Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comCody Alexander of MatchQuarters joins Richard to discuss how the football coach at North Carolina will actually, ya know, coach football (a novel concept, we know). His evolution as a defensive mind shaped the way you watch the game in more ways than you can realize, but can he be the same guy in college football? What's instructive about Steve Belichick's time in Washington? And can a guy who is all about the fundamentals thrive in today's college football? Producer: Anthony Vito. This is a subscriber episode! Everyone can hear a free preview or join on a free trial, however. You can do that by clicking this button: Further listening

A running back from Boise State helped define the 2024 season. Does CFB have an RB waiting in the wings to make a similar imprint in 2025? Probably not exactly, given Jeanty’s historic season and the difficulty non-power programs have had retaining star running backs this offseason. But if we’re just looking for running backs who can defy difficult circumstances and elevate their offenses to a new level, we can find some candidates to be 2025’s Jeanty.SZD audience survey: https://surveys.getwizer.com/s3/d33771e852f9 Tickets to the Sports Podcast Festival on 8/23 in Raleigh (use code SPF25 for half off a second ticket): https://www.etix.com/ticket/p/78691649/the-2nd-annual-sports-podcast-festival-raleigh-the-rialto Cool stuff from SZD’s partners* Use SZD20 for 20% off your first order at Homefield.* Enter your favorite CFB road trip at our Nokian Tyres landing page, and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win free tires. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comIn this week’s CFB Lunch Break, Alex and Richard answer live questions from Split Zone Duo subscribers:* What to make of Luke Fickell’s mediocre first two years at Wisconsin and a challenging situation in Year 3* Ohio State/Texas scheduling fight* Florida’s upside this fall* What Penn State actually needs from Drew Allar* The cloudy landscape of G5 position player talent* What’s behind TNT’s weird College Football Playoff TV arrangement* Nebraska and Clemson offseason vapors* UCLA: Glass half full?* Notre Dame’s reasonable goals* Michigan State hiring Georgia Tech’s athletic director* The air raid is dead. Long live the air raidProducer: Anthony VitoHosts: Alex Kirshner, Richard JohnsonReminder: Split Zone Duo LIVE in Raleigh, August 23 Details here. Tickets here.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comFor live show tickets in Raleigh on 8/23: https://www.etix.com/ticket/p/78691649/the-2nd-annual-sports-podcast-festival-raleigh-the-rialto Godfrey, Richard, and Alex present the second episode in our “Anatomy of a Coaching Carousel” series. This show covers the new college football head coaches for the 2010 season. This was the year that Florida State finally pushed out Bobby Bowden, Notre Dame fired Charlie Weis, and USC watched Pete Carroll walk out the door to the Seahawks. What happened after that?* A messy “coach-in-waiting” situation in Tallahassee, as Bobby Bowden is finally pushed away and Jimbo Fisher steps up* Notre Dame goes for Brian Kelly after squandering a "decided schematic advantage” and firing Charlie Weis* Charlie Strong gets a new job at Louisville* Vanderbilt lives through one of the stranger mid-offseason changes in a while* Lane Kiffin arrives in Southern California, and Derek Dooley replaces him in Knoxville in a search that sure could have gone differently* A future senator heads to Siberia, err, Lubbock* Butch Jones takes on one of the hardest jobs in college football: living up to a high bar set by a string of his predecessorsThen it’s CLASS SUPERLATIVES time, with the boys each naming their pick for the Ellis Johnson/Southern Miss Award, the Coaching Carousel Global Impact Award, and Hire of the Year.Scroll down in your feed to February 18, 2025 for the first episode in this series. Producer: Anthony Vito

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comSplit Zone Duo State is the newest startup FBS program. We've got our coach, but now we need a staff. Blueprint Sports head of analytics Parker Fleming joins the show to help Richard break down who to hire, and the roles that need filling, to build SZD State into a title contender. For additional (free) listening on this topic, see our March 2024 episode: “The NFL-ification of college recruiting.” This is a special episode for Split Zone Duo’s paid subscribers. Get started with a free trial.Plus, everyone can hear a free preview.Also this week for SZD subscribers:

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comRichard and Alex take live questions from our Split Zone Duo subscribers. Topics covered in this episode include:* The slightly messy ending between Jim Knowles and Ohio State* What we’re most excited about in the 2025 season* More developments in Bill Belichick/Jordon Hudson* Rapid scheme turnover, like Washington State will see this year* Playoff expansion’s effect on SEC expansion* Lincoln Riley and USC say they want to preserve their Notre Dame rivalry game, but Riley’s old words and current actions say different* Duke as an ACC dark horse* How cooked is Virginia Tech?* New athletic director at Michigan State: Why?* Maryland’s business-ish approach to filling the AD chair* Likelier to get fired or win their conference? Mike Gundy, Brian Kelly, Lincoln Riley, and Mike NorvellCollege Football Lunch Break is a recurring live call that we have at 12 p.m. ET on many Tuesdays in the Substack app. Subscribers get a recording afterward.Producer: Anthony Vito

