The Triple Option - Michigan vs the NCAA, Distractions at UNC, and Tennessee Vols 2025 Preview

Episode Date: May 7, 2025

Is two games enough? Michigan is about to find out. Urban Meyer and Rob Stone react to Michigan suspending head coach Sherrone Moore for the third and fourth game of the 2025 season in an effort to show the NCAA they take the sign stealing scandal from 2023 seriously. In the end, where does the blame lie? Coach Meyer's answer may shock you. Year one in Chapel Hill for Bill Belichick has mainly produced storylines off the field. Coach and Rob discuss the distractions at UNC around Belichick's girlfriend Jordon Hudson and if the media is blowing it out of proportion. Finally, the guys take a look into the BetMGM Crystal Ball and predict what Vols fans can expect from a Nico-less Tennessee squad. Coach gives his advice for when the new QB should be named after overseeing many a quarterback battle. 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® flavor today with choices like Brownie Batter, Strawberry and Caramel Swirl. Get one now! https://m-wendys.app.link/frostyswirl25    Thank you to our additional sponsors BetMGM It's the NBA Playoffs! With Bet MGM’s Second Chance Promotion, you’ll get your stake back in cash if your First Field Goal Scorer, scores second instead. That’s right. Simply bet on any player  to score the first field goal during ANY playoff game. If you’re right,  you win! But, if your pick scores second instead of first, you get your  stake back in cash. Grab the chance at getting your  stake back at Bet MGM. See Bet MGM dot com for Terms. This US promotional offer not available in DC, Mississippi, New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER, available in the U.S. For New York, call 877-8-HOPE NY or text HOPE NY (467369). For Arizona, call 1-800-NEXT-STEP. For Massachusetts, 1-800-327-5050. For Iowa, 1-800-BETS-OFF. For Puerto Rico, 1-800-981-0023. For West Virginia, visit www dot 1 800 gambler dot net. Subject to eligibility requirements. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Coach, just remind me what you said about Tennessee a couple of weeks ago with Nico left. They're screwed. Screwed. And I'm going to say it again. You can become unscrewed real fast. And then Nico's out signing autographs in Westwood. The Lakers and the Clippers had playoff games, coach.

He's busy. Get your butt in the huddle, man. Let's go. Light it. Welcome to another edition of The Triple Option presented by Wendy's. Find your new favorite frosty flavor today with choices like brownie batter, strawberry, and caramel swirl. Rob Stone, three-time NCAA national champion winning head coach. Urban Meyer here with you this week. As always, thanks for joining us. Love to have you. Please rate, subscribe at Apple

Podcasts, Spotify, wherever it is you find your podcast. You can find us on social media, 3X option show. New episodes coming your way every Wednesday on YouTube and wherever you find your podcast. So the NFL draft, the spring transfer portal window. Coach, we've moved on from it. Guess what? Plenty to talk about in college football again Again, we will discuss what exactly is going on in Chapel Bill. We're gonna take a look at the NECOLUS Tennessee Volunteers early season outlook, but let's begin in one of coach's favorite places to travel, Ann Arbor. And coach, this is gonna be an interesting conversation because we all understand your ties to Ohio State. A lot of people forget though,

the immense respect you have for that program. And we're gonna get into that. And there's a lot going on in Ann Arbor right now. So I'm gonna do my best to kind of catch everybody up, the short list of what's happening. So just the other day, Head Coach Shrone Moore, essentially offered to be suspended for two games for the upcoming season

as part of self-imposed sanctions by the university for the whole Conor Stallion's advanced scouting scandal. This is per multiple sources. The suspension, Curious, would be for weeks three and four against Central Michigan and Nebraska. It would allow more to coach week one versus New Mexico and week two at Oklahoma, his alma mater. The background, if you will. August 24, notice of allegations. The NCAA cited Michigan for 11 violations. Six of them deemed level one known as the most serious. The school and the NCAA working toward a resolution. The hearing is set for early June. More suspension, this two-game suspension that again that they are offering ties back to allegations that he deleted a thread of 52 text messages with Conor Stallions. But there's more. COVID recruiting

violations. You go back to April of 2024. The school put on a three-year probation. Harbaugh given a one-year NCAA ban and four-year show cause. Jim Harbaugh, three-game suspension at the beginning of the 23 season for that as well. There'd be another suspension later. Jesse Minter, one-year show cause. DB coach, two-year show cause, half-year suspension if he does return to college football. Sharon Moore, remember, suspended first game of the 2023 campaign when he was an offensive coordinator. Connor Stallions, the sign stealing scandal. He resigned in 23 in November of 2023. Harbaugh suspended final three regular games of 23 by the Big Ten. The Big Ten did that and did return though for the Big 10 title game. The college football playoffs,

which they went on and won linebacker coach in season destroyed some evidence according to finding Sharon Moore. Again, the latest news of this coach is. He and Michigan's saying coach more offering to be suspended two games in this upcoming season. There's a lot to digest.

Again, this is not piling on on the maze in blue. This is just to digest. Again, this is not piling on on the maize and blue. This is just the facts. This is what is out there and this is what's out there for now. So let's flashback, Coach, season and a half or so ago when the Coach Stallions news broke, you and I were in Happy Valley getting ready for Michigan, Penn State, and Jim Harbaugh is literally finding out as they're landing on the tarmac that the Big Ten has suspended him. We do Big Noon kickoff the next day and your initial reaction was what? My initial reaction was pump the brakes and I like where you started though saying that this is not piling on and sure as you're the head coach at Ohio State, you dislike the Wolverines. I grew up on a high estate fan, but I've said this many times and I fight many and say, name a person has more respect for the Wolverines than Urban

Meyer, and I don't know if there's that many and how do you show respect for someone you work your butt off every day? Because you got respect for the players, the coaches, and the program. So, we were in state college and all of a sudden it was like wildfire. We're hearing accusation after accusation and I've experienced it, my staff experience, I've had friends experience accusations that you scratch your hand and say, that is not true. There were many analysts across all different networks that were piling on saying, you know, and I said, pump the brakes.

You know, first of all, find out if it's true. I would not even comment. And I remember even Fox, our producer asking, do you want to be more strong on that? And I said, I don't because what if it's not true? And what I was reading was, you know, when I first heard, you know, coach dressed up on assistant coach, or a member of the staff was on the sideline on a opposing on on

another staff dressed up like an assistant coach videotaping from the I was like that that's not true. There's no way that happened. It has Hollywood stuff against mission state. That's make believe it. Yeah. And then that they would send people to games to videotape. And I even had pop up people at Fox. Remember a couple of our colleagues. So everyone does that.

I'm like, remember the argument I look, I said, everyone does what that they go to games and they videotape the sidelines. That's a flagrant virulation. So I was the person I'm going to do a little bit of that today too. Let's pump, let's find out what's happening. However, you are in relatively unprecedented waters here, Rob. This is when, when you, as you were reading this and I was going back in my career, almost 40 years in college football, and I'm just reading all these.

And I was like, wait a minute, you got coaches that can't coach anymore in college. You know, you got a lot of stuff here and I guess, did you say in June is when the, when the hammer drops? Is that, is that the word? Yeah, June 6th and 7th, the committee on infractions, the COI will have their hearing and we will know more about that. You know, what's interesting about that coach is, you know, Sharon Moore and Michigan are essentially offering, you know, to fall on the sword for two games. That's not the guaranteed punishment, right? The NCAA is going to tell you what the punishment is.

It doesn't have to be those two games. And it doesn't have to be those two games that Michigan is offering as well. So this to me, coach, it's a lot like probably buying a car, buying a house. You want to put in a low ball effort, right? But you got to be careful that you don't want antagonize and you don't want to embarrass the seller, right? You want to get out of there with a price where you feel like, Hey, I still got a little bit of a deal, right? And I think Michigan is throwing Sharone Moore out there saying, hey, we'll set this one out two games, NCA, we got it. We're, we're, we're tight. We understand that there was some, right. That's something out there is true. What that is, we don't know, but that is their,

their way of saying, okay, our bad, we're going to, we're going to step in. No need, no need to handle this guys. We got it internally, we'll take these two games. NCAA- That's exactly what's going on, Rob. Doesn't have to play that way at all. And be careful, you don't want to embarrass the person who is your seller. The NCAA holds the chips right now.

And for all the power that has seeped through their hands lately, it's the NCAA in early June, coach, that is gonna come down with whatever it is that they decide needs to happen punishment wise to Michigan. Well, I want to focus on that for a minute because I actually flew up to Indianapolis a couple of times and met with the head of the NCAA. They wanted, you know, I was in a conference, the SEC, that there was accusation after accusation

of a lot of nefarious things going on in the recruiting world. Once again, a lot of it wasn't proven, a lot of it was hearsay. But the NCAA is to blame for a lot of this. Obviously, those who commit the activity, the illegal activity, and that's what it is. I'm not by law, but according to the laws of the NCAA. And I would come out pretty strong and say that, do you realize a template was actually set twice

by the NCAA, Rob, twice? And here's what happened. When I played college football, and early in my career, steroids and sports performance drugs were all over the place. You know what the NCA said? And was the right decision. They said, if you do that, you're done playing sports.

That sport, not for a game, not for two games, not like the marijuana. It used to be a marijuana, you know, was up to the school. This was not up to the school. If you got caught with steroids and performance enhancing drugs, you know, what happened, it just, it went away because the risk reward for an athlete was don't do that. Or my career is over. Is that mean steroids are completely out of football? I'm sure there's, I didn't see it. We tested all the time.

The answer we would talk about it every year. And I saw the reaction to the players. You get caught, Rob one time you're done playing. It's over. It disappeared. Des Bryant. Oh, nine suspended for the remaining nine games of his junior year for lying to the NCAA about some interactions. Okay, say that again. He got caught lying to the NCAA. Lying. And there was swift effect is punishment. You want the

punishment was you're done. And I brought that up several times at the AFCA. I brought that up at the NCAA. If you lie as a college football coach to the NCAA, in my personal opinion, you're finished. You're done. That's not making a text message. That's not, you know, going to lunch someone with you're not supposed to go to lunch with.

That's not, uh, you send a letter when you're not supposed to, you know, all the frivolous division or, uh, what are the level threes and all that nonsense. But when they got you and they said, did you do this and they refused to cooperate or they refused or they lie in my very strong opinion, you're finished coaching in division one college football or basketball, whatever sport, this what happens. The risk now is too high. And I don't think you ever see this kind of stuff again. I've said that before.

Does Bryant, why was that? Why is Des Bryant treated more harshly than coaches that maybe lie to the NCA? I've asked that question many times. If this guy's not telling the truth, why is he coaching? He's done. Yeah. You're finished. I know this is gonna, you're finished coaching if you lie to the NCAA. How about a rule book? Right? Like how these sanctions and rules are coming down feels very, you know, to use a youth

term like willy nilly, right? It should be, here it is, statue A, lie out. I don't personally believe the NCAA will ever do this because they'll get litigated, it'll be outrageous, I don't believe it'll happen. And that's the problem. But if you put a rule in a rule book, 1A, 1A in the rule book, and says if you do not tell the truth, if you lie to the the NCAA your career is over in college football So again, this is not piling on Michigan. This is kind of more of a Because you know what? They're not the only ones in the last few years for sure for sure which brings me to this point So we did our research coach and and we found two programs that you know

Relatively recently have gone through some problems some level one infractions that relatively recently have gone through some problems, some level one infractions. Tennessee under their head coach, Jeremy Pruitt, Arizona State when Herm Edwards was in charge. Both of those punishments to those programs, to those head coaches included, I know this is gonna trigger response and you get to it in a second,

vacating wins, probation, and a self postseason ban that was done by Arizona State. To the coaching community, vacated wins. Those wins have been vacated. Your response is? Everyone starts laughing. Yeah, there's, vacate what wins? Seven years ago, six years ago, four years ago,

you know, that has no impact on, you know, that's the risk reward. You can vacate all the wins you want. Now, obviously this discussion will come up. Now, you start vacating wins from a national championship season, that's a problem. But I think Tennessee had some wins vacated, if I remember right, maybe Arizona State

and the teams weren't very good. So who cares? The risk reward is in full effect there. That means there's no risk and a great reward, I guess, if you do the things they're doing. So you hear the word vacated wins? Everybody rolls their eyes in college sports. You know, the other thing that gets people rolling their eyes is the punishments coach that get handed down more times than not, they're impacting the players, the program

in the present moment, not the ones who committed the infraction, right? If there's gonna be, even if you're vacating wins, that's still gonna hurt, that's gonna tarnish the shield, if you will, of that program. It's gonna make transfer portal opportunities slimmer, right? It's gonna have players thinking about, well, wait a second, I don't get a chance

to play in a bowl game, maybe I need to get out of here and go somewhere else. It always feels like it's the current generation that gets dinged rather more than the people that actually have these infractions. So we got to get these penalties right. And the NCAA hasn't gotten a lot right. And they've obviously been muted in their powers as of late. It shouldn't be subjective. I think rule 1A in the rule book should be same for a player, same for a coach. You lie to the end. People make mistakes, Rob. This is not... Sometimes you have people... I had a guy in the staff that went rogue,

that did some things that I'm like, wait, what happened? You can't understand everything. However, when it's time to bring it to the head, say, wait, what happened? You know, you can't understand everything. However, when it's time to bring it to the head, say, wait, what happened? And the NCA comes in and said, this is what happened. Help us here, cooperate, and we'll get to the end of it. And if you say we're not going to cooperate and they lie. Once again, I keep pushing that because I, I say that because I know it won't happen. I think the NCA has lost a lot of its claws, a lot of its power.

And not that it had a lot of power because, and I understand it, they get litigated, the Tom Mars, that attorney, he's going to get a phone call and he's going to say, help us sue the NCA. And somehow it all, you know, I don't know. It bothers me because I just wish there was a clean cut rule and you had it twice, Rob, You had it. The steroid era was over and the player lied to the NCAA. And I remember that was, I use that every year with our players and our staff. I said, you know, once again, people make mistakes when it's time. You got to collaborate with the NCAA. you got to collaborate with the NCAA. You know, what I find interesting also, coach, is the fact that we talk about the NCAA being

declawed as of late. They have an opportunity right now to spring those claws back and say, hey, you know what, let's stick out our chests a little bit more. Let's be this, this presence of authority and security and discipline. And they've got, I'm not, they've got a great opportunity if that's what they want to do. And if's fair, and if that's what this program or the staff or these coaches deserve. Let's be honest also, I don't think we know all of the information that's out there. I don't think. I know we don't know all the information. You can imagine the flood I received today from, and a lot of it's Ohio State people.

Of course, I coached there for a long time. But you have to, once again, stop. I keep telling to, of course that's, that's, I coached there for a long time. And, but you have to, you know, once again, stop. I keep telling everybody, stop, stop. That's what these people have been working on for a couple of years. It's, it is amazing to me that how long it takes as well. You know what happens the minute you say that if you lie to the NCA, it's over. Immediately when you hear something, you go in and meet with a coach and say, is this going on?

If they, and you say before that, say, now I'm going to ask you a question and you're on tape recording here. If you lie to us, your career is over. You can't coach anymore. You know how fast investigations go if that's the case, as opposed to, I'm not talking to you. Well, you got to talk to me. So, here's the question that people are going to ask you, us, me, and one that the NCAA has to ask as well, depending just how serious these allegations end up being as far as the truth factor. Should the 2023 national championship be taken away from the University of Michigan?

Yeah, I've been blown up all morning about that. I say pump the brakes, I don't even go there. blown up all morning about that. I say pump the brakes. I don't even go there. You know, I don't, I think, you know, whenever I had, whenever, when you start seeing about coaches that can't coach, you know, you went through this and you see the word show cause, show cause in my understanding means you can't coach if someone wants to hire you, you're not allowed to coach.

So obviously there's some stuff there, but once again, I defer until everything comes out. And I hope it does. I hope everything comes out. And so at some point you can move pathos because this is like a black cloud that's been hanging for a while. For sure.

It gets more and more curious coach when you start doing some back math, I'll call it. You know, Coach Harbaugh leaving the program to go to the NFL when a lot of people, probably non-Michigan people, but obviously there are so many intelligent Michigan people that say, there's a bit of a cloud, bit of a cloud developing over us, right?

And now the news just the other day that the really respected president of the University of Michigan, President Ono, who was just a huge athletic supporter, still is, is seriously considering leaving Ann Arbor and going to the University of Florida. You know, there's that cloud. There's that cloud up there. And if you're a Michigan fan, a Michigan player, a Michigan coach, I think it's time to deal with whatever that cloud is. If it's going to rain, let it rain. If it's going to clear up and sun's going to come back in Ann Arbor, let it do it. But let's get ourselves in a position to finally move on. If you're Michigan, let's find out what our deal is

and let's move on. Again, the Committee on Infractions hearing taking place June 6th and 7th. That's when we will know more about the fate of Michigan and the fate of Sherone Moore this season. Coming up next, we're going to talk the University of North Carolina. The Tar Heels have been providing a lot of conversation and distractions in this. Bill Belichick's first spring in Chapel Hill. We'll talk about that next when the Triple Option presented by Wendy's returns. Welcome back to the Triple Option presented by Wendy's. Urban Meyer, Rob Stone back here with you. Coach, Bill Belichick has been making some

noise down there in Chapel Hill. Chapel Bill, as they call it right now. Certainly not for the reasons that we were anticipating. I mean we're talking about a legend going to the college ranks to try to build North Carolina back up to a powerhouse and instead all the conversation is about his partner, his girlfriend, Jordan Hudson, the 24 year old who is changing the Jordan brand conversation in Chapel Hill from Michael Jordan to Jordan Hudson. The latest, she interrupted a CBS interview when her boyfriend, Coach Belichick, was asked how they met. That certainly brought some unwanted attention

to the school. Coach Belichick has asked the University of North Carolina staff to copy Jordan on every email they send to him. She's rumored to be involved in stopping HBO's hard knocks from coming to Chapel Hill, which in hindsight, looking at everything that's going on right now, might be a blessing in disguise. And her email signature identifies her

as the chief operating officer of Belichick Productions. You know, listen, if you're a late night comedian, you've got a lot of fodder from just the fact that this is a 73 year old man dating a 24 year old woman. Listen, everybody's got their own private life. They do what they want to do. This has nothing to do about their relationship as boyfriend, girlfriend, or whatever it is in Chapel Hill. But this does bring up some real curious questions of what exactly is happening with coach Belichick and with the North Carolina program just a couple months under his tenure. This is not at all like this is not from the Belichick to do list.

This goes against everything that we saw and learned from him in his days with the Patriots. It does. I mean, here's a guy that had ultimate control over the best franchise in the NFL, arguably the greatest dynasty, no, the greatest dynasty in the history of the National Football League. And coach Belichicko Gudana is arguably the greatest, one of the, certainly one of the greatest to ever do it. I had the good fortune of being with coach many, many times

at Florida and even Ohio State. And then he invited me up to New England a couple of times, went to practices and absolute ultimate control. It was amazing to watch. You go to North Carolina and what coach Belichick does in his personal time, that's his business. However, when it's, you know, you start talking about representing North Carolina and, you know, on air, that became a, you know, like like as you said, some fodder out there that I can tell you

this, that there's everybody in Chaplain wants to go play that first game and let the coach coach, let the players play. Unfortunately, there's a lot of time until that happens. Yeah. Monday, September 1st cannot get here soon enough. That's when they opened up their campaign versus TCU and, you know, spring camp concluded, we should be talking about, you know, what they've done in the transfer portal. Who's the quarterback?

I don't know. Do you know who the quarterback is? Who's gonna be the quarterback? They just brought in a really talented, I think it's Gio Lopez that they're hoping it's gonna be, but it's an open campaign. Like these are the things that we should be talking about, Coach.

And unfortunately, we're talking about a legend who appears to have lost control. And if you're the UNC fan base, if you're the alumni out there, if you're the administration, this is a tough spot. Like I get the feeling that if it was maybe some other person, not named Bill Belichick, that's the head coach, come into the office. We need to talk. We need to sort this out. But with Bill, it feels like it's gotta be

some different rules going on in Chapel Hill. Yeah, and you made a comment that he's lost control. I would probably push back on that Rob. I'd say, no, he's not. What are you talking? I know coach, but there's absolutely zero probability. This was an interview that somehow went rogue. It became a topic of all headline.

Coach, I believe put out a statement explaining the situation. It should be over and move on. So once again, I think I know in my life from time as well, the media grabs a hold of stuff and it doesn't, you know, just nonstop. So I would push back and say, no, absolutely not. It has a lost control. It just became a topic of conversation. I would imagine more outside of UNC than inside I'm saying

that because once again I've seen stuff in my career and and friends careers like what are you talking about that's not a non-issue here but the media has made an issue so I'd push back a little bit on lost control you don't think he's lost control I mean he has this this young lady that is now professionally and personally in his life that is making or Appears to be making major decisions. I would say major I would say decisions about not going on hard knocks You know, she apparently she got herself involved in that conversation. Once again, that's all speculation 100% 100% I get it, but there's a lot of those there's a lot of those that are coming out

There's a lot of smoke that's coming out of Chapel Hill right now, which usually means there's some type of fire. And we're talking about it. And we're talking about it, and we're talking about it for the wrong reasons. We should talk about what an opportunity this is for the University of North Carolina with one of the most esteemed coaches the sport has ever produced is coming to Chapel Hill and wants to be a part of you and build you back up. Coach MacBrown is somewhere throwing a lure into a pond or a lake and just kind of probably smiling. The question you ask about North Carolina is one of those incredibly proud high-end academic schools. The Board of Trustees, the President, and the AD, I wonder,

you know, once again, the depth of this, which I'm, I'm saying it's superficial nonsense. But once again, that's my opinion, because what we know is a young lady said something on an interview, so we're not going to talk about that, bam became an interview or topic. I would make a plea to Jordan and just say, Jordan, just take yourself out of the limelight, please. I love standing by your man and I love helping him out and doing some of these things that are on another level of his desk that are maybe not his most high-ranking priorities, but

I think she has to be told or better yet realize and understand that she needs to take herself out of the conversation and just support. And I hope it does. This is not a knock on her, but like just read the room. realize and understand that she needs to take herself out of the conversation and just. That might happen. And I hope it does. And this is not a knock on her, but like just read the room, read the room, Jordan, and step aside, right? Let, let your man be the leading man that he is right now. Don't try to mute him. Don't try to steal the spotlight. Don't pull him. Bill Belichick can talk himself out of tight spots now, right? Like if there's a tough question to coach Bill Belichick, guess what? He can handle it. He doesn't need somebody jumping in there. And I know then there's been those talks

about that the handler that he had coached for all those years in New England who was able to kind of sniff out potential problems and, you know, stop that brush fire before it sparked. But it just, the outside image before football is played doesn't look great in Chapel Hill. And again, I think if you're Bill, if you're his staff, you're his team, come on, come on September 1st, let's get here. Let's get here. Let's show it. We can do on the football field time now for treat of the week presented by Wendy's. Find your new favorite frosty flavor today with choices like, you know, those, those these flavors by now coach, because you and I have been sucking them down the last couple of weeks. We got our brownie batter. Caramel or caramel? Yeah. Yeah. Caramel. Caramel

swirl. We got strawberry. Get one right now. So coach, I love, I love looking in your office and the things behind you. All right. Well, you got something over your left, your left shoulder right now that looks massive. And you're gonna pull it up here because you and Mike Norvell won the Southern Company Peach Bowl Challenge for a second year in a row. There's reports, coach, you dropped the 15 putt on the final hole to seal the win,

holding off the team of Coach Narduzia and Coach Neuheisel by one point. So again congratulations on more hardware accumulating behind you and around you. That's a big ass trophy by the way. That is a big ass trophy. We've moved a couple other trophies to make room because we actually won it 24 and 25. 24 is right over there as well. So Mike Norvell and I are partners and Gary Stokin, the director of the Peach Bowl, they put on an incredible event at Reynolds on Lake Oconee. And I've been going to two for years and years and years. And we finally got a couple of W's the last two years and, uh, Rick New

Heisel, I guess on his radio show. I was a little pissed about the pit. The putt, I think it's like a fish story. It's getting longer and longer, which is fine. I'm okay with it, but we came down down the last hole and it was stable for, um, and Rick Neuheisel was like a one or two handicap. He's a real golfer and we're just hanging in there and coached our doozy myself was, was partnered with Pat and our doozy with, uh, uh, Rick.

And they get on in two, we're, we're in a trap. We get up, we finally get on in three. If Rick Neuheisel makes the putt and we miss, and we had a 15, 18 foot putt, and he just missed it by an inch. I got a good read from Mike Norvell, who played his butt off by the way. You got a good read.

That's a backhand compliment if I ever heard one in golf. Everybody celebrated, we had a good time. You know what? They give you, it's like 40 or $50,000 prize money. To had a good time. You know what? They give you a psych 40 or $50,000 prize. Charity of choice to the charity of our choice. And ours is going to go to Tebow foundation anti-human trafficking. So a great event, great event and a great job. Can you pull that trophy up a little bit so we can get a closer look at it? And by the way, how much do you think that sucker weighs? Cause it looks like like in the 17 to 22 pound.

I think it's a 15 pounder, 15 pounder. Yeah, that's heavy. Like I bet there's Big Ten titles and Mountain West titles you've won that haven't been that big. No, but I'll be honest, the Big Ten title is a little harder than the Peach Bowl challenge. That's right. We don't repeat that. You know, it's great.

You didn't have anybody lining up your putts at the Big Ten Championship game, did you? Coming up next, we're going to take a look at Tennessee and if head coach Josh Heipel can put together another playoff season. That's next on the Triple Option presented by Wendy's. Rob Stone, Urban Meyer back here with you as we welcome you back to the Triple Option presented by Wendy's. Time now for the old Triple Option Crystal Ball brought to you by our great friends at Bet MGM. The NBA playoffs are heading into the second round. Here's an offer for basketball fans. You won't find anywhere else. Pick the player you think will score first in the game if it's not your player, but

He scores the second field goal the game you get your stake back in cash That's only with bet MGM. So the crystal ball is out. We're gonna talk about the Nico I less Tennessee volunteers coach just remind me what you said about Tennessee a couple weeks ago with when Nico left They're screwed. Screwed. And I'm going to say it again. You will let a potential first round, not let, but the potential first rounder walks out on you, especially a starting quarterback of a team that was in the playoffs, a team at times of really, really good.

And he was a young quarterback. You know what happens to young quarterbacks, Rob? They get better. They get better. Yeah. So they get better and apparently they want to get paid better as well. All right. So bet MGM has set their win total at eight and a half. How about this though, coach, it was nine and a half

before Nico transferred out. So it's now down a game to eight and a half plus 120 to go over that number and 155 to go under. Quick recap, last season, Tennessee, 10 and two in the regular season, finished at 10 and three, lost at Ohio State, first round of the college football playoff in the regular season, lost to Georgia and Arkansas, had ranked wins over NC State, Alabama, and Oklahoma. The big news, of course, the quarterback is gone. Nico goes to UCLA. Remember, we only had one game over 300 yards last season.

That was against Chattanooga. So, so maybe we need to pump the brakes a little bit. Sure. Maybe a little bit. Effectively UCLA and Tennessee pulled off the much heralded quarterback trade where former App State QB Joey Aguilar, who had transferred from the Mountaineers in upstate North Carolina to UCLA, and then now goes to Tennessee.

His numbers, 25 starts at AppState, 6,700 yards, 56 touchdowns, 24 picks, coach. All right, so let's look at the schedule. This is always a fun exercise. Again, eight and a half, eight and a half. Can they get to nine? We start Syracuse in Atlanta, Mercedes-Benz Dome. So that is gonna be a de facto home game, if you will,

for Tennessee. I love Syracuse, I love what Coach Brown is doing. Both these programs enter with new quarterbacks. And I think the overall depth, I would go advantage Tennessee. You? I'd go advantage Tennessee but that's that's going to be a tough game that's going to be a tough one. All right so let's give them one right there. I mean on on paper Tennessee's got better players that's a fact. There you go. That's the way it is but that by I mean

I'm sure Vegas has that thing that probably sixth. Yeah enough to make it scary enough to make you squirm, right? All right, so let's give it, let's give Tennessee week one, congratulations. East Tennessee state win. Two. Week three, home Georgia. They lose.

No, okay. Next game, home UAB. Win. Win, three. They finally hit the road, a true road game at Mississippi state. Four. Home to Arkansas.

Yeah, it's home. It's home. We'll put it on the back burner. Okay, right. So for definite one half at Alabama. No at Kentucky. I'm going to give them that one because I'm going to say those split Arkansas, Kentucky. So, okay, let's say one of so that's five home to Oklahoma.

Who is right? Who and again, we're trying to get to nine. I think almost really in a little bit right now. I really do. I just hearing some things out there and the way they finished last year. Okay. But once again, the thing about you look

at these darn teams, you just don't know who's on the roster. You know, who did they get? That's the beauty of doing this in May. Oklahoma, I'm going to give them a not sure. So those split Oklahoma, Florida. So let's give them one more when that's six. Oh, you're already splitting for it. I haven't even gotten a Florida. That's fine. All right. I'll give them a gate. I'll take them to six. We'll

go to seven with New Mexico state, right? Florida. We are. We gave them a half a win with Oklahoma. We're doing our own fuzzy math here, right? They got half a win versus Oklahoma, half a win versus Florida. So that takes them to seven and they close with Vandy which I'll tell you what that's another one they got a heck of a coaching staff down there agreed that's a robbery game so I think they get eight but I'll tell you what that's eight still I'm gonna I'm gonna say they got screwed again however the first trade of my that I'm aware of in college football history they traded two quarterbacks.

Yeah. How about saying that you just traded a quarterback. They're not going to call it a trade, but that's what it was. So I went and watched Aguilar because I knew I wanted to familiarize. I love Appie State, you know, but it is, the reality is it's not as, you're stepping in the SEC. Yeah. So everybody's at least a step, maybe at most positions, two steps faster.

And when you have 24 interceptions, that's about one per game, that's way too many. And those interceptions now, those hold the pockets or the, excuse me, the windows just are so much tighter. I will go back on record again, the same Tennessee is screwed. I think now you can get unscrewed real fast if that team develops. But as of whatever the data is, May we're in the get screwed category. You can become unscrewed real fast.

So they need to take out the WD-40 and loosen up some of that rust, get after that screw and unscrew it and get out of there. But we got them right now at a fuzzy math, eight wins. A very fuzzy math. And then Nico's outside in autographs in Westwood. He hasn't thrown the ball yet for the Bruins has he has and I heard he was supposed to be some practices or something. I don't know. I just

heard the Lakers and the Clippers had playoff games coach. He's busy. He's got things to do man. It's your button. The huddle man. Let's go. So alright. So the good coaching little pep talk right there. Coach Hypple's got himself a little QB quandary right now, right? And he's going to really have to deal with it in the fall because of Aguilar coming in so late. So how does a coach manage an open quarterback race?

And let's just say it is a pure open quarterback race where options A, B, and C essentially are level. When the minute mini said you got a quarterback issue, I go right to their schedule. And here's the problem. You screw around with your quarter, because you have to name this quarter within two weeks of training camp. There's no chance that you can let this thing bleed out because the team has to know who your quarterback is. So a guy that's just stepping on campus now, a guy that's only completed our attempted nine passes, I believe, you have to, and Josh Hypple played quarterback

when the, I think, Lee Paul, the Heisman, right? Or at least a national, I'm not sure, but he knows enough about quarter play to get to, he has to announce this sooner than later. And they got Syracuse, East Tennessee State and Georgia. You can't come out of that thing one and two, because then you are back in the underlying screwed category because the rest of your schedule, you're a mess. Yeah.

Yeah. You got to find a way to win those first two games. So two weeks into camp, Tennessee is going to name their starting quarterback. That's how it needs to handle. They have to. Okay. All right. Hopefully Mark Ingram will be back with us next week. He's got a pretty cool opportunity that made him this week. How many kids does he have? He has five, six, seven, eight, nine.

Time I turn around, there's another Ingram running around. He's got a good deal tonight though. He's taking his Sunday batting practice. So that's pretty cool. And who's he going to see? Is he going to see the Dodgers? He's going to see Ohtani. See some of those guys.

So yeah, Mark, enjoy the family time. I got news Rob, I'd be there with him. I know you would. And let me tell you, nobody wants me hosting this podcast by myself. Follow, subscribe, rate us on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts, as well as across social media at 3XOptionShow. Thanks as always to our sponsors, Wendy's and BetMGM. And we will see you next Wednesday.