The Triple Option - Florida State Contracts, Oklahoma GM Jim Nagy Joins, Colorado Preview, 4th of July & Michigan Issues

Episode Date: July 2, 2025

Contract negotiations? Fines for lost gear? Breach of contract? Is it the NFL? Nope! It’s the new age of college football. Urban Meyer, Mark Ingram II, and Rob Stone talk about the latest issue at Michigan as Jim Harbaugh, Warde Manuel, and former president Santa Ono were named in a lawsuit against a former assistant. The guys then discuss the rev share contracts that Florida State is reportedly requiring their student athletes to sign in order to get paid. Spoiler: there will be lawyers. What do schools need to navigate these deals and roster construction now? A General Manager. Oklahoma’s GM and former Senior Bowl Executive Director Jim Nagy joins the guys to discuss his relationship with Brent Venables, how he and his team are assigning dollar value to current and prospective players, and why Norman was the right fit for him. It’s 4th of July and you might not know it, but Mark likes to blow things up. The guys discuss their weekend plans before looking into the Crystal Ball at Coach Prime and Colorado’s 2025 outlook. No Shedeur, no Travis Hunter? No problem for the Buffs. 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 Zip Recruiter Try FOR FREE at https://Ziprecruiter.com/Option BetMGM BetMGM is giving you the chance to win a prize every day during the baseball season! Step into the batter’s box for BetMGM’s Swing For the Fences free-to-play game! Visit BetMGM app to access the game and you’ll score a prize if you hit a single, double, triple or home run. See ⁠⁠BetMGM.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

Fourth of July weekend is upon us. We understand that Mark likes to blowtorch his fireworks Crazy legendary dumb fireworks show there should be like Mark's fireworks flamethrower I'd avoid that one make good decisions people safety first safety first night Welcome to the Triple Option presented by Wendy's. Try Wendy's new Frosty Fusions with flavors like Caramel Crunch, Oreo Brownie, and Pop Tart Strawberry. Light it. There's going to be some things being lit this week. Yeah, it is July 4th week.

Happy July 4th week, everybody. Yeah, it is July 4th week. Happy July 4th week everybody Yeah, especially down there in Florida. Yeah, I know how there's those firework Stands just kind of pop up in the month of June and July don't they mark down there? Hey, where you turn man by your fire? I just had the u-haul truck pull up to my driveway last night load it up a whole wait Why don't you haul truck that'll drop that stuff off? Yeah, U-Haul truck. You see what it looks like when it gets there? You should see what it looks like when it leaves.

The before and after Mark gets to the U-Haul truck. You fired over water or in your backyard or what? Yeah, so I have a good friend of mine, Jacoby Ford. He has a little dock right on the river, right on the lake. And we go out there, we just blast off and the whole lake be watching and they be clapping around with applause. I should put and we go out there we just blast off and the whole lake be watching and they be Clapping around of applause. I should put a tip jar out there You should I have a sucker for we have the Sarasota fireworks right off our back dock here

I mean, I'm looking right where it's gonna be It's funner when you just funner when you light them off. Is it is it though? I don't know man safe as long as you're safe. Yeah, I don't trust me or the people I hang out with. You have to like. I'll leave it to the pros. We get the blowtorch with the wear resistant. What? You got a blowtorch?

Well because you can't be down there with a big lighter like, like wind. Is there tequila being served? That's right. So you probably get away from that blowtorch. Oh tequila happens before, early and often, and after, but not during. Oh boy. All right, so we're working on a new blowtorch sponsor. This is good.

This is great. Happy July 4th week, everybody. On this week's edition of The Triple Option presented by a great partner, Wendy's, we're going to look at Colorado's upcoming season. We're going to do a deep dive on Oklahoma football with their general manager, Jim Nagy. Really cool conversation. We're going to question some of the tactics by Florida State University lawyers. And yes, there is more legal activity around the University of Michigan and Coach Harboff. As always, thanks for joining us. Please rate, subscribe at Apple Podcast,

Spotify, wherever it is you get your podcast as well as across social media We can be found at 3x option show new episodes coming away every Wednesday on YouTube and wherever it is you get your podcast like subscribe, share, tell your neighbors that you shoot fireworks with down by the creek to watch and all that other good stuff. Alright, so Hey, happy July by the way, what happened? What happened to June? Happy July and- It is July 1st. July means the college football season starts next month. Wow. But again, it's off the field headlines and chatter that take center stage.

Two opening topics. We're going to start in Ann Arbor. Coach Jim Harbaugh, former coach Jim Harbaugh. How surprising. Athletic director Ward Manuel, former president Santa Ono, they were added to the hacking lawsuit that has been placed against former Michigan assistant coach Matt Weiss. The attorneys claim that Harbaugh and others knew that Weiss was viewing private information back in December of 2022 but was still able to work as co-offensive coordinator during the playoff game. A week later, Weiss was fired in January, so just essentially days or weeks later.

He is charged, this is ugly stuff though, identity theft from 2015 to 2023. According to an indictment, he had access to social media, email, cloud storage accounts of more than 2,000 college athletes, and 1,300 students or alumni from schools around the country to primarily find private images of women. Ugly stuff. Listen, we all know there's some bad people out there, but this is another wrinkle, another claim, another potential scab to the resume. It's some really good Michigan people and man, they can't, Mark, they can't seem to get themselves away from all these scandals as a fleet. No matter what happens, something just keeps coming back to bite them in the butt.

You have this national championship season and it's stained. You have this program who is trying to be successful and it just keeps getting stained one after another. Like stuff just keeps popping up on them. So, man, it's tough being a Wolverine right now, man. You can't get away from it. As far as you can get away from it, it comes back to bite you in the butt, man. I would say this, Mark and Rob though. I'd pump the brakes on I've read this thing over and over again and Is egregious it is that this what this coach was doing?

You know to start dragging in an ad and a president and Jim Harbaugh. I'd pump the brakes on that You know, I've seen this before Obviously if this guy did do that, that's horrific. And it's probably jail time. It's probably, that's how serious that is. It should be. I hope it is. That means significant jail time.

So, but to start dragging in others, you know, I pumped the brakes on that. And, you know, we have witnessed and I guess in the next 60 days, what's going to come down from the NCA for the COVID violation recruiting and then the sign stealing and this and a lot of coaches have already lost their jobs and have show causes on them. I'd like to bring up the president Ono, is he employed? I don't think so. It looked like he was going to- Remember Mark, he was a president that left to go to Florida. He was going to go to Florida, right coach?

And then the board of trustees unanimous voted him in, and then the board of regents said, "'That's not happening.'" And I believe he left his spot at the Wolverines, and someone said he turned down a faculty position or something. So that might be another topic for another day, but I wonder what happened there.

This just hurts me though Stone because like Matt Wise he was my running back coach at Ravens man. Like oh he was I didn't know that. Yeah so it's like was that going on when you were there? No not that I know of. I mean on the dates on the dates it said. I mean on the dates on the dates it said 2015 Yeah, I was there at 2019 and 2020 holy cow so Yeah, he was my running back coach man. It's crazy dog to think about cuz I mean

Normal guy a great. Do you like yeah, it seemed like a cool dude man had a family like a cool dude, man. I had a family. Like, it's just, man, you start hearing stuff about people you know, bro. You know, it's just like, it hurts a little bit. And also, if you're a Michigan fan, like, can I just get some clarity? Like, can I know where we stand right now? Like, just these constant delays of just give us the punishment or let us live or let us play, man. Let's solve this. This is... Give us the punishment, let us move on.

You know what's amazing though, Rob? If there is punishment. As the recruiting is, I think they're doing really well. I know they just got a deep... Banged up. The quarterback of the country. Got a five star. Yeah.

So... But if stuff happens, if they do get punished, Uh-oh. You know, the recruiting is gonna go downhill and those players are gonna wanna leave, you know, the recruiting is going to go downhill and those players are going to want to leave, you know? Yeah. While we're talking about recruiting and players leaving or players coming in, some interesting wrinkles have come up courtesy of RevShare.

We know it's a hot topic in college athletics this summer. CBS Sports' Chris Hummer was able to get his hands on a contract that Florida State Football is asking their players to sign. And there's a couple things that that raised our eyebrows and caught our attention. Really raised our eyebrows. Yeah, just there is a full article out there on cbssports.com. We just pulled out some of the kind of some of the extra eye-raising, eyebrow-raising moments. A team can extend a player at the end of their contract without renegotiation. As a side note, this is just kind of away from what Florida State is. Many schools do provide players a window to negotiate after every regular season. Some programs, and there's some in the SEC, have begun writing in a quote, first right of refusal clause, which

allows them to match a higher offer if they receive one from another school. This all goes to our main theme, which we're going to get to in a second. Back to Florida State, they could drop a maximum fine of $2,500. $2,500. Stop it. A comma is involved on the first defense if a player loses team equipment. First defense if a player loses team equipment such as a pair of

cleats. Those are some expensive cleats my friend. The one that's actually... Wait, stop there. That's actually on paper. Yes. We didn't see the contract, right? It is in the deal. Again, according to the report, yeah, and what the CBS Sports Journalists saw. And then there's this one, a section covers breach of contract, including, quote, illness or injury, which is serious enough to affect the value of rights granted to the school. Listen, lawyers are going to lawyer, right? And I'm sure Florida State just took their legal nerds and said, hey, let's get ahead

of the curve. Let's just throw stuff in. Let's just throw stuff in let's get our let's get our power let's get our ducks in order let's let's be above the conversation but then when this stuff falls on Mike Norvell's desk coach he's got to be going wait what what are we talking about here? Let's paint the real picture. Let's paint the real picture. Mark Norvell, excuse me, coach Norvell is a friend of mine. We won that golf thing again this year. Good dude and obviously great coach. So, all right, let's just paint the picture

for the listener that in the old days, I think it's changed a little bit now, but Mark, you're one of the top players in the country. And then the head coach has got to come in and do something called close. He's got to come in and, you know, if you're not early commit and all that. So I'm just going to paint the picture.

It's December, it's early January. You're still undecided. You're down to three or four schools. You got Kirby Smart, Nick Saban. I'm going to roll in there. And then you got Mac Brown and they're all going to recruit you. And as they walk into your house,

your mom usually puts some food down there, maybe some tea or something like that, and we start talking about academics, your network, opportunity to play, opportunity to get you ready for the NFL, etc., etc. And then by the way, you ask a question or else he throws it, which I can't believe this. If you lose a pair of shoes, it's going to cost you possibly $2,500. And if you get hurt in one of the most violent sports and tough sports out there,

you're gonna be in breach of contract. What's the response, Mark? I'm gonna be like, Coach, just give me a copy of that and I'm gonna talk to you later, okay? Like, bro, like, for one, they can extend me, Coach. So say I have an amazing Heisman season, we win a national championship and I outplayed my value, right?

