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- [00:00]
A
We're coming and we ain't backing down.
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B
We don't need a bunch of cats in here looking in the mirror.
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A
Everybody just do your job.
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B
You understand that?
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A
Hey, will you shut up?
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B
I'm bitterly disappointed with the officiating today. Guys being dudes and they run through our, like through a tin horn, man.
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A
Thank you, Lee. Thank you to our Split Zone duo listeners. I'm Alex Kirschner joined by my co host Richard Johnson as we continue with conference previews 2026. Richard, do you like USA? Do you like America? Well, just USA actually, not America. America's one league. USA is a different league.
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B
Well, right now I'm trying to figure out if USA is going to pass this protect college sports bill, which it does not seem like they will at the Thursday 4pm Eastern time, August 6 juncture. But things can change.
- [00:47]
A
That is a fast moving story. We have said over the years that one sign that you may be struggling to get a cohesive conference identity together is if you just rub some America on it. But Conference USA has been named thusly for decades at this point, whereas the American only came around about 2014, 2013 or so. Richard, Conference USA now has a very manageable and reasonable number of teams. 10. I think that's about the right number for a college sports conference. It's gone out of style.
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B
It's refreshing is what it is.
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A
We are going to preview all 10 teams in Conference USA. I'm guessing this preview is going to take, I don't know, 45 minutes, 50, 55 minutes before we start. Instead of being a two hour behemoth of some 18 team league or 16 team league. Not that I'm naming names, Richard. We go in reverse order of last year's finish, which shockingly means that we lead off the Conference USA preview this year with the Kennesaw State Fighting Owls.
- [01:51]
B
Yeah, Hootie hoo. Bet you didn't see that one coming, huh? Kennesaw State, not somewhat improbably, completely improbably, as far as I'm concerned, won the dog on league last year. Yeah, it was an incredible turnaround job by, by head coach Jerry Mack. It really was one of the great turnaround stories any team had all season last season. And here they are running it back. They do bring back their, I would say their best player in line, the linebacker they have in Baron Hobson. Good player. They don't bring back a ton on the defense around him, but they do bring him back. He had like. I. One thing I do have to ask you is this A is this a Old Dominion linebacker tackle accounting situation? Because my man did get charged for, I believe it's 130 tackles last season.
- [02:50]
A
Yeah, you know, it's a fair question. And I think anytime we see enormous tackle totals in college football, we have to be diligent and look to see how many tackles are assists and if there's a lot of assists, how many of those assists were scored in home games? It's a good question just to be on the lookout for irregularities, but I think Baron Hobson checks out pretty reasonably. 138 total tackles, 72 assists, which is a lot, but not like a ridiculous amount. And he does come into this year looking to me like he's probably one of the best defense defensive players in the group of six. Also, if you go through the game by game for this player, you will notice, you know, some interesting things that do seem to include a generally higher assisted tackle total in home games than in away games. So you always wonder like, could it be an official scoring thing? But, but, and I was looking into this before the show, I don't think that this thing is like standard deviations away from what you would expect, normal tackling totals. And if you look at the assisted tackle leaderboards, which you have to do, I know this is a passion project of mine. You're actually not seeing a ton of Kennesaw near the top of that list. You only have one Kennesaw State player who's even in the top like hundred or so of the assisted tackle leaderboards. So we're saying this is a true honorable tackler. Baron Hobson for Kennesaw State.
- [04:22]
B
Hopefully this isn't brought up by Jerry Mack at a press conference in the future. Nor does the player in question medically retire, which is, I believe, what happened the last time. The bud here is the Ricky Collins thing. They, they sort of traded Syracuse for a quarterback. So let's see how that goes. Ricky Collins, former lsu, I think four star lsu, four star commit, went to Syracuse and is now at Kennesaw State. So there's the butt of that situation. Thorne is, you know, interior offensive line is gutted, as is the run game. Top leading rushers are not here. Mack though, should be able to get the latter part figured out, at least getting some, some good rushers on the roster. Jerry Mac's a running back coach by trade when he was a position coach.
- [05:11]
A
Jerry Mack is coming up in some people's lists. Richard of of G6 coaches who could get hired up this year. He did sign. He signed an extension with Kennesaw when they won the league last year. My read of that extension is that it's more of a just give him a raise to say good job for the interim, more than, you know, an actually prohibitive to hire him away type of deal. But he's going to be a name. He already is a name. And it makes sense given the turnaround that they had last season. I think without Amari Odom, the quarterback who really just had magic for them, particularly in close games last year, particularly in the Conference USA championship game at Jacksonville State, I think without him you're likely to see some fall off like I think Syracuse gets, as you would expect, probably got the better of that quarterback trade. Now these are also different kinds of players, like a Mario, more of a downhill runner, big body, multi dimensional quarterback for you than I'm expecting. Ricky Collins is going to be for the house.
- [06:14]
B
I think that's a fair assessment. I think that's fair. You're gonna get, I think you can expect to get more passing from Ricky relative. You can expect to get more passing from Ricky Collins. Ricky Collins is, is not, you're not necessarily putting the ball in his hands, you know, 12 times a game.
- [06:35]
A
Probably not. Last year Odom was 19 to eight touchdowns to picks and ran for seven touchdowns. Non sack wise he was like 400, 500 yards carrying the ball last year. So he was a legit dual threat. We'll see to what extent they can keep that up with Ricky Collins behind center this year. The team that they beat Richard in the Conference league championship game, the Jacksonville State Gamecocks. Richard, Jacksonville State is one of the most interesting programs in this league to me, maybe the most interesting. They've played three years in fbs. They've made it look drastically easier than it actually is. They have won exactly nine games three years running. They have in the middle of that won a Conference USA championship in their second year up in FBS and then lost Rich Rodriguez to West Virginia and just kept chugging with Charles Kelly last year. So they have way more proof of program identity concept, if you will, than you would think for a program that annually, like many sort of gets cleaned out. My rose is that to that point they still have some legit star power on this roster. Despite losing the star of the team, Cam Cook, the running back to West Virginia, where he goes and unites with Rich Rodriguez. The quarterback Kaden Creel is back. He's a fun running quarterback who is going to need a new battery mate with his running back on, but who they do what to my eye is a little bit of different stuff with in the offensive backfield. They like to play around with their formations with pre snap motions and put themselves in positions where maybe the quarterback is alone in the backfield with a wide receiver motioned out wide and they use a tight end to just bash someone on a counter run, things of that nature. They have done this under Richard Reguez, they have done this post Rich Rodriguez under Charles Kelly last year and I think Kaden Creel is one of the better bets to be a good returning quarterback in the G6. Defense has a couple stars. They got the leading TFL guy in the league, Max Sanders, the middle linebacker. Eleven and a half of those last year, he's back. And they have a cornerback, Treekwon Feigens, who is the rare fourth school guy in the G6 who seems like he was actually just a big win. This was a guy who did Alabama, usc, ucf, never quite stuck. Came here last year, was a lockdown corner, also aggressive as a blitzer, crasher down to tackle. So he's a good player. The thorn is kind of a continuity question. Despite that star power, it's not just the Cam Cook is gone. They lost their offensive coordinator, Clint Trickett who went to Arkansas. We're going to have to see how much of that program identity about just running the ball with a fun option run game is just in the walls and can go from coach to coach and coordinator to coordinator. Last year they kept it together. They had all that turnover, they still won a bunch of one score games. They made it work. This year they have an internal promotion, Taylor Houseright, who has been their tight ends coach, his background is with the Montana State offenses. Not of their title winning year but of a handful of years before that where they made some deep runs in the FCS playoffs and they had a dual quarterback system where they had a couple of runners, Tommy Malot being one who you might remember. And so if you're trying to carry forward a violent downhill quarterback run game, I think this is an interesting promotion. An interesting guy to run this offense that has kind of passed from Rich Rodriguez to Trickett to now this guy, my bud is that they have a 68 wide receiver, DeAndre Johnson, who from Hallow weekend on last year was the number two receiver by yardage in college football. Only behind the guy from North Texas, Wyatt Young and directly ahead of Malka, Tony Jeremiah Smith, Charlie Becker like sized like an NBA small forward and just dominated November, late October, November into their bowl. Very interesting player. Deandre Johnson Is the name. You really can't miss him because he is 6 foot 8.
- [10:33]
B
Yeah, that'll work. All right. Onwards to Western Kentucky. The thing with Western Kentucky is you pretty much know what you're getting from the passing game always. And I like that. I delight in that. It. They weren't exactly. They haven't exactly shot the lights out probably the last like year or two, but I think you can say floor of the passing game good enough to count on. That's kind of always my rose there, however offensive line might be, is so gutted that we might be in a like a run for your life scenario here with whatever they're going to have behind center. Let's wait and see here. My bud is one of my biggest buds, I think potentially in this league is who they bring in at wide receivers. Josiah Rockwell. He is a transfer from Prairie View. He was a bucket last year, like 1200 yards receiving last year for a good Prairie View team. And it's a team that we bring up pretty often on the show as a lower level team to kind of look out for. They've got a really, really sharp head coach down there. Rockwell comes up in this system and they have produced wide receivers that can go for the last couple years. I mean, the last few years it was a situation where you could. You were taking Western Kentucky receivers and sort of moving them up, move them on. And so he. I think he's up next. So let's see. The thorn on this is they were one of the great red zone defenses in the country last year. When you dig into it, they were, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben. And then you get inside the 20s and you just didn't really score on them. So can they replicate that? Can you do that again? Is the challenge and the charge.
- [12:22]
A
Yeah, the WKU wide receiver factory is a very real thing. And it's. It's been going on for like three, four years there. They have proof of program development in that area. Are you up on the thing that they're accused of doing right now with one of their now former players? Have you been following this story?
- [12:39]
B
Yeah, it's a lawsuit situation. My colleague Chris Hummer has been all over it.
- [12:43]
A
Yeah, your colleague at CBS Sports, Chris Hummer, has been all over this one. WKU is accused by a former player, Victory Vaca, of some really reprehensible gross shit. They have a player, his mother died. He spent extensive time away from the program over the off season, grieving. He says to your colleague, Chris Hummer, with the knowledge of the program and the approval to be away from the team to do this. He says he gets a text one day asking where he is. He's not there. Shortly thereafter, the school says he's not present. They take away a scholarship. They do this at a time of the year, he says, where he cannot get into the transfer portal and cannot continue his college career. WKU has not said a lot about this. The AD Todd Stewart said that it was an ongoing matter and said, and I'll quote here, nobody looks after their student athletes any harder than we do. I hope that's true. I'd be very interested to hear more about their actions here and what they're going to say because this is now a legal matter. There's been a legal filing made by the player. He retained one of the big college sports lawyers to do this.
- [13:50]
B
I think it was.
- [13:52]
A
It was Darren Heitner. Correct. I'd like to learn more about what happened here. I think that it's a really reprehensible charge and I would just like to hear more from Western Kentucky, which has been, including with your colleague Chris, has been pretty quiet, has not made Tyson Helton available. Talk about it. Has tried to keep it very quiet. Let's see where that goes. It's going to be a subplot that's going to follow them around over the course of this season. Richard, take us to Missouri State, which is under new management this year.
- [14:21]
B
Yeah, Casey woods. There's a dog that caught the car situation here with Casey Woods. So let's see what happens when that actually happens. Obviously. Ryan Beard, onwards to Coastal Carolina after bringing this team up and honestly quitting themselves. Quite nice. You know, it's one of those situations where we talk about that like it's hard to come up to FCS and it is hard to come up to fbs like it actually is. I think Sacramento State may show you how hard that is this season, but that's a Mac preview thing, which is just a wild sentence to say. But Missouri State came up last year, made a bowl game, acquitted themselves quite fine and okay, here we go. Under new management. Now this, the bud here is a. It's a long shot and it's a deep bud. It was a long, long, long time ago, but four star Dylan Brooks on defense is here. Auburn fans may recall the name. He started at Auburn, went to Kansas, had two years lost to a knee injury or at least one of them to an injury. He had two years lost to injury. I should say this is deep. CUSA flyer on a player who you hope you can get something out of it is. It is a. If they can get something out of him and even if he bounces back up next year, I think it's. It's the upshot of the transfer portal. It's like this is what it's here for of the transfer portal. If it works. If it doesn't, you know, it's unfortunate and there's the breaks and you know, it's a violent sport and that sucks. But I do see what Missouri State is playing at here in taking a flyer on the player.
- [16:04]
A
Yeah, this is. I don't think he can bounce back up because this is. He started his college career in 2021 to your point of way back.
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B
He's not going to get a five for five. Okay.
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A
I mean we, we never know these days, now do we?
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B
But we never do.
- [16:17]
A
Yeah, it's. It's been a minute for him in college football. So I would think this to be a last raw for him. Dog Dakota Car is an interesting way to think about this because this conference is rife with very quick up, very quick down FCs to FBs success stories that become distress stories or vice versa. This comes up with multiple other teams. We talked about how awful Kennesaw was when they came up and then they go ahead and win the league last year. Uh, Sam Houston is going to come up later in this as a program that's done a double digit win season and also been just terrible in two years out of the three that they've been here. So for school like Missouri State, I think the thing that you would really hope for this year under new management is just maintain a level of competence, maintain a decent level and try not to ride the roller coaster in the same way that so many of your peers have since they have come up to this level. Richard, I want to say thank you to our partners at home field who are planning right now for what is going to be a really busy, really exciting series of things that they're going to offer to people over the course of the college football season. Homefield has been with us from the very beginning, which means that this is our seventh year together doing it with our friends at home field. You can find out more@homefieldapparel.com follow Home Field at their socials. The latest drops that I'm aware of are that there are bucket hats now available on the website. There are game flow hats, which kind of this mesh section that keeps a cooler head during these hot times of the year. You can find all of it at home food, apparel.com and we appreciate them very much for all their support of the show over so many years. Richard, let's go to Miami, my favorite city and yours as well. The Florida International University Golden Panthers, I believe. Now just the Panthers. My rose is that, have you noticed just a different aura, a different vibe, a different way of doing business around this program in the last year or so?
