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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

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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69:31

The 8 Ways to Smoke Out a Fake National Title Claim

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/05/19

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

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67:35

Saban's Presidential Commission + CFB Biz Lightning...

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/05/14

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

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32:27

Why You're Always Bad: Rice

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/05/12

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

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40:38

Offseason Vibe Checks 2025: The Mountain West

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/05/08

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

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10:21

How Big a Deal is Bill Belichick's Mess?

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/05/06

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comBill Belichick’s relationship with Jordon Hudson is the stuff of sports gossip legend, but we are most interested in what it says about Belichick’s ability to run an ACC football team. Alex and Richard discuss in this subscriber episode:* How Jordon filled a vacuum in UNC football communications* Why Alex thinks UNC should look for a way out of this marriage* Why Richard thinks that could be a substantial overreaction*

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72:59

Pac-12 and Indy Vibe Checks + The State of Special...

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/05/01

Part 1 of this week’s episode is the continuation of SZD’s “Offseason Vibe Checks” series, checking in on the Pac-12 and the FBS independents. You may be thinking, “Nice, but that’s probably going to be a really short episode, because there are just two Pac-12 teams and three independents at the moment.” Fear not! Part 2 is an interview with author Victoria Zeller, who joins Alex to discuss her new book One of the Boys and the deep research she did into the state of modern special teams development

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14:44

CFB Lunch Break: Shedeur Shunned

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/04/29

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comIn this live recording, Alex and Richard answer a handful of subscriber questions and take the time to talk about the factors behind Shedeur Sanders’ plummet to the fifth round of the NFL Draft. In this episode:* An announcement: Alex, Richard, and Godfrey will do a live taping at the Sports Podcast Festival in Raleigh on August 23. Tickets out May 9* Off-the-dome dark horses for every conference in 2025* Pac-12

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29:37

The Rent Comes Due On 2022's Blockbuster Coaching Cycle

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/04/28

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comSteven Godfrey, Richard Johnson, and Alex Kirshner check in on how things are going three-plus years after a blockbuster few days in the coach carousel. Over a few days in late 2021, USC, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, LSU, Oregon, and Miami played a high-stakes game of musical chairs. Nowadays, only a few of these teams probably feel content, and they aren’t the ones we expected. What can we learn, and what does all of this

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523 results

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