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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

25:16

The Big Ten's Empire Runs into Resistance

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2026/02/02

The Big Ten’s commissioner, Tony Petitti, spent much of this season trying to do two things: 1) Expand the Playoff to his liking, and 2) Get his member schools to sign a big private capital deal. Neither happened, and the conference now appears to have wasted a lot of time off the field even as it was winning a third-straight national championship on it. Matt Brown of the tremendous Extra Points newsletter and document library joins Alex and Richard to talk about these misadventures, in particular:

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17:41

CFB Time Capsule Review: What We Learned from a...

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2026/01/30

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comBefore the season, Godfrey, Richard, and Alex made a bunch of predictions and buried them in a time capsule. Time to dig it up! What did everyone learn over the course of the season? How were our prior opinions challenged? Where we got things wildly wrong, was that bad luck (Penn State) or the sign of missing something much deeper (arguably Clemson)? Let’s review in detail: * How each FBS conference met or didn’t meet

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93:34

Our 2025 College Football Awards Special

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2026/01/29

It’s time to review the 2025 college football season, with our annual awards special, the Zonies. Rodger Sherman joins Alex and Richard to dole out some important CFB honors for this past season, including: * Power conference team of the year * Non-power team of the year * Moment of the year * Proof of concept of the year * Minority Coach of the Week of the Year * Bryan Harsin Award for Forestalling the Inevitable * The Podcaster’s Player Award It’s an awards show, but it’s mainly a walk down memory

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7:49

End of Season Vibescast: How We're Feeling About CFB

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2026/01/22

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comWelcome to the rest of the college football calendar, the part when games aren’t actually being played. In this quick subscriber episode, Alex and Richard debrief on the state of their CFB fandom and talk about what’s both good and not good right now. Producer: Anthony Vito. This show is for paid subscribers Thanks so much to the thousands of people (!) who subscribe to support Split Zone Duo. One thing you get is the

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50:05

National Championship Hurry-Up: Hoosier

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2026/01/20

The best turnaround in the history of college football concludes with a 16-0 season and a national championship. Richard and Alex talk about Indiana’s 27-21 win over Miami, what led up to it, and where these programs go next. SZD doesn’t stop in the offseason The opposite, if anything. We use these months for all sorts of creative projects that are designed to appeal to people who love college football and want to learn more about it while having a good time. History projects! Sports business

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15:18

Scheme School: Miami vs. Indiana, Feat. Michael Felder

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2026/01/16

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comTHIS IS A SUBSCRIBER EPISODE: Thanks so much to the thousands of people (!) who subscribe to support Split Zone Duo. One thing you get is the knowledge that you are making this independent college football podcast possible. Another thing you get is a lot of bonus episodes, including weekly dispatches all offseason long. The football season is our busiest time, but we like to think the offseason is our most creative

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52:25

Miami vs. Indiana: The Big Preview

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2026/01/15

Richard and Alex look ahead to the College Football Playoff National Championship, with some thoughts on the schematics and then the unique circumstances surrounding Miami and Indiana. In this episode:* 1:32: Our thoughts on the city of Miami* 9:55: Brief Xs and Os preview of Indiana vs. Miami: Could Miami sack Fernando Mendoza a bunch and still lose? What about the big challenge in front of Indiana’s secondary, facing Malachi Toney?* 30:17: Narrative preview and the significance of the title game:

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20:50

How to Spot the Next Cignetti or Die Trying

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2026/01/14

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comEvery athletic director and search firm in college sports would love to find their own version of Indiana coach Curt Cignetti. Great idea, but easier in theory than in practice. Cignetti once said to Google him, so we did, taking a deep dive into all of the stops in a 40-year coaching career and trying to identify what about Cignetti is identifiable in real time, what isn’t, and what from his Indiana success other

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40:05

Indiana and Miami Set a Date with Destiny: Playoff...

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2026/01/10

The College Football Playoff National Championship is set. Alex and Richard react to a mixed pair of semifinal games, with Miami outlasting Ole Miss and Indiana feeding Oregon into a wood chipper. In the rare Hurry-Up recorded from a live studio (or at least living room), we discuss: * 18:37: Miami 31, Ole Miss 27* 01:03: Indiana 56 (!), Oregon 22 Producer: Anthony Vito Become a paid subscriberWe are grateful for the several thousand people who pay $10 a month or $110 for the year to support Split

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17:30

Institutional Inertia vs. the Playoff Semifinalists

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2026/01/07

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comSUBSCRIBER EPISODE: Once upon a time, Ole Miss picked segregation and the Stars and Bars over being good at football. Indiana picked basketball over being good at football. Miami never really chose not to be good at football, but made a series of mistakes and ran up against difficult modern realities that caused a long drought. Meanwhile, the story of Phil Knight rescuing Oregon is now so old-fashioned it’s basically

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56:18

CFP Semifinal Preview + the Messiest FCS Championship

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2026/01/06

Richard and Alex talk about the absurd FCS Championship that ended with Montana State claiming the national title over Illinois State. Then it’s time to preview the College Football Playoff semifinals in a lot of detail. * 2:30 FCS Championship * 15:42 Ole Miss vs. Miami * 33:52 Oregon vs. Indiana * 52:15 NFL playoff takes Producer: Anthony Vito. Become a paid subscriber in 2026! We are grateful for the several thousand people who pay $10 a month or $110 for the year to support Split Zone Duo. One

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51:40

CFB Playoff Quarterfinal Hurry-Up: A New Day

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2026/01/02

Richard (from the Sugar Bowl) and Alex (from the Rose Bowl) break down the College Football quarterfinal bowl games in this order: * Ole Miss 39, Georgia 34* Indiana 38, Alabama 3 * Oregon 23, Texas Tech 0 * Miami 24, Ohio State 14 Want much more? Become a paid subscriberSubscribers get weekly bonus episodes, usually more than one during the season and postseason, as well as the chance to ask questions and engage more deeply with the hosts. We’d love to have you. Thanks to our partners and

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81:59

Playoff Quarterfinals Tasting Menu: The Indiana...

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/12/30

The College Football Playoff quarterfinals are here. Alex, Richard, and guest host Rodger Sherman dive into all of these games: * Miami-Ohio State at the Cotton Bowl* Oregon-Texas Tech at the Orange Bowl* Alabama-Indiana at the Rose Bowl* Ole Miss-Georgia at the Sugar Bowl * Illinois State-Montana State in the FCS title game * UW-River Falls-North Central in the Stagg Bowl Plus: Does the NFL need to reconsider its playoff format to exclude teams from the NFC South and AFC North? Producer: Anthony

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9:08

Quick Emergency Show: Michigan Hires Kyle Whittingham

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/12/26

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comAlex and Richard spend 23 minutes talking about Michigan’s holiday hiring of former Utah coach Kyle Whittingham:* In a time of intense national focus on the age of people in leadership positions (hmm, wonder where that came from), the 66-year-old Whittingham is unusually old to be taking this job. We wouldn’t worry.* Whittingham’s recruiting at Utah became a pressure point that may have contributed to him leaving. How

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16:51

The 2025 College Football Holiday Mega-Mailbag

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/12/24

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comFor your holiday listening, Alex and Richard take on dozens of questions from SplitZoneDuo.com’s paid subscribers. Let’s start with the juicy but sad breakup of Notre Dame and USC, move to the coaching carousel, and then have some fun. A rough listing of the questions featured in this episode, in order:* What’s actually going on with Notre Dame and USC breaking up their football rivalry, and whose fault is it?* What is

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78:22

Are CFB's Bowls Screwed, or Are We Just Old?

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/12/23

These are difficult times for the college football bowl games that aren’t part of the Playoff system. Player opt-outs were already a thing, and now entire teams don’t want to take part. At best, the games are internet memes featuring some enjoyable football on the side. At worst, nobody cares. How many of these problems are truly new, and how many of them feel worse than they are because we have a distorted picture of being young in the 1990s and 2000s? Alex and Rodger challenge their priors on how

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47:29

CFB Playoff Round 1 Hurry-Up: Miami Ice

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/12/21

Richard and Alex dive into the results from first round of the College Football Playoff, in the following order: Miami over Texas A&M, Alabama over Oklahoma, Ole Miss over Tulane, and James Madison vs. the idea that Group of 5 teams should have less access to the tournament. Then, a tour through FCS, Division II, Division III, and the NAIA national championship. Producer: Anthony Vito. Want much more? Become a paid subscriberSubscribers get weekly bonus episodes, usually more than one during the

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16:39

We Figured Out the Perfect Analogy for Curt Cignetti...

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/12/19

In 2024, Indiana got good at football. In 2025, it got serious as a national championship contender. The Hoosiers enter the Playoff as the best team in the country, and it all comes back to a coach who can best be described as a more modern version of what Dabo Swinney used to be at Clemson. This wraps up our 2025 College Football Playoff Preview presented by Modelo. Thanks to Modelo, the Official Beer Sponsor of the College Football Playoff. Modelo: Drink responsibly. Beer imported by Crown

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9:37

Ohio State is Good at Football Again. Surprise!

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/12/19

Ohio State was supposed to be a little bit worse this year. That’s technically true, sort of, as the Buckeyes enter the Playoff at a mere 12-1 after a missed 27-yard field goal cost them overtime in the Big Ten Championship. Everyone was wrong about Matt Patricia, and this team could win it all again. Thanks to Modelo, the Official Beer Sponsor of the College Football Playoff. Modelo: Drink responsibly. Beer imported by Crown Imports, Chicago, IL This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss

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20:17

The 2025-26 CFB Coach Carousel Superlatives

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast ·

2025/12/18

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comSUBSCRIBER EPISODE: Godfrey joins Richard and Alex for an awards show: The 2025-26 Coach Carousel Superlatives. Split Zone Duo hands out the following sought-after honors: * The Trent Dilfer Award for Bungled Hiring Process * The Deion Sanders Award for Celebrity Coach Hiring* The Ed Orgeron Award for Interim Coach Promotions * The Curt Cignetti Award for Best Hire from the Group of Five or FCS * The Indiana Football

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