The Triple Option - Spring Games Disappearing, Nebraska's Matt Rhule Joins, 2025 Heisman Trophy Predictions

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

To Spring Game or not Spring Game, that is the question. Coach Urban Meyer and Rob Stone dive into the purpose of Spring games as teams across the country are cancelling the fan facing event to protect their roster ahead of the Spring transfer portal window. Meyer then expresses concern for where the players who enter the transfer portal and never find a new home. (2:14) Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule was the first head coach to make a change to the spring showcase and joins Coach and Rob to discuss his thought behind the decision. We also get some old school meat head talk (get your neckrolls ready) around mat drills, making Nebraska relevant, before getting back to new age problems, like out of conference scheduling. (16:58) It's never too early to talk Heisman and we dive into the odds presented by BetMGM. Will Arch Manning live up to the hype? Is Jeremiah Smith HIM? Can Drew Allar and his returning cast make a case for the trophy to return to Happy Valley for the first time since 1973? Coach and Rob shoot their shots. (41:41) 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. "Go to Wendy's® and taste the difference in a hamburger. - https://m-wendys.app.link/hamburger25 A big thank you to the rest of our sponsors: BetMGM Add a parlay wager (minimum odds of +400) to your Bet Slip. Bet up to the specified max stake and activate your token. If you win your bet with the token applied, you’ll score extra winnings on your wager with The Sportsbook Born in Vegas at BetMGM.com First Bet Offer for new customers only. Subject to eligibility requirements. Bonus bets are non-withdrawable. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel. See BetMGM.com for Terms. US promotional offers not available in New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER (Available in the US) Call 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY) Call 1-800-327-5050 (MA) 21+ only. Please Gamble Responsibly. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP (AZ), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA),1-800-981-0023 (PR). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you concerned about those, you know, the Nebraska versus Arkansas, Nebraska versus Oklahoma? It's great for fans, but is it great for Matt Ruhl and the Huskers? Coach Meyer, I'm at a lucky point in my life where, at my fourth job and after getting fired in the NFL, I kind of say what I feel nowadays, I could care less. Why in the world would a Big 10 team who's already playing nine conference games, why would you ever play one of those games? Like it. There's the music coach. It just doesn't hit the same without Mark Ingram.

Oh, man. How does he do it like this? Mark. Not happening. Nope, nope. That's all right. We leave it to the skilled talent over there. Welcome to the Triple Option presented by Wendy's. Go to Wendy's and taste the difference in a hamburger.

Rob Stone, Urban Meyer with you this week. Our friend Mark Ingram will be back next week. This week on the Triple Option, we're going to talk Heisman betting favorites. All things Nebraska football, their head coach Matt Ruhl will join us. And does the spring game still have a place in the college football calendar? Please rate, subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever it is that you get your podcast as well as across social media at 3X option show again, new episodes coming your way every Wednesday on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast. So we crowned Ohio State as

our 2024 25 football national champions after the first year ever of this 12 team college football playoff. So what's next on the college football calendar? Spring football right now a lot of programs are in it and a lot of them end with the spring game those games they actually start coach March 1st Liberty has a game March 1st runs all the way to May 2nd. Washington has their spring game. Coaches, certainly fans love spring football. I know the coaching staff loves it

because so much happens in it. So tell us from a coaching perspective, what purpose does spring football and maybe that spring game at the end serve the program? Well, it depends on your team. You know, if you're taking over Bowling Green, you're at scrimmage every day. Every, you know, there weren't the rules

that it was back then that there are now. But if you're taking over a program that's, you know, like the Ohio State last year and the Wolverines year before, you're a veteran team, man, you're not hitting much at all. You know, I used to have a 2,000 club and a 1,000 club, and a 1,000 club is, that means you have not hitting much at all. You know, I used to have a 2000 club and a 1000 club and a 1000 club is, that means you have 1000 competitive reps. You're basically a starter for a year.

When you're a starter for a year, we start pulling you back early in spring practice for your 2000 rep club. That means you're a, a two year, a legitimate two year starter that plays a lot of reps. You're not getting hit in the spring. You know, I used to have a list of them, because I want the other players to see that too. There used to be just kind of back guys off,

but I want players to be rewarded. You're a two year starter, the last thing you need is spring practice. You need to just get stronger, faster, get that body and shape, unless there's a certain skill set that you need to work on. For example, I'm an outside linebacker,

moving inside linebacker, then you need to get reps. I'm an outside receiver moving inside receiver. Then you got to get reps. If you're playing the same position, those guys didn't get many reps and I promise you they didn't get hit. So it depends on the team, depends on the player. And then I'm finding out after my visit to Oregon last year for spring practice, it really depends on this, this NIL and the transfer thing is real. And spring practice is impacted by it. For example, Oregon last year, Dan Lanning, I was asking about,

say, where's your first string? Why is the offensive line not together? And he made a comment, or his assistant did, that we don't put them all together because, first of all, we want to give everybody an opportunity. Second of all, if you start naming a kid a first string or second string or third string, that third string might leave.

