Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast

Godfrey presents Richard and Alex with four decades' worth of MAC head coach firings and hirings to try to figure out if G5 football jobs are on the decline. The answer is messy, but one thing's for sure – coaches have been running to coordinator gigs for a long, long time. Ask Nick Saban. Production: 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.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comSometimes, the haters call Split Zone Duo “an NFL podcast.” Today we prove them right by previewing the Super Bowl in our own way. Joining Alex and Richard is special guest Arif Hasan, publisher of Wide Left, a great newsletter that covers three of the biggest beats shaping our society: the NFL, current affairs, and the Minnesota Vikings. See Arif’s publication below, and follow him @ArifHasanNFL. Our conversation is wide-ranging and covers the following topics:* The state of the Vikings (Richard could not resist) * Whether wide receiver drops are now cool, as evidenced by the Chiefs having a good offense with Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and a bunch of receivers who have cinderblocks attached to their hands * “The Shanahan offense.” At this point, what is it? * The nation’s Brock Purdy affair: Is he good? And why has he become the touchstone of an American culture war over whether he’s good or not? * Taylor Swift should be the end of “distraction” discourse in football. But. * Game picks One publication note: Alex mentioned in the recording that Swift is suing a college student over a plane tracker. To clarify and be more accurate, as of press time, her lawyers hadn’t filed suit but were threatening that they would. This episode is for premium subscribers of SZD and Wide Left. Subscribe to SZD’s paid offerings here on Substack and you’ll get lots of podcasts, newsletters, and Q&A opportunities, including these ones just in the past few weeks * Alex’s essay on DJ Durkin, Maryland, and Jordan McNair. Listener feedback comes from this kind subscriber, who says: “i have been obsessed with cfb for a long time. didn’t know about @SplitZoneDuo. then i did. twas @38Godfrey’s Herbstreit episode that brought me in. since then, i wait. and it always exceeds. however, what @alex_kirshner does in the Durkin episode is SUBSCRIBE-TO-THIS level great.” Here’s that Herbstreit episode. * “Is Alabama fucked?” An extensive discussion of the challenges facing a post-Nick Saban Alabama and how the Tide can deal with them.* Godfrey and Ryan Nanni’s “Blind Side” commentary track.If you haven’t subscribed yet, we’d love to have you. It helps us make the show, but more importantly, we think you are missing out!

Alex, Richard, and Godfrey discuss a new NLRB ruling that might (might!) result in employee status and union organizing for college athletes. Then the group talks about recent worries about college football losing coaches to the NFL. Is this new? Yes and no. Is everything good at UCLA? Production: 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.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe

DJ Durkin continues to get SEC coordinator jobs. In the past few seasons, he’s bounced from Ole Miss to Texas A&M to Auburn as some of the most famous head coaches in college football have hired him to lead their defenses. An older stop on Durkin’s journey now tends to get limited attention when he arrives at a new place. So let’s talk in detail about what happened after Durkin took over at Maryland ahead of 2016, the kind of program he sought to build, and what exactly happened in Maryland’s building leading up to the death of one of Durkin’s players, Jordan McNair, after a workout in 2018. Reducing the story to a few words does not help people understand what happened in College Park. The whole history is important, and so is the unwillingness of powerful people to address it with transparency.Further resources: * Maryland investigative commission report on the program’s culture* An athletic training consultant’s review of Maryland’s procedures Production: 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.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comGodfrey's here to help make TCU better (Why is Kendal Briles still there?), talk about how bad D.C.’s NFL stadium is, reflect on Tennessee's lost decades, raise money for Georgia Tech, and improve Indiana's nickname game. Also there's a big examination of the chasm between G5 and P5 in hiring and how fragile the success of a place like Louisiana Tech can be. Production: Anthony Vito.

Richard, Godfrey, and Alex start the show with a discussion of Sherrone Moore’s elevation to Michigan head coach and Iowa’s maybe-good but definitely-weird hire of Tim Lester as offensive coordinator. Then it’s time to revisit 2023 predictions, talk about what we learned, and forecast what this long offseason in CFB will be all about. Production: 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.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comSplit Zone Duo is proud to present a long-sought-after project: The feature-length commentary track for The Blind Side (2009). This movie got a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars, and Sandra Bullock won Best Actress. Steven Godfrey, who covered Ole Miss around the time of the events depicted in the film, saw things differently than how the movie showed them. Please enjoy this extensive commentary on the whole thing. You do not necessarily need to pull up the movie to enjoy and follow along with this track, but you may want to! It’s available for rental and purchase at both Apple and Amazon, and we believe the movie files on those platforms are the same. As of publication time, The Blind Side does not stream with a subscription on any major platforms. Renting it costs $3.99 on Apple and $3.79 on Amazon as of publication time. Or maybe you’ve got it on DVD! Some notes on getting the podcast file lined up properly with the movie itself: At the 21:23 mark of the podcast, Godfrey begins the instructions for lining up the movie and the commentary track. The movie file should be about 2 hours and 8 minutes. You’ll see the Warner Bros. logo from the mid-aughts, and then you’ll notice a graphic for production company Alcon Entertainment. When you see the little ® trademark symbol come on the screen at 0:25 of the movie file, hit pause on the movie. Then, at 23:19 of the podcast track and 0:25 of the film track, press play on both. You’ll then have synced tracks as the movie goes forward. (Free subscribers can listen up until this point.) Thanks to our audio producer, Anthony Vito, for his work in bringing you this track. Thanks, we guess (?), to Michael Lewis for writing the book that allowed us to do this commentary in the first place. Roll tape!

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comWhen Nick Saban retired, Alex wrote a column for the Ringer under the headline “Nick Saban Made Alabama Too Big to Fail.” The same day, Godfrey argued in the Washington Post that the “theory that a post-Saban Alabama is too big to fail … ultimately misunderstands the how and why of Saban’s singular success.” Can these two arguments be squared? Somewhat yes, and somewhat no. We talk in this episode about Alabama’s rough first two weeks without Saban, the Crimson Tide’s challenges going forward, and how Saban did (and did not) protect them from a cold, unforgiving life without him. Production: Anthony Vito.Free subscribers can listen to a short preview of this episode. Paying subscribers can listen to the whole thing and also get access to all of our other premium content, including regular podcasts, newsletters, and Q&A opportunities. Split Zone Duo is not publishing a free episode this week, but will have another episode for paid subscribers in the next few days: The Blind Side commentary track featuring Godfrey and Ryan Nanni. It’s not to be missed!

Former SB Nation coworker/SZD co-conspirator Rodger Sherman quit his day job before the 2023 season and drove to over 60 (!) college football games across the country. Enjoy the tale of Road Rodge, with a weird bonus moment at the end. Production: 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.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe

Alex and Richard spend a half-hour talking about the national championship, the 2023 Michigan team's place in history, Jim Harbaugh cementing his legacy, and what might be next for Washington. Production: 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.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe