The Triple Option - Fernando Mendoza Joins, Playoff Bracket Reaction, James Franklin to Va. Tech & Top 3 Comebacks!

Episode Date: November 19, 2025

Heis-Men-Do-Za (clap… clap… clap-clap-clap)! Urban Meyer, Mark Ingram II, and Rob Stone are joined by one of this year’s leading Heisman Trophy candidates, Indiana quarterback, Fernando Mendoza.  Coach picks Fernando’s brain on his epic game winning touchdown drive to beat Penn State while Fernando picks Coach’s brain on what type of qualities he always wanted to see in his QB.  The 22-year-old Junior also tells us what it’s like being in the same quarterback room as his younger brother and explains how he keeps his mind focused on the task at hand despite all the Heisman hype circulating around him. Coach, Mark and Rob also share their reactions to this week’s playoff rankings and weigh in on Virginia Tech’s decision to name James Franklin as their next Head Coach. Plus, Mark tabs an RBeast from the SEC as his Dawg of the Week, Joey McGuire sounds off on getting his star linebacker, Jacob Rodriguez, to New York on December 13th and the guys rank their 3 favorite college football comebacks of all time. 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. Join Team Tendy’s and enjoy a line-up like never before. Crispy. Juicy. Tendy’s Now at Wendy’s. ⁠https://www.tendys.com⁠ Thank you to our additional sponsors Google – No matter what question comes next, you can just ask Google. ⁠https://www.google.com/gasearch?udm=50&aep=46&source=25q4-US-JAG-YouTube-NCAAPo⁠ FanDuel – Visit ⁠https://Fanduel.com/TripleOption⁠ to download the app and take advantage of a 50% Profit Boost today! USAA – Learn more at ⁠https://www.USAA.com⁠ #CollegeFootball #Indiana #FernandoMendoza #Heisman #JamesFranklin #VirginiaTech #AhmadHardy #Missouri #JoeyMcGuire #JacobRodriguez #TexasTech #Playoff 00:00 Intro 1:15 Any Given Saturday – CFP Rankings 10:23 James Franklin to Va. Tech 20:03 Deuce Deuce Dawg of the Week 21:34 Sound Off – Joey McGuire 25:26 Fernando Mendoza interview 57:30 3 & Out – Top 3 Comebacks 1:05:00 2 Minute Drill Brought to you by Fan Duel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You want to talk about Iron Bowl comebacks? I'm going to go to the Grave Digger. Jalen Milro to my Isaiah Bond in the corner. You want to ironbow me? I iron bowl you. Light it. The Triple Option is presented by Wendy's. Join Team Tendies and enjoy a lineup like never before.

Crispy, juicy, Tendies, now at Wendy's. Good evening and welcome to. the triple option coming your way live following the release of the season's third college football playoff rankings. Rob Stone, Deuce, Deuce, Mark Ingram, the coach, Urban Meyer here with you. As always, thanks for joining us. Remember to rate, subscribe at Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast. You can find us on social media, 3X option show. New episodes come every Wednesday on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast. So a new one is coming tomorrow morning, a great interview with Heisman candidate Fernando Mendoza from Elite. Elite interview.

Elite interview, elite human being. Mark, maybe best. Hey, it's top two and it ain't two. We're going to be reacting live Tuesday nights after the rankings drop. Don't forget, leave questions, leave comments, and we can answer them. So it's fired up on any given Saturday. So last week, we saw minimal movement in the playoff rankings. Definitely not the case this week.

Remember, seven ranked teams, including two in the top 10, Bama and Texas fell. Ole Miss, Texas A&M, barely escaped with victories. And for the second week in a row, the top group of six teams fell. That was the University of South Florida. Quick reminder before we unveil everything. Twelve teams make the playoffs, the five highest ranked conference champions, regardless of the conference, get that automatic bid. The top four seeds, regardless if they're a conference champion or not,

we'll get a first round by. So let's take a look at the rankings on the screen right now. We'll get our immediate reaction, and we show you the top 12. BYU and Utah are the first and second teams out once we show you the bracket. You see Alabama now. They took a slide down six spots mark to number 10. Notre Dame again at number nine. They're at eight and two.

Feels like they might be at their ceiling. Oklahoma rises three. Oregon up one. They're nine and one. We're going to talk about the ducks. They have a huge test with USC that rose this week to number 15. Ole Miss sitting there at number six. Texas Tech now inside the top five.

Georgia, they move up a spot because of Alabama's loss. And one, two, and three, Ohio State, Indiana, Texas A&M remains the same. Mark, I'll start with you and we'll start with Alabama slide down to number 10. How are you feeling about that position right now? I mean, they deserve that. You go in and have three turnovers, you know, bot, snatches, hold and kick, yeah, when you lose a game like that and is very self-inflicted against a good Oklahoma defense who, you know, obviously forced the turnovers, obviously you're going to slide and you're

going to be behind the team you lost to. So two losses, it's fair for them to be in there. They're lucky they're not lower. They can still control their own destiny as far as the playoff goes because you dropped it at 1112 spot, now you're in trouble because obviously the group of six gets promoted. Big 12 champs going to be in there. So that 10 spot, ultimately lets them control their own destiny still with this ranking that they gave them. So they deserve it, but they still got everything to play for ahead of them. Still in position to get themselves back to the playoffs. Coach, what jumped out to you this week?

I just, every time I look at this, I just wish I was a coached in this era. You know, I look at some of the great teams I had that lost a game and they're out. And I'm looking, these teams are all still alive. I mean, there's got to be paths taken and all that. But great players are still playing. fan bases are still engaged. I am all into the CFP era. I mean, USC is still in this thing.

Absolutely. Very much so. I'm going to tell you this, Mark, I think if they beat Oregon, they're in there. They'll be in the top. They're in, and I think Oregon might be out. Yeah. Because you look at their, they have no wins. Yeah. And this committee, here's what I'm going to say to is I think,

I think we need to keep looking at reform. And I think CFP and the committee's doing great. This is not a shot. I loved when the Big Ten. and Tony Petiti came up with that 4-4-2-2-1 where basically all the committee did was CED. Yeah. You know, the Big Ten got a certain amount of teams, and they were playing games. You know, the SEC, the Big 12, you wish it would somehow equate it.

But I just don't know how a committee, I'm looking at this. And, you know, I'm going to make a point on Big Noon that if I'm BYU, I'm probably going to lose, you know, they got to beat Cincinnati. But if I'm then a head coach in my mind, I know. only got to win, I got to win big. Yeah. You know, because the style points, there's people sitting in that room watching these scores that really can't watch the game because they really don't know what they're watching. I'm not being disrespectful, but they're going to look at a score and say, okay, not only win, but win with style points. That's why I'm just, I'm hoping someday there's the play-in by conferences

and it's very simple. You play yourself into it. You're not relying on people making decisions on who's in, who's out. Decisions are made on the field. The Big 12 is sitting there with three teams in the top 12. You know, BYU, they win. They get a rematch with Texas Tech. If they beat Texas Tech, both teams go. Like, in the Utah sitting there at 12, you know, the group of six isn't in this bracket.

So one team is sliding out. Well, these are just the rankings. Let's show you the bracket right now. The group of six team is Tulane sitting there at the top left. they are your 12 seat, and they are taking on, speaking of the Big 12, as of now, Texas Tech, your number five seat. But, Marga, it's a great point because there's Texas Tech all the way up there at five, and BYU has great value.

Imagine if BYU wins round two, the head-to-head in the conference championship, which would mean BYU is going. Yeah, they're both in. And now Texas Tech is going to get in as well. My question, and even if things fall down, Utah can sneak in. Keep that thought. First of all, BYU, I don't know if they can, we've seen. I think Texas Tech is one of the top teams of the country.

They got straight hammered by Texas. They're real, real. I'm saying there's a BYU loss in the Big 12 championship game, do they get in? With a quality win, their only quality win is Utah, which is a quality win. Yeah. But then you say if they lose two times to tech, does Utah jump them with one loss? Utah might jump them, might, but I don't know if it's going to be enough. The ACC is intriguing.

Again, Miami right now, holding on to that number. 11 spot in the bracket because they are the highest seated ACC team but remember the ACC champ is going to go so they might get it's a big stretch for Miami to even get to the ACC championship game so now you're saying can Miami

keep moving up and somehow hold onto a spot regardless if the ACC champion is not them and now we're talking do two ACC teams get in that's a big one again Miami beat Notre Dame head to head that Notre Dame head to head game is going to be

massive Notre Dame sitting there at the number nine spot in the bracket. And with what they have left on their schedule, they're at their current ceiling. I don't know how they get any higher unless there's just full on chaos ahead of them. But they're not going to earn their ticket higher. It's going to have to be somebody falling out. But that's a good point, though. Like Miami beat Notre Dame and they're sitting there behind them in the rankings, you know? I think it's just the timing of the losses, you know what I mean? But everyone else prior to this week, the head-to-head were ahead of their people that they beat. Alabama was ahead of Georgia.

Georgia was ahead of Ole Miss. And Notre Dame was sitting there ahead of Miami, even though Miami won the head-to-head. So still interesting, man. A lot of movement, man, that's going to be taking place here. Look how big that Alabama loss is, though. You go from having a first round buy to having a go to Eugene, Oregon, the Austin.

Like, every game matters. Every game counts. That's a big swing. I want to hit a topic here, Coach. I'm going to tee it up here. I know you want to talk about it. I'm looking at the top 25 teams. The SEC has nine in the top 25, five in the top 10, five in the bracket.

So as of now, five SEC teams are going. Earlier in the season, we were saying how strong, how mighty the Big Ten was. This week, there are six Big Ten programs inside the top 25, three in the top seven, three in the bracket. It definitely is starting to feel like the SEC is separating itself from the Big Ten. It is. They're back. Obviously, they got to go win the national title. But as far as strength and depth of conference, you know,

it would hard to say even the last two years with the Ohio State and the Wolverines won in the national championship that top to bottom, certainly the top was won by the Big Ten. And I watch a lot of it. I watch it on TV, but I also flip it on my computer. It's different, Mark. The SEC's back is the top conference in college football. I look at Alabama schedule, and I know I listen to you every week, talk about them.

It's every week, man. every week. I mean, it's every week. And there's somehow, how do you, how do you quantitatively as a committee member say what? And you're seeing teams that have played no one. Right. I shouldn't say no one, but relatively speaking to the SEC schedule.

Coach, Ohio State, what do they have? You're talking to Texas. That's it. Coach, we were just talking earlier. You're talking about Ohio State having a load management. Like, imagine. You think, Coach DeBore, let's get them on podcast and ask about load managers. He's going to say, what the F are you talking about?

Load what? I'm trying to win a game. Yeah, same with Ole Miss. Yeah. You know, let's talk to Lane Kiffin about load management. Hey, by the way, Ohio State, India, Indiana, right? Sitting there on that collision course to the Big Ten championship game and a couple Saturdays in Indianapolis, one versus two. And again, they are in load management mode.

Indiana's on a buy week. Again, we're going to talk to Fernando Mendoza on the triple option tomorrow, Ohio State. They have Rutgers at home, and then, of course, the game at. in Michigan the following Saturday. One program, not listed here in the top 25, but a program that used to be in national title contention, Virginia Tech. The Hokies today making a big move. They filled their vacancy at head coach

as they pulled former Penn State coach James Franklin down to Blacksburg. This news, Mark, had been coming. We had heard about it on Saturday, and they finally closed the deal here on Tuesday. You think this is a good move for both parties? Well, yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead.

I'm sorry, Mark. No, no, you go ahead, coach. You're the coach. Yeah, I don't think it's a good one. It's a great one. Great one. I'm a James Franklin fan. I coached against him.

You know, it's all well documented about the top of the food chain. He just couldn't quite get there, but you know, a lot of people did. He's still a quality coach that won a high percentage of his games at a tough spot. I think it's a great. You know, I wrote this down here, Mark, and I'll let you kind of run with it. But I have Dan Lanning, Ryan Day, Kirby Smart. Lincoln Rally, Sharon Moore, Venerables, Freeman, these are all the hot shot coordinators that got jobs. Back when I was a young coach, Mark, you had to go to the Mac. You had to go to the smaller

conferences and work your way up because it was very rare. I think Bob Stoops was one of the first ones to ever go from a coordinator to a blue blood. It just didn't happen. And then you have the old, you know, you got Lane Kiff and Sark, you know, James Franklin, DeBore, Signetti, Elko. I just was writing down These are guys that have worked their way up. You know, they're established coaches. So, and I, you know, I have friends that are assistant ADs and, you know, behind the scenes talking to them a little bit. That's a hell of a decision right now. You know, the hot shot coordinators at Oregon, two excellent coordinators.

How about the hot shot coordinators at Indiana? What about Brian Hartline? You know, those guys normally would do what? They would go take a bowling green job, a Toledo job, a Memphis, a Houston like Tom Herman did when he left Ohio State. And then Texas would go get them. Because of salaries, Mark, you're not going to the Mac anymore. Right. You're staying.

You're going to go from $2 million to $500,000. You can't do that to your family. With no stability. So now an AD has to pull the string on a guy that he really doesn't know. And it's a, this is a, it's a complex world out there right now because of, do you go with established guy that maybe, you know, the fan base is like, why? You know, there's a Mani Diaz who's a hell of a coach. but he failed at Miami.

Do you take an Al Golden? He failed at Miami. Do you take it? Or do you go get a young guy that, like, when they did, you know, Coach Day, when they did that, uh, uh, short, not show him, or Lincoln Riley, Kirby Smart, Lanning, and then, of course, Marcus Freeman. That worked out great. Do you take a young gun that without the experience or do you go with the person that sat

in a chair before? Well, yeah, I mean, I think this is a great job for Virginia Tech. Shout out to, you know, Coach James Franklin. We knew he would land on his feet quick, especially with all these job openings. But Virginia Tech is a place, has known to have a tradition, known to have a history. I mean, when I was growing up, Virginia Tech was like one of the premier places in college football. And so for them to get a guy who has been nothing but a winner, a guy who is a culture changer, a program changer, just kind of, you know, ran out of juice in Penn State.

You know what I mean? It was kind of like a partner that they had to have. in. But at the end of the day, man, he's still a winner and a great coach and a great human being. I think he's a great asset for that program down there, Blacksburg, a program who's trying to get back to supremacy, non-college football, but also the ACC. And guess what? Now they know what they're doing. Now they know what their path is. And now they can start recruiting. And now they can start pulling in players. And again, there's all these programs out there who don't have a head coach right now. And a lot of those dudes are ready to hit the portal and

go. And you can start poaching and start building your team right now. And again, there's all these vacancies out there guys right now. Who are they going to hire, Stone? That's my point. Who are they going to hire? And I'm not saying there's not qualified people out there, but some of these programs, I mean, the LSUs, the Florida's, the Penn States. These are, these are like career goals. Yes. To get there. Right. Like, this is open in my lifetime. That is amazing. And if the candidate is not there, and we have seen so much change in college football the last couple years, it would not surprise me in the least if one of these programs. And I'm not saying it's going to be an LSU or Ford or some of these others.

But if somebody out there just says, you know what, we don't have the guy or gal in line that we want right now. And we're going to kick that can down for another year and we're going to sit and we're going to have somebody be an interim again. Because who knows? Who knows? But do you think, do you think, I know, coach, do you think Virginia Tech thought a James Franklin would be available this year? No chance. They thought they'd be watching him in December and January fight for a national. title. So maybe a program out there is going to be like, you know what? Wide receiver

coach, D-coordinator, why don't you handle this for another year? Maybe you, maybe you earn it. Maybe you get your stripes. And we sit and wait for something maybe that's better to fall into our lap. It's going to be interesting, man. It's going to be some more fire coaches getting hired, too, a little shuffling of the, you know what I mean? Chess pieces. Yeah, this was just a minor chip. I don't mean that to, I don't mean that to. This only November 18 stone. We got a lot. It's about to get crazy, dog. Coming up next on the triple option, Mark picks his doose-duce dog of the week,

and we sound off on the Heisman race. Get you and your crew to the big shows with GoTransit. Go connects to all the main concert venues, like TD Coliseum in Hamilton and Scotia Bank Arena in Toronto, and Go makes it affordable with special e-ticket fairs. A one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel, across the network on any weekend day or holiday for just $10. And a weekday group pass offers the same weekday travel flexibility

from $30 for two people and up to $60 for $5. Buy yours at go-transit.com slash tickets. Ford was built on the belief that the world doesn't get to decide what you're capable of. You do. So ask yourself, can you or can't you? Can you load up a Ford F-150 and build your dream with sweat and steel? Can you chase thrills and conquer curves in a Mustang? Can you take a Bronco to where the map ends and adventure begins?

Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right. Ready, set, Ford. Welcome back to the Triple Option. Rob Mark Urban here with you. Time now for the Doose Doose Dog of the Week. One week, Mark, we're going to get Coach to do the Dog of the Week sound effect. one week. He got his headphones off.

He doesn't even want to listen to the dog. No, I know. He got his headphones. You and I are the ones who enjoyed the dog sound things. All right, who's your dog in the week? That hurts your ears coach or something? I can't take it. What you're going to want to hear this?

Because my dog of the week is an R beast. Amad Hardy. One of my favorite running backs on his whole college football season. He's been toad in Iraq. He went 25 carries, 300 yards, and three tons. touchdowns. You know what that is? 12 yards of Carabee's stoner. He had a 72-yard touchdown run, a 43-yard touchdown run, a 10-yard touchdown run.

He can give it to you how you want it. You want him to run inside and break tackles, one of the best tackle breaker in the nation. Oh, you want him to hit a home run? 72 yards to the crib. Oh, you want him to be physical? You want him to be elusive? Yeah, he really is like that. You know I'm the RB guru, and I'm giving him his documents because he is a certified R-Bist.

and a dog of the week of my hearty. Get those documents notarized. There you go, Coach, that's what you got to match next week. All right, that was your fresh take of the week presented by Wendy's joint team tendies and enjoy a lineup like never before. Crispy, juicy tendies now at Wendy's. Time now to sound off. It's a great one this week.

Texas Tech, they continue to roll towards the college football playoffs. Their head coach, Joey McGuire, one of our favorites here at the Triple Option, also trying to get one of his defensive players to New York for the Heisman ceremony. Here's Joey McGuire after last weekend's win. It's incredible, you know, and everybody's talking about quarterbacks for Heisman, so we put him at quarterback today. He scored a touchdown. But right before that interception, I said, man, get the ball back.

Let's get the end zone so we can get two out. he got the ball back for me. Listen, coach isn't wrong, right, man? Get your star a little bonus limelight. And I think Joey coach absolutely nailed it last weekend. Yeah, right when I became a head coach, Josh Harris is my quarterback of Bowling Green. And I actually dove into the SID and said, what are we doing? You know, let's start selling this guy.

I had people say, is that the job of a head coach? You're damn right it is. Those players play their ass off for you. they get everything they deserve. I've done to the point where I remember I think it was JT that we're playing the team that I knew we were going to beat bad and I said to the coordinator, I said, throw it every down. You know, and he had like five touchdowns in the first half

and one was on the one yard line. And they were like, I'm listening to Head Set. I hear it run, but I said, no, I told you to throw the ball. Why am I doing that? Because I think it's an obligation of the coach to fight for his players. And so I love that. And would you expect anything less from that guy? No.

Joey, coach, I mean, that guy's tremendous. Smart, dude. He's a former high school coach, which tells you about what kind of how he cares about his player. I love that guy. I love that program. I think they're doing great. Man, I love that.

I love that coach, and I love that baller right there. Jacob Rodriguez. He said, oh, it's a quarterback award. Well, let me line him up at the QB then. Let's get this boy some love. Let's get this boy some attention. And he deserves that attention because they are one of the best teams in the country. And they have one of the best defenses in the country.

It's because they have the best defensive. player in the country. So not only quarterbacks deserve love, running backs deserve love, receivers deserve love, an impact player, the best player in the country.

That's who wins this award right here. Oh, I can't get it. Look, look. That award right there, Coach, best player in the country. That's who wins that award.

Not the best quarterback. There's awards for that. If I was in charge of the Heisman, I'd invite 10 people every year. There's a lot of money, coach. That is. You bring it first class flight. There's a lot of per die of New York.

New York City, boss. I'm just saying, man, I'm part of the Heisman's trust now, you know what I mean? It's a lot of that's a lot of money, coach. I'd send all 10, man. It's too good of, I've been there probably 70. It's a tremendous experience, man. Rodriguez deserves to be in New York in December. I think we all agree with that.

And that little moment, that little flash, created some conversation. Also, let's be honest, it helped bring more eyeballs to Texas Tech and their amazing story. because, yes, there still are some people over there who are overlooking the Red Raiders, and Coach McGuire is doing his best to sell his players and sell his program. And I hope they get themselves into the college football playoffs. I think that would be a good thing for college football.

You know what's a good thing for college football right now? What? Who is it? What do they chant in Bloomington? Heismendoza. Heismendoza. If you've ever, if you've never seen Urban Meyer excited during an interview, that's about to change. Indiana quarterback, Fernando Mendoza. Listen, if you're an NFL head coach

or NFL GM, listen up right now because you're going to listen to Mendoza after this conversation. You're going to go, let's move up the draft board and let's get him. That's coming up next on the triple option presented by Wendy's. And that's facts. Welcome back to the triple option presented by Wendy's, Rob Stone, Mark Ingram, Urban Meyer. We are proud to be joined right now by the quarterback of number two Indiana Heisman candidate Fernando Mendoza. I call him the nicest guy in college football. If you ever listened to his post-game interviews, pre-game interviews, always a smile. Like, I can

sense your mom as watching and saying, that's my boy. He's doing good. He's doing good. Hey, Rob, Rob, Rob, Rob, Rob, Rob. I know, coach. I know. I don't call him that. I know. What do you call him, coach? He's a freaking baller, man. Okay. I don't care about that nice guy stuff. The smiling assassin.

You know what I call him? Because when we went to Indiana, they had the most fire name for my boy, they call him, hi, hi, Mendoza. Yeah, that's a pretty good name. Hi, Mendoza. Yes, sir. Listen, man, you know you hear that name and that chant during the game, right? You can't deny that.

I mean, I'm not going to deny it. The student section is loud. I hear them. First of all, Mr. Stone, Coach Meyer and Mr. Ingram, I appreciate you guys for having me on. Big fan of the show. And it's just a pleasure to be here. I appreciate you. Bernad, I'm going to jump right into it because they have all this stuff about all this.

Like, how do you feel about that? I don't care about how you feel. I care about your performance. I don't know you. well, but I know you well. And I can't tell you the respect that the three of us have for you and your team, your coach, what you've done there. So let's dive right into the nasty, and that is you get sacked in a two-minute drive. It's second down in 27. I'm watching this thing like Hawk. You run 151, if I remember right, no timeouts, and you got to go score a touchdown.

And that's a whole different animal than like what Oregon had. So take a through, I'm going to break this into two segments. The first one is to get down to the seven-yard line. You ran the same play three times, the four vertical play. And I want you to focus on a couple things for the viewers and then listeners. First of all, how often did you practice that? And then what was your mindset? So again, I know I probably can imagine how many times knowing your coach, knowing you, knowing your coordinator. How many times if you practiced that so you're in your mind and then take us to your mindset not to not when you score it i'm going to cover that in a minute but to get to the seven-yard line yeah for sure well first off like you mentioned taking a sack

taking a sack especially in two-minute drives is one of the commandments on what not to do so that put us back and if the analytical guys will say that cut our chances of in half if not even worse and that was totally on me there's a little bit miscommunication at that point i thought that we needed to go ahead of the sticks. However, since we had a 151 left, we were actually ahead of the clock at that instance. So at that point, I should have taken the check down, right? There were a little influence route. I waited a little too long, got sacked. However, I think our offense was able to rally on a lot of good plays, especially four verticals like you talked about. Luckily, they called, they called a couple coverages. They called cover nine, cover two,

and man a man against our three or four vertical plays. Luckily, they did not call cover four because that would have kind of tough. I would have to try to come down on one of my boundary or field comebacks but the first one they called was cover nine and that is a coverage that they had a flat top of five dbs the two middle kind of the two like middle safety that would come down and play the curl flat kind of hook the fenders out of a more elevated stance so they wouldn't be as low so they can protect the pass and protect against four verticals and then they'd play a three high structure behind it and I was able to look off the safety and be able to hit My boundary seam are, I would say our default rules, especially in four verticals,

is when, you know, it's tricky coverage or not we or when you don't know exactly what the coverage is post-snap is to go field seam, boundary seam, boundary comeback, then down to the back, usually because we have the back to the field and against any two-eye coverage, the mic or the middle defender is usually going to relate to speed, which we usually have the field and relate to number three, which we have the field as well. So although I, in that instance, I knew it was cover nine, I was able to, you know take the safety where I wanted to go and in that instance you don't really go anywhere

but second time it was a two what do you call the two high structure two uh yeah they played kind of like their two joker structure where it's it's a little similar and they have this middle safety who is really reading off the quarterback size and really playing off

that speed and so we had speed of the field there we had number three Omar Cooper Jr. who made a fantastic catch and so when I caught when I cut the ball I looked over there and I saw his hips turn his hips and eyes turn. To that point, all I knew,

I needed to just beat that boundary curled offender and beat that boundary safety. And once I saw that safety go over the top to the outside receiver defending the whole shot, I just knew that I needed to put some arc and layer on it over that hook defend, after that kind of like the hook curled defender in order to make that completion.

Because I knew the other guy, the Joker had his hips to the speed. I got to stop you. Do you see coach's face right now? Hold on. Look at your face, Coach Meyer. This is what I'm saying. This is it.

This is as intense and happy she's been in years. Now you got matchup. Now they play one high man and I think they brought backers. Talk to us about that. One high man, they play matchups. Personally, we knew, I mean, Pestay's a great team that have five and four stars across the board. I mean, they are a really talented team. Their field corner Harris was, he's a stud.

He's a stud. And not that another corner isn't, but we knew we liked the matchup on number two better than we like the number four. and my roommate Charlie Becker was one-on-one in the boundary and although he wasn't the star leading receiver guy the entire year that's a specialty. His specialty is jump balls

and so although he's a speed guy he's wearing a lot of speed routes and one downfield he is comfortable catching the ball with this with his hands like that and so I knew that at that point all I needed to do I knew it was so close

especially the red zone and everything gets condensed I knew just for a second just have your eyes on the safety and just put it up there for him and I knew at that point it'd either be a PI that would be great

a catch, which it wasn't fantastic, or an incomplete pass to the sideline. So at that point, hey, we have a lot of time at the clock. At that point, we're way ahead of the clock. It was like 40 or 50 seconds around the 20-yard line, I believe, 20-30-yard line. So at that point, I knew that we were good on time. So with those three scenarios on a first down, I knew that we were good. All right. Now, I know you got three more hours to do this.

Here we go, seven-yard line. This shit's unbelievable, Rob. Seven-yard line, he dials up blitz-zer. zero, three snaps in row. I think you went empty, then a tight-end nub, and you hit the, was it Omar Cooper? Who made the catch? Omar Cooper. Cooper.

Cooper, right? For Cooper, yeah. Omar Cooper. So take us through the empty. They brought blitz zero. They hit you. The second one, they hit you again, and almost a pick. Yeah.

And then the third one, Coop ran the same route. It was right to the goal post. So take us through those three Blitz Zero plays mindset, go. For sure. And, but I first want to give us, you know, kind of a, like a shout-up. Just my praise to the defensive coordinator, coach Jim Knowles. I mean, he really threw the kitchen sink at us. And he did.

And he had really good plan. And it was this close. Like you said, it was this close to being a pick. And Penn State getting out of there and upside the number two team of the nation. I'm really, I mean, I'm feeling a lot differently about the game. And a lot of people, the Hoosier Nation are feeling a lot differently about the game. But the first play, we saw us cover zero. We had a bunch of the field and we had what we called, well, I actually should probably say what it's

called. But we, we, we had a where we had a corner route, a sit, yeah, we had a corner route, a sit route, a sit route, and a slant, a corner, a flat, and kind of like a rub slant. And we were taught that, hey, in that bunch, if they're playing in and out coverage, let's see if, let's go and work that high, that high load of the field. Because they're going to outnumber them there. However, how they play

the bunch, they played a really soft and man and just this straight of blocked it. And so at that point when I knew that they were soft. I was like the corn route's probably going to be too great. The flat route's not going to be great, but what's going to be great is the slant route coming into the vision because not only do we have leverage on that because he's been outside leverage on the receiver, but also it's soft cover, so it won't get the DB that much time. I just know that I can't leave the receiver too much because he's going to try to get to that breaking point in the slant. He's going to try to Malcolm Butler that ball. So at that point, I got an actual or Charlie so he can get the ball,

get in three yards, or even better break the tackle and score. And that ball got tipped by one of the by one of the blitzers one of the covers real blitzers because we're out numbered in the box and so that was a little bit disappointing and so then we had to go to our second play our second play was the same play it was it was essentially just

two fades or it was kind of like you know a fade of the boundary and it was a post route or kind of like a through route and a spray post and then the third play was you know a through route and a go but we were trying to get the same thing and

we knew against cover zero we wanted that spray post. I mean that spray post the through and like kind of like the B line route because we know we had really like the matchup especially Coup on a safety and also if we were trying to throw something like a quick out or a bubble they played clamp coverage on that and that would be kind of tough especially to the deal. Yeah. There you go Rob. Yeah. That's ball right.

Man. Don't just happy, man. Hey, that's real ball. Like when I'm listening to you talk, man, I play with Drew Brees, the first Battle of Hall of Famer. I'm hearing a lot of him, like, just the knowledge of route concepts, the knowledge of coverages, the knowledge of knowing how to go through your progressions, who's going to be your man beater, your zone beater, where your matchup winner is, where your checkdown is.

When did you get to a point where you were so knowledgeable and detailed in your preparation and also your film review where you could be able to recite this stuff? Because if I'm an NFL draft scout right now, I'm watching this, and I'm drooling at the mouth. So, like, when did you know from your preparation, from your film review that you would be so detailed and be able to know all this stuff like that?

Yeah. So, it's funny enough, they actually mentioned Drew Breeze because in New Orleans, I actually got my weekly process through a lineage of kind of Drew Breeze. So Drew Breeze has a weekly process what he's doing Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.

And he was played with a guy named Chase Dan. Or he was friends with him. I don't know to play with the, He gave it to him. Chase Daniel was with Justin Herbert at the L.A. Chargers. And at the L.A. Chargers, my quarterback coach now, Chandler Whitmer, was with them and was in that room. So what he did is he, you know, being at that point, he was the assistant quarterback coach. He took those notes, took every that process, what they're doing, what Chase Daniel learned from Drew Brees.

And when he was teaching Justin Herbert, so Justin Herbert can become the superstar that he is. Right. And when he got to Indiana, he's like, hey, this is how we're going to do things. This is what you can do Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Thursday. and Friday, and then also how we're going to review our game plan and our game plan plays. So you're able to have that attention to detail in order to be ready for those moments, to be ready instead of, you know, confused. And when the lights get bright, you're able to dim them a little bit and uncover them. Hey, I know what's just doing. This is what I looked on on Tuesday.

This is what I looked at on Wednesday. And so I think that's really helped my process a lot. And I'm still in a never-ending journey of learning. I am, I still have a long way to go. There's still a lot of mistakes I've made throughout the season that I've learned from. There's other people with mistakes on film that I've learned from as well. And so I enjoy learning. I enjoy learning football. And it's what I like to do. And it's what I love to do.

So any point that I could always learn more about football is a great opportunity. Like for example, actually my, you know, me and my quarterback coach, Coach Meyer, we actually watched your two-minute drill breakdown. And we loved it. We were just there in the office having a good time watching it. Oh, the three different, what was the tempo, fast and chunks? Yeah, yeah. Did coach

Real quick, did coach get it right, Fernando? Yeah, yeah, Coach, I mean, I'm a young player, you know, I'm only 22 years old,

I cannot criticize, you know, the college football legend and the coach, just the overall coaching legend of a coach, I mean, he got it right.

I mean, that's someone that, you know, like we said, we watched the breakdowns learn, so. How often did you practice that scenario?

So our defense is extremely, extremely, extremely touted and strong, especially with they're such a strong defensive coordinator and just strong personnel across the board. So coach, Coach Signetti always made sure in practice,

especially a lot of fall camp practice, to always end the day or most of the days with a two-minute drill, with a one-minute drill. And although he was an offensive guy, you know, I love Coach Signetti to death. However, I think he gave a lot of advantage of the defense.

They always put us in a not a great situation or a situation that we had to, you know, dig ourselves out of a hole. And I think that really prepped us for when, We play at Penn State when it's loud. You know, they're playing their song Mo Bamba. You're hearing it. The stadium's shaking.

And we need to go on there after taking a sack and lead an 80 or 90-yard drive to go in the game. Yeah. And you bring up Coach Signetti, a fascinating character in college football right now. Curious, we heard his post-game interview after the win and the comeback at Penn State. What was his message? What was his tone in the locker room? Yeah. Coach Zignetti is, I'm sure, I'm sure Mr. Ingram can relate.

I mean, being from the same entry, I don't know after you're actually there with. Yep, yep. Coach Netti actually recruited me. He was the first person I saw from the University of Alabama at my house. So I'm familiar with Coach Nettie very well. I say that. He tells that story about you and then Julio Jones a lot. So which is great.

But although we won, he's never satisfied. He's never satisfied. And, you know, we were supposed to beat Penn State. by more but he said that he's proud of the team the way that we battle on this team is no quit which is extremely important to have anything because there's always going to be slip-ups and any powerful team at this point can be any other powerful team especially in the role of nil and how college has the college sports has balanced out so so we never going to take a win for granted however he said are proud of you guys I love you guys now however when I

watch the film on the playing home and we meet on a Monday it's probably not to be as pretty as we feel right now but we got to keep on trudging keep on working and keep on getting better from this. How much freedom do you get at the, at the line of scrimmage and at IU? So how they're off-in-staffed-in-the-right play? Yeah, office of staff, Coach Shanahan, Coach Signetti, Coach Whitmer. I mean, there's so many, and Coach Boast at the O-line coach,

they do such a great job of detailing the scenarios that we can go through in different games and just really kind of not even giving me full autonomy, but just giving the center and myself full autonomy. So me and the center, The center and I, Pat Cougan, have a really, really good relationship. We watch film together. We talk about, you know, the looks, the third down blitzes, the third down mixups,

the normal down and distance splits is, you know, what they're doing the red zone. And so we're the same page. And if there is anything ever unscouted, we'll kind of bounce off each other. We both trust each other. So if he really is, you know, indicative of something and he sees it, then, hey, we'll roll with that. And vice versa. There's been a couple of times if I'm really indicative on something, I'm like, hey, I see it just because I'm standing up and he's in, you know,

his stance, you know, we'll change the call to that. But I would say not only learning from our great coaches, but also learning from Kugan, who was a starting center in the national championship last year, has helped my knowledge on protections and just autonomy at the line exponentially. Man, you came from, you're from South Florida, man. Went out to Cal, now you're a Hoosier. Indiana had a big year last year, obviously,

in Cochignetti's first year. You guys are number two in the country right now. And I can tell that you're a leader. I can tell that you guys believe in each other. I can tell that there's like this us against the world mentality. You guys can't be denied, right? When did you guys start believing as a group that this type of season could be possible for you all? Yeah.

So I would think that coach Ignatting just, he's always been a big believer and big instructor. I'm not listening to the outside noise. So a lot of the outside noise are saying, Indiana, they're a great one, one hit wonder. And a lot of the team in the portal that was getting recruited by, it was, hey, this is the safe bet. We've been a blue blood forever. Indiana, who knows it's going to happen next year, just because especially college football, like, you know, it's tough.

It's tough. The Blue Bloods are the Blue Bloods for a reason they have, you know, the support. However, I really believe that Coach McNay was going to be able to develop myself and the best Fernando Mendoza I can become. I think that everybody else in the program believes that not only they're going to become the best version of themselves, but they're going to do that by believing in each other. Yeah.

By not really chasing their own stats, our own fame, our own glory. I think that's our superpower. Our superpower is playing like a band of brothers together. We play together and we're not really focused on individual statistics or prowess in that sense. And I think that's what's helped us and be so resilient throughout our games, whether it's number three Oregon coming back and leading the game winning drive, whether it's Iowa in a super hostile environment or whether it's Penn State. I think that us playing together and us being one unit, one heartbeat, one offense, one defense,

one special teams all together has really not only struck the belief in us but it's also that we're all so close off the field that we believe in each other so i throw a pick against organ number three organ and it's a pick six our defense only left 13 points against uh you know will will steins and dante morris organ and i give i give organ seven more points for starting all-american linebacker edin fissure comes up to me he's like hey we're good we believe in you you're a guy. And he's All-American captain on defense. And that is stemmed from, you know, being so close to all the defensive guys

and offensive guys throughout the offseason that we're able to believe in each other no matter what the circumstances. I love it. Let me ask you this. Let me ask you this, Fernando, leadership style of SIG. So is he, he's a CEO and he lets her coordinators do the work? And obviously he's got an offensive background. Is it more that he coaches the coordinators and they coach you?

Is that the kind of leadership style that your experience under SIG? Yeah, so I would say that Signity is an offensive guy. So I would say the defensive side, Coach Haines, is a lot of autonomy. And for what I could see, obviously, I don't see everything that's behind the scenes and I don't want to give a, you know, 100% clear-cut answer. But I would say that he works a lot with those offensive guys. And whenever I walk into Coach Dignati's office all day, all night, he's always watching film. There's always, even when you're talking about, he is watching film up there.

I'm like, what's up, coach? We're talking about something. He's like, sometimes won't even take your eye. Won't even take the eyes to you. He's so locked in the film, which I appreciate the quarterback because I want to be, you know, prepared for the next game. I want to make sure that not only I know everything, but our head coach knows everything. And so he's in the office of meetings every single day coaching with our offensive coordinator. And I'm assuming coaching and coaching with our offensive coordinator in order to get the best game plan in that week.

Has he brought you over to his house? do we do we know what the signetti layout is back home so this summer we were able to go to his house for it was like official visit season and we were able to go to his house a couple of our current players and a couple of recruits and and yeah it's a it's a great house as a basketball has a pool a lot of guys are playing pool basketball so it was a good time does he have his own little film room down there secret lock and key you know i i actually didn't ask to go inside the house or if I went inside the house, I wasn't asking to go to, you know, different rooms to get a house store from him.

It's a good decision. At that point, I was like, you know, I'm going to save my brownie points where I have him, you know, to get a play installed or something else in that nature. So I'm sure he does. I'm sure he does. You're talking about your continuing education in the sport and at that position. So here on the Triple Option, we like to hand it over to you. And you get a question to learn about college football and something to make you,

you better or something that intrigues you about the three guys that have been talking to you for the last 20 plus minutes. Wow, that's, that's, that's great. So let me ask you as this. Before I ask the question, what's the best question you guys been asked? The one you're about to ask. Boom. Sorry, didn't give you much prep time, did I?

Let me, all right, first time I started with Mr. Ingram. Mr. Ingram, you played with Drew Brees. You played in the Sabin Tree. you've been through it all, you've been through, you know, the highs of highs, the loads of lows with these phenomenal and Hall of Fame quarterbacks. If you could give me some piece of advice playing with Drew Breeze and all the other great quarterbacks you've played with, what is some advice that may not be so mainstream that you would give to me?

They were just the guys. You know what I mean? When I was with, I play with Drew Breeze. I played with Lamar Jackson. They were just guys. Like, they didn't feel like this untouchable object, like, or that you were scared to be around. where you're scared to hang with them or you're scared to go sit down with them and have lunch.

Like, I'd be sitting here having lunch with Alvin Camara and Drew would just come plop right down right next to us. You know what I mean? And like when you have your Hall of Fame quarterback coming just to sit and kick it with you, he's not just grabbing his lunch and going to the quarterback, the office or into somewhere by himself or to the film room, which he did do that sometimes. But he would come and engulf himself and entrench himself with the guys. And when you have your quarterback, your star quarterback, being one of the guys, you can hang with them, you can reach out to them.

That's like your brother, that's your family. Now not only do you feel an obligation to do your job because you have to do your job, you feel an obligation to do your job because you never want to let that guy down because that is your brother. That's someone you spend time with. You know his family, you know his kids,

you know what he's going through other than just being a quarterback one of the New Orleans Saints for the Baltimore Raven. So I would say I can definitely feel that energy from you, but I would say always just be involved with your teammates. You know what I mean? That's not really mainstream,

but you already said how you guys are close, how Aiden Fisher came up to you and said, what he said to you after you threw the interception, how you guys are close as an offensive unit, defense unit, special teams unit. That same camaraderie that, you know, I had with Drew Brees, like I knew I needed to know who my threats were

in third and medium, third and long, because I didn't want to get him hit in the back of his head, not only because it was my job, because that's my boy too. So I think being involved every single day, being entrenched with your brothers, man. I think that's huge. I think that's underrated.

Definitely. Love it. And then Coach Meyer, I'm actually going to ask you a two-part question. I'm going to take the opportunity to ask you a question and run with it here. First, I want to ask you a similar question to Mr. Ingram about what do you think separates the decent, good, and great quarterbacks in your career as far as, you know, coaching these guys? I've been lucky, starting with Josh Harrison and Alex Smith and Tebow and Chris Leak. and I even had Cam Newton for a few years. So the thing that makes, I think,

and I would not separate quarterbacks from other positions. Like I think the quarterback has to have the same mentality as a middle linebacker. I think he's got the same mentality as a free safety. Obviously, that's leadership. But the best quarterbacks,

the best coaches, the best everybody ever been around are the competitive nut jobs. I mean, where they, you play ping pong with them and you're in a street fight. You know, they come to practice, and Tom Brady taught me this one. Back in they won it back to back. I want to say, 0405, Bill Belichick's a good friend. He invited me up and think about this, Fernando. It was the last day of minicamp.

Mark, you know what that means. Everybody's GTFO. They were ready to get out of there. They had a two-minute drill, Fernando. I'm watching Tom Brady. He just won two Super Bowls. He's playing. They're in short.

They're in shorts and a helmet. He's playing that two-minute drill like he's going to go into Super Bowl. I'm what? He's ripping people's ass. He's there were, I'm what? I'm in amazement because I've been NFL cast my whole life. And usually it's a circle. You know, he just screw off.

And he wins. They score at the end and Brable's on defense and Bruske and they throw a stick rod or some for a touchdown. And I mean, he rips his helmet off. They won the Super Bowl. And what did I take from that? I give two shits what route. ran. It was the competitive atmosphere created not by Belichick, by Tom Brady. And that's the

number one quality that I see with your team. You, yeah, you throw a nice bender out. Okay, I know a lot of people do that. Yeah. But your team is so competitive. And that's why I coached against that sucker sitting here right there or left. Ingram, what made him a great player, a competitive nut job. So that's the number one quality. All great players have competitors. And then my second question is a little kind of a debate that we have in the quarterback room. What is your favorite cover zero beater? Oh, shit.

Or cover zero check. Whether, I mean, there's some guys in the quarterback room to say it's triple option. I love empty. I love empty. I know it's the podcast name. The triple option. I like the three by one, I like the three by one or three by two.

Drift to your three man and run a corner with the two hitches underneath. We used to call that cash. We would check the cash against cover zero by time and laid out there to the inside corner route we do full slide protection there and the quarterback drift over there or how would that work well we had to no deep check from empty so we turn the guy loose on our left drift to your right throw it and beat the free rush beat the free heat with the with the corner route if fernando before we let you go we got to bring up the h word right heisman how have you elected to handle that noise are you embracing it are you are you throwing

yourself into it are you trying to push it aside how do we have handle the Heisman in Bloomington. Yeah, like you guys mentioned earlier in the podcast, I hear when the fans say Heismendoza, I would love to show you guys to say here, lie to you guys, and I have the perfect answer, yeah, I have these earphones that, you know, don't let me hear that. But it is great, and I really think it's the Heisman Award, and you really see the finalists. I think all the finals are, like, on the top four teams of the nation.

