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

Episode Date: May 15, 2025

What is love? For some, it certainly doesn't seem like it's football.   Urban, Mark & Rob go deep into the conversation of players & coaches true love for the game; specifically, how NIL & the transfer portal has shifted the mindset of college football players, even as they prepare to go pro. Urban peels back the curtain on what to look for when truly evaluating a player's hunger for success, while Mark explains that it's genuine passion that gets you to the ultimate goal.   Then, new (or old?) West Virginia Head Coach Rich Rodriguez joins the guys to talk about his return to Morgantown, his championship expectations & somewhat familiar life in the Big 12. Oh yeah, and keep that TikTok mess out of the locker room!   Finally, we take a look into the crystal ball & break down Notre Dames 2025 schedule. Can the Irish repeat their previous season's success & make another National Championship run, or will their #CFBPlayoff hopes be slashed before they even begin? 10.5 wins is alot! 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.  Find your new favorite Frosty Fusions™ flavor today with choices like OREO®Brownie, Caramel Crunch, and Pop-Tarts® Strawberry. https://m-wendys.app.link/frostyfusion25   Thank you to our additional sponsors NHTSA – Click it or Ticket: http://www.nhtsa.gov/clickit   Zip Recruiter – Try FOR FREE at Ziprecruiter.com/Option BetMGM It's the NBA Playoffs! With Bet MGM’s Second Chance Promotion, you’ll get your stake back in cash if your First Field Goal Scorer, scores second instead. That’s right. Simply bet on any player  to score the first field goal during ANY playoff game. If you’re right,  you win! But, if your pick scores second instead of first, you get your  stake back in cash. Grab the chance at getting your  stake back at Bet MGM. See Bet MGM dot com for Terms. This US promotional offer not available in DC, 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 HOPE NY (467369). 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 dot 1 800 gambler dot net. Subject to eligibility requirements. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey friends, y'all ready? You got a medal. Got my medal. Put that bad boy on. And I got that BAH! Oh, that's great. Oh yeah! That big old head on that cabinet.

It's a big head. Where'd those traps go, Mark Ingram? No neck Ingram. Dude, like you're having a spasm over there, Mark, with that dance. 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. So glad you're here with us. Rob Stone, Urban Meyer, Mark Ingram, the second 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 over there. But first, has college football and their players 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 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? Yeah it has and Mark I remember Charlie Strong told me he was my defense coordinator and a 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, 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, a lot of times they come

from a well-to-do family and they want, you know, they want a career in the NFL, but you know what, if they don't, they're going to be in a 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, Belglade, Pahokee and Polk County. And he said, these guys are trying to eat. Yes. And I looked at him, I was like, damn, I never really looked at it.

And boy, is that true. When you've got a hunger, you are in survival mode. And your family's depending on you. And I mean, and they know it. And I used to go down there and 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. Yes. 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, and investment banking or, and I'm not, I'm not taking shot notary at all. I love notary. But it's reality.

And so when you say the love of the game, we would have these sayings that I can't wait to see Mark's face on this. So we had, we had these nicknames for players and the taker and not in a giver. So if you're an energy taker, that means you're spent 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. It's in your let's go. Enough saying, let's go. I just said enough. Quit saying that. But it's also same as the coach.

If you're coaching, you don't love the game. You're spending what? 15 hours a day with that coach during the season. And you walk into the meeting room. We just call them mouth breathers. You know what mouth breather is? They just sit there and, you know, like a dead fish on a fricking dock, you know? And then finally, you have takers, nut givers, you have the mouth breathers. And then the final one Mark,

I love the mouth breathe. Is the orange eater. Orange eater? Once in a while, this better not be a soccer reference. All right, the orange eater is this Mark. They're the ones that at halftime in the big ass game. Where do they go? They're eating oranges at halftime.

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 office line and then, and everybody's working, you look over there and 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 from it. I was laughing so hard. Slices stuck. Yeah.

Oh yeah. They're not going to put the orange peel. They're not going to play it down, which is one thing, but they're not going to play it down and don't care that they're not going to play it down. And you're eating all the snacks for the people who are actually playing it down. Vitamin C is gone, man. I love Mark. I was dying for that one. Hey, no, but Coach, you're a hundred percent 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 a well off family, but that's not the only option for them. When you're 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 an 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 wasn't as prevalent in everyone's draft board, the love of the game. But I know the Ravens, they they they they they they judge that the Saints Sean Payton, he judged that like how do you judge that though? I mean, that's not a tangible thing that you can put a clock on. All right, so how is it so easy? That's easy. Uh you you go first sit down talk with the player and then and then you sit down talk to him but the player can BS you. Correct. It's as a coach it's easy to see. You jog out on a practice field in 110 heat index and you know 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. Correct. This is real just football. Correct. This is real estate. This is attorney's life. This is a doctor. This is life. This is a good mother, father.

If you don't love it, 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 a tough, violent, nasty sport. You can't fake that. Who are some of the hungriest guys that you coach that you play with? All right

Hunger hunger hunger. I think Mike Thomas was a hungry player. You played with him man. He was hungry Yes, Jenora's had that drive that love hungry. I love that For the game and then you know bosses came from you know They they weren't like fighting to eat what those you talk about love of the game. And then, you know, Bosa's came from, you know, they weren't like fighting to eat. You talk about love of the game, the Bosa brothers, their father was the first round there too, but Nick and Joey Bosa, that was every day. Zeke was there to eat.

And that was every day. And the Pounceys, I could go on and on. We've always counted that. I'll take a lesser player that loves the game. That someone is a rookie now to coach the guy. 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 really 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 of 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 think the fuck no more and you will get exposed. You know, a unique guy, Mark, and you played against him was Thibaut. 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, I tell people that, 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 them, you know, we would have a ball coaching that guy. And the two hour, you coach guys like that, two hours goes

like this. You coach a mouth breather and it's a orange peel eater. Mark, were you a, well Rob, I know what Mark was. Rob, you better be careful coach. You better be careful here, my friend. Okay. Move on. Are you coming for me? You coming for me?

No. Let me take my, let me take my orange peel out. You know, you get the little citrus stuff stuck in there too, Mark, every once in a while. You know what I'm talking about. The little pulp. Yeah. Like, no, I just, that shouldn't be in there. That shouldn't be in there too mark everyone's father you know what i'm talking about a little pulp yeah like

oh i just see i guess 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 don't know about i would have had a good special teams dude for i love you that guy maybe we'll throw in the beach that what you did over there cold gate that your Rudy. Over there at Colgate. That's right, brother. I got my Colgate right over there. There's my Colgate. Hey, coach. Tell him what you were doing.

You weren't no mouth breather. You weren't no orange breather. Hell no, no mouth breather. You was a difference maker. I do have a deviated septum, so it is kind of tough to breathe through the nose. I do find myself sucking with the mouth every once in a while. Lord.

Oh, Lord. Mark, what's your favorite day? What's that song? What's that song you sing when we're at Big Blue Kecca? It's Friday. And I'm going to party and get my groove on, get my groove on. So 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'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. 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 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. And all that matters is Tuesday, Mark. What's that? I think, I thought we used to get, I think it's different for each team. Cause I think we used to get paid on Friday.

That's why that song hit different. 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 Which one did you like? Did you like the fat check or did you like to multiple checks? I liked that. I liked that weekly when that thing like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Each week, just, hey, each week. Right.

I'll never know. 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. Yeah. When you, when they are, and, and, and that's not a reference to people that they have nothing to fall back on because I've coached T-Bone and Bosa's have plenty to fall back on. And then other great players have, you know, uh, but you get that cat that this is it and it's also heartbreaking when they get caught or when they're not as good as they'd hoped they'd be and they try for it as coach, because you want that.

You're, you start cheering for that player, you know, man, get them in position and make, have some success. player. You know, man, get them in position and have some success. So that's the ultimate, to me, ultimate form of inspiration, motivation, survival. Matt, we'd all love a locker room full of those cats, right? Those are the dudes you want on your team. It's time now to get strapped in, presented by NHTSA. 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 On3, 3,973 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. So 55% stayed in FBS, whether that was a higher or lower team. 110 withdrew, which left 1,000 500 1,000 659 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 gonna be more money and more fame and a bigger program and more playing time. But the reality is 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 that 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. 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'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, uh, 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 that like all walks of life, you have an agent and we just talked about survival medical, there's agents out there. They're just trying to break in. I'm going to go tell Mark Eaglemull, 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 the Will Howard's 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, you have to.

That's the thing, coach. Yeah, every player's got a different story, right? Like some maybe want to go home to an Akron, right? Or a Toledo. Some want to go somewhere else to find their playing time. So 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 I appreciate them. If they're the right cats, the right guys that are doing it for the right reason, not just doing it because I can go from one 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. Now step back a step back a few years, Mark. As a coach, you could never cut a player back in the day. You couldn't walk, you could never cut a player back in the day. You couldn't walk, you couldn't call the player and it said, you have to leave here and your scholarships gone. Now you could say you're not going to play. We'll keep your scholarship, but they're one of the 85.

Um, I've talked to many of my former colleagues and, 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, um, hit the portal. They, you know, they're like, this is the greatest. Yeah, they were cheering. Cause they're gone. Once a player says I'm going to the Porter, they are null and void. You have a spot available now.

So, but 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 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 with 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 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? I see like Nico's the most famous of the stories out there where I always tell people this is going to 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, let's go back here and review 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 gotta 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? But coach, you could 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, gets a Lamborghini. He goes there. Doesn't have the, doesn't have the season that you think that you're going to have. Then you go to the draft and you to go undrafted from a guy who was a number one receiver. Yeah. Like you were a number one 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, uh, it's going to be continued to be examples of this. And, uh, it's all about the people that they're getting advice from, you know, you got to go to. What are we going to do, Coach? What are we going to do? Here's the dudes, Mark, that I like in college football now are the guys 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. 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 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 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 road. 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? Tell me 5151 out 51 in our option conversation with rich rod. 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. Stir it up. Light it. To support sustainable food production, BHP is building one of the world's largest hot ash mines in Canada, essential resources responsibly produced. It's happening now at BHP, a future resources company. 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 Rodman, 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 2000s, 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? 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, I was, we absolutely loved our time at Jack State. You know, we had transitioned up from one AA to one 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 our facility and so all the pieces are in place for us to have a chance to win it all and ultimately that's it.

And this is my last stop. You know, I 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 in the traps 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

the team that 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've got a great staff put together and we're constructing our roster every day. So we'll get after it and see what happens. Hey, let's go.

I'm not Mark and the Rob don't even know this, but Rich Rod and I go back to the eighties and, uh, 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 in Notre Dame and, and Dan Mullin and I, uh, we take the job at Bowling Green after studying a lot of Rich Rod and, and Rich coach Rodriguez doesn't get enough credit as I don't believe we do, but there was really no template for what you were doing. When we started the spread offense at Bowling Green, Rob and Mark, that

it's not like, let's go study these other teams. They're, it did not exist. And so I try to tell people and the whole idea about reading the defenders and all of that and the tempo that Rich Rod uses. So are you still, I can't wait to see, I didn't see you 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?

Yeah, there's, there's, there's a lot of new elements to it, but the core of it Urban, we've been the same that you, that you came with, with Dan, you know, 30 years ago and every game for now, most came with, with Dan, you know, 30 years ago and every game for now, most guys come for a day, you know, urban stay for like a week. That's cause I was feeding him, you know, I was feeding him. And also he was, Hey, I couldn't get him out of there. And the worst part about it, he goes back and takes our stuff and it does it better than we were doing.

I'm like, hell, we, we got to turn around and stay over now because he took our shit and made it better. So every, every thing about that every year we went to each other's school for 10 years. 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, and the, uh, 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 tire in 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 is 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, Matt, at the Jack state last year, we had a guy, Tyler Huff was probably a four, seven 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 cut, the genesis behind that is that, you know, teams aren't used to doing it.

I 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. Coach, what's your favorite TikTok dance? You know, if that, if the guys could dance like you, I'd probably will allow it.

Actually, I had a couple of players that coach, this is embarrassing. They're dancing in our own locker room. They think it's, you know, I think it's cool. Yeah. I'm with you on it, coach. I'm with you on it. Uh,

this is about putting on the dance apart. Like people say, why are you room, you know, living in their opportunity to make money, I'm like, make money. I think somebody's going to pay their ass to see them dancing in tights on Tik TOK. I want them to make money, be good at football. I'm really good at football. 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 for your really good at TikTok, but I'll pay you if you really get a football. I love it, coach. I'm right behind you, man. I'm sorry. Don't you know? Oh no, coach, don't go there. They be doing all types of little dances on social media.

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? I know what you mean, coach. I'm with you. Hey, you write when you write and you write about this one. I'm right behind you on this TikTok stuff. Yeah.

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. 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 played allows at Arizona, you know, like half the pack 12 is now there. And then we played BYU a couple of times as well. So I know a lot of those teams are the 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 of 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. You know, we did a big new in Penn State, visited West Virginia last year. I coached at West Virginia when Don, 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? 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, I'm pretty critical anyway, uh, 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 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 of guys that aren't here yet. So it's, it's, there's still too many unknowns 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 got it 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 it or 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, uh, clips there. So I think that's, uh, we can get there quicker than maybe in the old days where you're taking a couple of two or three years, but now is it all going to happen this first year? That that'll be the hardest challenge. Hey coach, man. Uh, I feel like we have a small connection because I remember from Michigan. I remember you took the job in Oh eight 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 said Fred Jackson to the school and kind of had an offer for me and I always appreciated it. If you still play this round, damnit, I'm telling you. Well, you started to recruit me a week before signing day. I might still be the coach there if you had said yes. We go, I appreciate you though. Cause you believed in me even when Michigan did in autumn years, but no.

But I do remember watching your film and it was like, what's the problem? Or 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. Sometimes you got to watch a guy's film and it takes you 10, 15 minutes. And sometimes you watch it and it takes 10 seconds. You know, you have like 10 seconds. What are we waiting on? But anyway. Yeah, I appreciate that. But no, after coaching at Jacksonville State, Coach, like what are,

you know, it's a new day in the age of NIL, Transfer Portal, 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 and Transfer Portal? And like, is it sustainable? Yeah, like last year, Jack State, you know, we had a pretty good second year, first year being eligible for bowl game and 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 up, went to a power four teams just got bought. And we knew it was coming. And so we had 16 new players last year's team. And so when we started off, oh, and three, everybody was kind of panicking. I'm like, 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 the road 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 of years ago. He said, if you sound a really good player at a high school, you know, and 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 not the coach 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 formula here, I tell our coaches, I said, I don't have like so many high schools, so many portals from a 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, coached, doing their job.

I say players. I never knew what a players coach was. I mean, shit coaches, coach players, coached doing their job. I say players, I never knew what a players coach was. I mean, shit coaches, coach players, players, 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. I said, that's the way we're going to do things here.

And good players want to have it that way. Has anything changed in your culture format from your first stop at West Virginia to where you are right now in Morgantown? 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 get the right answer, they'll say, well, I ain't what it says on Google right here. The damn guys are smarter than us. They're walking around with a computer.

So we better know why you better know why this is the why. And so I'll tell them, so this is the why 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 our our coaches if there's one play in practice or gain 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 and when you see it really 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 We're all remember about it. Like I say it and I see it I say it then it's over with you

Yeah, you have to address it every time, every time, not all most of the time, but every time. 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? You know, it's a fair question. I don't know if it's been a whole lot of surprises. I think, you know, everybody, you know, well, they'll assume why he got hired because of 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 wanted Jack state.

