Shows / Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast
Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast
An independent college football podcast that covers the whole sport, led by Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner. Free episodes each week (twice per week in season), plus frequent subscriber episodes. Featuring co-host emeritus Steven Godfrey and friends.
www.splitzoneduo.com
Episodes
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastThe Big 12 & C-USA 2022 preview show
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 season…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastHugh Freeze and Liberty remain perfect for each other
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 head…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastThe big SZD midsummer mailbag episode
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 maybe on…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastThe stuff that's interesting in summer recruiting
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 cover the…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastThe wonderfully weird 2023 Big 12, good schedules, and bad
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 Big…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastThe Year 2 vibe check on a bunch of head coaches
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 go…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastSEC office politics, history rhymes, Utah, and Clemson
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 is…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastWhat every conference should do about divisions (plus Jimbo and Saban)
Godfrey, Richard, and Alex start this episode by picking through the aftermath of the May coaching kerfuffle of the century between Nick Saban and Jimbo…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastThe 2022 primetime schedule takes shape
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 business to…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastCFB's big, fancy meetings and existential crises
Richard is back from college football's big offseason conference meetings and Fiesta Bowl confab. He explains to Alex what his industry contacts are talking…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastThe Jordan Addison saga + a CFB lens on the draft
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) to…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastMark Emmert is out, and the draft is a CFB event
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. In…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastThe Big Ten, pay-for-play, Texas Tech, and a lot of QBs
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-wringing…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastSark gets mad, O plays a long game, and the USFL plays football?
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 — more…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastNotre Dame is playing WHOMST? In WHAT?
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 Richard…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastCampbell, Nebraska, and Navy's conference affiliation: The March mega-mailbag
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 seriously…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastBilly Napier and the art of the expectation game
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 football in…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastThe Combine, LSU, and a new way to talk about ageism in coaching
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 misconduct. In…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastCollege football's bad mess and good mess
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 they can…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastSZD is not expanding at this time (plus Big 12/C-USA)
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 conferences…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastThe Auburn saga concludes (for now) plus ACC and AAC reviews
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? Plus a quick…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastAuburn goes south, and we go west
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 about to…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastCaleb, Harbaugh, and Big Ten/MAC 2021 reviews
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 minutes…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastThe 2021 SEC and Sun Belt, reviewed
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 week's big…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastStetson Bennett, a 2021 review, and a 2022 preview
Richard, Alex, and Godfrey talk through Georgia's national championship win, Stetson Bennett's triumph, and the Dawgs using a roadmap that's both familiar and…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastPreviewing the National Championship and the associated existential crisis
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) and…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastBuild your Playoff narrative
Alex, Richard, and Godfrey start the show with a chat about how college football's structure made the current raft of bowl cancelations inevitable, and why…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastBowling for cord-cutters and CFB's future
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 carriage…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastJSU's coup, Oregon, Clemson, and BOWLS
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 conclusion…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastWhat's The Idea behind each new coach hire?
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 chaos…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastSetting the table for the 2021 Playoff
Richard, Godfrey, and Alex talk through the Playoff slotting, the committee's performance in 2021, why Cincinnati doesn't disprove anything about the event's…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastThe big coaching carousel mess of 2021
Richard, Alex, and Godfrey preview conference championship weekend and the potential Playoff drama to come, then discuss the historically messy week that…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastWeek 13: We picked our hill, and Oklahoma State killed us on it
Alex and Richard take a slightly longer-than-usual trip through the weekend in college football. Michigan vindicated a podcast opinion, but Oklahoma State very…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastThe undercurrents of Florida's coach search
Florida man Richard Johnson talks with Alex about the underlying factors that might inform Florida's sudden search for Dan Mullen's successor. (The University…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastWeek 12: A great week for UT (SA/ah)
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 finishes of…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastLSU, UW, VT, and 2021's spinning carousel
Godfrey, Richard, and Alex talk about the rapidly speeding-up coaching carousel, hopping from Washington to Virginia Tech to LSU and even down to North Texas…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastWeek 11: O no, OU
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 not the rest…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastThe Texas high school football coach is a proud breed
Texas Tech’s hire of Joey McGuire signals something, because as they say: Everything’s bigger in Texas. Midseason coaching changes, Washington weirdness, and…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastWeek 10: Oops I Purdid it again
Godfrey and Richard take a 30ish-minute journey through the college football weekend. The Purdue Boilermakers, destroyer of worlds (but only if you’re the No…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastCincinnati, Gary Patterson, and the Texas coaching carousel
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, we talk…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastWeek 9: Sparty party
Alex and Richard take a 30ish-minute journey through the college football weekend: Michigan State showed its mettle, Michigan did too and somehow lost anyway…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastWhat makes 7 good teams good
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, Pitt…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastWeek 8: Alex is sorry, Pat Narduzzi
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-embattled…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastCollege football and the NLRB
Alex and Richard interview Jennifer Abruzzo, the general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, who wrote the September memo that says college football…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastOrgeron saga, Mullen, and the new AAC
Steven Godfrey (@38Godfrey), Richard Johnson (@RJ_Writes), and Alex Kirshner (@alex_kirshner) talk through three things in detail: How the LSU-Ed Orgeron…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastWeek 7: Bye-owa
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 to Purdue…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastIowa, Kentucky, and proof of concept
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 Kentucky…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastWeek 6: The Thrilla in Red Riva
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 take down Bama…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastUrbanism and college football
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 differences…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastWeek 5: Eat the whole Skyline Chili bowl
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 our…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastWho's your ACC bae?
After a few minutes talking about Wednesday's big college athlete news at the NLRB, Alex, Richard, and Godfrey take turns evaluating potential candidates to be…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastWeek 4: We told you to short Clemson and Oklahoma
Alex and Richard take you on a 30-ish-minute journey around the interesting things from the college football weekend. Clemson and Oklahoma looked faulty…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastHow to short Oklahoma and Ohio State (and Clemson too!)
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 rising to…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastWeek 3: Penn State's back, Florida's solid, and Fresno rules
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 Auburn and…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastWhat 2 weeks say about 8 teams
College football is a small-sample size sport, so let’s make it even smaller. Which teams have changed how we see them through two weeks, and which require…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastWeek 2: OSU and Iowa State *didn't* have the worst losses
Alex and Richard take you on a 30-minute journey through Week 2. Listen to a dejected FSU radio call, and then hear Richard (with much regret) discuss the…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastWeek 2 is so good we talked realignment (and UConn)
Alex, Richard, and Godfrey start out with a discussion of Randy Edsall's UConn departure and which kind of coach might theoretically still want that job. The…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastWeek 1: Georgia’s beef, Richard eats crow, and the Big Sky reigns
Alex and Richard run through a whole lot of Week 1 games, from the top of the country to the bottom. We cover everything we found interesting this weekend…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastThe whole-hog Week 1 preview, from Charlotte to Berkeley
Our Week 1 preview show runs through the games that are likely to cause angst no matter who loses, the games that *shouldn’t* cause angst to whoever losses…
Split Zone Duo: College Football PodcastFine, let's talk about this absurd "alliance"
Your co-hosts Richard Johnson, Steven Godfrey, and Alex Kirshner talk about the Big Ten/ACC/Pac-12 "alliance" plan. We're skeptical about it and think it's a…