In 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

The Split Zone Duo Sunday Hurry-Up returns for 2025, still featuring notes on dozens of games delivered in 30-ish (emphasis on “ish”) minutes and now sponsored by our partners at Dad Water. In this Week 1 rundown:

* FSU doesn’t just beat Alabama, but does it with beef

* Arch Manning flops at Ohio State, but we won’t engage in Arch Doomerism just yet. Meanwhile, a great start for the defending champs

* LSU overcomes ref adversity and takes care of business at Clemson

* Tennessee is winning the Nico Iamaleava breakup

* Utah’s line play is absolutely terrifying

* Tulane beats Northwestern on the field and in the PR department

* The Cal Bears have a quarterback who demands your attention

* Boise State more or less eliminates itself from CFP contention, already, but it is time to take USF seriously

* Dylan Raiola shows encouraging signs; Brendan Sorsby does not

* Auburn will eventually need a downfield passing game, but for now, it helps to have an offensive line that shoves people around

* Georgia Tech does what few power-conference teams ever do

* Tarleton and Austin Peay get on the board in the FCS Upset Draft

* Kent State wins for the first time in 22 tries

* DilferWatch remains on high alert

This episode is produced by noted USF Bulls fan Anthony Vito.

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Our next episode is about Alabama and Kalen DeBoer.

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After an offseason and preseason of talking, it’s time to answer: What do we think will actually happen in this college football season? Alex, Richard, and Godfrey put their names on some picks in this subscriber episode. At the end of the season, we’ll dig up the time capsule and see how we did:

* The champions of every FBS conference

* The playoff field

* The national champ

* The Heisman finalists

* The Group of 5 player of the year

* The defensive player of the year

* Our favorite games of the year

* The first coach fired

* One coach to be hired up

* A ranked-to-unranked team

Some of this won’t be surprising. (Texas and Penn State receive national championship picks.) Some of it will be! (Iowa to the playoff? Hmm.) Let’s talk about it and then sit down and watch some ball.

Producer: Anthony Vito

Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner preview the first week of the 2025 season, with notes on dozens of games that will make your Week 1 more interesting. A brief selection of the games we talk about this week:

* Boise State vs. USF is the Bulls’ biggest moment in years

* Nebraska vs. Cincinnati is a major interior pressure test for Dylan Raiola

* Auburn vs. Baylor and Georgia Tech vs. Colorado headline Friday night

* Northwestern vs. Tulane features a Big Ten team as a justified underdog in a Group of 5 stadium, but who’s playing QB for the Green Wave?

* TEXAS VS. OHIO STATE, one of the biggest Week 1 games ever. (Don’t lose sight of how big this thing is just because both teams will make the playoff)

* Syracuse vs. Tennessee: There will be orange

* Toledo vs. Kentucky: The MAC’s best chance to beat the SEC

* Alabama vs. Florida State: The Seminoles probably can’t win, but what about their performance will offer hints of the future? Read Alex’s story about Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit here.

* LSU vs. Clemson: We like the Tigers to prevail in Death Valley

* Sacramento State vs. South Dakota State is an unusual FCS showcase

* Virginia Tech vs. South Carolina: The Beamer Bowl presents many questions, most of them about the Hokies

* TCU vs. North Carolina: Welcome to CFB, Bill Belichick

Did we just forget Notre Dame vs. Miami? Of course not. For this week’s main course, Jessica Smetana, cohost of the Notre Dame-focused “Echoes” podcast with Mike Golic Jr., joins the podcast to talk about the Irish’s big challenge.

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

Also, welcome our new partner, Dad Water. Code SZD for 20% off.

Producer: Anthony Vito

This season, FBS teams will play 126 games against FCS opponents. Most years, anywhere between five-ish and 10-ish FBS teams will lose those games. The purpose of the Split Zone Duo FCS Upset Draft is to identify those teams, engage in some friendly competition, and use the process as a look ahead to the season. Everyone picks three FCS winners, but there’s a catch: Some FCS upsets are barely upsets at all, and they may only be worth three points. Others could be worth 100. Folks, it’s time for some game theory.Former FCS Upset Draft champion Jason Kirk (Shutdown Fullcast, The Athletic) returns to the program to compete against Alex, Richard, and all of you.

Enter the FCS Upset Draft by visiting www.splitzoneduo.com and locating the entry form.

Here are the rules. Read carefully!

* A nonpartisan committee made of up one member (me, Alex Kirshner) puts every FCS-versus-FBS game of the season into a spreadsheet.

* Each game gets a point value of 3, 5, 10, or 100, with higher point values awarded to games where an FCS team is a bigger underdog.

* This year, you may pick FOUR games, up from the usual three. The form will let you enter more, but only entries with four picks or fewer will count. (Why the change? There are 10 more FBS-vs.-FCS games this year than last, so we figured we’d broaden our game a bit.)

* You can pick non-upset "upsets" in which great FCS teams beat bad FBS teams, but you'll likely only get three or five points if it pans out.

* Or you can take some bigger swings for 10- and 100-point values and go for the fences. Getting a 10-pointer right has long been an ingredient for victory.

* At the end of the season, the top three points-scorers will be celebrated on an episode of SZD. Most of all, you’re fighting for eternal glory here. But we’ll also have some special gifts (to be announced!) from our team, with tiebreakers to determine three champions as needed.

* You must enter your picks by noon ET on Saturday. However if you pick a game being played on Thursday or Friday, you need to enter your pick before that game kicks off.