College football history is loaded with BS national championship claims, as well as some non-consensus claims that AREN’T ridiculous. How do we tell the difference? What patterns emerge when we look at decades of disputed titles? What is the most ridiculous national title claim of all time? (Spoiler: It’s one of Alabama’s claims. But why don’t the Tide claim other titles that would be a lot less outrageous?) No other sport has a feature quite like this one, and we’ve got an expert to talk through it with us: Keith Gaddie, TCU professor and author of a new book, “Bragging Rites,” on the history of arguing over national championships. (The book comes out May 24.)More from Split Zone Duo’s partners:* Use SZD20 for 20% off your first order at Homefield. There’s fresh college sports apparel dropping at Homefield all the time. Find your school’s collection. Also: auto racing gear. It’s Indy 500 month.* Visit NokianTyres.com/RoadTrips and share your road-tripping plans for the summer, and you’ll be entered to win a set of tires. This contest runs through May 30. Enjoy the same tires that get us where we need to go.Producer: Anthony Vito This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe

Sports Podcast Festival tickets: https://www.etix.com/ticket/p/78691649/the-2nd-annual-sports-podcast-festival-raleigh-the-rialto Extra Points publisher Matt Brown joins Alex to break down a handful of big offseason stories in the business of college football.* 1:25: Donald Trump’s presidential commission on college sports, co-chaired by Nick Saban: What will it do? How will it interact with the NCAA’s efforts to get Congress to write it a bill? Are Ted Cruz and Tommy Tuberville going to fight? And how seriously should you take the whole thing?* 36:10: Negotiations over a potential 16-team playoff format* 39:46: The drip, drip, drip of news about Bill Belichick’s relationship: Will UNC ever know a moment of peace as long as he’s coaching?* 40:51: Notre Dame and Clemson make a scheduling deal* 44:06: Akron, the first academically ineligible bowl team in a decade* 46:34: Jim Tressel’s new career in Ohio* 47:56: Arkansas’ state law and a House settlement race to the bottom* 56:03: Brett Yormark’s extension as Big 12 commissioner* 59:49: Private equity in college football: Have our views changed at all since this became a big story in early 2024?Read Matt’s newsletter at www.extrapointsmb.comMore from SZD’s partners* Use SZD20 at www.homefieldapparel.com.* Follow Nokian Tyres on Instagram @NokianTyresNA, and learn more about Nokian’s commitment to sustainability at nokiantyres.com/sustainabilityProducer: Antony Vito This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comThe Rice Owls have had 36 winning seasons since 1914. They once lost 18 games in a row. They have wandered from conference to conference since the death of the SWC, and despite being in a huge city that loves football, they have precious few fans. They are the only college football program to struggle so much that when JFK used them to justify going to the moon, everyone understood the reference. For decades, this picture has barely changed.Why is football so hard at Rice? To get to the bottom of it, Alex and Richard interview two experts: Matthew Bartlett and Carter Spires of The Roost, the internet’s top destination for Rice sports news and commentary. Among other things, the group discusses:* How a Rice game day looks* The program’s many downs and occasional ups, like its record-setting 2008 team that won 10 games* JFK’s famous speech that doubled as a minor dig at the team* How Rice fits into, or sets itself apart from, the city of Houston* Why a school that figured out baseball has never cracked football* The difficulties of recruiting to a school that cares about school* The school’s decision to get a bit more serious about football latey* The best possible case for Rice football in the next 10 years* VERDICT TIME: Stay in the AAC, drop to FCS, or stop playing football?This is the second episode in an SZD series, “Why You’re Always Bad." For the first subscriber episode, on Kent State, scroll down in this podcast feed.Everyone can hear a free preview of this episode. To hear the whole thing and get a bunch more subscriber-only episodes, join us on a free trial.Thanks to the crew from The Roost for joining our show.Producer: Anthony Vito

Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner close out SZD’s Offseason Vibe Check series with the Mountain West. How has everything gone for this conference and its teams between the end of the regular season and now? Let’s discuss:* The state of the Mountain West’s squabbling with the Pac-12* New Mexico’s new head coach, Jason Eck, has been an FCS lifer* Utah State’s Bronco Mendenhall hire could be one of the best moves any team made all offseason* Fresno State gets Matt Entz, formerly of NDSU, and tries to find talent in unconventional places* Boise State loses Ashton Jeanty but has so much coming back* Colorado State has an intriguing group of freshmen and an ex-Ohio State WR* San Jose State tries to build on an encouraging first year under Ken Niumatalolo but has to move forward without an all-time receiver, Nick Nash* UNLV got Dan Mullen … and then some shaky headlines about its finances* Nevada looks to a familiar face, Chubba Purdy, to turn around a 3-10 team* Air Force is a candidate to be one of the most improved teams in FBS, but it’s not clear who will play QB* Wyoming has holes to fill at positions where it’s produced elite players recently* San Diego State tries to get back to basics after an ugly first year for Sean Lewis* Hawaii has athletic director turmoil on an epic scaleGet cool stuff from SZD’s partners* Use SZD20 at www.homefieldapparel.com.* Follow Nokian Tyres on Instagram @NokianTyresNA, and learn more about Nokian’s commitment to sustainability at nokiantyres.com/sustainabilityProducer: Anthony VitoHosts: Alex Kirshner, Ricard Johnson This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe