The Triple Option - Iowa State's Jimmy Rogers Joins, Can the NCAA Fix Tampering, NFL Combine, & The Bowden Tour

Episode Date: March 4, 2026

From cleaning cameras to how top avoid getting punched in the face by your wife, we have it all. Coach Urban Meyer and Rob Stone take you through offseason headlines discussing Coach Meyer's experience and disdain for the Bobby Bowden tour at Florida State that is being put on hold, the importance of a good strength coach for the combine and life in general as well as the possibility the NCAA can end tampering (don't hold your breathe). Then the new head man at Iowa State, Jimmy Rogers, joins the show and blows Coach Meyer's mind when he explains how you add 81 new players to a roster in a single offseason. They then discuss the transition and his relationship with former Cyclone head coach and current Penn State Head Coach Matt Campbell, his expectations in the Big 12, as well as coaching mentors. 01:23 Bobby Bowden Tour Over at Florida State 07:40 Ohio State Dominates the Combine 12:43 Can the NCAA End Tampering? 18:05 Jimmy Rogers, Iowa State Head Coach 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. Get yourself a $4 Biggie® Bites, $6 Biggie Bag®, or a $8 Biggie® Bundle. Now at Wendy’s. ⁠⁠⁠https://m-wendys.app.link/468biggiedeals⁠⁠⁠ #CollegeFootball #CollegeFootballPlayoff #CFP #IowaState #Cyclones #MattCampbell #FloridaState #OhioState #Tampering #NCAA #Clemson #OleMiss #SonnyStyles #NFLCombine #ArvellReese #BobbyBowden Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This should be good. Here we go. Is that better? Let's clean it all. Is everything nice? We care here at the triple option. I mean this today, Rob. Light it.

The triple option is presented by Wendy's. Get yourself a $4 biggie bite, $6 biggie bag, or an $8 biggie bundle now at Wendy's. Light it, coach. There's a lot on you this week, Coach. No marking. this week. Welcome to the triple option. He's Urban Meyer. I'm Rob Stone. Coming on and up, we're going to bring in Iowa State's new head coach, Jimmy Rogers. A Buckeye put up some

impressive numbers at the NFL Combine. A Bobby Bowden tradition coach hits pause at FSU. And did the NCAA just get serious on enforcement? Are we to believe this? Man, we got a lot to talk about. Coach. Thanks as always for joining us here on the Triple Option. Remember to rate, subscribe, send us questions. We're on social media 3X option show. And again, new episodes come your way on YouTube or wherever it is. You get your podcast. So let's fire things up with any given Saturday.

We're about 177 days until the new season kicks off. And one of the off-season traditions down in Florida, the Seminole Boosters Tour, a tradition that started under Bobby Bowden, where he would charm the locals, whether that was in Florida or the general area around Tallahassee. He would go around, talking up, hitting up donors, just kind of spreading the gospel of Florida State.

Well, they have decided that this spring, they're going to put a little pause on it. Coach, you used to curse those tours, didn't you? I did. Bobby Bowden, obviously, coached against him five times. Well, not obviously, but that's how long ago that was. Coach Bowden, his last five years were my first five years at Florida. And we became really good friends on the Nike trip.

And I would always say, what in the hell? Why do you do these? Because I had to do them. And Bobby Bowden, here's what he would do. He would show up, play golf all day, and then speak at night. And I'm like, coach, I'm recruiting. I have three children. You know, this is the time of year that you're supposed to.

It's usually in May. and he did it. And he loved it. They loved him for it. And that was called the grassroots tour that all SEC schools and really all ACC schools did. They didn't really do that much up north. And then I did 22 my first year. And I remember after we won a Natty, National Championship, me and the AD sat down and said,

I can't do that anymore. I mean, that's too much. 22, coach. That's a lot. And so we backed it down to eight or something like that. And, you know, you're flying all, you know, it was a. different time. That's how you sold tickets. You know, that's how you, there was no internet. There was no, that was the grassroots. That's how we're going to get out to the peoples.

And Bobby Bowden was the best, you know, to follow Bobby Bowden at those kind of things was awful. You know, Coach Bowden, you know, Coach Bowden was here all day and play golf and, you know, well, I'm not going to do that. You know, I got recruits to go see and all this other stuff. But for those that don't know, coach, Bobby Bowden was one of one. You know, when you were in, his, I don't know what, a 10-yard radius of him, you felt a presence. And once you heard him talk, it was like old school like going to the radio, right? Like, tell me more about this. You just want, it's like, it's grandpa, right? It's the grandpa so many of us wish we had. I could listen to Bobby Bowden all day. I was a little young buck reporter in Albany, Georgia.

So we were close enough to Tallahassee that we would hear about his speaking tours once in a while. We would go down and get some interviews. And you would just turn on. on the camera and just ask him one question and just let him go. You know, in 2005, I got invited to the Nike trip, and that was your, that was a right of passage, man. You got the invite to the Nike trip. You made it. And I remember Joe Peterno walking up and, you know, in his voice said, who's this Meyer guy

that's on the trip? And I said, well, Coach Petron, it's me. And then Bobby Bowden comes over and I'm sitting here going, wait a minute. I'm sitting with Bobby Bowden and Joe Petunner. I got a picture on my wall behind me, number one and number two, all time wins. and great people. So I would always, Coach Bowd and I would play golf every year, and I would sit and just pick his brain.

And then Joe Paterno would grab a glass of brown water, bourbon, and a book. He never opened the book, but he had it. Shirt off and go sit by the pool, and I'd always, every year, for many, many years, I'd go sit down next door for about three, four hours and just pick his brain. It was my two favorite parts of the Nike trip.

So, yes, Coach Bowden is one of one. One of one. So the fact that FSU's putting a pause on this, does that give you any concern if you're part of team Mike Norvell? Oh, there's a lot of concern. First of all, Mike Norvell is a dear friend where I'm not sure people know this, Rob, but he's 2 and O in the Peach Bowl challenge is my partner. You seem to bring that up often.

We, the two trophies, and they're big trophies. And I think we get like $50,000 for a charity in a great event with Gary. Stoke and lean at Peach Bowl. So I'm not sure that will impact his buyout or his season, but he is 2 and O in the Peach Bowl challenge, Rob. It would. Just for you to know that. Yeah, I know. I know you want to sneak that in. It would give me a little bit of a of a pause saying that maybe the Florida State public doesn't really want to hear from Coach Norville right now. Like, let's not put him in bad situations. That's true, but that was

their source of information years ago. So let's be real. Yes, they're struggling. He's really struggling. There's a lot of, you know, of course, there's a, they've been awful. But that's not the only reason. There's not many people do it anymore. You know why? You want source of information. You pull up Twitter or X or whatever you call that. So I can see, yes, there's a lot of who's going to go sit and pay money to be at an event and it's used to be a fundraiser for scholarships, I believe. But those days are done. We need to move on from them. Like it. Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything.

Like packing a spare stick. I like to be prepared. That's why I remember, 988, Canada's suicide crisis helpline. It's good to know, just in case. Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder anytime. 988 suicide crisis helpline is funded by the government in Canada. All right, coach, the NFL Combine was this past week. our guy, Sunny Stiles for Ohio State.

What a performance he put on. The comps, let's put it in perspective, all right? He measured in at 6 foot 5, so that's the same height as the great Calvin Johnson. 244, 3 pounds lighter than Derek Henry, 43.5 inch vert, the same as Nate Robinson's Maxvert. We got a 4.4640, same as Bejohn Robinson, and a 135-inch broad jump, same as Julio Jones. Those measurable seem to work.