Here's a catalog of previous FCS-on-FBS wins, in case it gives you any inspiration. This year, as usual, features well north of 100 games to choose from.

We'll track the results throughout the season, though you might want to write down your own answers for memory, as we do not keep a public leaderboard for the whole world to see. Happy picking!

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

Welcome our new partners, Dad Water: https://drinkdadwater.com/discount/SZD

Producer: Anthony Vito

Yahoo Sports’ Nate Tice joins Richard in this new episode of “Scheme School,” focused on one very famous QB. Arch Manning finally takes the reins of the Texas Longhorns this weekend at Ohio State. For a quarterback who’s been talked about more than any other QB prospect in maybe the whole history of the sport, we haven’t talked much about the specifics of Manning’s game.

* What we’ve seen in limited reps so far

* What, specifically, Manning is good at. “Eyes” and “balance” come up a lot.

* The things he hasn’t done well in a small sample. You can’t go broke taking a profit, but Manning hasn’t always taken it

* How Steve Sarkisian’s offense makes Manning easier to project as an NFL quarterback, and how that might affect his future plans

Producer: Anthony Vito

Richard and Alex preview the SEC for the 2025 season:

* Texas has everything it needs to make a deep playoff run

* Georgia has a few more questions, especially at QB, but (this will shock you) looks like a frontline contender once again

* Alabama is back, per Richard

* LSU has championship upside, but will the defense be good or great?

* South Carolina has a huge star at QB and another at EDGE. The rest of the roster is more open to interpretation, but one of us is optimistic

* Florida has DJ Lagway, and that counts for a lot

* Ole Miss faces a QB transition, but there’s reason to be optimistic. Will the defense keep chugging after a bunch of losses?

* Texas A&M will run over you and play solid defense. How serious will Marcel Reed and the wide receivers be?

* Tennessee’s best side of the ball probably isn’t offense

* Oklahoma has some elite talent and some splashy portal additions, and Richard thinks this might work out

* Auburn might have the best receivers in the conference and has a bunch of young players that flashed last year. What about the weird QB situation?

* Mizzou is building its roster effectively but has some substantial losses to contend with, and it doesn’t sound like a great QB room

* Vanderbilt will probably move backward, but the ‘Dores have made progress

* Arkansas faces another year of coaching carousel questions

* Kentucky appears to be a bad situation

* Mississippi State is a bit more interesting but faces a long slog

After going through each team, the group awards preseason honors: The Split Zone Duo Dude of the Year, the Low-Key Cool Game of the Year, and the Coach Who’s Not Gonna Be Here Next Year Award. Producer: Anthony Vito.

That wraps up our conference previews

* Big Ten

* American

* Mountain West

* ACC

* Conference USA

* Big 12

* MAC

* Pac-12 and FBS independents

* Sun Belt

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

Alex, Richard, and Rodger Sherman preview the Big Ten for 2025. This nearly two-hour episode runs through all 18 teams, in this order:

* Penn State faces “semifinals or bust” season

* Ohio State should step back, but how much can a team step back when it has Jeremiah Smith on one side of the ball and Caleb Downs on the other?

* Oregon has a few question marks but all the talent in the world

* Iowa has Rodger thinking about a darkhorse playoff run

* USC beefs up and has a QB that you could look at in one of two ways

* Michigan’s season is “found money,” but how much cash is in there?

* Wisconsin starts to get back to being Wisconsin

* Minnesota has a great running back, an optimistic QB, and … ?

* Indiana is poised to avoid a cliff after last year’s breakout

* Michigan State has an intriguing passing game. Will it be good?

* Illinois, with a light schedule and a heavy defensive front, has a playoff shot

* Nebraska figures out offensive line and maybe receiver, leaving a world of possibility in Dylan Raiola’s second season

* UCLA has a famous QB and a whole lot of questions (including that QB)

* Maryland is still Maryland, but it might have its QB of the future

* Washington could be the league’s hardest team to make sense of either way

* Northwestern will probably be bad, but it’s a left tackle development hub now

* Purdue has a good running back and, well, not much else

* Rutgers continues to play Schianoball, and it’s working fine

After going through each team, the group awards preseason honors: The Split Zone Duo Dude of the Year, the Low-Key Cool Game of the Year, and the Coach Who’s Not Gonna Be Here Next Year Award. Producer: Anthony Vito.

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

The NCAA’s big decision on Michigan’s sign-stealing operation is here, and it is a nothingburger. To explain what happened and get a Michigan perspective on it (because it is very funny), Alex welcomes Jane Coaston, Crooked Media podcaster and Michigan fan, to discuss it. You can read the full infractions decision here if you would like some light PDF reading on your Friday. Can reasonable people finally agree on topics like whether Jim Harbaugh and Sherrone Moore knew what was up, whether the title was tainted, and whether Michigan really is a model program? Let us debate.

Producer: Anthony Vito

Richard and Godfrey preview 2025 in the newly renamed American Conference. In a recent episode, we touched on this league’s long-term difficulties. In this one, we talk about the season to come, previewing all 14 teams.

The episode wraps with preseason award nominees from the hosts for the SZD Dude of the Year, the Low-Key Cool Game of the Year, the Minority Coach of the Week In an Interesting Schematic Spot (of the Year), and the Coach Who’s Not Gonna Be Here Next Year. Producer: Anthony Vito.

Catch up on all of our 2025 previews

In reverse chronological order:

* Mountain West

* ACC

* Conference USA

* Big 12

* MAC

* Pac-12 and FBS independents

* Sun Belt

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