- [18:18]
B
No, I mean, are they better with Willie Simmons? Yes, but overall I would. And the Pitbull thing, yes, they have done what they. They have done some things to get into the broader zeitgeist. Wasn't there like a discrepancy with if people had been paid or not or like some situation there? I don't know how that resolved itself
- [18:39]
A
beyond my pay grade to know that information, of course.
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B
But yes, they have come up and they've said, look, we're going to be something of a change agent. We are going to try to do some wacky stuff, some fucking stuff to get. And it's like, guys, they've done it, to be honest with you. And the other thing they've done is for the most part played about the best football they have ever had since Mario Cristobal was there.
- [19:05]
A
It is unclear that there has been any issue with Pitbull and stadium payments. What I'm seeing here is that there's been at least one of the verified X accounts that has no real substantive reporting background seems to have talked about this. But let's be on the lookout for any issues that might come up with Pitbull in the stadium. What I'm talking about when I talk
- [19:28]
B
about also, for God's sakes, call it Twitter. Jesus Christ.
- [19:34]
A
Absolutely, we'll call it Twitter. What I have noticed with FIU in the last year is that they went 7 and 6, which is nice, but they went 40 down the stretch in the regular season, including wins over Liberty and Jacksonville State. They won a game against fau who really has their number. That's their sister program. They did it with a Floridian head coach, albeit not South Florida. Willie Simmons is from Tallahassee. They did it with a local quarterback, Keon Jenkins, who is now at ucf. But still, that's going to be the breaks in a job like this. And they have been pretty intentional about having showcase opportunities for their few stars who are in or have been in the NFL, bringing them back to the spring game, doing things that normal college football programs do to build excitement around the team. So that's like Ty Hilton, Johnnu Smith, Tys from Miami and just trying to connect with what little history they do have and make themselves feel like less of a floating artifact and more of a group of six program based in Miami that has some geographic advantages that it can try to tap into even with other things working against it. And how long will that last? No clue. Could be very brief. But we saw it at FAU under Lane Kiffin that when things get going in one of these jobs, and particularly in Conference usa, you can be upwardly mobile pretty quick, especially if you're in South Florida and maybe Willie Simmons is onto something like that here.
- [21:00]
B
Oh also sorry Butch. Butch Davis erasure for me that one year I think they won nine games.
- [21:06]
A
Yeah, they've had Bush, Davis, they've had Braun, Turner, they had Mike McIntyre for some reason doing this job for a minute. Ever since Mario Cristobal it's sort of been been one oddity after another and sometimes, sometimes been like confrontational between coaches and administration in this job. You'll remember Butch Davis really had it out with fiu's administration in his last year on that job, feeling like the program wasn't supported to his liking. Thorne so I mentioned that they won all those games last year with that quarterback. He's at UCF now. In fact the entire offense is gone now. So five starting linemen gone, running back Kejon Owens gone. Their best wide receiver Alex Perry. Big numbers all gone. And this was the number 124 defense by SP plus last year. So everything that I just talked about it is very cool from a vibe Z perspective and local cultural perspective. Trying to build something at fiu. Love it, applaud it. Great. This team is probably going to be terrible because of the losses and what is still a long term track record that suggests difficulty. But my bud is that they are doing things that make sense to try to backfill it. They have a 1000 yard FCS receiver, another one, Greg Gaines up from Rhode Island. Their quarterback is probably going to be JJ Cole who is a former four star who's bounced around a bunch. He was at App State last year, did not work out. Can't claim to be that optimistic, but it's an idea and defensively it's probably only uphill from here, which gives you something. It would be hard to be much worse than they were last year. They had some really ugly losses where they gave up 38, 51 45. Could have been a team with even a decent a passable defense that would have won maybe nine games last year and it didn't go that way they have a decent number of guys on this roster who are of the like power conference recruit who was from the area who eventually came back to be closer to home variety. That's like the surest path to long term decent play for this program is to. Is to be a destination like that. They got Jojo Stone who's a former blue chip receiver we talked about in the preview last year. He's their slot guy guy. He's interesting. So I'm expecting a worse FIU this year but seeing something that suggests there might be a long term build happening that's more than what they've had in the past. Little pessimism with your optimism, Richard.