That's probably going to help them come draft time in April. You were part of kind of the ground floor of building up strength and conditioning in college football programs, and you know more than most how important an elite strength coach is for your team and for the guys who want to play at the next level. Well, Tom Osborne is actually the first one ever, and that was the first. where they invested so much into the sports performance. What do they call it? Was it Husker Power? Oscar Power.

And I'm going to get in that magazine when I was in high school. And that changed my career because I started lifting before other people did. So, yeah, I was, we were one of the first that we, you know, elevated the strength coach to. And I actually, Mickey Marotti was my number two. Above the offensive coordinator or defense coordinator, something happened to me. I'm not there. Coach Mick is in charge. And there was no.

At first, I kind of started to do that at Florida. Then Jeremy Fuller, AD was, you know, he was fine with it because you love Mick, but that person should have that kind of power. Now, you better get the right one because you get the wrong one and you can see, I don't want to, you know, I don't know enough about it. But when you see programs fail, you see programs where people are getting hurt a lot, you see programs where they recruit well, but they don't make it in the NFL, bang, bang, bang, strength coach, strength performance team.

You know, those are the things. And Ohio State's got the best. I think the best that's ever done it. I'm biased, but the stats are pretty good. Matter of fact, the stats say he's the best. So I see that's become more of a trend. By the way, they're getting paid now, what they should be getting paid.

There was a time when they got paid nothing, nothing. And now they're getting paid the way they should. So when you see the performances of the Buckeyes, and there's a couple other strength coaches like that out there. You know, I know Mark Ingram talked about his train coach all the time. So there's certain programs that believe in that. They're the ones that stay healthy. They're the ones that perform well at the combine,

and they're the ones that look the part when they jog out of that locker room and play the part. When you talk about people on the staff who get face time, get real time with the players, how high is the strength and conditioning coach and their staff? Probably one. Yeah. A head of the head coach and ahead of the coordinator. Because all the other position coaches are exactly that.

They're positioned coaches. They're in with their guys. but the strength coaches and the trainer. I'll put the trainer and physical therapists. You know, at Ohio State, where the first one, I have a full-time physical therapist just for football. Full-time sports psychologist, just for football.

That's how much we believed in the... And that's caught on, and I think it should. What more is there invest in an athletic program? What do you want to build another pool? What do you want to build another indoor facility? Invest into players. And we were on the cutting edge of all that. What type of communication line were you wanting from them and allowing?

Yeah, direct. We had a sports performance team, and that was anybody who put their hands on a player, nutrition, equipment, academics, sports psychologists, the whole direct report to the sports performance team. Mick was in charge, but I always had a coach there, or I would be there at that once a week meeting serve I knew. And when you see the Buckeyes perform like this, that's not by accident. Take me through you looking at your phone when Mick calls or text.

Is it good stuff or scary stuff going through you? Most of it's really good stuff. You know, he would always laugh. I'd take that one week off in the summer, but it really wasn't off. And every morning I'd call him and call him probably seven or eight times a day, and he'd always laugh. Hey, how to go today? Who's in? How's he look?

How's the hamstring? How's this? You know, in 2014, we had the same starting line. lineup in August that we had in January, except for J.T. Barrett broke his leg. Yeah. How about that? There were no soft, there were zero soft tissue injuries that year. How does that happen? That's Mickey Marotti. And how are all these soft tissue issues happen with us now as we get a little bit more mature,

man? They just, they jump on us, man, don't think. You're a mess. I'm good. You don't even know the half of it, man. You don't even know about my soft tissue issues coach. Something that's not a soft tissue injury, but like a real injury in college sports, at least with our conversations of late tampering, right? We talked about it a couple weeks ago, the Clemson-O-Miss feud. Well, the NCAA trying to move swiftly now to punish tampering, they rolled out, coach, these proposed punishments, and it will be voted upon in April. Here they are, and I can't wait to hear your reaction. The head coach would be prohibited from all football.

That's recruiting, that's on-field coaching, and administrative duties like team meetings for six contests. Not one game, not two, for six. All right. So number one, if you're a head coach and you see that as a potential punishment for you, is that strong enough to deter you from trying to mess with the portal and do some tampering with some players? That's a real one. They nut it up. Now, let's see if they really do it.

I guess it's got to go through committee or some nonsense like that. So I'm proud of the NCAA. I'm not. I want to see this happen. Sure. Is six games legit for doing that? Yeah, and I would add one. If you mislead or lie to the investigators, you're done.

Your college coaching career is over. And your AD's done. So I would tie the AD into this as well, because there's been a couple examples where the head coach refused to meet with the NCAA. Well, the head coach reports to the AD. So how's that happen? Or you lie to the NCAA or you mislead them. You know, how's that happen?

And I understand there's show cause. And I still don't quite understand what show cause means, but your college coaching career is over if you do that. I like pulling in the athletic director concept to that, right? Just, hey, do your job. be on top of this. And if you're not, guess what? We're coming for you, too. It's not just your head coach. And you can claim that they're behind doors in another building, right? No, this is on you. This is on your watch. Other punishment that's being proposed, coach, the school would be fined

20% of its football budget. And just remember how important the football budget is to the athletic department's budget. 20%. That's a big number. I see that. And I've seen the fines and I've seen the vacate wins and all that nonsense, nonsense, nonsense, and that does not stop people from doing bad things. You want to stop someone from violating rules? You're finished. You will not coach six games, and if you mislead or lie to the investigators, you're done.

I don't understand why it's that hard. To the 20% part, though, does... Yeah, I think... Would that deter you enough? Not you. I'm saying, do you think that would deter the industry enough? No. The AD.

The idea. Coast doesn't give a shit. No, he's the old son donor or something. Once again, I don't know. But I know that if you're not coaching in games for six, for half your season. For six, yeah. That's a big number. And you should get paid for those six games, too.

There you go. I would come down so hard on the, I mean, I would, I'm hoping they do. I don't have any confidence. Let's hope they vote on it in a positive way. Who's voting as well, right? Who's voting? I don't have that answer. But hold on, here's more things they're going to be voting on.

The school would be required to reduce the number of roster spots by five for the next season. That's a minimal number. That's regardless of the head coach's employment status at the school. That's okay. That's whatever. Coach, do you feel like all these little, these rules that are potentially being put in place are going to do enough to stop tampering or at least put a pause on a lot of those? Only one. The first one, the coaching one.

six-game suspension. Now it's got a hold, and it's without pay, and you're not allowed around the program. Yeah, that'd do it. And swift punishment. Swift, too, right? It can't be three years from now, especially if you got it. Someone hands you text messages, and once again, we don't know exactly what happened because it's all hearsay, but what we've heard, and I don't know the coach at Ole Miss. I think this is Ole Miss. I can't remember. It stems from the Old Miss Clemson conversation. We had a couple weeks ago, for sure. but it's taking place throughout, right? We've talked to all kinds of coaches. We talked to Coach Signetti saying, sure, it happens, right? We deal with it all the time.

Well, let's see if it. It's a start, but let's see if they enact it come April. How much confidence do I have that this, I hope he come back to zero? Zero. Zero? You think zero as far as it gets executed and they go forward with these? Correct. Zero. That's how much confidence I have in the enforcement arm right now.

I'll go just under 50%. Just under 50. Really? Yeah. I'm an optimistic guy. You should know that by me. There's been nothing done in the last decade.

