Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast

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Coach firing season is upon us, and the first ouster of the year comes from Maryland, alma mater of SZD host Alex Kirshner. Richard joins him to talk through the first opening on the market. In this episode:

The meaning of Locksley’s Maryland tenure, and why it isn’t a failure despite eight-plus years of mostly bad results

5:48: Why firing season got a late start this season

12:47: What kind of job is this, really?

Week 8 preview! Richard and Alex start this episode with a quick football digression about Manchester City and then get into the mega-preview of this week in CFB. We cover a bunch of games, some in a lot of detail, some quickly:

* 1:41: Manchester City digression

* 6:10: JMU at App State

* 18:21: Indiana at Michigan

* 26:45: LSU at Auburn

* 35:40: Rutgers at Northwestern

* 39:50: West Virginia at TCU

* 46:48: Oregon at Illinois

* 50:22: BYU at UCF

* 1:04:20: San Diego State at Colorado State

* 1:07:09: Virginia Tech at Clemson

* 1:10:55...

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Utah placed a big, risky bet when it nudged away Kyle Whittingham so that it could elevate a coach-in-waiting, Morgan Scalley. Rodger and Alex both thought this team would be worse this season. But instead, the Utes are undefeated contenders for both the Big 12 and the playoff, and their decision to show one of the best coaches in recent history the door is looking … pretty good?

* 2:13: Why Utah has surprised both hosts

* 8:18: The two-quarterback experiment at a we...

Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner break down one of college football’s wildest weeks ever, in which five of the top seven teams in the country lost and another came awfully close. We start with BYU’s late escape against Notre Dame and continue through the rest of this historic Week 7 in the following order:

* 1:33: Big 12 and Notre Dame, led by BYU 28, Notre Dame 24

* 12:53: SEC, led by Auburn 27, Georgia 24

* 27:58: Big Ten, led by Ohio State 19, Indiana 15

* 36:15: ACC, led by Miami 43, Florida State 35

* 42:40: American, led by Tulane 31, Memphis 17

* 46:04: Pac...

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Richard and Alex react to the College Football Playoff’s expansion to 12 teams, starting in 2027. Let’s talk through this together:

* 0:00: Why this thing we dislike is happening

* 9:12: Whose lot in life just changed a whole lot

* 19:30: The inevitable impact on the regular season

* 30:20: The big winners here, plus a closing discussion about how Split Zone Duo is going to respon...

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College football forgot about Oregon State. But Jesse Legree, Braden Atkinson, and JaMarcus Shephard are forcing the Beavers back in the national CFB consciousness. Yes, there are anxieties about how to keep the band together, but there is also a beautiful story about how a team is rising from the ashes anew to apparently kick ass in the new Pac-12. Richard and Rodger discuss how the Beavers have become one of the nation’s most enjoyable teams.

* 0:00: Oregon State’s re...

Richard and Alex take you on a preview of Week 7, starting with the weeknight grab bags and continuing through various blockbusters in places like Columbus and Provo. We cover dozens of games on this show, including these:

* 13:55: Florida at Texas

* 20:02: Kansas at Kansas State

* 24:38: Mississippi State at LSU

* 33:53: Ohio State at Indiana

* 42:19: Western Michigan at Central Michigan

* 43:51: Alabama at Tennessse

* 51:36: Missouri at Ole Miss

* 55:04: Penn State at Michigan (who should be more upset?)

* 1:05:37: Florida State at Miami

* 1:09:38: TCU at...

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Steven Godfrey joins Richard and Alex to talk about some stories we’d already planned to mark the halfway point of the season. But first, we’ve got a REALIGNMENT INTERRUPTION, brought to us by James Madison leaving the Sun Belt for the American Conference in 2028. In this episode:

0:26: JMU’s move to the American

9:44: Roster management people and coaches seem to think it’s impossible to find good backup QBs now. Do we agree? And is there a...

Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner guide you through the best college football week yet this year, led by Georgia’s big win in Tuscaloosa and a Red River upset and then bouncing through dozens more games. Including:

* 1:33: SEC, led by Georgia 20, Alabama 17 and Oklahoma 27, Texas 24

* 14:40: Pac-12, led by Boise State 38, Fresno State 31

* 16:23: Big Ten, led by Indiana 20, Nebraska 17

* 25:59: Big 12, led by BYU 24, Iowa State 10

* 29:14: ACC and Notre Dame, led by North Carolina 21, Pitt 17

* 33:43: American, led by Army 20, Tulane 17

* 35:48: Mountain West, led by UNLV 13, North Dakota St...

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Subscriber mailbag, with questions brought to you by the listeners at www.splitzoneduo.com.

Alex Kirshner answers subscriber questions ahead of Week 6! Why does Lincoln Riley always put mediocre defenses on the field? There are three pretty good theories from people who know him well. Is there a surprising reason to think Texas’ offense will turn things around? Does Michigan have a “culture” problem or something more simple? Can Kane Wommack tell us anything much about how the coaching carous...

Week 6 preview! Richard and Alex talk about what’s interesting to them in the big college football weekend to come, while stopping to cover a handful of big stories along the way.

32:43: Is South Carolina actually too broke to fire Shane Beamer?

47:31: Can Oklahoma score an offensive touchdown in Red River?

1:07:27: When it comes to Cal coach Tosh Lupoi, Richard is … vindicated?

1:10:35: Are Ohio State fans in the “Lunatic Fringe” right to be worried?

1:18:47: Is UNLV a genuine trouble spot for North Dakota State?

1:21:05: Are we fully aligned...

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Subscriber episode! Join us to hear the whole thing.

The Charlotte 49ers are quite possibly the worst team in FBS in 2026, so why should you care? Rodger Sherman joins to explain. Part of Charlotte's story is the actual cautionary tale of moving up from FCS to FBS and the old thing Richard never shuts up about: Winning is not a business model. But there are nearly 1:1 examples of Charlotte-style programs that have found success. We dive into what gives...

Richard and Rodger Sherman take you on a 30(ish)-minute journey through Week 4 of the college football season. We begin with Missouri beating Florida to a pulp and waltz through the rest of the CFB schedule.SEC

* Missouri 45, Florida 17

* Georgia 38, Vanderbilt 14

* Alabama 56, Mississippi State 23

* Tennessee 24, Auburn 14

* Kentucky 35, South Carolina 34

BIG TEN

* Ohio State 31, Iowa 14

* USC 25, Washington 21

* Purdue 24, Illinois 17

* Michigan 20, Minnesota 14

* Nebraska 48, Maryland 23

* Northwestern 34, Penn State 13

* Wisconsin 31, Michigan State 3

BIG 12

...

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Mailbag time! Alex and Richard answer subscriber questions on three broad topics, which sometimes meander into new areas:

0:53: Oklahoma has two losses heading into Red Vier. Who do we blame, and what would we do about it?

11:43: What keeps college football fresh for us, given that it’s now “work”?

17:19: How much has College GameDay changed? And how much of our shifting perception about the show is because we have changed?

29:54: What do we thi...

The regular season is somehow one-third finished. Host emeritus Steven Godfrey joins Richard and Alex for a discussion about nine teams that have really surprised us and, in some cases, caused a big shift in opinion:

* 6:09: Michigan

* 15:30: Texas

* 19:41: Georgia

* 23:12: Wake Forest

* 26:42: Oregon State

* 32:14: Cal

* 35:04: UCLA

* 39:28: Washington

* 43:08: Oregon

* 53:46: Texas A&M

Producer: Anthony Vito

THANKS TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS AND PARTNERS

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Week 5 preview time! Richard and Alex look at dozens of games and also talk about some messes around college football:

6:28: Two good Friday night games (Pitt-Virginia Tech, Penn State-Northwestern)

14:45: Alabama at Mississippi State: We think the Tide are good, but for obvious reasons, Alex wants this to be State’s time

26:09: Houston is angry at the Big 12 over the scheduling of the Cougars’ game against UCF, which leads to a long talk about Friday night college football and how TV is causing fights like this in all kinds of leagues

32:13: Auburn vs...

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The Mississippi State Bulldogs have the most exciting young QB in college football and are about to play their biggest game in years. Rodger Sherman joins Alex to talk about Kamario Taylor, the stroke of luck that led a QB of this caliber to State, why it’s exhausting to talk about the transfer portal, and why a longtime SEC bottomfeeder should go ahead and make the playoff right effing now.

Producer: Anthony Vito

TEAM OF THE WE...

Richard and Alex take you on a 30(ish)-minute journey through Week 4 of the college football season. We begin with Iowa’s stunning win at the Big House and meander through dozens of games from there, in this order:

Iowa 20, Michigan 19

Oregon 41, USC 27

Wisconsin 24, Penn State 20

Notre Dame 49, Purdue 10

Indiana 29, Northwestern 23

Ohio State 42, Illinois 19

UCLA 54, Maryland 3

Nebraska 31, Michigan State 13

Minnesota 27, Washington 24

Texas 20, Tennessee 17

Georgia 41, Oklahoma 13

Florida 52, Ole Miss 28

Alabama 49, South Carolina 18

LS...

Our big preview of Week 4, with little notes and things to watch in dozens of games that we find interesting. Included but not limited to:

Clemson faces a pivotal moment in … Berkeley?

Texas visits a different kind of Tennessee team

Boise State visits Western Michigan with major playoff implications (plus Boise’s coach stirs the pot over the Michigan Hail Mary)

Iowa and Michigan prepare to play an ugly one

Why is Florida favored to beat Ole Miss?

A huge list of coaches face their old teams

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Three games into Ryan Silverfield’s coaching tenure, Arkansas fans are in open revolt against their athletic director. The team is bad, and the university overlords are already running a “review” of the athletic program. How did the vibes get this bad this quickly? It’s a long story, and it’s only somewhat about the coach who was under pressure from the second he took the job. Rodger Sherman joins Alex for our latest TEAM OF THE WEEK episode, where we finally...

Richard and Alex recap a busy Week 3 in college football, starting with Ole Miss’ cathartic win over Lane Kiffin’s LSU and continuing through 48 more games. Kentucky exposes Texas A&M, South Carolina’s slide accelerates, Clemson finds a flash of urgency, North Dakota State enters the Playoff conversation, and Grand Valley State scores 96 points. We sort by conference home stadium, in this order:

SEC, led by the showdown in Oxford

Big Ten, featuring a sad affair in College Park

Big 12, where BYU might just be the best team

ACC, where Miami...

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Rodger Sherman guides Alex through our latest “Team of the Week” episode, featuring the Oklahoma State Cowboys. This subscriber special is our weekly look at one team in college football that is truly trying to do something different from every other program in the sport. In this episode, we talk about Oklahoma State from the following angles:

* 0:26: Going from losing to Tulsa to beating Oregon

* 3:40: Importing the North Texas offense behind Eric Morris

* 8:25: Morris’s absurd...

Richard and Alex preview Week 3 of the college football schedule, headlined by Lane Kiffin’s return to Oxford but featuring dozens of matchups. They include:

* 11:19 Houston at Texas Tech

* 27:19 North Texas at Texas State

* 32:41 Florida State at Alabama

* 45:28 SMU at Louisville

* 49:35 Mississippi State at South Carolina

* 55:46 Florida at Auburn

* 1:01:00 LSU at Ole Miss

And many, many more games featured inside.

Producer: Anthony Vito

THANKS TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS AND PARTNERS

* Quo, a business phone service! 20% off your first si...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com

It was the College GameDay interview heard around the world, if only because it was forced down your ears. Richard and Alex talk with Extra Points publisher Matt Brown about what we think went into ESPN’s decision to have Senator Ted Cruz on College GameDay (a reasonable choice) for a barely-interrupted stump speech in support of the bill being pushed by noted GameDay panelist Nick Saban. Is this a big corporate influence operation, something simpler, or much ado about nothing? We...