They can extend me without my consent. So now I'm getting underpaid. Then you talk about you can cancel my pay if I get hurt playing for you. You can find me, I can't appeal it. And that's only one time offense, coach. If I do it again, they talking about doubling the fines. So it's like, I'm not signing that deal, coach. For one, I'm giving away all my leverage. Like we talk about this new NIL

era and this rev share era, like there's supposed to be some give and take, some balance here. Now we're giving all the power back to Florida State. They're doing, they will all control and not necessarily fairness according to this article. So... If I'll make this statement if that's legit this goes through which I'm so skeptical then the days of Florida State are numbered. Well, it won't happen. It won't happen. It can't happen. No chance. Players aren't gonna go there because for one it gives this contract gives For state way too much control over your future and your money

it exposes you to risk injury discipline loss of leverage all that so if you're a top player and And you're got Florida State on your visit and they give you this I'm sure there's another university That's gonna give you better conditions and treat you like a you know a partner and not an asset Yeah, I think what's happening rob is the pendulum swung so far that the players could leave anytime unlimited transfers Uh nil on no limitations. No guardrails and now it's swinging back and some people that shouldn't be involved or getting too involved and they're putting This power struggle that I've never seen anything like that. Again, if this recruiting, it's over. You can't recruit. And in case you haven't noticed, college football is about recruiting. It's probably a lot like those

cell phone agreements that you get or the mortgage. Where they're just like, just initial here, initial here, sign here. This is just a nothing, don't worry about that. But I guarantee you what is gonna happen, every major college program is gonna go, hey, let's go look at the Florida State roster real quick and let's go see who's on it and who they're recruiting. And let's just go remind them, maybe give them a subtle little nudge like,

hey, you might be giving up A, B, C, and D. And we don't do that at X University. You might want to reevaluate some things. So Norvell and company. It's what's amazing. Mark, this Chris Hummer guy, the CBS Sports, there's anonymous sources that said there's even worse contracts than this out there,

which I can't, there can't be anything worse. Right? I bet there can't be. Or I can imagine, there can't be anything worse, right? I can imagine there can't be the the recruit walk into recruits harness saying GTFO get out My yeah For this one, yeah, you're starting but like you said, you know You said that you're hoping that this thing is you saying this things like a cell phone agreement where you just like scroll hit agree and Continue hopefully not hopefully these players are smart enough to have someone reviewing this deal before

they sign it. You know, but if it's like one of these 20 page, 30 page things, you're right. You're right. You have to review it because you are, you are. And that's why you have representation. That's why you have a lawyer and that's why lawyers are going against lawyers. And that's why lawyers always seem to have nice second home because of his me. I'm asking I need, I need some time. Give me a copy of that. I need to review this. And then when I see what is actually happening in this contract, I'm coming back with some more player friendly clauses in the deal.

And if you don't have the player friendly clause, if you're not willing to negotiate Institute the player for any clauses that I'm that I'm that I'm that I'm requesting, then I'm probably going to leave and go to another another school Let's hope that the players have the time and the ability to really go through them and care about them You know or that I'm sure the third uncle isn't doing that right coach The third uncle is not either third uncle would break out the bifocals and like hold on a second Let's take a look at amendment a you have to have legit representation to do it. Like, you know, NIL, a savvy attorney, just hire an attorney. You're getting paid anyway, so hire you an attorney, pay him a, you know, a couple grand for him to review your contract. But-

Mark, back in your day playing in the NFL, were there certain teams, GMs or lawyers that you had to deal with or agents that kind of had some reputations where you're like, oh, this team is interested in me. Let's really read the fine print because they have a tendency to do certain things. Well, that was the thing. They gave you the contract, you reviewed the contract, and if you didn't like what was in the contract, you negotiated the contract. And there were some things that they're willing to Bend on there were some things that there weren't I had fair I had clean Negotiations throughout my product throughout my time in the NFL. So I went to you know

Some first-class organizations with the Saints the Ravens even the Texans like they treated me well when I was there So I was fortunate enough to have done good business with these organizations and Fair business where they gave me a contract and we negotiated contract Oh, you don't want to pay me the guarantee will hey will give me a active roster bonuses I'm healthy and I'm playing I get X amount of money per week You know, I mean if I hit these thresholds and yards or touchdowns I get this amount per week. I mean so but that's and yards or touchdowns, I get this amount per week. I mean, so, if I make a poor boy, I get this. Moving that to the college conversation, that's asking a lot of a teenager.

Again, this is why you need the representation, unfortunately, but that's asking a lot of a teenager to sit and go, hold on a second. But everything's asking a lot of a teenager these days. They are getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. So now as a teenager, you have to know that you are a brand, you are an entity. So you have to have the right people

surrounding you and a lot of these kids that they don't but you need to have some type of Representation around you to be able to protect you from a contract and lose they give you that that you lose all leverage You lose the fact to negotiate to extend your contract you lose the fact to appeal a disciplinary Fine, you know You lose the fact to appeal a disciplinary fine. You know what I mean? So you have to be able to protect yourself and hopefully these kids, they're to whom much is given, much is required.

So now you need to be able to protect yourself as such. I hope there becomes a standardized contract, but I don't, again, this is, I don't see it happening. Every school is gonna- It's almost too easy and too simple, right coach? Makes too much sense. Yeah, but I can see everyone's out for themselves right now and I get it. It's a money chase right now, man.

I mean, let's just, I know we've talked about it a few times, the Wolverines are projected a 25 point million, some million dollar loss in revenue or a loss in just a budget loss. And you see teams dropping sports. So this is a tough time. And firing employees, right? Like universities are in scramble mode right now to try and find this money. And this is just one year. Guess what? They gotta keep doing it every year. How they're gonna generate this money is insane. And that's kind of the new dynamics of college football. And there's new positions in college football.

Coming up next, we're gonna dive into what exactly a college football general manager does. Oklahoma's GM, Jim Nagy joins the Triple Option presented by Wendy's. And we do to note that we recorded this interview just prior to the passing of the historic house settlement, which paved the way for colleges to pay athletes. That's coming up next on the Triple Option. Welcome back to the Triple Option presented by Wendy's. Rob Stowe, Mark Ingram, the second,

Urban Meyer back here with you. We've been seeing, Rob Stowe, Mark Ingram, the second Urban Meyer back here with you. We've been seeing more and more programs, whether it's in college basketball and obviously here in college football, hiring general managers for their football team. What exactly is a GM? What's their role? Great question. To answer some of those, we head out to Boomer Sooner Country. We welcome in Jim Nagy, the general manager of the Oklahoma Sonors football team. Jim, thanks for joining us. And number one, all right, let's give you a snapshot.

Your wife takes you out to some summer get together in Norman and you meet some people you've never met before and they say, what do you do? And you go, I'm the Oklahoma football general manager. And they go, that's nice. What is that? What does that mean? I have no idea what a general manager and they go, that's nice. What is that? What does that mean? I have no idea what a general manager does. And I'm sure it changes from school to school. But if you were

to be asked, what do you do in Norman, tell us what it is. Yeah, I've been asked that a few times. Appreciate you guys having me on. I'll say this, there's no succinct way to sum it up, because there's a lot of a lot of parts to this job. But really here, more than anything to help the coaching staff, you know, and help build, help build this roster and streamline the process and, and really bring, you know, everyone says they're trying to go to an NFL model and yes, my background is, is in the NFL. I've never worked in college football before.

But I think there's some process things that we can, that we've brought to Oklahoma that I, that I think are going to help the evaluation process and certainly the valuation process we've never had, never had to really value players. So, uh, again, it's going to be a really fun collaboration. It already has been over the last three months, just getting in the building with the coaches. Uh, certainly been energizing for me. I've been out of a football building for the last seven years,

running the Risa senior bowl. So just getting around coaches and players again, it's been awesome. Um, it's been a big move moving from the state of Alabama out here to Oklahoma, but, uh, but no more than anything, just helping out this coaching staff, you know, and they've been, they've been really receptive, um, you know, we're, we're trying to make their jobs easier in places. These college coaches got a lot on their plates. I think, I think the biggest part right now that people are forgetting is that there's an

actual retention part of the job, right? Like coach, coach Meyer used to get, get guys on campus and you basically had them, you know, you had them for four or five years and now that's not the case. So, you know, we, uh, we can get into it, you know, kind of how, how we're doing that and how we're buying more time for our coaches to do their jobs. But, but yeah, man, we're just here, here to support, support the coaches and build this roster. Hey, Jim, thanks for joining us. And, uh, I don't know if I even told Rob and Mark this, but I had a school come

see me this year and asked if I wanted to be the GM and a couple other phone calls. And you start to think, okay, they actually came to see me. And so I see how we'll meet and I'll sit down with you guys. And I said, okay, what is the job description? They said, well, basically you handle all the, you know, you meet with all the agents of the 17, 18 year olds. And I thought I'd rather step on a rusty nail

and pull it out myself. I mean, what in the, but that's what you got to do Jim. God bless you, brother. But what is the, I think a lot of people are asking, what's the hierarchy in college football, kind of generally, is it athletic director, GM coach, athletic director, you know, once again, I think it's probably different,

but what's the hierarchy that you expect? Yeah, it is, it varies. It varies by school. Again, I actually spoke to a couple schools in the off season before I took the job at Oklahoma. And again, part of it was the structure. You know, that's what drew me to Oklahoma because it is gonna be a true split structure

between Coach Venables and myself, and we're gonna work in tandem. And when I came out for the interview, I mean, I tried to be really intentional with, with my communication with Brent that, you know, if we move forward, we got to be on the same page. Um, being in the NFL, that's, that's truly, uh, the most critical relationship in the building in my mind, uh, general manager and head coach and, you know, really stripping the ego out of it.

And, uh, you know, I said to Brent. And I said to Brent, in terms of putting this roster together, I went all the way back to 1996 when I was an intern with the Green Bay Packers. And I had the good fortune of driving our general manager, Ron Wolf, from Green Bay to Milwaukee one day. There's not a lot of flights going in and out of Austin Straubel Airport in Green Bay, Wisconsin. So we had a little road trip in, you know, I'm 22 years old, 21 years old, whatever I was, you know, a little intimidated in the during the car ride with the future Hall of Fame GM. But he was as he was getting out, I asked him, I said, Mr. Wolf, do you have any advice for, you know, a young guy like me, if I ever

am fortunate enough to be in a position like yours? And he said, don't ever force players on your coaches. And, uh, I've always taken that to heart. And, uh, so that was part of the conversation that the coach fendables and I had when, when I came up for the interview, you know, there's a lot of high school players out there. It's, uh, we're, we're, we're, we're going to be in lockstep with who we're bringing on this football team.

So, uh, you know, the nice thing with, with our new scouting staff is we're going to have layers and layers of cross-check, which that's one thing I don't think has existed in college football before, you know, the, the, really the assistant coaches have had all the autonomy to go out and recruit the guys they want to recruit and watch the tape and, and ultimately it's been the head coach's decision on who you take and who you build the roster around. Um, so we're just bringing that structure, you know, we're bringing

a grading system, which most, most college, uh, programs don't have. So that's where I think we're going to have value. Um, and again, really more than anything, it's the manpower. So we're going to have a staff of eight, nine, 10 guys watching tape that are experienced, proven evaluators. Um, and again, I don't think there's a lot of schools in college football that have that. I don't know if there are any right now. Um, I think there's probably some that will go in that direction. Um, but the great thing is the buy-in, the coolest part of the job so far has

been the buy-in from the assistants, right? Like I didn't want to come in here and just blow this thing up, you know, watching tape and maybe not agree with, with where they were at with some of their, some of their assessments on players. We haven't done that. You know, we, these guys worked really hard on the 2026 class, but they're hard. There have been some times where we've had to finesse it and pivot a little bit. Right. Um, and get, and get on some new players.

And the coolest part is, is they have taken, they have taken that and ran with it. Um, and we've gotten some commitments here already in June from players that we didn't get on until a month or two ago. And I credit the coaches because they went after them and they recruited their tails off and that's always going to be a big part of this. Like we can evaluate the players and a great belief in our new staff's ability to do that and find value. But at the end of the day, you still have to recruit them. You know, you still got to love them up. There's

no, you still got to make these guys feel like Oklahoma is going to be their home. So, yeah, sorry to get long-winded, but, but, uh, that's, you know, that's kind of, that's kind of where we're at right now with everything. Yeah. No, Jim, we appreciate your time, man. New role GM. Uh, that's great. But you were running the senior bowl and built it to the top college all-star game. Why do you pick Oklahoma and why this position? That's a, I knew you, I thought you were gonna go there, Mark. Yeah, you left the great state of Alabama

to go to Oklahoma, man. Like what are we doing? Yeah, man, it's my wife's hometown, Mobile, Alabama. So yeah, I mean, it was a hard, it was a hard decision to leave the Seattle Seahawks when I did back in 2018. That was a great organization, really incredible culture with, with Pete Carroll and John Schneider. Um, but that was a family decision.

That was really, my son was in eighth grade. He was getting ready to play all his high school sports and, um, I was going to miss all that, you know, being a scout, you're on the road a couple hundred nights a year. So that was really a family thing. And then, uh, yeah, we worked our tails off at the senior bowl. It'd always been the best all-star game, but you know, we felt like there was some improvements to be made. And, and, uh, you know, I think we took that thing to, to another level, uh,

really proud of what, uh, the staff did there over the last seven years. But then, yeah, when the phone rang, I, you rang, I interviewed for the Jets GM job back in December, obviously didn't get that, but that was a really cool opportunity. And then the phone did ring from some college programs and I'd never even thought about working in college. My goal from the time I was a little kid was to work in the National Football League.

And again, fortunate to have been able to do that for a couple of decades. So, um, you know, the plan was maybe to get my daughter through high school down there in Mobile, she's got two years left. This was, this was not an ideal time to make the move. I mean, to tell your 16 year old who's, who grew up in the same house and has her group of friends that

she's now moved in Oklahoma. I didn't, so this decision wasn't made lightly man at all. Um, but again, it was Oklahoma. And so when I came on the visit and met the people and you walk in the building downstairs, similar to Mark, where you were at and coach, where you're at at Ohio state and for you walk in the door and there's all these seven national championship trophies and seven Heisman trophies, like everything has been done

at Oklahoma, we know we can do it here. Right. Um, and I believe in scouting. I believe in my profession. Um, I love my profession. I know the value of, of scouting and I know what that can add to a great coaching staff that we already have here. So that's really what it was.

Um, you know, I wasn't going to make this jump to a level I never really intended to work unless, unless we were going to win at a really high level. Um, you know, we plan on winning championships here. So I felt like this was a place that could do it, where we could do it. And now here we are. Thank you, thank you. Jim Nagy, the general manager

of the University of Oklahoma football program. You talk about value, you know, back in the days, and even today, one way to value players, he's a five star, four star, three star. You talk about how we value players. So tell us what that process is for you guys to come up with evaluation. Sure, sure. You know, we've got it.

We've got a grading scale we're going to stick to. We've got a, you know, in the NFL there's a numbers based grading scale. There's a color based scale. I think the color based is a little easier for everyone to get on the same page on. So that's what we're going with going with here. And that's going to also dictate how we spend on players as well. You know, you, you vary too much from, if you don't have a structure in place, you're going to be all over the place with paying players.

And then the next thing you know, you're going to be over the cap. So, uh, then, you know, the cap was just put in place here recently with the revenue share, uh, where it's all guaranteed money. So, uh, so yeah, it's good. We're going to value it just like we would in the national football league. And that's where you find your value. You know, I think, you know, Mark, what were you coming out of high school? Were you, were you a big time five star guy?

I didn't follow that stuff. I was three stars. I had a big senior year. I got an Alabama offer and then that's how I got my fourth star. So that's right. Yeah, that's right. So again, I, you know, I, I respect everyone that works at those services to put the stars on, on guys.

I really do. I mean, they have hard jobs to do as well. Um, but we're not going to pay any attention to that. You know, I think, I think, uh, what we saw this spring, which I think was a really good way to do it is we graded the players on our new scale. And then when you get to OB season is when you see where you can get value, right? Because I think what's going to set the market for a lot of these players in terms

of what they're being paid and what agents expect to be paid is the star system. Right. Right. I think five stars want to get paid like five stars. So when you get into the OV season, we might have the same grade on a five star and a guy that's a three star. And when you look at where they're taking their OVs to, if they're going to Ohio state and Oregon and Texas and Texas A&M, that's going to be a certain market.

Right. Right. But then if, if the same graded player is getting offers from some group of five schools, um, you know, we know where we're probably, what direction we're probably going to go, you know, cause you're loo, cause you're looking for that value. And if you look at, if you look at national football league rosters and dig back into their high school backgrounds, man, that league is litter with two and three star players, so they're out there.

You know, again, it's just, we, we need to identify those guys and, you know, trust our evaluations. So that's, that's really not to share too much of the, too much of, uh, the tape trade secrets there, but that's how we're going to attack it. So I, I'm going to wrap up with this one and coach, you know where I'm coming with this. I know coach, when you were out on the road, you saw dudes that maybe had a two star or a three star, but you're like, I can see his heart. I can see his grid. I can see his leadership. Right? Like that's just something I think, I don't know what it is, but you know it when you see it. Is that

fair coach? Yeah. It's a mindset. Absolutely. So there's a mindset grade. Yeah. How do you, how do you find, how do you find that and put that into your, your evaluation to value a certain player? Yeah, Rob, that's, that's probably going to be the hardest thing for me because I'm used to being on the road. I'm used to being those boots on the ground and you know, in the buildings, I've been in coach Myers building, you know, a million times when he was coaching

and you develop those relationships with the coaches and so you can trust what they say about their players and then you go to practice and you let your, you let your eyes do the work, right? You observe things. So that's going to be the hardest part, but that's, that's all educating this coaching staff and they've been doing it. They know what to look at. But again, maybe sharing some of our experiences from, from the way we attacked it in the NFL. Um, but there's no doubt about it. There's no doubt about it.

We just had a young man, uh, here on an official visit recently, uh, who, who'd lost his, who'd lost his father and, uh, real recently and to sit across from him, he's in a room with three guys, with 60 years of NFL experience, myself, and a couple of our assistant GMs. And he's opening up about that experience and how he wants to play for his dad in the fall. And man, that, that stuff's powerful. You know, that's, that stuff's really, really powerful. And, uh, you know, when I, going back to my time in Seattle, we really, Pete Carroll's big thing was like finding guys that, that had been through adversity. You know, if we got to the combine, that was like his first question he shot at every player

was talk to me about the roughest thing you've ever been through and how you work through it. So yeah, we're going to value that. We're not just going off the tape. We're really going to value what our coaches, when they go on the road and they go into these high schools and they see what they see and hear what they hear, that's going to be a huge part in our evaluation process as well. Well, Jim, good luck with the new gig.

I know there's a, there's a lot riding on the season in Norman. We wish you well. And listen, if there's one thing you accomplish this summer, you find your way to coach Stoops house. All right. That's, that's gotta be your goal. We'll, we'll put in a good word for you. That's the place to be in Norman coach Stoops castle.

It's the best, uh, Jim, best. Jim Nagy, General Manager, University of Oklahoma football program. Thanks, Jim. Have a great summer. Appreciate you. Yeah. Thank you, guys. Welcome back to The Triple Option presented by Wendy's. Rob Mark Urban back here with you. The Triple Option. Now time for the treat of the week presented by the Wendy's. Try Wendy's new frosty fusions with flavors like caramel crunch, Oreo brownie, and pop tarts strawberry. Fourth of July weekend is upon us. We understand that Mark likes to blow torch his fireworks. How do you celebrate Mark the Fourth of July before you start igniting

pyrotechnics? Man, we just have great vibes. We have family, we have friends over, we throw good food on the grill. We have probably, I think last year we had 20-something kids running around the yard in the pool. So. A lot of chlorine needed this weekend.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, we hopefully that your kids will treat their home, treat our home as your home and not piss All in the pool, you know, I mean so so no we just spend time with family friends good people And we just eat good listen to good music And we just spend time together we play games and then we get everybody together Go to my boy Jacobi's house, and we set off a fireworks show. Crazy, legendary, dumb fireworks show.

I wanna get you like, there should be like, Mark's Firework Flamethrower, right? We should create something like that. That's a great side hustle. I'm full of side hustles this week for you. I should start charging admission, but I mean, you could just look up in the air and see it. That's true.

That's true. That's true. Coach, what do you do? You just sit there and you laugh at your adversaries? No, for almost 40 years, this was my favorite holiday, and it still is because this is the calm before the storm as a coach and a player. I mean, you get a break from the off-season program. As a coach, you used to get three weeks off,

and this is right in the middle of it. And so that's all I remember is this was family time and as best you can, just stay away from everything. So we have two granddaughters here in Sarasota and we got the firework display. I'm not gonna blow torch at myself but right out Sarasota Bay, we get to watch it. It'll be beautiful, great food and hang out.

Probably do some boating, but we hear some weather is headed this way Oh rain, but oh all good man slice of paradise here Do you guys have I don't think you know about it coach mark you might be your kids a little younger life 360 you guys know what that we have life 360. Yeah life 360. That's gonna be my July 4th I'm just gonna be like kids. It's gonna be like my my Netflix. It's gonna be my youtube TV It's gonna be my Fox just where are they now be my YouTube TV. It's gonna be my Fox. Just where are they now?

Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Why are they south of the border? Why, yeah, that young man has been at the beach for a long time. Yeah, that's gonna be me watching Four Teenagers on Life 360. Yeah, Life 360 is a great app. So who's gonna be with you?

My wife will be equally stressed with me. Both you guys are gonna be watching this. And then my dog will be cowering underneath something just absolute miserable when people start shooting stuff off. But the kids won't be with you? Out to the East of LA and on the beach. The kids won't be there? They won't.

Are you kidding me? You think teenagers want to hang out with their parents on 4th of July when we're watching the beach? You and Lynn are like cool parents. We're awesome and we have no chance. We have no chance we have no chance I've hung out with stoner before mark i'm all right Okay coach that's not bad either. See that's why you gotta have a spot where they want to throw the party there

Like hopefully the kids still want to like invite all their people over they want to throw the party here So i understand I could just I could just monitor when they get older. It's a tricky balance mark. It's a tricky You know what happens? You know what you get to look forward to is once they get their own family, so they all want to be with You yes. Yeah, that's what's kind of cool down Shelly and I now is it's it's the opposite We're teenagers scatter post teenagers come home because I think like I'll speak for myself like you thought you, you thought your parents wanted to like control you and not let you do stuff.

And then you get older, you're like, damn, my parents were all right. They knew what the heck they were talking about. I really appreciate them. All my kids have all the answers at this age right now. They know everything about everything. I'm like, bro, you know nothing about a whole lot of stuff. You know nothing about a whole lot.

You know nothing about a whole lot of stuff. Mom know nothing about a whole lot. You know nothing about a whole lot of stuff. Mom and dad will take care of you. All right, time now for the triple option crystal ball brought to you by Bet MGM. Where's that ball at, man? Where's that crystal ball? It's tiny. It's deep in the recesses of my huge podcast studio. The triple option crystal ball is brought to you by Bet MGM. Bet MGM is giving you the chance to win a prize every day during the baseball season. Step into the batter's box for BetMGM's swing for the fences free to play game. Visit BetMGM app to access the game and you'll score a prize if you hit a single, a double, triple or a home run. So this week we're going to use the crystal ball to look into a program that has had that spotlight directly on them the

last couple seasons, Coach Prime up there in Boulder in Colorado. The expectations this season, guys, understandably so, according to BetMGM, much lower. BetMGM is setting the win total, six and a half. Ouch. Ouch, Pete. I'm looking at their schedule, Mark. This is going to be a tough one, man. It's going to be a tough one.

So BetMGM sets the regular season win total right now It's six and a half the over coming in at plus 150 the under is at minus 185 So again six and a half, right? So this will be year number three under coach prime Remember year one went four and eight last year overall It was nine and four closed with the bowl lost to BYU But did finish the regular season 9-3, and that was with Shador Sanders at quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter playing both sides of the ball.

And they had three of their top four wide receivers that are now gone in the NFL. They had no ranked wins last season, guys. He has dipped into the transfer portal like we know he would, but clearly not to the same extent that he did in years past. He has 26 transfer portal commits. Remember last year was around 43. One of the big ones though is Kaden Slater, the transfer quarterback from Liberty put up almost 8,000 total yards and 77 touchdowns as a three year starter. He's also got a five-star freshman coming in and Juju Lewis. So we'll talk about Colorado, but as always, let's start with that schedule

that you're already looking at, Coach. It begins with Georgia Tech. There was a time Georgia Tech was not, you know, it's had an incredible, Paul Johnson had it moving, then it kind of fell apart, but Brent Key's got him going. I don't know it's at Boulder though looks like so that's a tough trip for Georgia Tech early in the year you have altitude issues I'm putting point five there I knew you're gonna start what do you think Mario five is crazy I'm gonna say man it's just it's just all up in the air right now because we don't know what Colorado is gonna look like I will give a point five. That's fine. Okay, that's fine. Okay, the Dell Let's give him a one the Delaware blue ones. That's one and a half and then they hit the road at Houston

I think Houston is really a program on the rise that we're gonna be talking a little bit more about in the coming years But a road trip at Houston we talking another point five. No, I see a W. Oh W W all right home to Wyoming. W. W? Three and a half. All right. Then versus BYU. And obviously BYU is going through a whole lot at quarterback right now and late stages. Oh yeah, I read that, Mike. But BYU is programmed athletically, the whole program, not just football, but everything athletic for byu is on the rise there They're playing the money game. You know, they're gonna be great in basketball again home, but home to be Another point five. So it's all right four. They're four words So let's just give them four with all those point fives

So with that with that we're going i'm going over if we if they have four wins by if they have well Well, hold on. We get hold on five Yeah, we might be the one another one because now we're going to Fort Worth you're going into the board You see you first. I was they you're gonna take it on TCU No, yeah, no, then you're home to Iowa State. No, no, then you're at Utah Utah has to be better this year. No, so we're stuck at four, by the way, versus Arizona. Home to Arizona. Let's give them one, huh?

Five. Five, at West Virginia. I don't know. No. No, I think Rich Rod's gonna get that place cranked up, man. Coach Rich Rod, you know, what are they gonna be? Then home to Arizona State. By the way, the team that won the Big 12 last year

and went to the national playoffs. No. At Kansas State, one of the favorites that won the big 12 last year and went to the national playoffs no at kansas state one of the favorites to win the big 12 listen man fast start we're here at five we're hanging at five and the number six and a half to me mark damn listen it's all about the cohesion that we find like with colorado this this this Slater kid, he goes out, he has experience, you know, they ha he, he gets it going. You know, they get an offensive line that can protect the quarterback. They have a defense that can say, you're saying over. I'm not, I'm saying we don't know, man.

I'm saying we don't know. You paid to say no. Right. I'm going over cause I have faith in Dion. I feel like they're going to get this thing together. Let's just be honest, though. What is six and a half? I say six, seven wins. I think that's a good season for them right now.

I have you have lost your loss. Travis Hunter arguably the best player in college football recent. And then I just think their coaching staff, man, they have a lot of coaches with a lot of experience. They went and got Marshall Falk. They went and got D'Amato Pico, one of the D-line that I play with. So you've got this coaching trio experience and knows how to communicate with players. They've hit the transfer portal.

They went and got a quarterback. They trying to sharp this offensive line. They were last in sacks per game last year. So it's a lot of things that have to go right. But I think with the coaching staff, with the players, with the mindset and the strategy that Deion has, I feel like they're gonna get this thing going.

Let's just be realistic. Six or seven wins, that'll be a great season for Colorado this year. As long as they look the part, they're two deeps. If there's injuries that happen, they have two deeps that can go in there and still play formidable football. They're not, if they're running the football, not getting bullied in the trenches.

If they're protecting the quarterback, all those things. If they do those things, I feel like it'll be a successful season for Prime. Year three coach. Year three is always a tricky one. And with that spotlight, that always seems to find Coach Prime and the way he's gone about it with his kids with the program and winning the Heisman. This is probably going to be his, you think this is gonna be tougher than year one for him in Boulder?

I do because he's set a standard. Now it depends, once you hit a nine win, that's almost like, okay, let's, the crowd will probably start to thin out if they start losing and then you got some issues. They've been the talk of college football and the other thing I wanna point out is that this Colorado team, we don't know what it's gonna look like. We knew last year what it's gonna look like.

Travis Hunter, he had Chador, he had a certain look to it. This will be completely different. They don't have the transfer portal, the 40 guys, it's much less which I mean, you're reading it, that tells their stability in the program. When you start flipping 45, 50 players every year, I still don't know how that worked. But they did it. We gotta see. We gotta see.

So I'm with Mark on this. I think it's gonna be right around there. And it's amazing again, Vegas. Who in hell does that for Vegas? Because they are good. People who make way above our pay grade because they be right on it. I mean, because they know the backdrop.

There's a lot of, I remember when I was coaching, I'd hear stories like, how do they know that? So, by the way, if coach prime pulls it off, I think he needs to get his due. In the terms of his coaching chops. Yes. This is a, a credibility year for Deon's coaching. You lose Travis, you lose Shador, and now it ain't about Flash. It's about coaching.

It's about leadership. It's about teaching. It's about adjusting. Like I said, they have those coaches. So like, I got faith in them, but you know what I mean? It's not about Instagram clips. It's not about none of that. Not about celebrity power.

It's about can you get this team looking like a football team? That's going to be through coaching. It's not going to be through star power. It's going to be through building your roster, building the chemistry. And I have faith in Deion. I have faith in his coach staff that he's assembled. I think they're going to do it, man. So I'm looking forward to watching. I want to add one last thing, Mark, because I

got to go backstage of that whole scene. And I got to, and so did you. You met with the players. But I went to watch them practice. And it's as uncomfortable sometimes as I as when I see the watches and I see the cars and all the flash. That's just not me. But when I saw what went on behind the scenes,

I agree with you. There's a culture there. He is tough on a man. They're substance. He is demanding of that team. And that's what blew my mind. And I remember calling you guys. I said, guys, this is not a one in 10 program.

First of all, I saw Travis Hunter. And I said, whoa, you'd be an idiot not to see that one. But they had good looking players, they had fast receivers, and their coaching staff worked really hard. There was not a, the one way that I always evaluate a team and their staff, there's no waste of time.

They went out to work and they left. And in between those two hours, it was go time. I've left other practices like this is awful. Come on, let's go, let's go. There's substance in that program for sure. They're building man, yeah, there's substance. So that's why I believe in Colorado. That's why I believe in Prime.

It starts at the top, right? It starts with Coach Prime. He's had some health issues this off season as well. So Coach Prime, we're always thinking about you, one of our favorite human beings, not just in college football, but in general. So stay healthy, get healthier, be strong, Coach Prime. Get those wins, baby. Get those wins in year three. Everybody enjoy your 4th of July week. Stay away from people with flamethrowers and firecrackers in their back pocket. Make good decisions, people, especially my teenagers.

Follow, subscribe, rate us on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts, as well as across social media at 3XOptionShow. Thank you as always to our great sponsors, FedMGM, ZipRecruiter, Wendy's. Happy birthday America, enjoy your week guys. We love you, We love you, America. What you doing?