Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast

The Big 12 and C-USA reviews, plus an all-time lie

15 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This episode contains the 2022 conference review episodes, with roses, buds, thorns, and all, for the Big 12 and Conference USA. It also features Godf...

The Big Ten reviewed, Bama coordinators, and the MAC

07 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Richard, Alex, and Godfrey start this week's show with some discussion of Alabama's wholesale coordinator changeover, Texas and Oklahoma being stuck i...

Schedule fun + ACC and AAC conference reviews

01 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Richard and Alex talk through some notable nuggets from recent conference schedule drops for 2023, before going back in time and reviewing the 2022 se...

The celebrity HBCU coach and SEC 2022 review

25 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Richard, Godfrey, and Alex talk through Ed Reed becoming, then un-becoming, the head coach at Bethune-Cookman, and how the entire situation fits with ...

UF's collective mess, B1G commish, and Sun Belt review

18 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Yes, we reserve the first 7:19 for Richard to talk about the Jags (but also about the beauty of football fandom). Then, to humble him, Alex and Godfre...

How do you put a bow on 65-7?

10 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Richard and Alex try their best to sum up what Georgia did to TCU on Monday night. The Dawgs had a great plan, and they also had an otherworldly abili...

The natty preview and New Year's Six referenda

04 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Richard, Godfrey, and Alex talk about the coming matchup between TCU and Georgia: Do the Frogs have enough skill weapons to cause gameplan problems fo...

Dead Letters: A Tulane Football Story

29 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Please enjoy this Split Zone Duo Patreon special from our miniseries "Dead Letters." Initially released in July 2022, the three-episode series is a sc...

The Playoff and 13 more bowls, previewed

27 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Alex, Godfrey, and Richard preview the Playoff semifinals with some scheme and narrative flavor, then move onto the rest of the New Year's six and all...

2023 coaching concepts and more bowls

21 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard, Godfrey, and Alex run through the 24 coaching changes in FBS so far and sort out what they say about the hiring schools' strategies. Plus som...

How we'll remember Mike Leach

14 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard, Godfrey, and Alex talk about the towering, complicated, far-reaching legacy Mike Leach left in college football. After that, a run through th...

SZD's 2022 awards extravaganza

07 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to Split Zone Duo's 2022 awards presentation. Let's call them The Zonies? Alex, Richard, and Godfrey pick the best P5 teams, G5 teams, plays, ...

Champs Weekend reaction and quick-take bowl previews

04 Dec 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey, Richard, and Alex react to conference championship games, led by the Big 12 and Pac-12. Then let's take a first glance at Georgia-Ohio State ...

The Freeze image machine and Champs Weekend

30 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey, Richard, and Alex dive into the rehabilitation of Hugh Freeze's public image, and how Freeze's camp, Liberty, Auburn, and helpful media helpe...

The Week 13 Hurry-Up beats all rivals

27 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner take you through the longest 30 minutes of your week: A debriefing on college football's Rivalry Week, including new...

The Thanksgiving tasting menu for Rivalry Week

22 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey, Richard, and Alex give you a detailed preview of the best week on the college football calendar. Let's go game-by-game through dozens of game...

The Week 12 Hurry-Up survives an upset bid

20 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner lead you on a 30-ish-minute debriefing from college football Week 12, which featured one big upset, a bunch of almos...

The state of the conferences

16 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard, Godfrey, and Alex start this week's show by addressing the devastating shooting at the University of Virginia for about eight minutes. The g...

The Week 11 Hurry-Up fights through adversity

13 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Alex Kirshner and Richard Johnson debrief you on a packed college football weekend, from the Washington-Oregon and TCU-Texas blockbusters to UConn bea...

LSU and Notre Dame revisited, Bama woes, and Roll Wave

09 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Brian Kelly-Marcus Freeman coaching musical chairs game in late 2021 was one of the biggest carousel stories ever. After some shakiness for LSU an...

The Week 10 Hurry-Up wins in the trenches

06 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner take you on a 40-ish-minute debrief of one of the best weekends of the college football season so far. Georgia stuff...

A November megapack of good college football games

02 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard, Alex, and Godfrey bounce around on a number of topics (a Utah TV dustup, Michigan/Michigan State, and the Big 12's TV deal) before talking a...

The Week 9 Hurry Up Had An Incredible Defensive Stat Line

30 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey subs in to spell Alex and we go from Ohio State to Toledo running through the Week 9 games (that's longer than you'd think): Tennessee's defen...

A&M, Miami, and the price of perception

26 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey, Richard, and Alex aim for a levelheaded discussion about what's wrong with Texas A&M on the field, and whether there's any way to fix it ...

The Week 8 Hurry-Up keeps a low turnover margin

23 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A 30ish-minute debriefing on the college football weekend with Alex Kirshner and Richard Johnson. Clemson and TCU continue to get away with it. LSU ha...

Running the "5-5-2" on good and bad surprises

19 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey, Richard, and Alex pick out some teams doing really well, then some teams doing poorly, and talk about them through a short-term, medium-term,...

The Week 7 Hurry-Up covers the day of the year

16 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner take you on a 30-ish-minute debrief of one of the best college football Saturdays in memory. Subscribe for bonus epi...

The CFB season's biggest week so far, Rhule, and Q&A

12 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

BOXOFFICE is the code for the Homefield sale mentioned in this show (linked down below). Week 7 is full of blockbusters on the college football schedu...

The Week 6 Hurry-Up would've just thrown a fade

09 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner take you on a 35-ish-minute journey through the college football weekend, with observations, minutiae, and numbers o...

Let's frame up what's happening at Auburn

05 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard and Alex start the show by talking about the recent coach firings at Colorado and Wisconsin. Justin Ferguson, publisher of the Auburn Observer...

The Week 5 Hurry-Up plays up to its recruiting ranking

02 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Alex Kirshner and Richard Johnson shuttle you through a packed weekend in college football in a roughly 40-minute debrief. Subscribe to our Patreon fo...

What Georgia Tech says (or doesn't say) about Atlanta

28 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard, Godfrey, and Alex start this episode with an extended discussion of Georgia Tech, a job that says a lot (but also leaves a lot unsaid!) abou...

The Week 4 Hurry-Up moves at a deliberate pace

25 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner debrief you on the week that was in college football. Adrian Martinez gave Oklahoma a world of hurt. Clemson looked ...

College Football Show-and-Tell

21 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It's a big show this week to commemorate SZD's second birthday. This show starts with some talk about the Arizona State coach search to come, then con...

The Week 3 Hurry-Up finishes before 3 a.m.

18 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner take you on a roughly 40-minute sprint through another packed weekend in college football, with observations and ana...

Early narratives: Buyer beware

14 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The college football season is, somehow, one-sixth going on a quarter complete. After talking about Nebraska for a few minutes to open the show, Godf...

The Week 2 Hurry-Up wears a fashionable Belt

11 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner take you on a 44-minute, detail-packed trip through a loaded Week 2 in college football. This show starts with some ...

A post-Week 1 tone reset on a bunch of teams

07 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

College football is a small sample size sport, so let's take stock of how our impressions of a handful of teams did (and did not) change in Week 1. Th...

The Week 1 Hurry-Up, from Ohio State to St. Francis

04 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard and Alex take you on a lean but detailed journey through Week 1 in college football. Ohio State does business the old way. Anthony Richardson ...

A beefy Week 1 preview and some reactions to the last week

31 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Before getting into a substantial preview of Week 1, Godfrey, Richard, and Alex talk about a few stories away from the field. The episode starts with ...

The Big Ten and MAC 2022 preview episode

23 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We think this might be the longest episode in SZD history. Conference preview season concludes with college football's Midwestern and "Midwestern" con...

The 2022 Pac-12 and Mountain West preview show

15 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Alex and Richard take you on an almost entirely realignment-free journey through the Pac-12 and then the Mountain West. Has Utah changed, or has the P...

The 2022 FCS Upset Draft and FBS independents preview

10 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Defending FCS Upset Draft champion and Shutdown Fullcast host Jason Kirk joins the podcast to pick FCS winners over FBS opponents for 2022. Then the w...

The SEC and Sun Belt 2022 preview show

03 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey, Richard, and Alex preview FBS' two Southeastern conferences, one after the other. Topics include whether either Georgia or Alabama will take ...

American indifference and ACC anxieties: Smoke 'em if you got 'em

25 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Alex is out of office so Godfrey immediately hijacked the conference season preview format to talk about cigarettes and media parties. Let's explore ...

SZD presents Dead Letters, Episode 1: Tulane

19 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Tulane University built one of the most powerful football programs in the American South. The Green Wave had a spot in the SEC and a history of winnin...

The Big 12 & C-USA 2022 preview show

18 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Damn, it's great to be talking about actual college football again. Welcome to Split Zone Duo Relaunch Week! We're officially turning toward the 2022...

Hugh Freeze and Liberty remain perfect for each other

13 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Hugh Freeze steps in it yet again, and Godfrey, Alex, and Richard explain how it fits into both Liberty's shtick and a years-long personal pattern for...

The big SZD midsummer mailbag episode

29 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard, Godfrey, and Alex take your questions on a long list of topics. Which program is the hardest one to get information about? Is Oklahoma State ...

The stuff that's interesting in summer recruiting

22 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Alex and Richard spend 30-some minutes closing up last week's realignment conversation and then diving into summer recruiting in an SZD way. We don't ...