I mean, like leave during spring practice, which- Like during that practice. Caught me off guard. Yeah. And then, you know, you hear Matt Ruhl, who's going to visit us here shortly. He's going to maybe not do the spring game because he's worried about showcasing players

for other schools to come and try to get. Maybe not the starters, but some backup plays well. And I promise you, other schools, they have transfer portal staffs now. And you know what the transfer portal staffs do? They watch the lower level programs, they can go get a starter, or they can go watch like a Nebraska and see a backup.

I need that receiver to come start for me. So that it's really an amazing time of college football. We're gonna get to that Matt Ruhl comment in just a second. I wanted to follow up on spring drills and you're talking about the thousand snaps and the 2000 snap guys. What about when you have a legit competition and obviously the main competition typically is a quarterback competition. So if you know you have a quarterback competition, and you should always theoretically have some level of quarterback competition, I get it,

but when you know that starter is gone and you've got two, three, four cats fighting to who's gonna be number one in the fall, how do you manage that in the spring? Well, we had a really famous one. We had Joe Burl and Dwayne Haskins and it was it was right I mean first of all it's great because you got two great players but I made sure every our quarterback coach charted every play every competitive snap was charted

because I wanted I knew both these players were probably gonna be NFL players. Joe Burrow put in his time. He broke his hand the year before. Dwayne Haskins came in, became the backup, had that, he went in and in the game we were losing to the Wolverines and won the game. So he was kind of the projected starter, but I wanted to make sure that everything was charted and it was very close.

So that's a whole different animal, especially at that position, and especially his high profile. Plus the player deserves that. You're going to make a decision on a player's career. a whole different animal, especially at that position, and especially his high profile. Plus the player deserves that. You're gonna make a decision on a player's career, you better have some data in front of them and make sure that that data has been worked over,

worked over, worked over, and when you have a conversation with the families, it's not just, hey, I feel this guy should be the starter, here's what we got. And it was, you know, you go back to that time and it was extremely close. And we named Dwayne right after spring practice because I didn't want to lose Joe,

but we felt Joe had that, should have that opportunity and I'm going to LSU and being one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Yeah, no kidding. So we talked about that unexpected wrinkle that Matt Ruh Rule threw in there. Here's his comment that he had recently talking about why the Cornhuskers were debating what to do with the spring game due to everything that's going on with NIL and the transfer

portal. I don't know that yet, but I'll be honest with you, I highly doubt it. And I think it's really fundamentally, I hate to say it like this, it's really because last year we were one of the more televised spring games. And I dealt with a lot of people offering our players a lot of opportunities after that. So to go out and bring in a bunch of new players and then showcase them for all the other schools to watch, that doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The word tampering doesn't exist anymore. It's just absolute

free, open, common market. I don't necessarily want to open up to the outside world. I don't want these guys all being able to watch our guys and say, wow, he looks like a pretty good player. Let's go get him. But I don't know yet. I don't know anything. I just thought it was important that we at least start to broach that subject of it not being televised. Yet, yet at the same time, I do want to show, I do want to show off our players in some way. So what exactly it'll be yet. I mean, I have not worried about anything other than recruiting right now, you know, both the portal and into the 26th class. So now I have to

kind of turn my attention to all those things. I applaud him number one for his honesty. And you're going to hear a lot more honesty coming up from Coach Ruhl who joins us in our next segment. We're going to talk about his plans or lack of plans or whatever his plans are for the spring game. But Coach, first time you heard that comment that a high level program was thinking of pulling their spring game. What jumped out to you? Well, I'm used to it now. I would say a year ago, I'd be like, what the hell are you talking about?

Who cares? That's not... But I get it. I think that of the things a head coach... That's why I think he's a successful head coach. He thinks outside the box. He's a visionary. He looks down the road. Sometimes as a head coach, you get caught on the moment. He's looking past the box. He's a visionary. He looks down the road. You know, sometimes as a head coach, you get caught on the moment. He's looking past the moment.

And I get it. You know, at first, like I said, two years ago or a year ago, I'd say, what are we talking about? But I think Transfer Portal, the reality that people have coaching staffs, assistants that are set, that's all they do is they watch other teams' players. And as they said, tampering does not exist. So that player has a good game.

You know what happens the next day? An assistant coach from another school calls the high school coach, might call the player now, because there are no rules, and say, hey, I got this amount of money for you, and you'll be a starter at this school. Or they'll contact a representative of that player.

So I get it. Yeah, it's crazy. Wow. Spring transfer portal coach, April 16th through the 25th, will only reopen for players whose head coach leaves. This is kind of last chance for these players to transfer ahead of that 2025 season. Last spring, more than 1 than 1200 players entered the portal.

Per one source, we had over 2700 players enter in December or after the playoffs, with only about 58% of those players currently committed to a new school and about 4% of the players removing their names and returning to their original school. And it brings up the point to you, hey man, there's a bunch of dudes that leave and then there's this gap from guys who find new homes and guys who don't and college careers can end because you jump into the portal.