And if we had lost the Jack state, nobody was going to call me what we want in a, in a tougher situation at Jack state. So that allowed us to take this move and everybody, it doesn't bother me. People want to bring, you know, the excitement of the two thousands back. And we had the Pat whites and Steve Sladen, Noel Devon, all those guys, they gave a 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 programs. And that's what's gotta be the staple going forward. Yeah. Tell them, tell them what we got for them. 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 one at us. Usually it goes to the two other guys, which is totally fine as the way it should go to be honest with you. So you have free rein to fire off a question at the three of us right now. I appreciate that. This is what people say. Why are they? 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 to the same coach. It was a year ago. I better be better 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 the last time I was in West Virginia. But anyway, so that's my question. And you guys may not want to do, you've seen out 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? They, they bought, what's the common factor to those teams that are been better than everybody else in the last two years? 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, 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 that 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 did 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. Yeah. That's a good point.

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 police 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 Big Noon college football with my guys right here. But those two years with Michigan and Ohio State, you had grown dudes, like you said, coach,

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 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, what the message is from not only the coaches, but they policed it and enforced the message within the locker room themselves. Probably had a culture where guys love football, not like it. Yes. 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 you 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, uh, the, the fame, the attention, the money, whatever, but they don't really love football.

Right. And hopefully you get the, I guess you guys are probably seeing the, you get the really talented teams that love football, just love getting after your ass. You probably got what you need. Yes, sir. Good to say, brother. We appreciate your time. I want to throw one date at you. September 13th this year. Yeah, he's three. Yeah. Yeah, he should pit pits. I say I say too many four letter words. There's none that's worse than P I T T. Eat shit pit. This is why I love college football. This is why I

love having rich ride back and in our domain and in the big 12 and coach you've been an absolute pleasure to cover and watch from afar through the years. You've been just one of my favorites. 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. Urban, I'm expecting to see you, brother. I'm the one that had the Mountaineer in the musket. Welcome as well. Everybody's welcome. Hey man, we three let's get big noon to Morgantown. We need to have you here. All right. You're in charge of the dinner reservations. Coach Rodriguez. Welcome back to Morgantown. And thanks for

joining us this week on Triple Option. Appreciate you guys. Thanks for joining us this week on Triple Option. Appreciate you guys. Light it. When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard. When the barbecue's lit, but there's nothing to grill. When the in-laws decide that, actually, they will stay for dinner.

Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer. So download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes. Plus enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees exclusions and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. 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, 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 Tarts Strawberry yet? I'm taking the kids there. Pop Tarts Strawberry. We're going to bang out some Pop Tarts Strawberry. Pop Tarts Cinnamon. Now that's the call. You're welcome.

You're welcome, Wendy's. All right. 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? It was like, yeah, it was two weekends ago, perhaps. Two weekends ago, Birmingham?

Yeah, but yeah, in Birmingham, Alabama sports. Did they erect a statue of you out there? They have a nice portrait. Hold on, hold on, hold on, let me show y'all. Hold on, let me show y'all. Yeah, nice portrait. Hold on, let me get my stuff. Let's see this portrait.

Do, do, do, do, do, do, do. Ba, da, da, da, da. Here we are. Ba, da, da, da, da. Let's see it. Hey friends, y'all ready? I'm ready. You got a medal.

Got my medal. Put that bad boy on. There you go. I'm gonna leave it on for the segment. Got my medal and I got that. Bah! Oh, that's great. Oh yeah. The big old head on that cat, look at that. Bye. Oh, yeah.

The big old head on that cat. It's a big head. There's some traps there. Where'd those traps go? Mark Ingram, no neck Ingram. Hey man, it's just the traps up there, man. So hide the neck. You know, I got a neck.

I can 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 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 Lewis, the heavyweight champ of the world. Let's go. Paul Bear Bryant, John William Heisman. Who the Heisman trophy? That trophy is named after.

And obviously you got Bear Bryant, you got Jesse Owens, got Hank Aaron, Joe Namath, Bobby Bowden, Pat Sullivan, Ozzie Newsome, Bo Jackson, Carl Lewis, Charles Barkley, Mia Hamm. How did Mia? Oh, that's right. I think Mia might've been born in Alabama. Yes.

