Urban Meyer recalls Utah compliance turning in his wife for making Brandon Warfield cookies

College football programs can get in trouble with the NCAA for seemingly anything. Some major violations have been committed throughout history but some punishments have come from head scratchers. Urban Meyer provided an example of the latter on Wednesday in the latest episode of The Triple Option.

“I was the head coach at Utah and Shelley would always get the player of the game — she would make cookies for them,” Meyer said. “So Brandon Warfield was our tailback, this is 2003. He got Player of the Week in the Mountain West Conference. Shelly made him cookies. Our compliance guy turned her in. I got a letter… The letter said that you’ve committed a violation and you’re going to be reprimanded by your husband. I kid you not.”

Meyer did not specify which game Warfield received cookies for. However, looking at his game log from the 2003 season, there are a couple of candidates. The easy guess would be in Week 2 when Utah went down to College Station to face off against Texas A&M. Warfield rushed for 181 yards and three touchdowns on 36 carries.

The week prior was another monster performance vs. Utah State. On 33 attempts, the running back went for 173 yards and a score. Warfield wound up having three games with at least 100 yards and totaled 976 yards plus 11 touchdowns on the season. Many would argue he earned every single cookie Shelley Meyer baked him.

But back in 2003, we all lived in a different world. Meyer saw his wife get reported to the NCAA by his own compliance department. Based on Meyer’s story, nothing too big came, if anything, from an infractions standpoint. Completely different from today’s world, where money, let alone cookies, has become such a huge part of the recruiting and roster retention side of the sport.

As for Warfield, he wound up only getting two years of significant playing time at Utah. He did not make his way into the NFL and just turned into a nice college player. In 19 career games, Warfield rushed for 1,895 yards and 20 touchdowns. The Utes went 10-2 during the 2003 season, including a Liberty Bowl win against Southern Miss.

A batch of cookies was enjoyed at some point along the way. Not without a little punishment via the NCAA. Now, over 20 years later, it’s something Meyer and his podcast co-host, Rob Stone, can look back on and laugh at.