It's not always a good thing. We always seem to hear the success stories, right coach? And man, there's a lot of other cautionary tales out there about the transfer portal. Yeah, I think there's A and B and I want to hit these both really hard. Number A or letter A is the fact that what happens to that thousand players that that's a thousand that have not found a home and maybe is more maybe less. Maybe it's four, who cares? It's still someone that the minute you are you have that third uncle, which once again a third uncle is a person that should not be in that meeting but it's in the meeting, or you have an agent or you have some advisor giving advice. Pull

yourself, put yourself in the portal. You know what the commitment of the school is once a player puts his name in the portal, the school does not have to honor that scholarship anymore. And he gets caught, he thinks the grass is greener, that offer does not come, the money does not come, you're left without a scholarship or you got to go much lower level than maybe you had anticipated and you're starting over. For some people that's good, for some people it's not. And the second thing is I read an article one time where a high school coach is very upset and he actually banned the school from coming in to visit because that school really doesn't recruit high school

players anymore, so they would come in, look at their players, but they don't really sign high school players. They just signed portal guys. And I get it. The high school coach is pissed off and said, you know, why you come in, you know, you're wasting my time. You're wasting our players time, yet you don't scholarship. You don't go after high school players anymore. There are, I'm sure there's gonna be data.

It's gonna be hard to find maybe, but there's gonna be a bunch of high school players left out there that otherwise might've been able to go to some of these schools. Yeah. In the 2024 transfer cycle coach, over 3,300 players entered. 68% of those 3,300 committed to new schools with just over 3% returning to their original school. Fresh Moves of the Week brought to you by Wendy's. Go to Wendy's and taste the difference in a hamburger. So these numbers, you're right,

we're kind of becoming comfortable listening to them, but they still make me uncomfortable. Coach, I don't know, what is the solution out there? Are there too many transfer windows? Does there need to be a guarantee that these kids can fall back to their original commitment? What is the school's commitment to these players that they originally committed to?

It's a wild world out there. What do you think would make the system a little bit better right now? What a tough question, and I think that's on everybody's mind across the game. We talk about, is there gonna be a commissioner sometime? Will there be an umbrella of Everybody under the same rules. I'd made my point very clear a couple weeks ago No chance that's happening the rich will get Rick richer and the week will get weaker

So I don't have an answer for that that the air is out of that balloon. It will never get fixed It almost makes me laugh when I say let's's get Congress involved. And I watch the news every night. So I'm not sure they got their own issues. So I'm not sure the answer. I just don't like when players get hurt. And I'm not talking about the kid losing his opportunity to play. You know what? At some, we're all grown men enough to say this, a small majority of those players

have a chance to move on very small And it's probably going to get smaller. I've always been the big proponent. Get your degree, get a job, utilize the network of the school you're at. You know, we're going to visit with Matt Ruhl. You tell me a football player that does it right, that lives a good life, gets good grades, he's probably set if he networks himself through the net, Korn Husker Nation.

I know that's a fact at Ohio State. The Ohio State player goes through the net, Korn Husker Nation, I know that's a fact at Ohio State. The Ohio State player goes through the process, is loyal to Ohio State, buses butt, forget about the NFL. He's gonna get, someone's gonna give him that opportunity at, you know, outside of football. So that's my biggest concern. Yeah, I agree. There's still student athletes

and I know it's hard to hear that term sometimes and be like, really, really? You think this person over here with his third uncle is, and trying to cash in this check and drive this car is a student athlete. They are student athletes, and there's way more student athletes than there are just athletes out there.

And I wanna see those young men, those young women, still have the path to success out there. And I know this for a fact, people are making decisions for $15,000. Yeah. They're making decisions, and they don't, you know, they're representative, gets a cut of that, whatever it is, and hear a guy wakes up somewhere

where he doesn't want to be and just gave it away because someone advised him to move on. There's great stories, Dylan Gabriel, and there's some great stories out there. You got Will Howard won a national championship. Great story. That's very small. Hey, I'm going to talk Will Howard coming up a little bit later on the Triple Option. But coming up next, we're joined by the head coach at Nebraska, Matt Rule here on the Triple Option, presented by Wendy's. Welcome back to the Triple Option presented by Wendy's, Urban Meyer, Rob Stone, and a

guy we've been trying to get on for a couple weeks now. Super excited to have Nebraska head coach, Matt Ruhl join us right now from his office. We always are curious about the things behind the coaches when we interview them. But as Urban said off camera, it wasn't so much the things behind you, Coach Rule, it's the stuff that's happening up top here, this shade of gray that always seems to hit head coaches after a certain point. First thing Coach noticed-

It's the lighting, he said it's the lighting. The lighting. You know what, it's, it's like the park transfer portal, park, NiL, park, you know, big 10 being an 18 teams now, it's a little bit everything, maybe a little spring game in there as well. The second coach, a coach rules, great to hang with you, man. And much respect, you know, Tom Osborne was a dear friend is a dear friend. And I go back in my career and I just, I study in Nebraska at a very young age.

They were the first school, Rob, to invest in the student athlete. And I mean that sincerely they in the strength training. And this is way back when, and, and so I've always been a huge fan of Nebraska. One year we went and played them. I had my manager get a golf cart. I put a hat and sunglasses on. I just asked him to drive around. I wanted to see this crowd. It's the best, as good a crowd as there is. And in the 90s they were the Mecca of college football. You joined the Big Ten I think in 2011 and they've had some good years but not the great years. What obstacles have you seen

since you've been there? And what promises there is someday Nebraska and get back to the Nebraska vault? You know, I've kind of always likened it. I've kind of always tried to explain to people what I saw when I got here. Like, you know, sometimes you go into a, you know, you go down south, you know, you go up north wherever and you see like these beautiful old mansions, right? And beautiful pillars, just, just beautiful bones. But the paints chipping, the windows are old, the the landscaping is dead. And that's kind of what this felt like. It felt like, you know, you have this amazing fan base. You have this history of excellence. You have a beautiful stadium, great facilities, yet the things that really matter, dominance in

recruiting, being on the forefront. And I think what you said, Coach said coach is really important There was a day when everyone in the country came to Nebraska to see what boy that he was doing To see what Tom Osborne was doing whether it was offense defense life skills study hall nutrition My wife was a dietitian at Temple when I was an assistant coach for our golden there Can she put in the training table and she Golden there. And she put in the training table and she didn't know how to put in a training table.

