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For your holiday listening, Alex and Richard take on dozens of questions from SplitZoneDuo.com’s paid subscribers. Let’s start with the juicy but sad breakup of Notre Dame and USC, move to the coaching carousel, and then have some fun. A rough listing of the questions featured in this episode, in order:

* What’s actually going on with Notre Dame and USC breaking up their football rivalry, and whose fault is it?

* What is Michigan’s realistic play in the coaching carousel, and who could they actually hire?

* Is Michigan likely to have a coach in place by the bowl game, or is that assumption wrong?

* Is a bridge coach (specifically Biff Poggi) a viable or sensible option for Michigan?

* Kyle Whittingham vs. Brian Kelly: Who is the better “CEO” head coach?

* With so many Power 4 openings, is the best path to a top job now being a successful P4 coordinator?

* What happened at Ohio, how should they move forward, and why did they handle it better than Michigan?

* Why does Warde Manuel still have a job (pending investigation)?

* Is Pat Fitzgerald possibly a worse pure football coach than Jonathan Smith but better positioned because of NIL and donor buy-in? Is “coach who can unlock donor money” now a core hiring archetype?

* Will Michigan State’s new $400 million donation allow them to immediately spend big on the roster?

* What are agency “speed-dating” events for coaches and athletic directors?

* Does the modern college football calendar make it harder for FCS programs to reset or fire coaches?

* Will the calendar lead to more long-tenured FCS coaches staying put at big programs?

* What are the chances Ed Orgeron resurfaces on LSU’s staff?

* Why didn’t Dan Mullen come up for any of the open head coaching jobs?

* What’s really wrong at Florida State beyond portal hits and misses?

* If an AD tried to reverse-engineer Curt Cignetti, what traits would they be looking for?

* What goes on your CFB trip bucket list?

* New York or LA: The better CFB city?

* Why do national college football narratives so often default to NY/LA logic when the sport itself doesn’t?

* What are our goals for this podcast in 2026?

Thank you so much for being part of what we do. We’ll see you around New Year’s Eve to get you set for the CFP quarterfinals and FCS title game.

Producer: Anthony Vito

The 2025 College Football Holiday Mega-Mailbag

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast