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PODCAST

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast

Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner

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

sports football

All Episodes

120:54

College Football Previews 2025: Big 12

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/07/24

Shehan Jeyarajah, college football writer for CBS Sports, returns to the show to join Alex and Richard for a meaty preview of the Big 12. You may enjoy Shehan’s recent report on the details behind Texas Tech’s NIL boom. In this preview:* Arizona State loses Cam Skattebo but still has so much returning from a team that nearly made the playoff semifinals* Iowa State has questions … and probably answers* Cincinnati likely has its best team under Scott Satterfield, which isn’t saying a ton but could

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19:18

CFB Lunch Break: Why Can't Memphis Get a Realignment...

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/07/23

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comLeave us a voicemail telling us why you love college football. Details are at www.splitzoneduo.com. In this show, Alex and Richard take a bunch of subscriber questions in the run-up to the season, with an early focus on realignment matters:* The Athletic reported that despite a desperate financial offer, Memphis has not gotten traction in its effort to join the Big 12. Why not?* Why was Louisiana Tech, which isn’t very

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70:47

College Football Previews 2025: The MAC

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/07/22

Conference previews continue with the MAC. Alex and Richard break down every team in the league, including new entrant UMass:* Toledo still has the best hand* Miami is poised to contend (again) after getting portal-raided (again)* Buffalo is in a great place after the first year of Pete Lembo* Ohio defends its first MAC championship in decades and enters the season with one of the most fun QBs in college football, Parker Navarro* NIU loses pretty much everything ahead of its last year in the

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39:56

College Football Previews 2025: Pac-12 and Independents

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/07/14

Split Zone Duo’s conference previews for 2025 keep rolling along with a two-parter: the Pac-12 and the FBS independents, whose ranks have thinned.* Oregon State might finally (finally!) be poised for stability and growth* Washington State faces a similar crisis to the one OSU faced last year, although the Cougs have a few reasons for optimism as they prepare to take a big chunk of the best program in FCS and import it to FBS* Jim Mora has the UConn Huskies in just about the best place possible* Why

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32:35

Why You're Always Bad: ULM

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/07/11

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comGodfrey joins Alex and Richard for the third installment in our offseason series, “Why You’re Always Bad.” This episode is about ULM, formerly known as Northeast Louisiana State. The Warhawks are perhaps the most consistently bad team in the top division of college football, which raises the question of why they’re at that level in the first place. It turns out there’s an answer. In this episode, the Split Zone Duo

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71:15

College Football Previews 2025: The Sun Belt

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/07/09

Season previews are back! Richard and Alex go alphabetically through the whole Sun Belt, picking out one rose, one bud, and one thorn for all 14 schools, from Appalachian State to Troy. In this episode:* App State hits the reset button* Coastal Carolina should be feeling some urgency* Georgia Southern extended Clay Helton and kept its roster together, so why aren’t we feeling so good about the Eagles?* Georgia State’s recruiting growth under Dell McGee is in bloom* JMU has every chance to contend

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22:47

Picking the Defining Team of Every Decade of College...

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/07/03

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comFor the Fourth of July, we look all the way back to the founding of … college football. Richard and Alex pick and debate the defining teams of each decade of the sport’s history, starting with one year of the 1860s and rolling through the 2010s. Remember that “defining team” is usually complimentary, but not always. Without spoiling any of the discussion, this show features: * Rutgers vs. Princeton for the crown of the

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63:26

The 2025 CFB Coach Firing and Retirement Confidence...

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/07/01

Around 20 FBS coaches will retire or get fired by the end of this season, but which ones will they be? Alex and Richard pick out 23 names and rank them from least to most likely to be entering their last season on the job. Then we talk about the context, especially in the handful of cases with big differences in our rankings. Plus, everyone gets buyer’s remorse at least once.This episode is free for all. For the most part, however, we release our discussions of the coach carousel for our

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50:18

Subscriber Q&A: Ben Haumiller on the New EA Sports...

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/06/27

Part 2 of our conversation with EA Sports College Football principal game designer Ben Haumiller. Ben takes a bunch of subscriber questions on the upcoming CFB game and the state of college sports video gaming in general:* How to actually learn to play a football video game* Incorporating the House settlement and NIL* How a new 'gadget” position” embraces the reality of modern depth charts* Improvements to the coach carousel* The process of putting music in the game* The customization options for

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57:19

Inside College Football 26 with EA Sports’ Principal...

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/06/25

Part 1: EA Sports College Football principal game designer Ben Haumiller joins Alex and Richard for a discussion of the upcoming CFB video game, with a focus on Dynasty mode and lessons learned from last year’s long-awaited return.* What EA learned from the best-selling sports game of all time* The easier and more difficult parts of releasing a second game* How the new game will (and, most importantly, won’t) include microtransactions* Real-life coaches and how they’ll change the dynasty experience*

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55:18

Will the House Settlement Bring Bagmen Back? Plus...

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/06/18

Alex and Richard discuss a handful of offseason stories:* The Pac-12’s expansion efforts are coming to a head, and Texas State—not Sacramento State—appears to be the apple of the league’s eye. Extra Points publisher Matt Brown joins to talk about why Sac State’s extremely public campaign for FBS membership has not paid dividends. Read Matt’s report on the Hornets’ looming move to FCS independence.* The House settlement is now official, and depending on who you talk to, it’s either an ironclad new

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33:32

CFB Lunch Break: How to Know If Your FBS Transition...

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/06/17

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comRichard and Alex take subscriber questions on: * How to assess if a school’s FCS-to-FBS transition is in a good place or not, especially if it takes a little bit to win any games * The big business of college football data distribution * The endless (?) expansion of eligibility for old players * Why the SEC owns the offseason every year and the Big Ten doesn’t * The wisdom of Power 2 schools like Mississippi State

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30:41

CFB's Year 2 Coaches for 2025: Who's Good, and Who's...

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/06/16

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comWe believe in an old college football theory: If a coach is going to win at his current job, he’s going to have a good second season. The exceptions, like Bill McCartney and Jim Harbaugh, prove the rule. This year, 28 FBS coaches enter their second season in charge of their programs. Who’s already banked enough goodwill to withstand a down year? Who’s doing fine, with a big year yet to come? And who got off on the

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44:59

The 25 Most Interesting Non-QB Transfers in College...

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/06/11

Fall camp approaches. Let’s talk about the most consequential transfer portal moves of the offseason that weren’t quarterbacks and, in a lot of cases, didn’t even happen in national championship-contending programs. Oklahoma’s new running back and receivers! Dabo’s dip into the portal! Oregon’s new secondary import from Purdue! Notre Dame’s acquisition of an actually-good wideout! Indiana’s second act under Curt Cignetti! And picking out the most interesting players Texas Tech got in its very

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18:38

So, What Can We Expect From Belichick ON the Field?

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/06/09

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

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52:29

Can There Be an Ashton Jeanty in 2025?

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/06/05

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:

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14:46

CFB Lunch Break: Off, Wisconsin?

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/06/03

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

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37:08

Anatomy of a Coaching Carousel: 2010

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/05/28

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

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23:18

How to Build a Modern CFB Front Office

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/05/23

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

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22:01

CFB Lunch Break: Lincoln Riley, Rivalry Killer?

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/05/21

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

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