She actually went to Nebraska and studied, hey, how do you put a training table in? And she went back and did like this little miniature version of Temple. So we were always on the forefront. And when I got here, it was like, there was this real feeling of, well, we can't do anything new because this is how you do it

in Nebraska. We've been, you know, this is what won for us. We were doing things in 2022, 2023, very similar to what we had done in 1995. As I talked to Coach Osborne, it wasn't about recreating the past. It was getting back to that mindset of, let's be on the forefront of technology, sports science, recruiting. Let's do things better than anyone else is doing them. And I think that shift was maybe a little uncomfortable for people. It kind of sometimes feels like, hey,

are we not being respectful to the past? But I'm blessed that Coach Osborne has really kind of paved the way for me and said to everybody, like, if Matt wants to flip sides of the stadium, let him flip sides of the stadium. If Matt wants to change the locker room, let him change the locker room. Like Coach Osborne did that.

And so we're trying to be the best. I mean, if you came and saw our building, I think we'd probably have the best facility, the best training table. Like we are at the forefront again. And I think that'll hopefully help us attract players. You know, one thing that's always intrigued me about Nebraska is the recruiting piece.

That back in the day, I think California and Texas were the big, you know, the home state as you will, because there's just not enough players in Nebraska. And then they went to the Big 10. And I always wondered like, where would you go reach as far as, you know, it's more national recruiting now with the access,

but where do you go? Where is your home recruiting base now that you're a Big 10? Back in the Big 12 era or Big 8 even, you know, you had that quarter of teams along there, the Oklahoma, Oklahoma state Texas, Texas, A and M and you go get those players, great players. Where do you, where do you see that Nebraska fits as far as recruiting? Yeah, you know, we kind of refer to it as like the 500 mile radius, but, but for us, it's really, um, it's really Kansas City, St. Louis.

You go back to the history of the players who came out of those places and came here and had success. So sort of reestablishing ourselves in those two cities and then the schools between going up to Chicago, battling for guys in Chicago. And then it's Nebraska up through the Dakotas. During my time in the NFL, Caroline, I went out to North Dakota State and I went and watched Tristan Wirfs at Iowa, did Northern Iowa. I just never went to Nebraska.

And I was like, well, why are all the best linemen coming out of these SCS schools like the Dakotas and they're not coming out of here? And so we take Montana, we take North Dakota, South Dakota really, really seriously, especially for big players. And so sort of that Dakota through Nebraska into, as I said, Kansas City, St. Louis, Chicago, we've had some success in Denver, and then we're going to go to Texas, California, and Georgia, Florida. As you said, things have gotten so national. I think as you're looking across all schools, you'll get Ohio State,

like the amount of Ohio guys maybe 20 years ago to now how much more national is. You get Penn State, how many Penn State Pennsylvania guys till now, how national it is. So we want to be relevant kind of in all the major metropolitan areas. So if we get them on the first crack, great. If they go on the portal, there's still a lot of relevance with us. And I think now with USC UCLA going to California makes a lot of sense. You know, it's, it's a quick flight to Nebraska. It's not too far. Um, you know, your, your NIL goes a little further here than it does in California because of taxes, if you want to leave the state, it's a good place to

come and then you'll probably have a chance to go back and play a game in your home state because of, uh, because of the teams that are there. One more question about one more question about recruiting. Uh, cause I think this is intriguing. It's probably ever changing, but do you have a percentage of high school? Uh, versus, um, transfer, you know, back in the day, you remember what you did? You saved these three, four for junior college. Now I might even sure I don't even hear about junior college, but do you, do you, do you have a percentage?

You want to be 50 50? Do you want to be what? What's your, do you have a mindset of what that would be? Yeah, you know, coach, it's changed so much for me. Like this year, this year, the portal this year was unlike anything I'd ever been a part of. I'd been a part of the portal, you know, previous two years. I'd been a part of free agency. This was like, unlike anything. I mean, anything I'd ever seen. It was, it was almost a little bit invigorating. I've been in some ways, it was like, I came in every day and I had a list of like 30 guys to watch. I just sat here and

cranked it out, like a scout watching guys off PFF and trying to find guys that fit us and then getting to know them. So I actually kind of I actually kind of enjoyed that process, but I would still like to bring in 15 high school guys a year. I mean, I still would like to be 65, 70% high school. It's just got to be the right guys. I would say this, with the new 105 limit and the ability to probably scholarship more guys, while we're trying to find the five-star day one starter walk-in, I'm also always looking for the temple guys.