The Sunday Hurry-Up goes just a little over 30 minutes this week, as Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner take you through a stacked Week 2 in college football. We touch on all of these games in the following order:

Texas 24, Ohio State 23

Georgia 70, Western Kentucky 20

Texas A&M 48, Arizona State 20

LSU 45, Louisiana Tech 14

Alabama 45, Kentucky 17

Florida 52, Campbell 3

South Carolina 45, Towson 9

Vanderbilt 35, Delaware 26

Michigan 17, Oklahoma 10

USC 49, Louisiana 30

Washington 16, Utah State 14

Iowa 16, Iowa State 13

Duke 31, Illinois 27

Richard and Alex preview Week 2 on the college football schedule but take a few detours, first stopping to review the Sunday and Monday games from Week 1 and later closing the book (hopefully) on the WMU-Michigan situation. We cover dozens of games in this episode, including the ones below:

* Missouri at Kansas

* App State at East Carolina

* Arizona State at Texas A&M

* Oklahoma at Michigan

* Wazzu at Kansas State

* Alabama at Kentucky

* Arizona at BYU

* Cal at Syracuse

* Mississippi State at...

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Not even a year ago, Rodger Sherman joined Alex for a deep dive into how the UMass Minutemen made a case as the worst team in modern history.Now, we have a much different episode about UMass: They’re our TEAM OF THE WEEK coming out of Week 1. This is a new subscriber series in which we talk about a team in college football attempting to do something that nobody else is trying to do. Rodger and Richard cover the Minutemen, fr...

The Sunday Hurry-Up makes its triumphant return. Rodger Sherman is again in the hot seat with Richard Johnson to break down a Week 1 that was anything but boring. We go through as many games as are fit to print (or podcast about).

* Michigan 13, Western Michigan 12

* Oregon 34, Boise State 27

* Ohio State 56, Ball State 3

* Indiana 52, North Texas 16

* USC 39, Fresno 0

* Penn State 45, Marshall 0

* Iowa 40, Northern Illinois 0

* Illinois 42, UAB 23

* Michigan State 30, Toledo 20

* Nebraska 49, Ohio 21

* Northwestern 34, South Dakota State 18

* UMass 37...

Guest host Rodger Sherman joins Richard for the first weekend preview of the season, running through dozens of games. They touch on about 38 games, including these:

- 5:02: UMass vs. Rutgers is technically football

- 6:48: Colorado vs. Georgia Tech: What do we want the Buffs to be, exactly?

- 12:49: Fresno State vs. USC will have at least someone in attendance

- 23:43: Liberty vs. James Madison is not a gentle handshake for Billy Napier

- 36:00: Baylor vs. Auburn: Sneaky game of the weekend?

- 50:53: Clemson vs. LSU: There will...

New series! It’s the Split Zone Duo TEAM OF THE WEEK, a weekly episode in which guest host Rodger Sherman joins Alex and/or Richard to talk in detail about one college football team doing something interesting. That team can be good or bad or anything in between, as long it has a compelling story. This week, we spin off North Dakota State’s first game in FBS, a blowout win over Jacksonville State, and talk about the long arc of the Bison.

Producer: Anthony Vito

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com

Richard is joined by Justis Mosqueda, an Acme Packing Co. writer and Oregon fan, for a quick preview of the national championship-contending Ducks and a deep dive into how college football’s rule changes will affect the special teams plays you might typically tune out. Maybe Kirk Ferentz had a point? Maybe don’t grab that beverage or use the bathroom on fourth down this season. Also, because Richard can’t shut up about it, what does it really mean that the Ra...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com

It's a part-subscriber, part-free episode. Host emeritus Steven Godfrey joins Alex and Richard for this annual special. Having previewed every FBS conference and spent months thinking about the season, we make a bunch of big predictions about college football in 2026:

- 0:00: A post-production note about Brent Venables’ new Oklahoma extension, i.e. we recorded this episode last week - 2:30: Conference champion picks for every FBS league- 38:02: Which consensus Playoff favorite misses the field?- 46:30: Full CFP fields and national ch...