Like, there's a reason that the quarterback is being nominated as a Heisman just because of the quarterback of a Heisman-like team. And so our team is so competitive and has done such. has had such a great season so far. And we've got to keep on going, need to have a strong finish, especially in this stretch of the season, last stretch of the season.

But I think it's really just more about the team, the team's performance and team success. And my big thing, Coach Ignatty's big thing, is being the present moment. Whether it's on a game when he drive, game when he play, or it's even a bi-week,

be in the present moment. Because next week, all my focus right now is on Purdue. Yeah. And then if we be Purdue, then we go to the Big Ten Championship. Then it'd be the Big Ten Championship. And then I want to get too ahead of myself.

but then we'd be able to get into the dance. And so that's really all my focus on is, you know, doing the most I could do to become the best for Nana Mendoza, quarterback and character that I can become today. And then at that point, all the other, all the other, you know, great awards and all the other stuff that it'll all come. So my thing is to really just enjoy the present moment, be the best for Nana Madoza that I can become the present moment in order to maximize

my opportunities. Hey, you're doing, I'm sending, I'm sending all this to the scouts, man. Yeah, this dude. Hey, whenever you go to the combine, whether it's next year or the year after, They're going to be, they're going to love you, dog. They're going to be spooning this down. They are, they are. We got to talk about bro for one second before you leave.

What's it like playing with bro, dog? Like, that's your dog. Y'all, you grew up together. Now y'all in the safe quarterback room. He was at Indiana before, right? Then you chose to join them. So when I came out of a transporter, I was able to learn about the good, the bad, and the ugly. Because my bro is not going to, he's not going to be yess me.

He wants the best for his bro. And that's how I really knew that Indiana was a place for me, seeing myself being three, in college and developing and see how much he's developed in one year. I'm like, damn, this guy's, damn, you're smarter at football IQ than me. And we lived on football IQ our entire lives, and he's my younger brother. So he's kind of like a two-year head start on me, and I want him to be better than me. And so when I got here, he was helping with the playbook, helping with the locker. And it was really a super smooth transition.

And being, you know, you know, not with them for those three years. I was in college and coming back here, it's amazing to see his development and his growth. I mean, in spring ball, it'd be completely honest. you guys like in spring ball this guy was kicking my ass like a big brother like all right like I'm gonna even push myself

even harder and that's what we're doing pushing each other even harder because whether it's you know after summer lifts and we're doing an accuracy competition every single day

with the receivers you know rating the ball who had a better ball on that one is he here is he here yeah loser has to pay for lunch or just end up becoming

an ego thing at that point but it's just us pushing each other and practice us not only you know push each other and being competitive but also be able to I'm able to go to the

I'm like, hey, what do you see here? Yeah. He's able to not only give me, I'm always a great coaching, but also it's also sometimes a little different coming from a player, coming from someone that's in the room, someone who adds on as well. Yeah. That is so special. And I mean, I can't wait to see him the blossom into the player he's going to become.

And it's such a special experience that I know that evidently it's not going to last forever because, you know, we're different ages. And he's, he's an alpha and I'm an alpha as well. And he's going to become a quarterback one day. but I mean it's just so special and I just really I mean it's one of those moments I'm gonna look back at six years old

like wow that was cool but that was cool what a blessing what a blessing live in the moment right yes sir right take it take it all in Fernando man's thank you so much for joining us on your bye week

thank you longest interview in triple option history and coach is mad that we're done because he's like no no I got another two hours of of exes and one of my favorite interviews and my top for sure my top interview

you know what I mean ever crushed it, man. Absolutely crushed it. And a big fan now. Much respect, man. I've been a fan, but now I'm a super fan now. We hope for you the best, dog. Definitely. Thank you guys so much for having me on.

Coach Meyer would be, you know, if I couldn't take this opportunity. Mr. Poloski says hi. You know, he's talked a lot of great things about you as well. So, I mean, I want to thank you guys so much for having me on. This has been a pleasure, talking ball. You know, just having a good time on the podcast of you guys. It's fully been an honor. And hope to see you guys around.

Thank you. We'll see you in Indianapolis, bro. Yeah, God bless. Got to get there first. Got to get there first. Got to get by Purdue next week first. First things first, right? Fernando.

I'm not jumping anything ahead of you. Fernando Mendoza quarterback at Indiana. Thanks so much for joining us. Coming up next on the Triple Option, we go three and out, and we talk comebacks in college football. Lady. We welcome me back to the Triple Option. Rob Mark Urban here with you. We are presented by Wennies, and it's time now for three and out.

brought to you by Google. We're going to take a look at what fans are searching for this week. Remember, no matter what question comes next, you can just ask Google. We have seen, guys, a 5,000 percent increase in searches asking about the biggest comebacks in college football history. So we're going to rank our top three comebacks of all time. Mark, you're up first. Well, talking the biggest comebacks, why not start with

one of the biggest comebacks ever in college football history. I remember this game. I was in high school. You know, I'm a Michigan State guy. I bleed green. I'm Sparty. I had green green bed sheets growing up. Father played there.

Grandfather played there. Mine went to school there. So I'm Sparty all through and through. But Michigan State, Michigan State defeated Northwestern. 41.38 on October 21, 2006. They were down 38 to 3 with nine minutes left in the third quarter, scored 38 unanswered points, finishing it off. pick six for one of the largest comebacks in college football history at northwestern

Michigan State. This is when Northwestern was bawling, too. You know what I mean? So, well, it's when Michigan State was balling, yeah, exactly. So this is when back, people like, ooh, Michigan State Northwestern. This is when both programs were back. The tops in the Big Ten were in the upper echelon of the Big Ten supremacy. So I got to go with that one because, you know, I love the Spartes. And then I got to go with the Stanford band play. You know what I mean? They were down. Last play of the game was a kickoff return. Five laterals, turns into a touchdown.

Stanford's bands on the field. Kyle runs in, jumps, bomb. Hit somebody with the trombone shoddy. Yeah, knocks them out, prematurely celebrating. So I got to go with that comeback. And finally, you know, I got to go with the Alabama Crimson Tie. You know. I was waiting for it.

You know, I got to go to the Bamber Crimson Tie. And the Natty, down 13.0. They bench Jalen Hertz. He was three for eight for 27 yards in the first half. And then who- What a call. What a coaching call, by the way. 13-0 in the nanny.

Jalen Hurts is three for eight for 27 yards. And they bring to a taga viola head. And the young freshman, the lefty, brings us back to the promised land. After a 16-yard sack in overtime, second and 26, coach, looks off to safety. left side up to scene to Devante Smith who won the Heisman trophy. Natty, I remember going stupid in my living room because I, you know what I mean? Because we did that. We did that.

So them is three of the best comebacks. We know we love comebacks. I've been on the other side of some comeback. But listen, them my three. You choose your three, but then mine's. All right, coach you're up next. All right, I'm going to start in recent history. and we just had one of the guys that Meyer even more now, Mendoza.

I'm putting the, I think that drive against Penn State at Penn State with all along the line goes down is one of the great. It's like people overlooked, I'm going to say this. I've studied the Big Ten my entire life. That's one of the greatest drives in the history of college football. And I will fight anybody that says that's not true. That catch that kid made at the end, the detail that they coached it, I'm putting it, why would you not?

You know, I think that's one of the, the great drives, and it happened in real time a couple weeks ago. I'm going to also throw the 2017 and 18 Buckeyes, one at Penn State, but the first one is home, 2017. We were down 35, 20, lost, we were down the entire game, came back and won 39, 38. Our captain, J.T. Barrett, went 16 for 16 in the fourth quarter for the dub. We won 39, 38, and then 18. How about this, Mark? we're down with under eight minutes left by 12 points at State College. And as a jet engine, man, that's as loud as I've ever heard of stadium. And Dwayne Haskins, rest of soul, and J.K. Dobbins, and K.J. Hill got the swing route for the game winner.

