Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com The history of the Kent State Golden Flashes is full of missed opportunities, real-life tragedies, and lots of losing—never more than in 2024, when Kent State had one of the worst teams in college football history. Why is the program perennially so bad? To answer that question, Rodger Sherman joins Alex and Richard...

Split Zone Duo’s “Offseason Vibe Check” series rolls on with the Sun Belt. It's not a 2024 recap, and it's not a 2025 preview. It's a check-in with every team in every FBS conference about what's been happening since Thanksgiving. How was the postseason? How was the coach carousel? How was signing day? How was the transfer portal window? And is anything else going on around your program? In this w...

Welcome to Split Zone Duo’s “Offseason Vibe Check” series. It's not a 2024 recap, and it's not a 2025 preview. It's a check-in with every team in every FBS conference about what's been happening since Thanksgiving. How was the postseason? How was the coach carousel? How was signing day? How was the transfer portal window? And is anything else going on around your program? We start with the Southea...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com The coaching carousel before the 2001 season transformed college football. Some programs set themselves up for national championship (or even dynastic) runs. Some screwed themselves. Some set the stage for the next several decades of the top tiers of the SEC and Big Ten. In this episode, Alex Kirshner, Richard Johns...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Alex Kirshner, Richard Johnson, and Split Zone Duo subscribers have some questions for an NIL agent about how the business of paying college football players actually works. Justin J. Giangrande is the CEO and founder of NETWORK, a sports marketing agency that handles both collective negotiations and sponsorship agr...

In one of Steven Godfrey’s favorite early-offseason traditions, the SZD crew glances ahead at the Week 1 schedule many months from now. Not just so there’s something to look forward to as the long offseason gets going, but because the story of Week 1 matchups is increasingly the story of how athletic directors are approaching scheduling. Let’s dive into: * Why 2025’s season-opening schedule will g...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com 2024 was a weird (read: bad) year for a lot of college football teams in the state Alabama. Justin Ferguson, publisher of the Auburn Observer and all-purpose ball-knower in the state, joins Alex and Richard to discuss: * How everyone’s feeling after the two Iron Bowl teams went a combined 7-9 in the SEC, tied for th...

On January 18, SZD and our old friends at the Shutdown Fullcast combined for a live show in Atlanta, presented by Homefield . We now present the recording, featuring a whole bunch of FOOTBALL DISASTERS and a round of CFB family feud featuring friends of the program like Homefield founder Connor Hitchcock, Matt Brown, Jessica Smetana, Amanda Mull, and Joel Anderson. Producer: Anthony Vito This is a...

Alex Kirshner, Richard Johnson, and Steven Godfrey discuss the stories they are most interested to watch unfold between now and September. In this show: * Podcast update: Godfrey is becoming host emeritus and will take a lighter load as he works on other things, but you’ll still hear him on SZD regularly. * Richard is tracking a series of potential changes to the postseason and end-of-season sched...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Godfrey, Richard, and Alex made a lot of preseason predictions back in August. Some of them worked out well. (Everyone had Ohio State winning the national title.) Some of them worked out terribly. (Florida State and Michigan in the playoff: Nice job, fellas!) Let’s see how everyone did, and then let’s try to learn s...

Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner put a bow on the national championship game, a 34-23 win for Ohio State over Notre Dame: * How the Buckeyes did it * Notre Dame’s attempt to stop them, including that late third down * Ryan Day’s unique legacy * And more odds and ends from the title game Thanks so much for listening this season, our fifth as a podcast. We’ll be back next week with Steven Godfrey t...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com In this subscriber episode, Ross Fulton, Ohio State analyst for Buckeye Huddle, joins Richard to talk about the schematic chess match of OSU vs. Notre Dame for the national championship. Let’s go in depth on how these teams will approach the other and the schematic battles that will determine the champ. Also this we...

CBS Sports national college football reporter Shehan Jeyarajah joins Alex and Richard for a preview of Ohio State vs. Notre Dame. Shehan and Richard were at the two semifinals, and now everyone gathers to frame up the title game: * When Ohio State has the ball * When Notre Dame has the ball * Why a lot of our analysis of Notre Dame’s chances keeps coming back to “what if this was a completely diff...

Richard, Godfrey, and Alex name their winners in the 2024 Split Zone Duo college football awards, aka “The Zonies” aka “The Splitty Ds.” * Team of the Year (not the best team, but the one that we most enjoyed watching or became most interested in going forward) * Moment of the Year * Proof of Concept of the Year, for coaches showing good signs * Minority Coach of the Week of the Year * Portaling o...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Godfrey's back from a variety platter of holiday family illnesses to play some hypothetical coaching games, like Fran Brown to LSU (?!) and why USC needs to clean its house like 2000s-era LSU. Also, let's talk about spoons. A lot. Producer: Anthony Vito Also in the past few days from SZD * The post-Playoff semifinal...

The College Football Playoff semifinals are in the books. Alex Kirshner and Richard Johnson share notes on Ohio State over Texas and Notre Dame over Penn State, plus pay tribute to North Dakota State’s win over Montana State in the FCS Championship. Producer: Anthony Vito. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.spli...

Daniel Gallen covers Penn State for 247Sports. He joins Alex to talk about the Nittany Lions’ long road to the doorstep of the national title game, including: * How the university responded to James Franklin’s request for more investment in the football program * The relationship between the coach and the fanbase * An athletic director swap in the middle of Franklin’s tenure * What’s been differen...

Richard and Alex preview the CFP semifinals: * Notre Dame-Penn State at the Orange Bowl * Ohio State-Texas at the Cotton Bowl The matchups we’re looking at. The keys to the game. The one post-Rose Bowl thing Alex wants to walk back. And much more! SUPPORT OUR PARTNERS AND GET COOL STUFF * Enter your pick for the Nokian Tyres Road Trip of the Week and be automatically entered in a monthly drawing t...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Scott Frost is back at UCF, and Rich Rodriguez is back at West Virginia. Hundreds of college football teams, at all levels, have hired head coaches back to their old jobs. There’s a whole Wikipedia list and everything , dating to the 1800s. But most of these situations are many decades old and didn't happen in FBS....

Alex Kirshner and Richard Johnson share their thoughts on the quarterfinals of the College Football Playoff, in reverse chronological order: * Notre Dame scores the first technical upset of the playoff vs. Georgia * Ohio State runs Oregon out of Pasadena * Texas escapes Arizona State by a whisker * Penn State handles a prickly Boise State SUPPORT OUR PARTNERS AND GET COOL STUFF * Enter your pick f...

Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner preview the College Football Playoff quarterfinal games in order: * Penn State vs. Boise State, where everyone is skeptical of an upset * Texas vs. Arizona State, where the Sun Devils have a path but it’s narrow against a dominant Texas defense * Ohio State vs. Oregon, which looks like CFB’s game of the year * Notre Dame vs. Georgia, where SZD picks a narrow upset...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com Richard, Godfrey, and Alex answer questions from SZD’s paid subscribers on a long range of football (and then non-football) topics. After discussing the first weekend of the playoff and the week’s CFB news, the Q&A covers: * Potential expectation-beating teams for 2025 * Positional value in the transfer portal * The...

Alex and Richard discuss the first-round College Football Playoff games, which followed the playoff tradition of being very lopsided: * Ohio State crushes Tennessee in Knoxville, Ohio * Clemson is feisty but loses at Texas * Penn State obliterates SMU (something that was going to happen whether Kevin Jennings threw those pick sixes or did not) * Notre Dame is in a different weight class than India...

Richard Johnson, Steven Godfrey, and Alex Kirshner discuss the first-round College Football Playoff games and more on this week’s show: * Indiana at Notre Dame, where the Hoosiers have the chance to do the funniest possible thing * SMU at Penn State, where the sport’s chaotic December calendar is really coming into focus with a Penn State transfer * Clemson at Texas, where the Tigers will try to p...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com In this solo Q&A show, Steven Godfrey answers SZD subscriber questions about some of the latest coach doings, some scheduling gripes, the potential '25 Sumrall Sweepstakes, Mike Gundy's expiration date, changing holiday patterns and what "Emeritus" actually looks like. Producer: Anthony Vito