Mia Hamm. Yeah. Sean Alexander, Nick Saban, Evander Holyfield, another heavyweight champ, T.O., Dabo Sweeney, Jorge Posada coach, Ben Wallace, DeMarcus Marcus where Philip Rivers Justin Tech Roman Harper, righty white So are you reading every name? Are you reading every note that's in that hole? No, no, no, no, no, that's just some note That is loaded That's a talk about how we hold a fame man. Shout out to the Alabama Hall of Fame I appreciate y'all nominating me. I appreciate y'all inducted me and it's much love man

Roll tide Alabama's a special place a great place to me always home Y'all nominate me. I appreciate y'all inducted me and it's much love man. Roll Tide Alabama's a special place a great place to me always home So how many Hall of Fame's are you in right now only uh to the the greater Flint only to Hall of Fame Deuce Deuce is only to Hall of Fame's Yeah, the great I just I just stopped what three years ago. This is my third. I know I know so great I just I just stopped what three years ago. This is my third. I know I know So great great Alabama Sports Hall of Fame Yeah, not the University of Alabama just the Alabama. Yeah, yeah, not the University yet. So the universe used to come

universities to come College football so you're in to to to come college footballs to come New Orleans Saints to come. Pretty good stuff. Yeah, 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 Myron, coach Saban. They want to hate on your boy. Because they didn't want to your party window. 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 the deal is. So let's go. They know who to put in the hall.

Damn straight. All right. Can we take out the crystal ball? You can click that and say that to them if you want to. 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 BetMGM. 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 that MGM currently has the over under on regular season wins set at 10 and a half. Okay. Plus one 30 for the over minus one 55 for under. 10 and a half regular season wins. Remember, 11 and one of the regular season last year that only lost the home one to Northern Illinois.

They were able to kind of pick themselves up off of that early loss and continue to kind of run the table up until Ohio State. They did have ranked wins over Texas A&M, over Louisville Army and Navy. Then they went three and one in the college football playoff. Here comes the schedule, Mark.

And you had a quick little look at it. And there's some potholes out there. And it starts week one in Miami, man. You got that crystal ball star? That thing looking a little cloudy today. A little cloudy. You're not. They look a little cloudy for Notre Dame.

And they have 10 and a half wins. Well, how about this? Do they get a week one win at Miami? And again, remember, these are the things that always give me pause, coach. When you got a new QB, it's hard for me to like buy in at this juncture of the season. It's a freshman. I want to see what you're going to be like. Right. And remember, he's been poaching all these cats

in the ACC. And finally, you know, Marcus Freeman kind of has his own in-house QB, if you will. Redshirt freshman CJ 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 31. Do we want to rip through the schedule here guys against a experienced Carson Beck who

wants to prove himself from last year? I'm going to go with the experience in a week one battle. I'm going to 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. The other thing you look at that Miami now, uh, 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 at Miami August 31st. And when I coached Notre Dame for a long time, that, that was hor, 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 and getting ready to play that game. Oh, that August 31st in Miami, that's going to hurt you. That's going to hurt you.

Ha ha ha. All right, so that's one loss. We're agreeing on one loss. That means the only guy who's winning one more. Correct. And guess who they have week two? Home Texas A&M. Mmm.

Mmm. You want to put that one on the backburner? I'll put it on the back. I'll put it on the back. We can put these on the back. That's your point five. That's your point five. Right. There's your point five. 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 Arkansas's always shy Steve man at Arkansas who picks silly is out they say who picks. Yeah, they They've always got something up there There's I see two losses on this thing somewhere just in the first four in the first In the first four games games they could be one

in three yes i don't have them very easily i'm sorry i'm sorry for the fight in brady quince i don't have i don't have you guys over 10 and a half wins brady likes the hate though brady says bring it on brady brady doesn't run i love notary dame i like marcus freeman i like the irish i like the the four leaf clover i like like Rudy. I like the gold helmets. But I don't see it. I don't see it. I gotta go under in the crystal ball. I gotta go under.