The wonderfully weird 2023 Big 12, good schedules, and bad

15 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey and Alex pick through some recent college football news. Godfrey explains the incentives at work that will get UCF, Houston, and Cincinnati to...

The Year 2 vibe check on a bunch of head coaches

08 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Conventional wisdom says a coach's second year is when we start to get an idea of how he'll do at a school in the long run. Godfrey, Richard, and Alex...

SEC office politics, history rhymes, Utah, and Clemson

01 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

College football is in a quiet period, but Split Zone Duo continues apace. Richard and Alex talk about a notable Deion Sanders hire, why Bryan Harsin ...

What every conference should do about divisions (plus Jimbo and Saban)

25 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey, Richard, and Alex start this episode by picking through the aftermath of the May coaching kerfuffle of the century between Nick Saban and Jim...

The 2022 primetime schedule takes shape

18 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard, Godfrey, and Alex are tired of talking about NIL all the time, but fortunately, this mid-May stretch has brought a kernel of 2022 football bu...

CFB's big, fancy meetings and existential crises

11 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard is back from college football's big offseason conference meetings and Fiesta Bowl confab. He explains to Alex what his industry contacts are t...

The Jordan Addison saga + a CFB lens on the draft

03 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey and Alex talk about some of the most CFB-centric storylines from the NFL Draft, including how the NFL gave an icy reception (in different ways...

Mark Emmert is out, and the draft is a CFB event

27 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey, Richard, and Alex discuss Mark Emmert's run as the president of the NCAA. In some areas, his failures were systemic and probably inevitable. ...

The Big Ten, pay-for-play, Texas Tech, and a lot of QBs

20 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Big Ten and Fox are poised to deepen their TV partnership. What’s that mean for you, the viewer? The adults in the room are doing a lot of hand-...

Sark gets mad, O plays a long game, and the USFL plays football?

13 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Ed Orgeron visited Notre Dame and told the Irish they’d win a national title. Godfrey explains the long game at play here, which is — we swear —...

Notre Dame is playing WHOMST? In WHAT?

06 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Notre Dame scheduled a game with Tennessee State, which it very much wants you to think of as purely an HBCU rather than also an FCS team. Alex and Ri...

Campbell, Nebraska, and Navy's conference affiliation: The March mega-mailbag

24 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey and Alex answer listener questions on a handful of topics: Why Matt Campbell and Nebraska make sense for each other, who the Big Ten would ser...

Billy Napier and the art of the expectation game

16 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This show covers three topics in detail. The first (6:23) is about the rush in sports media streaming deals, and how it'll come around to college foot...

The Combine, LSU, and a new way to talk about ageism in coaching

09 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A content note: Our discussion of LSU, running from about the 21:25 to 36:48 mark of this episode, includes discussion of allegations of sexual miscon...

College football's bad mess and good mess

02 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Hue Jackson and Grambling's attempt to hire Art Briles was a series of unforced errors that revealed a lot about what coaches and administrators think...

SZD is not expanding at this time (plus Big 12/C-USA)

22 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The College Football Playoff says it won't expand during its current TV deal. Alex and Richard talk about why that is, what it is that different confe...

The Auburn saga concludes (for now) plus ACC and AAC reviews

14 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey, Richard, and Alex discuss the end — or maybe more of a pause — of hostilities at Auburn. What was surprising about it, and what wasn't? P...

Auburn goes south, and we go west

08 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Pac-12 and Mountain West conference review episode starts with a discussion of how Bryan Harsin's tenure at Auburn went wrong, and why it's likely...

Caleb, Harbaugh, and Big Ten/MAC 2021 reviews

01 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to the conference review episode for the 2021 Big Ten and MAC. That covers most of the show, but Godfrey, Richard, and Alex spend the first 25...

The 2021 SEC and Sun Belt, reviewed

18 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey, Richard, and Alex go through in-depth conference review exercises for both the SEC and the Sun Belt, after 15 minutes running through this we...

Stetson Bennett, a 2021 review, and a 2022 preview

12 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Richard, Alex, and Godfrey talk through Georgia's national championship win, Stetson Bennett's triumph, and the Dawgs using a roadmap that's both fam...

Previewing the National Championship and the associated existential crisis

05 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After Godfrey shares what he knows about Jim Harbaugh and the Raiders, he, Richard, and Alex get into Alabama-Georgia Round II (or whatever this is) a...

Build your Playoff narrative

28 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Alex, Richard, and Godfrey start the show with a chat about how college football's structure made the current raft of bowl cancelations inevitable, an...

Bowling for cord-cutters and CFB's future

21 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey, Richard, and Alex get together a few days before Christmas to talk about these topics in detail: 1) last weekend's brief YouTube TV/Disney ca...

JSU's coup, Oregon, Clemson, and BOWLS

15 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey and Alex talk through Jackson State's stunning commitment from the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2022, while cautioning against leaps to concl...

What's The Idea behind each new coach hire?

08 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Marcus Freeman's elevation at Notre Dame was smooth, well received, and kind of quiet, so Alex and Richard went back over it amid a week of carousel c...

Setting the table for the 2021 Playoff

05 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Richard, Godfrey, and Alex talk through the Playoff slotting, the committee's performance in 2021, why Cincinnati doesn't disprove anything about the ...

The big coaching carousel mess of 2021

01 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Richard, Alex, and Godfrey preview conference championship weekend and the potential Playoff drama to come, then discuss the historically messy week t...

Week 13: We picked our hill, and Oklahoma State killed us on it

28 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Alex and Richard take a slightly longer-than-usual trip through the weekend in college football. Michigan vindicated a podcast opinion, but Oklahoma S...

The undercurrents of Florida's coach search

23 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Florida man Richard Johnson talks with Alex about the underlying factors that might inform Florida's sudden search for Dan Mullen's successor. (The Un...

Week 12: A great week for UT (SA/ah)

21 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Alex and Richard take you on a 30-minute journey through Week 12, and this time, they don't even go over time. Utah dominated, UTSA had one of the fi...

LSU, UW, VT, and 2021's spinning carousel

18 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey, Richard, and Alex talk about the rapidly speeding-up coaching carousel, hopping from Washington to Virginia Tech to LSU and even down to Nort...

Week 11: O no, OU

14 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Richard and Godfrey take a 30ish minute journey through Week 11 including OU’s loss to Baylor, Tennessee scripted the first drive of the game, but n...

The Texas high school football coach is a proud breed

10 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Texas Tech’s hire of Joey McGuire signals something, because as they say: Everything’s bigger in Texas. Midseason coaching changes, Washington wei...

Week 10: Oops I Purdid it again

07 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey and Richard take a 30ish-minute journey through the college football weekend. The Purdue Boilermakers, destroyer of worlds (but only if you’...

Cincinnati, Gary Patterson, and the Texas coaching carousel

03 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey, Richard, and Alex disagree over what Cincinnati's initial No. 6 ranking really says about the Playoff committee's view of the Bearcats. Then,...

Week 9: Sparty party

31 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Alex and Richard take a 30ish-minute journey through the college football weekend: Michigan State showed its mettle, Michigan did too and somehow lost...

What makes 7 good teams good

27 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Richard, Godfrey, and Alex run through the methods of attack, both in program-building and on the field, for seven surprisingly great teams: UTSA, SMU...

Week 8: Alex is sorry, Pat Narduzzi

24 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Richard and Alex take you on a 30ish-minute jaunt through the college football weekend. Alex is forced to issue a mea culpa to Pitt's not-currently-em...

College football and the NLRB

22 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Alex and Richard interview Jennifer Abruzzo, the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, who wrote the September memo that says college...

Orgeron saga, Mullen, and the new AAC

21 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Steven Godfrey (@38Godfrey), Richard Johnson (@RJ_Writes), and Alex Kirshner (@alex_kirshner) talk through three things in detail: How the LSU-Ed Orge...

Week 7: Bye-owa

17 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner take you on a 30-ish-minute trip through the interesting goings-on from college football’s Week 7. Iowa’s loss t...

Iowa, Kentucky, and proof of concept

12 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey, Richard, and Alex spend the first stretch of this episode talking not just about Iowa and Kentucky, but about how we *talk* about Iowa and Ke...

Week 6: The Thrilla in Red Riva

10 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Alex and Richard take a 30-ish-minute sprint through the interesting happenings in college football this weekend. A&M picked a weird script to tak...

Urbanism and college football

06 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For about the first 47 minutes of this episode, Alex, Richard, and Godfrey talk about the Urban Meyer mess in Jacksonville, what it says about the dif...

Week 5: Eat the whole Skyline Chili bowl

03 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Alex and Richard take you on a 30-minute journey through Week 5, which winds up being more like 40 minutes this week. There are no rules. Subscribe to...

Who's your ACC bae?

29 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

After a few minutes talking about Wednesday's big college athlete news at the NLRB, Alex, Richard, and Godfrey take turns evaluating potential candida...

Week 4: We told you to short Clemson and Oklahoma

26 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Alex and Richard take you on a 30-ish-minute journey around the interesting things from the college football weekend. Clemson and Oklahoma looked faul...

How to short Oklahoma and Ohio State (and Clemson too!)

22 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey, Richard, and Alex discuss the apparent vulnerability of some of CFB's most elite programs, and the good signs shown by others. Plus, who's r...

Week 3: Penn State's back, Florida's solid, and Fresno rules

19 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Godfrey and Alex take you on a 30-ish-minute trip through Week 3. (OK, this week went a little long.) The group is impressed with Penn State, liked Au...