True, but now's the time. Now's the time. I feel like to your point, the NCAA is finally saying, we've been pushed around enough. We're taking hits from everybody. Everybody's swinging at us and laughing at us. Time to get in the wait room with Coach Mariani

and just get buffed up and get tough. That was the fresh take of the week presented by Wendy's. Get yourself a $4. biggie bite, $6 biggie bag, or an $8 biggie bundle now at Wendy's. Coming up next, we're going to head to Ames, check in with the new Iowa State head coach Jimmy Rogers, when the triple option presented by Wendy's returns. At Desjardin, our business is helping yours. We are here to support your business through every stage of growth, from your first pitch to

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Welcome back to the Triple Option presented by Wendy's Rob Stone, Urban Meyer. We are now joined by the brand new head coach at Iowa State, Jimmy Rogers, who has been on the job, according to my math, just around 89 days. How do you describe those first 89 days for you? A little bit of a world win. It helps that I had some experience in doing this just last year. But if you've combined this year and last year, it feels like a decade. I think I've watched said record for the most amount of players watched as far as recruiting in the country as far as the amount of players that we replaced.

two years on a team. Well, that brings me this question. Thanks for joining us, Coach, and we have such great respect for Iowa State and obviously your career. So the number was thrown out 81, and I just hit you with that a second ago, for an old guy that did it when you were signing 15,

maybe on a big year, maybe 22. And I was telling these guys a story yesterday when I'd be in a plane, a private jet, and I'd probably be in four to five states a day. just closing it up back in the day because I always thought you had to have dinner with the families and get to know them. But I actually talked to Division I wanted coach

and this is where my question to you is he said they're signing kids that they never met, that he never met. So he's putting his name, his reputation, his team, the state university on a handful of kids that he, you know, I was with him one day.

He goes, oh, look, I just signed a linebacker. And I'm like, I'm like, I'm wait, what? And you see, I never met the guy. and we signed them. So 81 players, you certainly didn't have 81 dinners, and you didn't have letters for these guys for two years and all that. How do you even go about signing 81 players? That's 53 just for the viewer.

53 Transfer Portal players and 28 freshmen is what I've heard. Yep. Yeah, we'll return 44 players from last year's team to this year's team. 28 freshmen, eight of those freshmen are currently mid-year enrollees and then the 81 transfers. Now, all of these transfers aren't people that it's not like I don't know them. Several of these players came with me from Washington State, just like my initial move from South Dakota State to Washington State. I had brought 29 players from South Dakota State with me to Washington State. And then there are many players that made this transition again with me when I came here.

And then obviously there's the relationships that we've had in the past with players that I've recruited or coaches on our staff have recruited that maybe we didn't get them in recruiting coming out of high school. And there was a prior relationship. As far as not had 81 meals with families, I've had 81 sit down one-on-one meetings for every kid that's come through this building, as well as every player that left the building. I had the opportunity to meet the current team that was maybe different this year than it was last year. I had the opportunity to sit down with our players one-on-one for 45 minutes to an hour and figure out the positives of Iowa State and things that they've liked. things that they enjoyed, things that they would want to see change, and then just their overall feel if they were going to be entering the transfer portal or not. They were great.

Many had decided to leave and go to Penn State or, you know, look for another home elsewhere. But I feel like we got the right group of guys to stay, guys that were passionate about staying here and continuing their career here at Iowa State. And then I'm excited about the guys that we were able to bring in. I know it's somewhat crazy to even. think about putting together a team with 81 new players at the end of the day. And I know nobody likes to hear this. This is the modern era of college football.

And I think the more that it happens, the more the players are accepting of transfers coming in. And it's not seen as a big deal. I'm a little bit. I would never like to do this again. I like recruiting high school players and developing them through, you know, and molding them from start to finish. You know, there was a, our guys heard, or there was a story that you had a, you have a decent relationship with the previous Iowa State coach, Matt Campbell that went to Penn State, and you guys actually had communication about when guys were leaving, and which, you know, it's fairly unusual. When I replaced a coach, usually I said hi and thank you, and, you know, hey, wish you all, wish you the best and all that stay in touch.

But there were never the open portal like it is now. So tell us about your relationship with Matt Campbell and was there a cooperation between. the both of you. Yeah, I've known Coach Campbell for years, just having come up here when I was at South Dakota State. I spent a decade of my coaching career coming up here for prospect camps, and they were always really welcoming to allowing visiting coaches to come in and see the recruits. So our relationship has grown, and it's not that we're best friends by any means, but he's always been open and honest. And I knew a lot of the other coaches. that had left, I would say the collective group, they didn't want to see Iowa State,

you know, go to shambles. But honestly, and nowadays, they have to deal with what I've had to deal with here. So knowing who could be leaving or which players that they would want to ask to come with them was pivotal because it allowed me to kind of understand the numbers at every position group that I would have to be replacing and think out ahead of, okay, this player says that he's open to hearing us out, but he's really out the door already. It allows us to have a bigger scope of the amount of players that we were willing to accept through the transfer portal as far as looking for the next group of players rather than just cutting it off and saying, well, we got one and then figuring it out right before the portal closes that we just

lost one. And now we're not looking at the best group of quality players that we could bring in. Before I turn this over to Rob, so I'm just trying to visualize. So every coach has a room. Rob, just so, you know, that's their recruiting room plus their roster. I imagine that's still the way it is, where you would have your quarterbacks and everybody wants four to five quarterbacks. If you get stuck with two or three or you lose a tailback, do you simply go to the, is there, you go to a portal and say, okay, what's the net, and start calling and start what, and then you go, start going down a list.

Is that how, and then someone's already watching that tape, maybe the position coach, take us, because I'm still mesmerized, but how, how this transaction takes place. Yeah, our recruiting staff does a great job. It's led by our GM, but we have a recruiting staff member assigned to every single position group as well as the position coach, especially when you're replacing this amount of numbers. The position coach is really involved in this. You know, I would say the hardest thing and the most unique thing is when our coaches are needing to call agents. I would say that is really unique because that doesn't happen in the NFL. So yeah, we put together a list.

We start to see what positions or, you know, what running backs say are out there. We put together a list and then we start watching their film and our recruiting staff will create a cut-up. A cut-up is the good, the bad, the ugly, as well as trying to do as much research on the individual as possible. So before we took a kid, there was like probably three to five calls to people that we knew that maybe were at their prior. stop or their high school coach and just try to get a feel of who the kid was and what type of player in person he was. You can have all the talent in the world, but if you're not the best worker or not a great teammate or kind of just go through the motions, that's not any player that we want to add here. So there's a lot of research that's done prior to the kid.

And then there's watching the film and saying, is he going to fit the scheme? Is this kid good enough to play here and will he impact us? And then trying to see if that kid's now interest. that obviously you got to hit a range these days as far as what the kid is going for, like he's going rate, and then filtering through the agents of what is BS. Going rate. The reality is, yeah. We're really talking about this, aren't we?

We really are. Coaches calling agents and what's the going rate? That just came out of your mouth. I know it. I know it is. I'm just, yeah. So on the flip side, what has been the sales pitch to come to Ames and be a cyclone?

I think honestly that they were going to get authentic, genuine leadership and that the best players will play. A lot of these players that we've brought in, it's very similar to my trip from South Dakota State to Washington State. I look for players that had a certain edge to them that felt like they had something to prove. You know, when you look at the bulk of our players that we've taken in, a lot of these guys, if they came from the lower ranks, they were really like a higher profile type player in All-American and All-Conference player with a ton of snaps. Some of these guys are young as far as like a freshman All-American. I thought there was a ton of upside in that, especially coming from certain FCS schools that I knew were good programs that taught their guys the right things and were about substance. And then there was a lot of players that came for maybe a higher profile power for school that had a ton of reps,

but maybe didn't always start, but there was enough film and proof there that I could say that they're going to add value to the team, and they would have the opportunity to compete and push to be a starter. I promise nothing ever to any recruit other than the fact that the coaching could have. You know, give our best to them and push them to develop to be the best player in person that they could possibly be. But I think when people, when I speak to the players,

they realize that I'm not full of it because I keep it real with them. I keep it real with their parents. I promise nothing other than the opportunity to come in and play at Iowa State if they're deserving of it because they do the right things. Real quick on a personal note, so nine times, Coach, I moved and my wife, I guess I didn't realize I did it, but I guess those big three words, power of attorney, I never looked at a house, never looked at a house, never bought a house, never moved. from a house and never went to closing, Rob. So I'm imagining you've had, your wife is going to punch you right in a face the last three years.

So have you told her, okay, are you buying selling? What are you doing? Are you renting or what's going on? You know what? We bought in Pullman, Washington. I love the house too, but I'm still trying to sell it. And right now we're renting because we're going to build here. I expect to be here.

I plan to be here. I'm going to work to be here. She hasn't punched you in the face. I'm looking at you. You know what? My wife is from South Dakota. So when I brought her to Washington, it was a little bit of a culture shock. And now bring her here back to Iowa.

My kids were ecstatic about the move, just getting closer to the grandparents and their cousins. So it's a real good fit for us. I mean, where we're from is only four hours away. So it's drivable. And, yeah, it's been good. Coach, I'm fascinated about football in the Dakotas, right? And I know you're a South Dakota state guy, but we hear more and more conversation about football programs

in both of those great states. So what is coaching in the Dakota's like and how is it strengthened? How has it shaped you? Yeah, I would say, just like Iowa, there's not a professional sport to it. You are the professional sport and all the players. You know, it's grown in my time there.

South Dakota State has grown surely. It's been a place where you were able to get a really good player in there, and then we were able to start winning, and then we were starting to beat some group of five, group of six schools in recruiting, and we were finding maybe not the high-profile star player, but we were finding people that love football, that wanted to be a part of something bigger than themselves,

and they came in and worked their butts off, and we committed to them, and they committed to us. And over the years, we've, you know, both South Dakota State and North Dakota State, we've been able to push and develop a lot of really talents of players that have gone on to have great careers in the NFL. And I think it really starts with having relationships with the players more than anything else because some of those players learn maybe slower that maybe if they did it, if they would have went to a higher profile school, maybe they got pushed out. And through years of, you know, development and grace, they were able to develop to be the best that they could possibly be and develop the habits to have success in the NFL and then stay in the NFL. They're littered in the NFL right now.

I'm proud to say I was a part of that. That's what I'm trying to do right now here at Iowa State. Let's talk a little bit about coaching trajectory that we discussed this yesterday as a pre-call. But when I was a young coach, it was you go to the biggest school you possibly could. you try to become a coordinator if you can, and then you go to a Mac, a Mount West, a Western Athletic Conference, and then you try to move up your way up.

I always felt like the smaller school, 1-A-A-I-I-Think it used to be called, or the, they never, and there were great coaches there. I always felt that way, but they never would seem to get this shot, and then you got the Signetti factor, obviously, what just happened at Indiana. You got your movement.

You know, there's Oklahoma State, Auburn, UCLA, Iowa State, and Florida all took coaches from the smaller conferences or even the, I guess, I'm going to call it 1-8 because I'm so old. FCS. FCS. So do you see a change? And it's a positive change because I always felt, I mean, damn. When I was in the Mac conference coach, that was the hardest coach.

It was the hardest conference of coaching because everybody was the same. You didn't have the advantages. You know, every school when they jogged out on the field, coaching was a difference because there wasn't the big talent difference that you see in some of these conferences. Yeah, I would say watching the NFL, watching FBS football, watching FCS football, and then Division 2 and Division 3, even to high school,

you know, you see more exotic things and more unique things that maybe haven't hit the highest level. At the higher levels, you see a really standardized play than kind of really how you see the NFL. I would say the schemes aren't as exotic at the FBS level or in the NFL. You see more nuances and wrinkles probably at the lower levels because they have to find ways and be creative to utilize every player on their roster. They may not be better physically across the board up front.