This week, Split Zone Duo celebrates a major milestone: welcoming Six Zone Duo. This episode explains what we’re doing. Find it here:

* Subscribe to the YouTube channel

* Apple Podcasts (Listen and leave a review!)

* Spotify (Listen and leave a star rating)

* Any other podcasting app, pretty much

* Follow on Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, Twitter, and Threads.

Here’s more from Richard:

How did we get here? The quick backstory.

Alex and I had wondered for a while what a second show might look like...

Our last conference preview of 2026 is one of our beefiest episodes ever: Richard and Alex preview the 18-team Big Ten, going in the following order:

- 2:12: Purdue

- 7:04: Maryland

- 14:40: Michigan State

- 20:53: Wisconsin

- 25:55: Rutgers

- 31:23: Penn State

- 38:56: UCLA

- 45:46: Northwestern

- 50:24: Nebraska

- 57:53: Minnesota

- 1:01:25: Illinois

- 1:05:59: Washington

- 1:11:26: Iowa

- 1:18:44: Michigan

- 1:24:06: USC

- 1:32:42: Oregon

- 1:35:18: Ohio State

- 1:42:31...

Richard and Alex go into detail on all 16 teams in the SEC, as we wind toward the end of conference previews. In order:

- 6:00: Ole Miss

- 10:35: Georgia

- 21:13: Texas A&M

- 27:18: Alabama

- 35:01: Texas

- 41:00: Oklahoma

- 50:24: Vanderbilt

- 53:26: Missouri

- 1:00:47: Tennessee

- 1:06:05: LSU

- 1:17:19: Kentucky

- 1:21:26: Florida

- 1:27:29: Auburn

- 1:34:04: Mississippi State

- 1:36:48: South Carolina

- 1:40:30: Arkansas

- 1:45:38: Preseason honors

...

Hello! This episode is free for everyone, but to get our full catalog of shows this season and beyond, we’d love it if you became a paid subscriber.

Paid subscribers (there are thousands of them!) get about twice as many episodes from us during the season, as well as Q&A and chat opportunities and other perks as they come to our minds. Thanks so much.

The Mountain West looks very new in 2026. The guts of the league left for the Pac-12, and then the MWC brought in reinforcements. North Da...

Richard, Alex, and Steven Godfrey discuss the state of FCS football ahead of a year of transformation. Then, it's time to make picks in our annual "FCS Upset Draft," which you can join at www.splitzoneduo.com. Which FBS teams will lose to FCS opponents? We'll talk about it here.

Thank you to our subscribers and partners

Become a paid subscriber today to get a lot more SZD, and check out www.nokiantyres.com/szd and www.homefieldapparel.com

Producer: Anthony Vito

Conference previews continue with a (mostly) business-free preview of the MAC, focused on the actual football. We’ve got something good, something bad, and something curious about every team in the league, in this order:

- 2:41: Western Michigan

- 5:41: Ohio

- 8:59: Toledo

- 15:02: Miami (OH)

- 19:10: Central Michigan

- 22:27: Akron

- 25:37: Buffalo

- 28:59: Kent State

- 33:00: Ball State

- 34:39: Eastern Michigan

- 38:08: Bowling Green

- 42:31: UMass

- 46:39: Sacramento State

- 53:15: Preseason ho...

Our conference preview series rolls on with the Sun Belt. Alex and Richard have something to be excited about, something to be worried about, and a point of curiosity for every team in the league. We go in reverse standings order from last year:

- 2:43: James Madison

- 10:14: Old Dominion

- 13:32: Coastal Carolina

- 16:35: Georgia Southern

- 28:01: Marshall

- 31:50: Appalachian State

- 38:48: Georgia State

- 40:56: Troy

- 46:00: Southern Miss

- 48:32: Louisiana

- 53:03: Arkansas State

- 54:21...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.com

Ralph Russo spent many years as a college football writer for the AP and an administrator of the AP Top 25. Now a senior writer for The Athletic, Ralph joins Richard for a preseason chat about the poll everyone loves to hate. In two decades at the AP, Ralph saw just about everything. How does the poll come together? What does it say about the history of college football? It’s imperfect, but it’s also our best record of how seasons play...