How to Keep a Revived Rivalry Alive

The Week 4 college football schedule is loaded with big games that wouldn’t have felt this big in any other year, like Texas Tech-Utah and Illinois-Indiana. Alex and Richard break down what’s interesting this weekend. A non-exhaustive list of games covered:* Iowa-Rutgers * Texas Tech-Utah* SMU-TCU (for the last time for a while)* North Texas-Army* Arkansas-Memphis * The Civil War* The Apple Cup* Tulane-Ole Miss* Michigan-Nebraska * Auburn-Oklahoma * Boise State-Air Force * Florida-Miami* ASU-Baylor* Michigan State-USC, verrrrry late at night * The Main Course, presented by Modelo: A detailed look at Illinois ahead of a huge game at Indiana, featuring Andy Johnson of The Shotgun Start More this week at Split Zone DuoCo-founder and co-host emeritus Steven Godfrey is here to break down five teams that are playing very badly: How doomed are they, and how doomed are their coaches? We discuss Florida, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Oklahoma State, and Liberty in this episode. Thank you to our subscribers and partnersBecome a paid subscriber today to get a lot more SZD, and check out www.nokiantyres.com/szd and www.homefieldapparel.comAlso, welcome our new partner, Dad Water. Code SZD for 20% off.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.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comOne quarter of the way through the season, Godfrey, Richard, and Alex discuss five teams that are off to terrible starts and haven’t fired their coaches yet. They all look doomed to at least a bad season and maybe more than that, but can we find reasons for hope? In this episode: * How Billy Napier’s staff management at Florida has made him an easy target for criticism as DJ Lagway has gone backward in his second year * Oklahoma State has fallen behind not just the blue-bloods of the sport, but most of the Big 12. Mike Gundy no longer looks like the guy to fix it* Wisconsin built its roster expecting that it could still act like the Wisconsin of the 2010s, putting a moneyball QB into a good support system. But the Badgers might not be able to operate that way anymore. * Northwestern is going in the wrong direction under David Braun. That doesn’t look like his fault, but he also probably isn’t the man to fix it. (Also, Pat Fitzgerald is probably getting back into coaching soon. Just saying.) * Liberty has so much more money than its peers but has now lost six of its last 10 games going back to last October. Maybe Jamey Chadwell’s trick at Coastal Carolina wasn’t as portable as once thought. After going through each of this situations, we wonder: Which of these programs has the best chance to get back on an upward path soon? Producer: Anthony VitoThis episode is for paid subscribers, but everyone can hear a free preview To get the whole thing, join us as a paid subscriber. Great time of year for it!

Richard and Alex break down an excellent Week 3 in college football, with a spotlight on more than three dozen games. We go in this order:Georgia 44, Tennessee 41Texas A&M 41, Notre Dame 40Georgia Tech 24, Clemson 21WVU 31, Pitt 24LSU 20, Florida 10Alabama 38, Wisconsin 14Miami 49, USF 12Oregon 34, Northwestern 14USC 33, Purdue 17Ole Miss 41, Arkansas 35Vandy 31, South Carolina 7Cal 27, Minnesota 14Stanford 30, Boston College 20NC State 34, Wake Forest 24Arizona 23, Kansas State 17New Mexico 35, UCLA 10Houston 36, Colorado 20Indiana 73, Indiana State 0ODU 45, Virginia Tech 26Tulane 34, Duke 27Iowa State 24, Arkansas State 16Oklahoma 42, Temple 3SMU 28, Missouri State 10Delaware 44, UConn 41Texas 27, UTEP 10Missouri 52, Louisiana 10Texas Tech 45, Oregon State 10Utah 31, Wyoming 6ASU 34, Texas State 15North Texas 59, Wazzu 10Southern Miss 38, App State 22UTSA 48, UIW 20BGSU 23, Liberty 13Memphis 28, Troy 7Buffalo 31, Kent State 28FIU 38, FAU 28UAB 31, Akron 28Thanks to our partners and subscribers20% off Dad Water: https://drinkdadwater.com/discount/SZDVisit Homefield at https://www.homefieldapparel.com/Enter a college football road trip at https://www.nokiantyres.com/SZDProducer: 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.comSubscriber show! Realignment killed off a lot of college football rivalries. Then the schools involved brought some of them back … only to let them wither again. Why does this happen, and are some of the ongoing changes to the sport encouraging or discouraging teams to schedule more of these games? Now that the Border War is back and the Backyard Brawl is about to play what might be its last game in a while (after a previous long pause), it’s a good time to try to figure it out. Rodger Sherman joins Alex and Richard for a discussion about it.Producer: Anthony Vito

The Week 3 Tasting Menu discusses many, many college football games. Here are just a few of them:* Colorado vs. Houston: Deion Sanders makes a QB change, probably, but he’s being cagey about it* Oregon vs. Northwestern: This game will not be interesting, but recent events surrounding Northwestern and its football program were* Clemson vs. Georgia Tech: This is a dangerous spot for Clemson, again* The Backyard Brawl: Other than the fact that anything can happen in a rivalry game, is there any reason to believe in West Virginia?* USF vs. Miami: The Bulls probably won’t do it again, but we don’t think they’re about to get blown out of the stadium, either* ODU vs. Virginia Tech: Careful, Brent Pry* Florida vs. LSU: More trouble on the horizon for the Gators?* Vandy at South Carolina: Is the Nyck Harbor thing going to happen?* A&M at Notre Dame: Have the Aggies fished their rush defense?* Georgia vs. Tennessee, for this week’s Main Course: Graham Coffey of Dawgs Central joins us to explain how things are going for the DawgsAnd many more games. We’ll see you on on Sunday. Produced by Anthony Vito.Thank you to our subscribers and partnersBecome a paid subscriber today to get a lot more SZD, and check out www.nokiantyres.com/szd and www.homefieldapparel.comAlso, welcome our new partner, Dad Water. Code SZD for 20% off. 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.comIn this week’s SZD Overtime episode for subscribers, we examine two programs that were dominant in the 2000s and are still, all these years later, trying to recapture some of their old magic. Florida lost to USF, endangering Billy Napier’s tenure once again. Virginia Tech dropped to 0-2 with losses to South Carolina and Vanderbilt and is staring down a failed hire in Brent Pry. Richard and Alex discuss what’s gone wrong at Florida, why we’re still having these conversations four years into Napier’s tenure, and who would actually be in charge of firing Napier. Plus, we cover why Virginia Tech can’t get anything right post-Frank Beamer and why they’re now in an existential moment. Is Tech even a good job in 2025? Let’s talk about it. Producer: Anthony Vito

