the farm at a place that I certainly feel like home. I'm quite proud of the work we did as a program last year. I mean, Frank Reich came in as an interim head coach, and Coach Meyer knows this in college. You don't do interim coaches, right? There's recruiting. There's all there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's,

you just don't do it. But Frank came in and, and gave our team, our program a version of of ministry, right? We needed to get back on the right foot. We ended with more wins than the previous season for the first time since 2015, right? Which was a great Christian McCaffrey year. And we're marching forward. We have a brand new staff. DeVita Pritchard, head coach, has done a fantastic job

assembling our staff. Chris Richards, our defense coordinator, who's, you know, probably most famous for the Legion of Boone defenses in Seattle with Pete Carroll, which it's hard for a Stanford program to have anything, anybody, anything with Pete Carroll associated with it. But we got Chris Richard. We got Chris Richard. But he's put it, look, Tavit just put a heck of a program together. The people, the people make the program. I'm proud of our roster retention. We only, we lost so few guys to the portal. We retained our older players.

And old, older, football is a hard game, Rob. It is a hard. hard game. It is, it's not a contact sport. It's a collision sport. I'd actually be curious, Coach Meyer, how you, how you are taking what I'm saying. I'll ask for some advice here. But, but, but in college, I mean, talent wins and older guys win. Older guys have scars. They know how to get back up. They know how to receive and give punishment. And so we made it, we made it, we made it a point of emphasis to retain our guys. And we did a heck of a recruiting class. A bunch of freshmen just started. They look like young pups on the farm taking their, taking their shovel to the face, which is a great ride of passage in college football.

And I'm excited, man. Hope springs eternal here on the farm. I'm excited about the work we're doing. We know there are no shortcuts. We know we have our work cut out for us, but couldn't work with a better group of men, women, and could be more proud of our locker room right now. Well, great soon, Andrew. Thanks for joining us.

I got two questions. One's just the structure of what's going on to Stanford before we go dive into the football piece, but this GM role started, surfaced about four or five years ago in college sports. And I remember I actually had some schools come asked me if I'd be interested in doing that. I said, I asked the question, what do they do?

And because I understand, you know, the GM role in the NFL, and a lot of times there's two different, you know, two separate entities in the NFL. One handles a roster, one handles the on-the-field product. But I guess the big question is, and that's what came to me,

and I hear a lot of the coaches talk about this. When you have a GM, what's the hierarchy? Because it's always been president, AD, coach. And then all of a sudden this GM person shows in, are you comfortable talking about the hierarchy at Stanford? No, we've been quite public about it. And, you know, I think we're different than most. Maybe unique in that, you know,

we have a president who really created this job for me, recognizing that the world was changing in college football, that we at Stanford had been, in this previous sort of contemporary, slow to adapt to the world. And we needed a jolt. And we needed an assertive step. We needed a proactive step. So he created the general manager role on the football team and plugged me in.

And it sits on top of the football organization. So that is where we are unique Coach Meyer. So the Tavita hire, the Frank hire, those were my hires. I led that. And now my direct boss is our athletic director, right? Rob, you mentioned, I mean, we have an amazing athletic department. 36 sports. Unbelievable. So my job, you know, and I call John Lynch, I call Chris Ballard, you know, NFL GMs all the time.

They're mentors of mine. And I think I've come to realize my job description is probably more like a team president of football or an athletic director just for football. Yes, I get involved in recruiting. I love it. I love selling this place. I love finding unicorns with the talent and the intellectual curiosity, the GPA, the scores to like to come here. here and thrive. But it's also fundraising. It's it's it's telling a story. It's it's helping with organizational stuff. It's you know, managing the NIL aspect of this all. And so we have a unique

structure. I think it works. You know, I'm not here to say the structure works at any other school. I just know what the context around Stanford and where we were as a program, I think absolutely demanded this structure. And I'm glad to be sitting in the seat. So that, template of Stanford, because when I was at Notre Dame, I mean, they were tough as hell. And then obviously with Coach Harbaugh and then Shaw came in there. But it's, I used to call Stanford a line of scrimmage team with a great quarterback. And that's pretty much the template that won for so many years. I was shocked when I started watching Stanford the last few years.

