Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast

Alex Kirshner and Steven Godfrey have some Mountain West conversations, touching on every team in the league heading into 2023. Has Boise State averted the worst? Are the Broncos in a two-team race with Fresno State? Will Air Force butt in? Let’s check in with Craig Bohl, Brady Hoke, and Troy Calhoun. What is the deal with Blake Anderson’s Utah State? And let’s see which of the conference’s most moribund teams (Hawaii, New Mexico, Nevada) can show a sign of progress first. Production: Anthony Vito.

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Deion Sanders and Colorado have become the biggest story in college football. We want to unpack why that happened, because we think it goes much deeper than "he's a celebrity and he's 3-0." After spending about 56 minutes on that discussion, we've got another hour of previewing a great Week 4 schedule including FSU-Clemson, Ohio State-Notre Dame, and Arizona State-USC in the Media Restriction Bowl. Production: Anthony Vito.

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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.

Sometimes, 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!

Pro Football Focus’s Seth Galina joins the show and talks in depth about the strengths and weaknesses of every team left in the Playoff discussion (plus Cincinnati, which should be). Why Texas is only Texas because they say they’re Texas, and a deeper dive into Coastal Carolina’s unique spin on the triple option.

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