Richard and Alex break down the interesting stuff from Week 2 of the college football season, starting with upsets in Starkville and Gainesville and moving on down the list to dozens of games:* Mississippi State broke through against Arizona State* USF cemented its very early hold on the G5 playoff spot at Florida* Oklahoma made sure Bryce Underwood had the night you expected* Iowa State has become what Iowa is when Iowa is good* Mizzou brought back the Border War in style* Illinois stood back as Duke melted down* Baylor got a key win at SMU and didn’t look like a Dave Aranda team* Oregon did some really gruesome things to OKST* Virginia Tech’s slow-rolling disaster continued vs. Vanderbilt* The Aidan Chiles revolution may have finally arrived* Ohio beat up on West Virginia* USC continued to rack up yardage at a ridiculous rate* Syracuse players had to run sprints in game, then after the game* Oregon State committed one of the great special teams blunders ever* Should you be worried about Georgia’s offensive line?* Texas State scored another win against its rival UTSA* Liberty knocked itself out of the playoff race* UAB actually could’ve beaten NavyThanks to our partners and subscribers* 20% off Dad Water: https://drinkdadwater.com/discount/SZD* Visit Homefield at https://www.homefieldapparel.com/* Enter a college football road trip at https://www.nokiantyres.com/SZD 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 preview Week 2 of the college football season, which is light on big-time helmet games but heavy on interesting regional matchups. This episode has notes and observations on a big bunch of games, including:* JMU at Louisville, a great Friday night opener for the weekend* Baylor at SMU, where we should learn a lot more about Baylor* Illinois at Duke, where the Illini put their playoff dark-horse status on the line* Iowa at Iowa State, a matchup that seems hard to figure out because of how mediocre the Iowa offense was in Week 1* UAB at Navy, which tends to run for a lot of yards against the Blazers* Texas State at UTSA in the I-35 Rivalry* Ole Miss at Kentucky, which prrrrrobably cannot do that again* Oklahoma State at Oregon, following a little barb-trading by the two coaches* WVU at Ohio, where Parker Navarro gets another chance to show off* Arkansas State at Arkansas, a game that has literally never happened* WKU vs. Toledo, one of the best Group of 5 meetings of the year* LAST BUT NOT LEAST: Bill Connelly joins us to talk about Michigan vs. Oklahoma, aka a five-star true freshman against Brent Venables, aka Sherrone Moore against his alma materAnd many more games. We’ll see you on on Sunday. Produced by Anthony Vito.Thank you to our subscribers and partnersBecome a paid subscriber today to get a lot more SZD, and check out www.nokiantyres.com/szd and www.homefieldapparel.comAlso, welcome our new partner, Dad Water. Code SZD for 20% off. 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.comESPN’s Bill Connelly, author of a new book on the evolution and future of CFB, joins Alex and Richard for a big post-Week 1 chat:* Bill’s new book, “Forward Progress,” is a mix of caution and optimism about the ways college football has changed. We talk with him about how sports actually die, what still works well about CFB, and what’s broken. (This portion of the episode is free for everyone to hear.)* Richard reports from his trip to Chapel Hill for Bill Belichick’s debut. Bill explains why this is probably going to be a hard slog for UNC, and Alex and Bill talk about the built-in financial inefficiency of a portaled roster.* There were very few big plays in Week 1, but there were tons of fourth-down attempts and conversions. Bill suspects these facts are related.* Which big Week 1 risers and fallers in Bill’s SP+ system have caught his eye? Plus, how has the portal changed the art and science of projections?* Has the Group of 5 playoff race completely reset?* Is Kansas State going to be OK?* What does Bill make of exciting QB debuts at Cal and Maryland?Thanks to Bill, and go read “Forward Progress.” GET IT: https://bookshop.org/p/books/forward-progress-bill-connelly/22336270?ean=9781637278703&next=t&

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.splitzoneduo.comIn this subscriber special (join us!), Alabama beat writer Matt Stahl of AL.com joins Alex to talk about exactly how bad things are right now in Tuscaloosa. Coming off a 14-point loss to FSU, we had a lot of questions, like:* How seriously is the Alabama beat taking the possibility of a coach firing?* What about Kalen DeBoer’s management of the program has been so wrong?* Did Bama do anything to make this worse for itself from a PR perspective?* Was some of this slipping before Nick Saban rolled out of town?* Assuming things don’t get REALLY bad and Bama doesn’t want to pay $60 million, what intermediate changes could be made?* How is the NIL situation at the moment?* Just how low is DeBoer’s approval rating after five losses in 10 games?Thanks to Matt for joining us. Find him on Bluesky.Producer: Anthony Vito