In this subscriber episode, Godfrey, Richard, and Alex revisit 28 head coach transitions before the 2012 college football season. This was one of the most consequential coach carousels of the 21st century, with lots of very good, lots of very bad, plenty in the middle, and also the John L. Smith situation:

THE GOOD

* 9:29: Urban Meyer to Ohio State

* 16:05: Mike Leach to Washington State

* 22:39: Bill O’Brien to Penn State

* 31:34: Justin Fuente to Memphis

* 34:28: Matt Campbell to Toledo

* 35:31: Jim McElwain to Colorado State

* 36:55: Gus Malzahn to Arkansas State

* 39:28: Terry Bowden to Akron

THE WHATEVER

* 41:36: Jim Mora Jr. to UCLA

* 46:54: Todd Graham to Arizona State

* 50:28: Paul Chryst to Pitt

* 51:10: Larry Fedora to North Carolina

* 53:42: Kyle Flood to Rutgers

* 55:45: Bob Davie to New Mexico

* 56:46: Tim DeRuyter to Fresno State

THE UGLY

* 58:05: Tim Beckman to Illinois

* 59:00: Tony Levine to Houston

* 1:00:59: Curtis Johnson to Tulane

* 1:01:59: Norm Chow to Hawaii

* 1:05:54: Charley Molnar to UMass

* 1:06:21: Garrick McGee to UAB

* 1:13:08: Carl Pelini to FAU

* 1:17:05: Ellis Johnson to Southern Miss

* 1:19:25: Charlie Weis to Kansas

* 1:28:00: John L. Smith to Arkansas

THE DEBATABLE

* 1:20:48: Kevin Sumlin to Texas A&M

* 1:21:36: Hugh Freeze to Ole Miss

* 1:25:02: Rich Rodriguez to Arizona

Produced by Anthony Vito.

Paid subscribers can here this episode and also our other “Anatomy of a Coaching Carousel” shows:

* 2001

* 2010

Everyone else can hear free previews of these episodes. Thanks so much to our paid subscribers for making this show possible.

Your mission is simple, should you choose to accept it: By awarding or subtracting 24 points from a handful of old college football games, how much can you alter about the entire trajectory of the sport? Richard and Alex see how much damage they can do with three possessions’ worth of points:

* 0:23: RIP to college football’s Wes Rucker, Joey Knight, and Rondale Moore

* 3:37: Richard’s additional reporting on Sacramento State’s MAC move and the ridiculous math used to justify it

* 13:22: The Split Zone Duo Hockey Hour responds to the Olympics

* 19:46: News of the week: Joey Aguilar loses his eligibility case, and Jeff Monken suggests moving Army-Navy to Thanksgiving weekend

* 24:32: Reshaping college football history with 24 points

Get more SZD by becoming a paid subscriber

The offseason is a busy time at SZD, where we focus a lot on creative projects and CFB history while also keeping tabs on the news of the moment. Many of our favorite episodes go out in these months for subscribers — including the next one on Friday, featuring host emeritus Steven Godfrey.

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Producer: Anthony Vito

This is a subscriber episode of Split Zone Duo, but everyone can listen to a free preview. Become a subscriber today by clicking on this link.

In the second leg of our big offseason-opening mailbag, Richard and Alex take a big list of subscriber questions. (But first, yet another MAC head coach leaves his job and restarts the coach carousel in the process.) Among the questions answered in this episode: 7:54: Which new Sun Belt head coach is the best bet to succeed this year?

* 11:05: How excited should we be about Buster Faulkner as Florida’s new offensive coordinator?

* 16:41: Who’s having the hardest time coping with Curt Cignetti’s success at Indiana? (Alex says it’s Purdue fans; Richard disagrees.)

* 21:50: How durable is the House settlement-generated age of parity?

* 23:17: What will it take for college football players to finally be declared university employees?

* 28:17: Will college football adopt transfer fees like European soccer?

* 30:09: Are schools stuck in mutually assured destruction when it comes to recruiting rule enforcement?

* 32:04: What happened with the major running back transfers that fizzled out this year?

* 33:14: Can mid-tier power conference programs like Pitt still have breakthrough seasons in this era?

* 36:05: Why can’t Nebraska take the next step in NIL and rev share spending?

* 39:08: How can resource-deprived programs like West Virginia compete at the highest level right now?

* 43:22: Will the single transfer portal window eventually move from winter to post-spring ball?

* 46:50: Will more five-star recruits pick smaller schools over Blue Bloods, and are we entering the era of the strategic redshirt?

* 50:31: Does the expanded playoff put even more emphasis on having veteran starters on your roster?

* 52:15: Is the Pac-12 media deal ever actually going to happen, and what’s going on with the Mountain West lawsuit?

* 53:19: Does the new Pac-12 have the horses to keep up with the American, and will the playoff committee treat it as a premier G6 league?

* 54:00: Can the Pac-12 and Mountain West coexist, or is one conference going to have to absorb the other?

* 59:19: What happens to conference championships if they get rid of conference championship games?

* 1:04:07: Is the Big Ten pushing for a 24-team playoff because Fox wants to renegotiate media rights?

* 1:07:57: Would you rather have the Lou Groza Award winner or the Ray Guy Award winner on your team?

* 1:09:11: What will it take for spring football to succeed, and do people even want it?

Then, in the FUN ROUND:

* 1:10:46: Why are the swear words bleeped in the SZD podcast intro?

* 1:12:24: Who’s been the main character of SZD throughout its existence?

* 1:14:15: For Richard: What’s more likely, Dabo embracing the transfer portal or Spurs winning the Champions League?

* 1:15:51: Alex, have you ever done a trail run, and do you have any advice for someone training for a trail half and a 50K?

* 1:17:45: Alex, what’s on your race calendar these days? \

Produced by Anthony Vito.