The guys that came in for me there that were big and fast and could run, that just needed to develop, they're like the new walk-on. They're the guys that show up and if they're willing to stay for three years, you might develop into a really good player. So we're thinking about recruiting like high end recruiting, not necessarily walk on but like trait players like players that we think we can develop and then go get the guys we need on the portal. Last year, you guys seven and six overall after that bowl win, which reversed a sub

500 season in your first year. So there's something about year three under Matt Rule in the college game. Obviously you did it at Temple, you did it at Baylor and here we are closing in on year number three for you at Nebraska. What is it about year number three with coach Matt Rule? Well, I think it's just always been about the players. You know, I've never really walked into a place

that the roster was ready to win. You know, we walked in the temple and we were going from like, you know, the Mac into the big East flash American, right? I walked into Baylor and there was this huge scandal came here and you know, they just hadn't really won. And you know, so they're always good players at those places. But to me, it's always been about, we've taken young players, we've taken our lumps early with the young guys. And as that quarterback, you know, it was PJ Walker at Temple, it was Charlie Brewer at Baylor. When they got to year three, it was their team. We had a good defense and guys kind of knew what to expect. Here, you know, Dylan's in year two. We've had a good defense. We've had a top 20 defense the last

two years. We just haven't scored any points. And so year three, I think guys know what to expect. And when you're asking, you know, when you're doing it the way we try to do it, you know, I'll be, I've copied a lot of the stuff that I do. I've copied a lot of it from Coach Meyer. Like, you know, I worked for Steve Adazio who came, obviously under coach's tutelage.

I mean, everything from the plan to the win, to plan to win, to the off season program, to the different things I learned from Steve, from coach. We tried to implement a lot of that and it's hard. And so in year two, a lot of times guys are like, man, why are we doing this? You know, we're not undefeated and you got to get, you got to kind of get to year three, you know, got to get to the point where they're, they're like, listen, it's not changing. We know how to work hard. We've had a bunch of close losses. Now it's time to go in. And I think we have the guys to do it. You know, certainly we have a

quarterback, you know, we have a quarterback, you always have a chance. And so I just think it's always been like a process of teaching, molding, developing, and then the time comes, man, go in. Hey, you talked about your quarterback Dylan Riola going into his second year as a starter. What's been the off season focus for your staff in getting him to that third year level, if you will?

Yeah, I think you play year one at quarterback. Sometimes you play so much of it off of just feel and adrenaline and just trying to make plays and then you get to year two and you're really trying to master all the parts of the offense. I think for us it's, it's him, um, doing that while at the same time becoming dominant in the little things, um, his way, making sure that he's a guy that can extend plays, making sure that he's a guy who's nimble and make sure that he's a guy who can run, you know, he's a much different's nimble, making sure that he's a guy who can run. He's a much different quarterback at 225 than he will be at 245.

And so him buying into that, he comes in every morning, does cardio before he throws and lifts, right? So he understands that he's a big man and wants to keep his movement skills. I think it's him, when you're a freshman, last year he was trying to win the job. Now it's him every day with those receivers. Like, hey, here's what we're gonna do today. Like here's what we're working on outside of what the coaches want. Leading by example, but by also demanding that the guys come be there with him. And then like anybody else, like any other young player, being good at the things you don't like, you know,

I'm the quarterback, I want to throw routes on air, but you know, I know coach has mat drills and I'm going to go do the mat drills. Or I don't know what a Prowler push race has to do with me as a quarterback, but I'm a competitor and I'm going to go do it. And being great at all those things that none of us really like. I think when you see your quarterback out there,

you know, he's going to be on the front cover of a magazine. He's going to, you know, but when you see him grinding next to you, then you're kind of okay with all that So I think Dylan's done a good job of embracing All those aspects of his game. You got the hair on the back of my neck standing up on Matt drills, man I so I'm gonna go on record of the host Ingram's not with us Ingram could make it stoner went last I'm saying two and a half minutes

So Matt drill do you I don't know you can still do it like we did in the old days. Cause you're not allowed to have the combatives and all that. So Matt, Matt, you're old school in Nebraska. Yes. Yeah. We're all school. Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, I was saying earlier, coach, I, you know, I worked with coach Dasio and you know, frying all those guys, Perron, all those guys came up from you. And so I had taken kind of all what you guys have done and then sort of the pet that some of the Penn State world. And so you're right. Some of the combat as you can't do, but there's ways you can do some things. I mean, it's crazy to me somewhere along the way. We've said that like two guys wrestling is bad or two guys fighting over a med balls bad yet people pay like, so if you do it, I might

lose my job, but people pay like a hundred dollars a month to go to a box and do CrossFit and do crazy things. And then the people that are saying it's bad to do this to kids are the ones listening to David Goggins, they run 400 miles, like doing hard things and doing tough things and challenging yourself is what our society and our children need now more than ever, ever. And so like our coaches, they want to walk through and they want to do route trees and all that. I'm like, you can do that later. Like we're coming in twice a week and we are challenging our minds, our bodies. I'm challenging the coaches.

And you know, players like what's this have to do with winning? And I'm a coach with a famous coach, the eternal line was always, it has nothing to do with winning, but it has everything to do with winning and I'm coach famous coach return on line was always it has nothing to do with winning but it has everything to do with winning it's like so yeah I believe in it and I'll never ever ever fire me before I quit doing it. I'm a bigger fan of I was a huge fan of Nebraska. Now you're all in coach. Let's go. So coach rule my mom's listening back there in Lakewood Ranch Florida she has no idea what a mat drill is all right so so tell it careful careful tell her what a mat drill is. All right, so tell her what a mat drill is.

She's all right. She produces the Vision 1 athlete. She's all in. So it's really two things, right? So it's the overall, it's like a series of stations where we're in sort of competitive, can't say combative anymore, but competitive things where we're pushing ourselves

to the limit. And then for us, the true mat drill is, we're going to line up eight lines deep across a mat and we're going to do agility drills and movements and off of command. And if one guy messes up, we all go back and you learn the power of accountability. You learn the power of like, I'm going to go hard, but if the guy next to me doesn't go hard, the guy behind me is just a little bit off, then we have to do it again. And it's, I think it's really good. You know, there was a day like when the players came to college and they wanted to see what their dorm room was like.

Now most players come to college and they want to know if they don't have to have a roommate. You know, we all just want to be so kind of separated and isolated now. And the world's changed and I get it. But there is something about a unit and there is something about knowing who you can count on or who you can't count on. So it's a challenge and I run the actual mat itself. I run the mat.

Like that's my one thing I do in this program consistently because I want to be able to watch the players and see who's embracing something that's hard and who's getting through it Anyone can get through it But you know who's attacking it and if they can leave our program and they've learned to attack hard things then I don't know They're probably have a better life Is there a Matt drill is there a Matt drill winner out there coach like a crown a belty it do you know? No, but what we do is after after every we watch them that you watch them and after every day we We after every practice in the different groups and the biggest common skills

We either they're either in a black shirt or red shirt like they're tiered So they know kind of exactly where they stand right? So there's you know There's there's a there's honest feedback based upon performance I think the greatest thing you said is Matt drills, Rob is the, is the accountability and discipline. Yes, the drills are really hard. Times are miserable, but the fact when an older player is in that first line and they get through and that fricking freshmen or sophomore comes up and his

foot's on the line, he's not in a football position, he twitches when he shouldn't twitch and then they have to go back. You see some buy, I mean, you see some stuff now. A great leader is not going to put up with that very long. So this is your show though, Matt Ruhl. I love it though. Hey, let's flip the switch here. So the spring game, you made an interesting comment.

I went to visit Oregon last year. Dan Lanning had me speak to the team and I loved it. And also I looked around and I said, where's your offensive line? And he said, well, we really don't have a first string, second string, third string in spring because guys might move on if they're not where they think they should be.

Their agent or whatever tells them to move on. I was like, oh my gosh. And then I see the potential of Nebraska. Robin, Nebraska's spring game is like a game. I mean, that's like Ohio State. It's like one of the four or five programs in America. You have that kind of fan base? If you pull a spring game, I can imagine there's Husker Nation

is going to be a little pissed off, but I get it. And the real reasoning is because of tampering. Is that what I kind of heard? Yeah, I think there's really two things, right? I mean, I think we're still going to do springing the way we've always done it. We're still going to be physical. We're still going to strike. We're still going to do springing the way we've always done it. We're still going to, we're still going to be physical. We're still going to strike.

We're still going to tackle the scrimmages. But in controlled settings, you know, last year we got in our game and one of our best receivers got hurt. And you lose a couple of games in the last drive of the game. You're like, man, I sure could use, I sure could use Demetrius out there. So, you know, a game's always a little different. There's always a little more to it. But really, you know, our game last year was televised.

A ton of people watched it. And then on Monday there was, Hey coach, I got a call from so-and-so. I got a call from so-and-so. So it just, you know, when you think about the risk reward when we're paying players already, and then with the portal, you know, the portal is kind of in spring, but some guys will have graduated. I just don't know that I want to showcase for people what's out there. Plus, you know, two new coordinators, like why let them see it? So we'll do something like the Pro Bowl. We'll go out there and we'll have seven on seven competitions.

We'll probably bring back some former players. We'll do some skills challenge. We'll do all those things because I do want all the kids across the state of Nebraska who maybe can't get to a game to be able to come sit in Memorial Stadium and watch, watch their players. And what I did love about the Pro Bowl is, you know, you get to see the guys with their helmets off, you get to see their faces, you get to see their personality. So we'll do something. Um, and we're not going to back away from physicality in general, but you know, I was

watching those FCS playoffs. I was watching Montana State and guy makes a big block. I'm like, who's that? And they're like, well, he's already, he's going here and he's going here. It's just, you're showcasing, you're showcasing your players. And so with no contracts, the day we get contracts and the day we get some rules, I'll back, back off. But I saw firsthand last year

how much it put us at risk. And I'm not really willing to do that. I think we want to keep as many guys as we can for the fall. Makes sense. It's the grim realities of what college football is these days. All right, coach, give Husker Nation some parting words that should have them upbeat and excited about the 2025 campaign?

Geez. Well, I'm going to start actually, I have a team meeting today. It's really the first one I've had before Matt drills. And I'm going to start it with, I don't know if you've seen there's a three-part documentary on the Red Sox and the Yankees and the comeback when the Red Sox were down 0-3 and they came back and won it. And they talk about Kurt Schilling. Kurt Schilling talks about breaking the curse. And he's like, you know, I came there because I wanted to play in that game. He goes, but it was really just a curse of talent. There's no such thing as a curse.

You got to be good enough to win. And so, you know, so much that happens here, people are like, you know, are we, are we snake that or why do we lose so many close games or what? We're just, just, you know, you lose close games and you're just not quite good enough. Well, you know, you're able to hang in because you're tough. But I think between what we've done recruiting, I think the way the guys are working, I think, I think, uh, we're gonna have a chance to compete in every game. And, um, you know, we went to Ohio state. I saw coach Meyer was at the 50 celebrating with his national championship team.

And, you know, we played Ohio state and I think in that moment on that day, our guys felt like we can play at this level. It's there. It's one thing to take over a program that's been winning and continue to try to get it to win and maybe take it up a notch. It's way harder to take over a program that hasn't won in nine years and teach them how to win because every step of the way, everyone's like, why are we doing this? And, you know, I think our guys see that we're close. And so it's nothing, it's nothing magical.

It's not the uniforms we wear. It's nothing special that we're going to do. It's, it's just getting better. It's getting our players better. And so that's kind of a Nebraska type approach, right? That's kind of like a farmer every single day, just going out and doing his job. And I think our team's finally kind of getting that and so I

expect us to compete. Hey one last question before I let you go. I just intrigued by this and I made a comment a couple weeks ago that I'm really worried about the non-conference schedules because it's the right thing for Ohio State to play Texas but why? You know at the end the day, Ryan Day's got to make the playoffs. Matt Ruhl's got to make the playoffs. This playoff thing has become. I think it's great. But do you are you concerned about those?

You know, the Nebraska versus Arkansas, Nebraska versus Oklahoma, you know, where it's great for fans, but is it great for Matt Ruhl and the Huskers? Or does it just get to the, get to the playoff? Why, why would you, why would you ever, why would you ever play one of those games that we're being completely honest? Like coach Mar, I'm at a lucky point in my life where, and my fourth job. And after getting fired in the NFL, I kind of say what I feel nowadays. I could care less.

Why in the world would a big 10 team who's already playing nine conference games, why would you ever play one of those games? Think what, like you, you look at a lot of teams like there's, and I love the, it's not anti-SEC, but like there are some SEC teams that last year only played three away games in another team's stadium. Three. We're in a league where some, some years you have five home big 10 games. Some year you have five road.

You have to go on the road five times in the big ten with no with no like you know florida georgia like you know it's a neutral site so. You know they prove to us this year when they get all the seating and stuff that early season winds in me the thing that really was at the end of the day what you look like in the last month the season that's what it all looks like if it all proves. Like if you look at it, and when I say what it looks like, it's really how good your offense is, if you're scoring points and blowing people out late in the year, you're going to make it into the playoffs. So, you know, we beat Colorado. That was the same weekend coach that Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois. And so that was a huge win for us. That was a huge loss for them.

They made the playoffs. Obviously we did not. So I don't know why, you know, I don't know why, what the incentive is, unless at some point the big 10 SEC get together and they say, Hey, we're doing this. We're doing that. Um, but when I joined the big 10, the thought of playing Oregon would have been like, wow, that'd be a great non-conference game. Well, now they're in the league, you know, USC is coming here next year.

Going to UCLA. We've, we've already added in those big games. And so I don't see much cause for it. I think Ryan's a great guy to go to play Texas again, to start the year off. But I don't know what the point is in terms of, if you're a big 10 team, getting to the playoff. The fans appreciate it, right?

The Ohio State fans, the Texas fans, the college football fans love those big games. And you've got some big games as you mentioned coach to close the season. You guys got a great opportunity to close strong at Penn State and then home to Iowa. You've got two big Cornhusker fans cheering for you right now. Coach Matt Ruhl, enjoy the rest of the spring drills. Get those kids on the mats immediately let's go coach and I are gonna go wrestle on the mat over something I don't know what two and a half minutes it would take coach Ruhl that's it he'd tap out no way give me 245

I'll go 245 coach Matt Ruhl of Nebraska thanks so much for joining us on the Triple Option presented by Wendy's. Like it. Welcome back to the Triple Option presented by Wendy's. Urban Meyer, Rob Stone back here with you this week. Time for pick six brought to you by BetMGM at a Parlay wager, minimum mods of plus 400 to your bet slip. Bet up to the specified max stake and activate your token. If you win your bet with the token applied, you'll score extra winnings on your wager.

Now last week, coach, we talked about the mighty Hartford-Waylors and the NHL and everything that came with hockey right now. This week, coach, we get back to college football, the top six front runners for next season's Heisman Trophy winner. Okay, we're talking Heisman next year. I'm going to give you the top six and their numbers in a moment, but number one, what's

it like to go into a season coaching a player that you know is a Heisman candidate? Well, we had it almost every year. You know, it started back at Utah when I had Alex Smith. Did I know Alex was going to be a Heisman? Utah never really had a, I don't think they had one. I'm sure they didn't. And Alex, as the season started to progress, I started hearing the word Heisman. Matter of fact, I'll go one before that.