And there was no, the line of scrimmage was gone. And I, you got to get the great quarterback, but a great quarterback with a soft offensive, you know, with a soft line of scrimmage on both sides. Where are we? I mean, is that, obviously it's been addressed, and I can tell you agree with me, but it's a line of scrimmage school with a great quarterback. You know, it's, I like your perspective on this and feel incredibly similar. This is how Tavita and I think about football. This, this, there's very much the ethos of this.

I mean, you go back to Bob Whitfield, right? Chris Dahlman, Eric Heitman, David DeCastros. Our offensive linemen have been unbelievable here. And the game, at least as I have Intuited it, playing it and watching and be in this seat The game begins and ends around the football It's O-line, it's D-line, and it's quarterback, right? I mean that there is a nucleus around that ball and so yes, our focus is there I am really excited for our O-line and D-line and a little bit goes back to

Older players I imagine in your history in college football coach Your best O-lines were probably your older o-line and O-lines, right, and D-Lyman. And it doesn't, they don't necessarily have to be the most talented, but O-Line's odd. I always feel like O-Line and D-Bs have a subculture within the culture of the team more than anybody else, right? Because O-Line have to work as five as a unit. So I'm, I'm incredibly excited about it, starting with our left tackle, Nikki Prongos, who returned to school, was finishing his mechanical engineering major. And he had, he had second, third, fourth-round grades from the NFL, right? He's a special dude. And we sleep a lot easier at night,

knowing you got a left tackle. And on the other side, on the right, Doc, Colee House is coming back. He's a, he's close to a 30-game starter, I want to say, in college football, right? That matters, right? That matters. We've got some great competition interior. Simi-Polle is close to, you know, over a 30-game starter interior.

Fisher Anderson, you know, Aiden Kilstrom from Harvard's come in as a transfer. Ziron Brown, we have what I'm excited about, and it's not just three, four, five guys, right? I think we've got 10 guys, 12 guys, 13 guys, including these freshmen coming in, that'll give us a chance. And Terry Heffernan's our officer coordinator. He's an O-Line coach. Khali Kekeweva is our O-Line coach. He came from the NFL, and we hired Tavita Thompson from Ohio University. So in the building, we have three guys who have run O-Line rooms, right? The investment has to be there.

What's the feedback you're getting from your alumni base? I think there's a lot of people that be like, man, I would love to tap into Stanford and get some of that NIL money from those alums that are out there and the success that they have had out in the real world. What are they asking of you and what do they want now from Stanford football? Our alums are a very special part of what makes this place magical, right? Silicon Valley, the Bay Area, San Francisco, San Jose. It's in large part why I'm back?

Because I knew we had an ecosystem where we could be successful, including, you know, all the dimensions, mentorship, internships, people, and NIL, revenue share, right? And so one fundraising has gone well. I'm seeing people buy in. We know, we know we're different. We know we're a little bit different than everybody else. And one of things we tell ourselves is, yeah, we're built different to be different. We are not, we're not going to win a conference championship or a national championship by by trying to beat some of the bigger schools, the bigger state schools, Ohio State. by copying Ohio State.

We have to find who, you know, who we are, including in this world today, go find talent, the kids that fit, and win that way, right, and win in a way that you turn the TV on, Rob, you turn it on coach, you say, oh, that's Stanford football. I recognize that. There's, I feel that. That's different. And our alums, our alums have been incredibly helpful, including the ones that live within five, ten, fifteen miles of this campus.

And I mentioned John Lynch, shoot, I call John once every other. week for advice. He comes up into our building. He helps out. It's, you know, he comes to fundraising events. Had him and Christian McCaffrey and John Lynch and I and our head coach sitting talking in front of people. That's a good time. People want that. I would think so. So you bring up John Lynch, that's the second time you brought him up. What's the best piece of advice he's passed on to you? Oh, man, learn. Just keep learning. Ask questions. And John has a, John is, like he's a tough MFer, man. Like I grew up watching him. Oh, I covered him with the buck in your. when I was doing local TV in Tampa.

But he was a great interview that played with a lights out mentality. You didn't want to be around him. But people would gravitate. Like you could see the intelligence. You could see the future that was destined for him. Yeah. No. And his humility and willingness to share, you know, especially I'm doing this.

Like, this is the first office I've ever had in my life. You know, like I play quarterback. I'm in many ways a child, you know, in this whole thing. And surrounded by a bunch of great folks. but John's willingness to share with me has been, has been unbelievable. You know, asking a lot of, you know, especially doing a head coach search and listening to him about his experience when the Niners were hiring him as GM. As you guys might remember, it was that hire was at the same time as they were hiring the head coach, right?

And so his experience there was really helpful in thinking about how we structured our head coach hiring process. So just grateful for John. What a legend. A lot of fun to be around. You know, every time I was hired, Andrew, I'd sit with whether it be Gene Smith or Chris Hill at Utah. And we'd sit, you know, when we're hired and then we'd go through spring and then we'd have that preseason meeting. And here you are. It's still unbelievable to say this, Stanford in the ACC, traveling across the country playing teams like Wake Forest and North Carolina State.

What's the expectation level? You know, what's a good year. I mean, I know what a great year is, I think. I playoffs and all that. What's Andrew Luck going to say to your head coach and say, okay, this is kind of what we're thinking? Yeah. Because that's important for head coach to hear that from Lerner.

We actually had Tavita. Look, part of the beauty, Tavita and I have such history. I mean, we came in, we were teammates together. So we started his teammates, but competing for the spot, right? He held me off for a year. I redshirted and ran scout team with a lot of pride, you know, my freshman year. And then I beat his ass. out and got the job. And all he did was support me, Urban. You know what I mean? Like he had my back

and you've been around amazing quarterbacks. You know, quarterback can also be a lonely position, whether it's going really well or really poorly. And I've always been appreciative for an older player who got beat out, who was a 20 plus game starter, just having my back. So Tavita and I have a history really built on trust. And so we spend, I mean, we spend, I talk to him before bed more than I talked to my wife, right, before going to sleep. And what is a good year? What is a great year? We certainly have goals. Like, we got to, we have to keep improving. We had four wins last year. We need more wins than the previous year, right? Let's go get to a bowl game. Rivalry games matter. Part of what I'm so proud about last year is our guys beat Cal for the first time.

I think in five years, there were only two guys in our locker, maybe only one guy that had experienced beating the rival. And you know what a, what a Cardinal Red and White team versus a blue and yellow team feels like, right? Like that, that matters, steps forward matter. Now, now, so, so progress on the wind front, bowl game, but let's go, right? Let's go. Now, what is almost way more interesting, though, is like, all right, what's our process to get there? What is, what does a championship culture look like feel like? What is it like to have the championship partnerships?

What are we getting championship people in the building? Because our, you know, winning and losing is an outcome, right? It's a consequence of a whole bunch of stuff. And, and so I, we, yes, we have our goals, but, I mean, like the magic, the work. Like, it's the process. And that's that, that, that's what gets me all tinglingly and fired up every day to come to work with these guys.

Curious how you're building the roster. If my math is right, you guys got six players out of the portal? Yep. That sound right. All right. So that's kind of on the low end of major programs. You were talking about retention, right? And being older.

Look, all you need to do is look at the last three national champions and say, you know, those three big 10 programs were older teams that won the national title. So where does retention, the portal and good old fashioned high school recruiting, you know, what is the pie chart of that right now, at least? what do you want it to be going forward? So we were stable in the portal relative to, I think, the rest of the country, right? And it's something with a bunch of, with a head coaching change and close to 70% new staff, we, I think I had developed a good enough sense of our roster to know that we have, we have dudes, right? Dudes that can win game and wanted to make sure we were keeping our dudes that had helped us take a step forward. and that were part of a culture swing, right?

