Dan Casey, coach and founder of the Play Caller’s Club, joins Richard to discuss the Xs and Os trends that are percolating across college football ahead of the 2025 season. Weird alignments, formations into the boundary, running backs out of the backfield, and the use of two-QB systems so that teams don’t have to leave NIL dollars sitting on the bench. Plus, a defensive response led by the Michigan-Ravens tree and a comeback of a Tampa Buccaneers classic.

This episode is for paid subscribers, with a free preview available to all. This is a great time to become a paid subscriber.

Producer: Anthony Vito

Listen to Alex’s extended-cut interview with Miami University play-by-play announcer Steve Baker, for Split Zone Duo subscribers. Listen to the full “Dead Letters” episode about Miami and the Cradle of Coaches here.

Miami University went on an unprecedented run of hiring coaches: Woody Hayes, Ara Parseghian, Bo Schembechler, and many more: . By 2003, with Ben Roethlisberger behind center, the RedHawks were the best program outside the power conference. Then trouble hit, both for Miami and the MAC.

Split Zone Duo’s paid subscribers can listen to an extended cut of our interview with Steve Baker, the longtime voice of the RedHawks. Subscribe now.

Listen to all 10 episodes of Dead Letters

There’s now a standalone podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, and the other major podcasting apps. It’s got a handful of free episodes, and subscribers can set up their personal feeds in their publication settings. It’s very easy from here. Set up your premium episode feed the same way you set up your regular SZD feed:

Dead Letters is a Split Zone Duo series about when bad things happen to great college football programs. In the series’ first 10 episodes, we’ve covered the rise and fall of teams like Tulane, Nebraska, Florida A&M, Ole Miss, and the entire Southern Conference. These episodes are all in the Split Zone Duo podcast feed, and we have made a handful of them (including this one) free.

To listen to the full catalog of Dead Letters, become a paid subscriber. Want all of the Dead Letters episodes in one tidy podcast feed on your preferred listening app? Good news: You can now do that on all major podcasting apps.

Welcome to Split Zone Duo RELAUNCH WEEK

We’ll have new episodes every single day this week. Relaunch Week is our unofficial season kickoff, and it’s an excellent time to become a paid subscriber and roughly double the number of podcasts you’ll get from us during the season.

Paid subscribers can listen to the extended-cut interview I did with Miami play-by-play announcer Steve Baker about the history of the RedHawks.