It's a really top heavy schedule as far as front loaded after Arkansas home to Boise. We know what Boise is. Right. 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. I have one. Put it over here. So we've already got at bc three question at BC I'll give it that one. No history between those two programs is messy same with the next game Maybe home to Navy messy Navy complicates things at Pitt

We know what Rich Rod thinks about pit home to Syracuse We think Syracuse is gonna be better and then they close at Stanford. I think that over under a 10 and a half is, is a stretch. 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 Miami. The sideline, A&M, there's only three teams to recruit that level player, USC, A&M and Miami. Yeah. And USC still a year away from being that level. In my opinion, A&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. 10 and a half. So if you say 10 under. I know that's why I said that's what I'm under. Yes. I got 10 wins for Notre Dame, not 11.

I got 10. I have nine. Nine. I got nine. Nine. Basically we all taking the under. Yeah. I think that's the safe bet.

Right now. Right now. 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. I mean, we are in May, so. Can ball right off the bat. I'll renege my statement immediately. It were in May, slow your roll, man.

So 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, that just happened recently, uh League Baseball announcing that the lifetime ban for Pete Rose and 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. 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, you know, I was a kid when he played and everybody emulated Pete Rose. That was the era when you ran to first base after a walk. That was when you went diving in the second base when you hit a double, you know, that was this effort. You talk about energy, he gave energy. He didn't take energy as we talked about.

He was not a mouth breather. I'm so pissed off about this that, you know, there's people have done some horrific things that are in the Hall of Fame and all that. And I mean, Pete Rose, it was bad. I mean, but he bet on his team to win games. And that's dead wrong. But he should be in the Hall of Fame when he could, you know, hug his family and celebrate the, so it's a cowardly, uh, you know, I, that bothers me because this is very personal with me.

I grew up in Ohio and the big red machine and 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. 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 know he's going to be in the Hall of Fame,

I'm sure, immediately. Damn. And then when I saw that news, I'm like, the guy died a month, whatever it was ago. I don't know. I don't know. I don't like it. I like the fact he's going home.

Yeah. Just don't like how it was handled. Agree? Yeah. No. And the timing. Yeah. Mark, he changed the world. I mean, you obviously weren't around in the 70s, but he changed the world. Any athlete knows the story of Pete Rose? Oh, man.

Any athlete knows the story of Pete Rose? The front of the jersey was always dirty, right? There was always the dirt on the front and the upper thighs. He was diving and hustling. Quick story with our family, we all played sports and that was, my father had the same rules. You know, don't have to be the best but you certainly outwork and 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. Our rule was just you sprint on and off the field, you sprint everywhere. And he was really struggling, playing ninth, he ended up being a great player in high school.

Batting 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, uh, so we got home and he had to run laps around the house for an hour. Uh, because the one thing you can't do is a Meyers not hustle. That's the, Hey coach, I'm in youth sports right now with my kids and I don't care. 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 seven, you baseball. Hey, I was at the Orioles Orioles Pittsburgh spring training game here in Sarasota and I see major leagueball 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 Shelley and I said, I gotta go. I can't, I don't want to watch this.

I don't want to watch that kind of effort attitude in your major league baseball player pal. Sprint your ass to first base. Hustle on and off the field. Dude, just get me some. My son, we watched the big leagues, we watched major leagues and he'd be like, dad, why isn't he running to first base?

I'm like, cause he thinks he's gonna get thrown at her first. But he's like, he could have probably made it. And Mark, by the way, when they're thrown out at first base, it's like by this much, right? It's like, bang, bang. And like, Hey, you know what? Just another little extra charge, a little, little faster out of the gate. Guess what? You're probably saying you have four to five at bats and major league baseball. You can't hustle. You get, right. If you get four exhausting. Yeah. If you get it. Well, here's what I'll say. That turnout in Cooperstown, when Pete Rose goes in, it's going to be epic. I got an idea. It is going to be red and it is

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