Because last year was about a culture shock. And, you know, I came into Stanford. I committed to a one-and-11 team, right? And Jim Harbaugh had just been hired. And our class committed to one-and-11 team. And I think part of our class just wanted to be somewhere where we were earning it, you know, going in. And if you can get to the sweet spot,

you knew that you knew you were part of something that earned it. So there's very much that ethos. So retention was huge. I'm proud of it. I'm proud of the stability, even with the head coaching change. The transfer portal is an awesome tool. It's an awesome tool to help fill to get better, right? All of it has to be about getting better, whether it's injuries, guys leave early for the NFL, what have you.

We will always still have a big, big place for old school, high school recruiting and developing, right? We, again, we talked about a little built different to be different. Our vision for this is we are a new school and the fact that we're going to lean into NIL. We'll lean into what we can, what we will, what we're willing to do. And we want our high school recruiting class to come in. And if there's 20 guys, man, play four or five years together. Graduate, go to the NFL. Like, that's, shoot, the last wedding I was at was a Stanford teammate.

There were 40 guys there, right? 40 teammates from a team at a wedding. Now, I might sound like the old guy just, you know, yell it out himself from the trees, but like that matters. And it also matters because we won. We won an orange bowl. We went to the Fiesta Bowl. proud. I played with Richard Sherman. I played with Doug Baldwin, right? I played with like six

NFL tight ends, you know, while I was here. And we've had 14 NFL tight ends in the last 16 years. So I will throw a shot at I was that we are tied into you. We are. Take that coach, parents. With all respect, too. But we are. So the pie chart, like, look, we're leaning in a new school, but hold some old school values, Rob. that culture, team building. And look, we had, C.J. Williams came to us as a transfer last year. Played, played this season, did unbelievably. Was second, I think second in the ACC with touchdowns.

It surprised everybody. Crushed it and gets drafted and gets drafted to the NFL, right? Completely off the radar. We know, we know there's an awesome spot for transfers to come in and help us, and which we expect our transfers to. My last question for you, Andrew, is so I was on that college football commission. Still am and was on. a bunch of phone calls meetings, including one at the White House.

And it was pretty unanimous amongst the commissioners, the four commissioners were there. Obviously, you had some government people there. You had Cody Campbell, the booster at Texas Tech and chairman of the board of trustees. But it's pretty unanimous on NIA eligibility and transfer portal across the board about how to fix that. The question is not that. It's about can you enforce rules that are on the books or that you're about to put on the books? How do you and the seat you sit in? What needs to be fixed and fixed now?

Or do you like it? Ooh, you know, Coach, every day that I am in this job, when I have an awesome athletic director who is taking a lot of that burden of what needs to be fixed off me, who's engaging in the same circles that you are, president who cares, Dr. Condoleezza Rice,

who is an unbelievable asset to our university, loves college football, loves watching O-line play because her dad was a high school old line coach, you know, and is involved in this world. So we, you know, we Stanford have unbelievable representation, I think, in many of the rooms. But every day, I think I work in this job. The less I think about what needs to happen or should happen or not to happen. And the more I think about how do we, or what it exists now, how do we win?

How does Stanford win? How do we give ourselves a competitive? How do we get this recruit? How do we go win a ballgame? So what needs to be fixed, should be fixed, ought to be fixed. I'll answer it in a bit of a sideways way, so forgive me for the back in the way for the question, coach. But I hope we don't lose some of what makes college football special. Like Oregon playing Oregon State is a really cool game.

You know, the Apple Cup in Washington is cool. You know, I'm sad that the West Coast doesn't have a premier conference because that conference was awesome. I was part of it. It was great, right? Thankful to be in the ACC. It's awesome. But I hope we don't lose the rivalries. I hope we don't lose the rituals.

I hope we don't lose the connective tissue that makes college football. Like, it's big, big, big business. It's all so silly. Like, a lot of it doesn't make sense, you know? A lot of it's been built off of geographic rivalries. Like, and I love that. Like, I love, you know, growing up at college football. I grew up in Europe because my dad was working for NFL Europe, but I would turn

Armed Forces Network on every Saturday and all they showed was Penn State. So I hate Penn State because of that, right? Show me somebody else. Show me the mountaineers. I want to see West Virginia. My dad played there. You know, but there's, there's something, there's, there's, there's so, almost religious. College football, I think, is almost religious in its convening ability.

