Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comThe interim head coach is a feature of every college football season. As of publication of this episode, there are more interim coaches (five) than there have been weeks in the season (four). How do schools decide who should take over when a head coach gets fired? What patterns can we detect in how they make these choices? What are the many archetypes of interim coach, and what do they suggest about schools’ goals? Most importantly: How do interim coaches do when they get the “interim” label removed and take the permanent job? Should we be taking more of them more seriously as long-term candidates? Rodger Sherman leads Alex and Richard on a journey into the world of the interim. Meet the seven different types, including:* The Special Teams Coach* The Interim Who Used To Be A Head Coach* The Please Don’t Decommit Interim* The Frequent Flyer Interim* The Lifetime Achievement Interim* The Remember Some Guys Interim* And most important: The Interim Who Actually Gets The JobProducer: Anthony Vito

Our overview of the Week 5 college football schedule, with notes, questions, and some predictions on dozens of games. Here’s a non-exhaustive list of games:* Army at ECU* FSU at Virginia (upset??)* TCU at Arizona State* USC at Illinois* UCF at Kansas State* Louisville at Pitt* Notre Dame at Arkansas* Auburn at Texas A&M* LSU at Ole Miss (Kiffin vs. Kiffin?)* Ohio State at Washington* UCLA at Northwestern (don’t watch this)* NMSU at New Mexico* Tennessee at Mississippi State* Appalachian State at Boise State* Montana at Idaho (FCS top-10 showdown)* Alabama at Georgia* BYU at Colorado* And, of course, Oregon at Penn State: THE MAIN COURSE, featuring Audrey Snyder of Inside the Lions. If you haven’t paid much attention to Penn State in its three warmup games, you’re not alone. Audrey tells us how the Nittany Lions are looking, where the trouble spots might be, and what she makes of this marquee rematch of last year’s Big Ten Championship.Thank you to our subscribers and partnersBecome a paid subscriber today to get a lot more SZD, and check out www.nokiantyres.com/szd and www.homefieldapparel.comAlso, welcome our new partner, Dad Water. Code SZD for 20% off.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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comSUBSCRIBER SERIES: Oklahoma State finally cut ties with Mike Gundy. That wasn’t a surprise, but the timing was. Now the Pokes look forward. Alex and Richard discuss the Oklahoma State job post-Gundy:* Why did the program rot over the past two seasons?* What is unique about Oklahoma State’s financial challenges?* How did money problems materialize on the field?* Who’s actually in charge? Recent events make that a fair question* What does “fit” look like for a job that one guy has had for 20 years?* Verdict time: Good job, bad job, or circumstantial?Episodes of “The Job” are for paid subscribersEveryone can hear a free preview, and you can catch up on other episodes here:* Virginia Tech* UCLA

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comVirginia Tech has an incredible fanbase and a history, in this century, as one of the best programs in the country. But those things only count for so much, and the Hokies are now facing an existential moment: Catch up in the financial arms race, or fade further from relevance. In this episode, Alex and Richard discuss:* Why Brent Pry failed* Why the concept of “fit” in this job is extremely hard to figure out, unless you are literally Frank Beamer’s son. (And in that case, you have a conventionally better job.) * Tech’s place in the ACC and why TV viewership is everything* The bells and whistles the Hokies have lacked* The questions any candidate will want answered* How much does an amazing game day atmosphere still matter?* “I do not think Michael Vick is going to get this job”* Verdict time: Good job, bad job, or circumstantial?Producer: Anthony Vito

That was a heck of a week. Richard and Alex break down a busy Week 4 in college football, highlighting dozens of games of interest. In this order: Oklahoma 24, Auburn 17Ole Miss 45, Tulane 10Texas 55, Sam Houston 0Tennessee 56, UAB 24Missouri 29, South Carolina 20 Miami 26, Florida 7Syracuse 34, Clemson 21Duke 45, NC State 33UCF 34, North Carolina 9San Diego State 34, Cal 0Virginia Tech 38, Wofford 6Indiana 63, Illinois 10Michigan 30, Nebraska 27Maryland 27, Wisconsin 10Oregon 41, Oregon State 7Washington 59, Washington State 24Iowa 38, Rutgers 28Texas Tech 34, Utah 10TCU 35, SMU 24Arizona State 27, Baylor 24Kansas 41, West Virginia 10Colorado 37, Wyoming 20BYU 34, East Carolina 13Tulsa 19, Oklahoma State 12Notre Dame 56, Purdue 30James Madison 31, Liberty 13Memphis 32, Arkansas 31North Texas 45, Army 38 (OT)UTSA 17, Colorado State 16Rice 28, Charlotte 17UNLV 41, Miami (OH) 38Eastern Michigan 34, Louisiana 31Boise State 49, Air Force 37Fresno State 23, Hawaii 21Louisiana Tech 30, Southern Miss 20Kennesaw State 28, Arkansas State 21Delaware 38, FIU 16Coast Guard 92, Nichols 60Thanks to our partners and subscribers20% off Dad Water: https://drinkdadwater.com/discount/SZDVisit Homefield at https://www.homefieldapparel.com/Enter a college football road trip at https://www.nokiantyres.com/SZDProducer: 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comWelcome to “The Job,” a new recurring series from Split Zone Duo in which Richard and Alex go through the ins and outs of open college football coaching job. UCLA fired DeShaun Foster, which means the Bruins are once again looking for a coach to take advantage of the good parts of this gig without succumbing to the bad parts of it. But it’s been a while since anything has worked. In this episode, Richard and Alex discuss:* Why Foster became the latest UCLA coach to flop* The financial challenges, and non-financial challenges, of the job* What UCLA still has going for it, despite all of that* What “fit” looks like at a school that’s tried a lot of late-career retreads but just fell flat with a beloved son getting his first HC job* Verdict time: Good job, bad job, or circumstantial job?This episode is for paid subscriber. Everyone can hear a free preview. Paid subscribers will get many more of these bonus episodes—and others—as the coaching carousel continues to spin.

The Week 4 college football schedule is loaded with big games that wouldn’t have felt this big in any other year, like Texas Tech-Utah and Illinois-Indiana. Alex and Richard break down what’s interesting this weekend. A non-exhaustive list of games covered:* Iowa-Rutgers* Texas Tech-Utah* SMU-TCU (for the last time for a while)* North Texas-Army* Arkansas-Memphis* The Civil War* The Apple Cup* Tulane-Ole Miss* Michigan-Nebraska* Auburn-Oklahoma* Boise State-Air Force* Florida-Miami* ASU-Baylor* Michigan State-USC, verrrrry late at night* The Main Course, presented by Modelo: A detailed look at Illinois ahead of a huge game at Indiana, featuring Andy Johnson of The Shotgun StartMore this week at Split Zone DuoCo-founder and co-host emeritus Steven Godfrey is here to break down five teams that are playing very badly: How doomed are they, and how doomed are their coaches? We discuss Florida, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Oklahoma State, and Liberty in this episode.Thank you to our subscribers and partnersBecome a paid subscriber today to get a lot more SZD, and check out www.nokiantyres.com/szd and www.homefieldapparel.comAlso, welcome our new partner, Dad Water. Code SZD for 20% off.Modelo: Drink responsibly. Beer imported by Crown Imports, Chicago, ILProducer: 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comOne quarter of the way through the season, Godfrey, Richard, and Alex discuss five teams that are off to terrible starts and haven’t fired their coaches yet. They all look doomed to at least a bad season and maybe more than that, but can we find reasons for hope? In this episode: * How Billy Napier’s staff management at Florida has made him an easy target for criticism as DJ Lagway has gone backward in his second year * Oklahoma State has fallen behind not just the blue-bloods of the sport, but most of the Big 12. Mike Gundy no longer looks like the guy to fix it* Wisconsin built its roster expecting that it could still act like the Wisconsin of the 2010s, putting a moneyball QB into a good support system. But the Badgers might not be able to operate that way anymore. * Northwestern is going in the wrong direction under David Braun. That doesn’t look like his fault, but he also probably isn’t the man to fix it. (Also, Pat Fitzgerald is probably getting back into coaching soon. Just saying.) * Liberty has so much more money than its peers but has now lost six of its last 10 games going back to last October. Maybe Jamey Chadwell’s trick at Coastal Carolina wasn’t as portable as once thought. After going through each of this situations, we wonder: Which of these programs has the best chance to get back on an upward path soon? Producer: Anthony VitoThis episode is for paid subscribers, but everyone can hear a free preview To get the whole thing, join us as a paid subscriber. Great time of year for it!

Richard and Alex break down an excellent Week 3 in college football, with a spotlight on more than three dozen games. We go in this order:Georgia 44, Tennessee 41Texas A&M 41, Notre Dame 40Georgia Tech 24, Clemson 21WVU 31, Pitt 24LSU 20, Florida 10Alabama 38, Wisconsin 14Miami 49, USF 12Oregon 34, Northwestern 14USC 33, Purdue 17Ole Miss 41, Arkansas 35Vandy 31, South Carolina 7Cal 27, Minnesota 14Stanford 30, Boston College 20NC State 34, Wake Forest 24Arizona 23, Kansas State 17New Mexico 35, UCLA 10Houston 36, Colorado 20Indiana 73, Indiana State 0ODU 45, Virginia Tech 26Tulane 34, Duke 27Iowa State 24, Arkansas State 16Oklahoma 42, Temple 3SMU 28, Missouri State 10Delaware 44, UConn 41Texas 27, UTEP 10Missouri 52, Louisiana 10Texas Tech 45, Oregon State 10Utah 31, Wyoming 6ASU 34, Texas State 15North Texas 59, Wazzu 10Southern Miss 38, App State 22UTSA 48, UIW 20BGSU 23, Liberty 13Memphis 28, Troy 7Buffalo 31, Kent State 28FIU 38, FAU 28UAB 31, Akron 28Thanks to our partners and subscribers20% off Dad Water: https://drinkdadwater.com/discount/SZDVisit Homefield at https://www.homefieldapparel.com/Enter a college football road trip at https://www.nokiantyres.com/SZDProducer: 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comSubscriber show! Realignment killed off a lot of college football rivalries. Then the schools involved brought some of them back … only to let them wither again. Why does this happen, and are some of the ongoing changes to the sport encouraging or discouraging teams to schedule more of these games? Now that the Border War is back and the Backyard Brawl is about to play what might be its last game in a while (after a previous long pause), it’s a good time to try to figure it out. Rodger Sherman joins Alex and Richard for a discussion about it.Producer: Anthony Vito