Josh Harris at Bowling Green, you know, had such a year that people were starting to vote for him for the Heisman. So as a head coach, safety of players is number one, but also getting your best players ball, I would always say is number two, but then also making sure that the players get what they deserve, their value. You know, obviously you got making sure guys are ready for the NFL draft, but also if you have a guy that's, you know, what that does for your school, more importantly for that player, you've got to make sure that he's getting his stats. For example, JT Barrett was a Heisman candidate, I believe, for two or three years. In one game, I knew we were playing a team that wasn't real good and we're going to beat him.

He threw, I think he threw for five or six touchdowns in the first half. Because I told our coordinator, no runs. We're going to throw the ball every snap. Because I owe that to that player. I knew we were going to run the ball in the second half to kind of end the game. So I think coaches do a good job. Most coaches do a good job. You got a Heisman candidate, the first job win the game,

second thing, make sure that player is in the running. And does that impact your play calling? When I had Thibaut and when I had some of these other guys? Yeah, it did. I wanted in my mind and saying, does he need, I would actually look at the stats on the scoreboard and say, how many yards did he throw for him? And make sure he's at least in the running for that thing. Yeah.

All right. So again, according to bet MGM and these lines always change right coach here are your early early early season front runners to win the Heisman Arch Manning at Texas is plus 700 quarterback Quarterback run here, Garrett Nussmeier at LSU plus 850. Go to Clemson, Cade Klubnik sitting there at plus 1100. Finally, a non-quarterback, Buckeye wide out, Jeremiah Smith at plus 1200. And then from there, we go back to the quarterbacks and back to the big 10, Drew Aller at plus 1300. So here we are hanging out in the early parts of spring and we're already talking Heisman.

Who's got the early edge right now? And again, by the way, this is a trophy that has won in November. But here we are talking about it in spring because people love talking about the Heisman trophy and so do we. Coach, what do you like? Well, the best player in the country, maybe in the last decade, is Jeremiah Smith. He's the best player.

I'm going to go through each one real quick. Arch Manning, to be determined. I said that and I think some Texas fans got a little upset saying he's the next coming. He might be. He's really good. You know, he's only thrown 90 passes and he had nine touchdowns, two picks. So, He's only thrown 90 passes and he had nine touchdowns, two picks. So the quiet guy that really club neck of Clemson, he had 36 touchdowns throwing last year and he's back and he's seen steady improvement from his as a quarterback. So that if I had to say it's only plus 1200, Arch Manning's number one at plus 700 as far as the betting, I'm going to say say Jeremiah Smith's gonna be the first receiver in a while to win the Heisman Trophy.

Wow, wow, wow. Four wide receivers have won the Heisman, right? Tim Brown at Notre Dame, Desmond Howard at that program up North, Devontae Smith, and of course Travis Hunter last season. Although Travis, I think he won it, not just because he was a wide receiver, but he was just, you know,

an excellent defensive player as well. Just to go back to Arch at plus 700, as you mentioned, doesn't have the numbers, certainly has the name, has the pedigree. I go back to this statement that Heisman's are won in November, Texas, obviously they open up the season in Columbus against the defending champs, Ohio State, but they closed November with Georgia

and then they host Arkansas and Texas A&M. So those are three games you can you can win a Heisman with. Garrett Nussmeier at LSU. The Tigers open up at the Tigers. Clemson in August against Cade Klubnik and that might be Clemson's marquee game of the season. They don't have Miami on their schedule this year. They do host SMU and Florida State and close at South Carolina. Jeremiah Smith, 1300 yards 15 touchdowns make a lot of us think he's just the best player in college football and it's

interesting coach because you know Travis Hunter was the best player in college football last year we all felt and that conversation was able to maintain itself throughout the year. And Colorado had a good enough season. And the guy was doing enough spectacular plays on both sides of the ball that that conversation was able to carry on. Jeremiah Smith was just shut out of a couple of games because defenses just said, we can't let him beat us. And again, the problem with the question with Smith is who's gonna be his quarterback? Julian Sayen, Lincoln Kynholtz, the freshman,

Tavi and St. Clair, all in the competition right now. Sayen appears to be the leader right now. Spring will have a lot to say about that. I will say this though for everyone to understand though, as important as that quarterback is, that is number one. But do they, who's the emeka on the other side? Yeah. You can take away a good receiver.

You can't take away two. When I had Lewis Murphy, Percy Harvin, when I had Terry McClure and Michael Thomas, you can't take away two because you can't rotate the coverage. So will Carnet take, develop enough to be that, to take the heat off of Jeremiah? Because you, once again, you saw it, you can take away a good receiver. Right. I think Tait will be good. Also, the question who takes over running back as well for Ohio State, right? They lost their two headed monster. And that obviously takes a lot of pressure off of quarterbacks and wide receivers. And of course, the last one, drew Aller at Penn State plus 1300 through for over 3300

yards, 24 touchdowns, eight interceptions able to rush at those six scores 302 rushing yards. And again, the story about Penn State, can they win the big one, they are bringing a lot of guys back a la what Ohio State did last season. And that's going to be a big talking point through the course of the offseason in the early stages of college football in the fall. All right, make sure to follow subscribe, rate us on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts, as well as across social media. You can always find us at 3xOptionShow.

Our thanks again to our wonderful sponsors, Wendy's and BetFDM. Matt Rule, thanks for joining us. Mark Ingram, we can't wait to have you back. Come back from Safari and join us. We'll see you again next week. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.