So, yeah, you know, for me, I always, it wasn't a lot of, about trying to get to the next big school. I've had a lot of opportunities to go up a level. And after a while, people are starting to think I was nuts because I never left. And it's always been about where, you know, be where my feet are at and try to give my best, the players of which I coach. And I would end up having enough success to try to be able to take my pickings rather than take a job to try to hope to get to the next job. Actually, I've turned down jobs because I've had head coaches tell me, in the hiring process.

Like, it's not about this job, Jimmy. It's about the next one. And I just thought, you're going to lose. And I didn't take those jobs. And lucky enough, those coaches were fired that season. And that wasn't a part of that. So I think it's about being present. And just, if you get into coaching for the right reason,

it's not about a dollar. And it's not about really the level in what you do it at. It's more about how can you impact and how can you create the best, competitive team that you possibly can year and a year out. Coach Rogers, we like to let our guests have an opportunity to ask us a question here on the Triple Option. So you've got a Hall of Fame coach that you're on the line with right now. You get an opportunity to ask Urban Meyer one question. What is it, Coach? I would say what is maybe the most influential person in your life throughout the coaching

journey and why? What experience did you have with that person? And how did you learn maybe the most from that person? Yeah, humbly, I say that I had two mentors that were like fathers, Lou Holtz, who's not doing well. He's in hospice care as we speak. I went and saw him recently and my wife got really emotional because without Coach Holtz, he hired me at Notre Dame in 1996. And then there was a guy named Earl Bruce.

It was Woody Hayes protege that became like he hired me as a young coach at Colorado first as a graduate assistant in Ohio State. and I followed them to Colorado State, but they were always on speed dial, and they, you know, they were the kind of people that weren't much about patting on the back, but it was always about how to get better. And that's the way I was raised.

I didn't really surround myself with the bobbleheads or the people that, you know, that I want to get better. If you're going to come watch practice, in which I used to have a ton of friends come, you know, in the profession, and the one rule is they had, you can watch practice. but you're going to write a report and how we can get better. You know, we don't have much time for the hugs and all that other stuff, make us better.

And what I always found out, Coach, there's always a better way to do it. You're going to come across someone in your journey and you're like, damn, why didn't I think of that? And it's going to make your team better. So that's be my encouragement to you. And that's what I did. And certainly Lou Holtz and Earl Bruce did that hundreds of times of my career. Coach Rogers, who are your mentors right now at this stage in your coaching career? Yeah, I would say the people that I've always called for guidance.

It'd be John Stiglemyer, the prior head coach at South Dakota State. And then I've always, you know, when I needed them, called for advice from Clark Lee. I played for Clark Lee. Clarkley's first full-time position job at 25 was at South Dakota State University. and he's kind of, yeah, he's kind of when I watched him as a young coach, although at the time he presented himself like a 40-year-old man, he gave me so much as far as, man, this is what coaching looks like at a really high level, the detail in which he coached us, the preparation that went into it,

and I've tried to always carry myself in that sense as far as how we've prepared our players. And as I've developed, I've started to tone back. so much of the extreme of just allowing our players that think less and play fast. So, yeah, but he was a big part of why I wanted to get into coaching. And then over the years, just I've been with one head coach for a long time. I played for John Stiglemyer. And then I coached underneath them. I was at South Dakota State for 19 years.

So to be around that type of person, you know, I catch myself nowadays, almost acting like him is almost like I'm acting like how you start to act. in pick up things like how your father did. And now I know more now about why he did what he did being a head coach than I did while I was watching him do these things. And I thought, why is he do this? But now I know why because I guess myself doing some of those things. Nice.

Coach Rogers, we wish you the best of success in Ames this year. Hopefully we'll see you on Big Doon kickoff. Thanks for the time. Thanks for joining us this week. And that does it for the triple option. Remember to follow, subscribe, rate us on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever it is you get podcasts. We are on social media at 3X option show. And as always, thanks to our wonderful sponsor, Wendy's.

We'll see you next time on the Triple Option.