It's, it's, it's intergenerational connective tissue. And I, and I know it's a little bit. I'm getting woo-woo on this, on you guys on it. But I, I hope we, we maintain some of that spirit. I really do. and, you know, a college scholarship is still an unbelievable human development vehicle. And especially, I mean, all across the continuum of sports, like it trains leaders, right? And football, yes, is a little different.

Maybe hoops is a little different because of how big the business is around it. But still, you know, a college experience, I want to believe, can hold an appropriate tension. The playing, the NIL, revenue share, whatever the business. aspect is and a level of like transformation through education learning growing up right like i certainly needed it you know and still need it but yeah but i hope it's there well winded long-winded from no but you got you got there and all the points for valid and i agree with you you know there there is nothing like the college experience or why are we hustling out and why are we going to four places in four years right what's what's i love your wedding story right because we've all

have those wedding stories right if i get invited like Unfortunately now at my age, it's like my teammates, kids are going to get married soon. But it's going to be a bunch of teammates and you want to see them. You don't want a bunch of these transfer portal guys that are gone and they don't, they're not part of your university. They're not part of your family. They're not really part of your locker room to the extent that it used to be. So I'm with you on that one. I want to end with this because it makes me laugh and it makes me smile.

The Captain Andrew Luck stuff, whenever I'm. I see it. And I know it hasn't been, I think that account hasn't been active for a couple of months. But like it literally puts a smile on my face. Do you remember where you were when you first saw it or heard of it? And what was your reaction to all that? I believe I was still playing in the NFL.

I did not have social media. I can't say I never had social media. I had Facebook for like six months as like a high school college kid, you know, and I was like, yeah, this is stupid. I don't like it. But so people, and I still had a flip phone when I was playing, but either my mom or some friends would sort of take like screenshots of these things and send it to me. And I really have appreciated the humor. As we know, the internet can be assessable of a lot of dark and weird things.

And this just seems like good, clean. Good humor. I like it. I have a bobblehead of it. Rob, I will send you one for bringing it. Who made the bobblehead? Oh, we didn't stare for, we made the bobblehead. It was a game giveaway, baby.

I still got one. Where am I? Hold on. Oh, that is so good. Let's go deep. Here you go. Oh, it's right there. Bubblehead box with a letter.

I can, I'll, you know, append to you. Give me a couple of the best lines from that box. There's got to be some great ones. Like, dear Mildred. My hand trembles in fervor as I write to tell you that while in preparation for upcoming battles, we have unearthed a most surprising boundings. of relics. 20,000 by more precise count.

All right. I snorted. I snorted. Oh, my God. I love that stuff. I hope they come back. I hope they come back. And we hope Stanford football gets back to where you want it to be.

We're marching, baby. It's a good hands, man. Andrew, so good to see you, man. Enjoy the rest of the summer. Keep enjoying that World Cup, too, my friend. Oh, I love it. I feel like I feel like I'm best friends with you, Rob. I see you on TV like every day.

Now I'm doing an interview. It's magic. How are you doing this? You get a day off, man. You get a day off? It is even taken over coach's life. Coach is even watching soccer and comment. You got Coach Meyer on soccer?

We got Coach every week. I'm all over it. For the last, what, two weeks, two or three weeks on these shows. He's talking about World Cup. That's awesome. We're all still growing, Coach. Yeah, you're welcome inside the tent coach. But me and Andrew are in here already.

We're serving drinks too. And coach, I always say, every time I see you, I bring up Jack Newhorter who used to tell Urban Meyer stores, my Indian athletics Colts teammate living in Toledo, Ohio, man. So Jack says what's up. I love it. Andrew, thanks for spending some of your summer with us. Really appreciate it.

Best of luck to you and Stanford going forward. I appreciate it. Appreciate you guys. Go car. Light it. That does it for the triple option. Follow, subscribe, rate us on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast, as well as across social media, 3X option show.

Remember, please submit your questions in the comment section. We're going to do a mailbag to wrap up season number two when the three of us are all back together. So fire us those questions. Thanks again, as always, to our amazing sponsor, Wendy's.