And Chase Young hit a TFL right at the end. So those are my three favorite. But once again, Mendoza, Final Drive. I'm saying that's one of the great drives I've ever seen, one of the great comebacks. Soft tangent here, our best out to J.K. Dobbins. Coach, you facetimed him the other day when all of us were in the car driving to the airport in Chicago having left Wrigley Field. That was your guy. Jay, that's my brother for another.

Yeah, that's my rookie. In Baltimore, obviously, he had a very productive career. I think he said Liz Frank, right? Yeah, Liz Frank. And he said that was the good news. He said it was on the best news of bad news. That it could have been, yeah. The best news could have been.

The best of the bad news. All right. So here's my three best comebacks in college football history. Mark, you're going to like this one. 2015, we're inside the big house. Michigan, ready to ice a win over their little brother, Michigan State. Just kind of need to get off the punt. There's trouble with the snap.

My boy, Sean McDonough with a great call. Fumbled, scooped state scores on the final play. Get that 27, 23 walk off with. We love Sparty. Sparty make two. with a comeback. Yeah, he did. He did. Number two, 2013, the prayer in Jordan hair, Georgia up one late on Auburn. Remember fourth and 18 from the Tigers 27, Nick Marshall back, just like throws it into double coverage. Two dogs literally have a chance to intercept it

and said it bounces off their hands into the paws of Ricardo Lewis, game winning 73-yard touchdown for Auburn. You're going to hate this. one mark kick six you're going to hate it later that season iron bowl kick six yeah kick six my man obern tied with alabama coach sabin says you know what let's go for it from 57 yards let's kick a field goal way short chris davis just just sitting there just sitting there like destined to grab it and be hanging out by the goalpost takes it what was it 109 yards down that left side kick six Auburn announcers lose it. Auburn gets the win

and you're tied, get the loss, man. Well, hey, I'm going to one-up you and I'm going to do another comeback. You want to talk about Iron Bowl comebacks? I'm going to go to the Grave-Digger. We call it the Grave-Digger, the Iron Bowl, fourth and 31, Jalen Milro to Isaiah Bond in the corner. You want to Iron Bowl me?

I iron bowl you. I see your Iron Bowl and I throw an iron bowl back at you. I iron bowl you, coach. We call it the grave digger. Why the grade dig? Because it was fourth and 31, and we put him in a coffin, and we grave dug him. Fourth and 31, back corner to end zone, Isaiah Bond. I triggered him.

That's on me. That's on me. You iron bowl me? I iron bowl you. I'm an iron bowl you right back. Grave digger. I knew those. I knew the kick-shicks is going to get a reaction for Mark.

I was waiting for it. Well done. You topped. anticipated reaction. Give us your thoughts on some of the great comebacks in college football history. Leave them in the comment section. It's time now, though, for two-minute drill. Brought to you by Fandool. Visit Fandul.com slash triple option to download the app and take advantage of a 50% profit boost today. We're going to start in the SEC. Oh, folks, Oklahoma's back apparently. Sorry, Mark. Oklahoma is back. They are home this week. Missouri's in town. Sooners favored by

seven and a half over under 42.5. How do you see it? I kind of like the under in this one, and I like Oklahoma to cover. Coming off of a huge win in Tuscaloosa, their defense, their special teams, they had three turnovers against Alabama. Now you got Missouri who's struggled against top 25 opponents. They're only three against ranked opponents this season. Yes, they do have the R.B.'s himself who has certified documents from the R.B. Guru. But one thing that Oklahoma is good at. One thing of many that they're good at on defense is stopping the run. So I see this being a defensive struggle. I feel like Oklahoma will control the game. They will have to slow down

on my hearty. But I like, I like them to cover in this one. And I do like the under. I don't think it will be a lot of points scored in this one. But Oklahoma, they have their playoff hopes alive. They can't lose another game. They're at home, have some momentum coming off of a big win. I think that this team will pick up where they left off last week and have another victory and I think that they cover and I do like the under as well.

Feels like Meteer is starting to return to that. Oh, I'm watching the game. I'm watching the game. I'm like, of course Mature wants to freaking come back to forum versus Alabama, right? Of course he wants to look good. Maybe next week versus Mizzou, please? Yeah, I hear you.

Of course he was. He's a fun player to watch. He is, he is. I like him when he's healthy. All right, coach. This is a Pac-12 showdown that's now in the Big Ten, USC at Oregon. This is going to be a fascinating game. Ducks favored by 10 and a half now over under 58 and a half USC.

They have had so many issues under Lincoln Riley as a road underdog. But if they can get an upset, that is totally going to change the face of next week's college football playoff rankings. Yeah, you never bet up against Vegas, man. I mean, there's reason they have those big hotels and all that stuff in Vegas. because the Bukies win. It started at seven-half, now it's 10-and-half. So there has to be something going on why. But I think even a 30,000-foot look at this,

I think this is the most important game, certainly in Lincoln-Riley's era, but maybe in the last decade of USC is an enigma to me. Well, how the hell can you not be good at USC? USC's got everything, the tradition, they got the school, they got everything, great talent. If they win this game, they are in the college football play. I'll say that.

They don't go in. If they lose, they're obviously out. So this is a must win by both teams. This is, you're going to see, I can imagine these teams get ready for this game. I think it's going to be electric. Obviously, it's an Austin Stadium. With that said, damn, I'm looking at that school. When it was seven and a half, I was going to go Oregon.

Mark, 10.5 is a lot of points. A lot of points, man. Big number. Pittsburgh at Georgia Tech. Tech favored by two and a half guys over under 61. a half. You know where we're starting with this one, don't you? Coach Pat Narduzi, right? Maybe spoke things into existence last week. He got his loss to Notre Dame. Now, Pitt, they have their two ACC games to close the season, maybe earn themselves a conference championship game ticket.

They are still alive. This one, though, in Atlanta, it's Georgia Tech, Yellow Jackets, clinching ACC title game birth, should they get a win? And remember, they barely won last week at struggling Boston College. They were down 11 in the fourth quarter. Their head coach, Brent Key, I like how we handled it after the game, didn't really stress about it, saying, hey, we're always happy to get a win no matter how the win occurs or who it's against, right? Especially this time of the season, sitting here in mid-November.

Rambling wreck, they have not won the ACC since 2009. Man, that's been a long run. You made so much Clemson and Florida State in there. I think they move on from last week's struggle bus. They return to their dominant self. They get the win. They cover. But I say take the under on that one.

Coach is still dreaming about that Fernando Mendoza. He had a drinkle in his eye like never before. Best. How about the way he answered the – Right, coach? You would have loved for that to be your quarterback, huh? Oh, yeah. I mean, they better be that way.

I mean, that's a well-coached dude. He's well-coached. On and off the field. He's a dude. He's well-coached, and he is individually chasing coaching. Like, that's the thing. You could be well-coached, but if the player don't want to be coach. It ain't going to be much, but he is him and he is high as men do.

He was always here, Mark, he was always at a very high elite level, listening to him and how composed he is and intelligent he is. He's over the screen now. I'm a big Fernando Mendoza. I'm a big for a Mendoza. He was awesome. So huge thank out, thanks to Fernando Mendoza in Indiana making that interview. Happen, make sure to follow, subscribe, rate us on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify. Wherever you find your podcast member, we're on social media,

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