- [23:32]
B
That's, that's how I love my optimism to be served. Typically Delaware to the blue hands the offensive line and the QB intact here. Like the quarterback might be like we're talking about player of the year status with Minicucci and I am interested in that because that defense was not any good this year. So it's a situation of is Delaware going to be a. The fun watch your fun watch here. Nick Minicucci, this guy threw for 3,600 yards, can run a little bit like dangerous enough to like scramble out and get you a little something something. Not exactly gonna. Gonna run your running game through that. So. Okay. But he is gonna be I think the thing you are tuning into this defense to this team to watch. Excuse me, because you ain't turning. Tuning in to watch the defense. It's kind of hard for that defense to be worse.
- [24:35]
A
They are in the top 25 nationally, 25th to be exact, and tops in this conference in returning production. We did the off season show with our friend Bill Connolly, the proprietor of Returning Production where we talked about how impossible it is for G6 teams to have continuity at any material level. They are one of the only exceptions this year to have most of their key pieces led by the quarterback Nick Minicucci back. I agree with you that there's not a ton to be excited about from a defensive perspective. They were, they are projected 1 25th on that side of the ball. But if you have a quarterback who's going to be getting buckets all season then that could take you pretty far in Conference usa.
- [25:22]
B
Yeah, Sean Wilson is back on. This team is about a 900 yard receiver last year as a freshman. But again it's kind of gutted out there. Last year I have it pulled up. They were 126th in SP+ defense last year, so. And they didn't bring in a ton or excuse me, they did bring in a ton of transfers, but it's like you go position by position group and okay, defensive line, not a ton of guys, linebacker, not a ton of guys. But back end, they brought in like three guys on the back end and then they brought guys back. So I think they're just throwing stuff at the wall on the back end of that defense, which when you're as bad as you are, I get it.
- [26:03]
A
Their head coach Ryan Carty has been there for four years and won. Granted this is across levels like only one year in FPS, but this dude has won almost twice as many games as he's lost. He's 33 and 17 and has done one of the more understated turnaround jobs of any coach in at this level in the past handful of years. I think this was a bill number. They had been basically 500 for a full decade before he got there. A couple games over they were 58 and 53 for 10 years before this guy comes in and he comes here and you know they win enough to feel comfortable jumping up to FBS and then play competitively in their first year in FBS as well. Nice program, doing a good job. Wonder if that's a name that we might hear more of in carousel season next year though we have not heard much about him at least for FBS jobs in the past couple of cycles. Richard, I also want to say thank you to our partners at Nokian Tires. Nokian is the inventor of the winter tire and we talk an awful lot as the season gets going about how when the roads are rough, when there's snow, when there's cold rain, when things are wet and difficult on the road, that Nokian really shines. But honestly, Nokian shines year round. This is a road trippy time of the year. I know a lot of you listening to the show are probably doing so right now on long summer drives, taking your family, yourselves, your friends somewhere else to go and have a couple of relaxing days doing that on the road. Nokian Tires can help you do that. Nokian focuses on not just performance and durability, but also making their tires in as sustainable way as possible and making many of them right here in the United States at their factory in Dayton, Tennessee. So we want to say thank you to Nokian Tires back for a fifth year with Split Zone Duo, which is amazing. If you are in the tire market, recommend that you would ask your tire dealer about Nokian Tires. Richard, you just got a new set of Nokians for your own ride Correct. Do you have a car in the city these days?
- [27:54]
B
Yes. Access to a vehicle in the city? Indeed. Nokians are back. A new. A new set. Not a new pair, a new set after a little flat tire situation. But we're moving good on a new set of Nokians now. We're feeling good.
- [28:10]
A
Amazing. Thank you very much to our friends at Nokian Tires. And watch those potholes. I know there's a lot of those in New York City, so I've read. Richard, talk about Liberty. Do you remember what Liberty's record was in this conference last year in this sport last year?
- [28:27]
B
I remember it being not great and I remember that being honestly pretty unacceptable.
- [28:34]
A
Yeah. Liberty went 4 and 8 in this gig in this, in this league last year. Jamie Chadwell, in his third year in the gig, I meant to say, has gone from 13 and one in the first year where they played in a New Year's bowl game, lost to Oregon in the last year of the 14 playoff to 8 and 4 in the Bahamas bowl to 4 and 8. So you can sort of identify the trajectory. They're not going in a very good direction. My bud for this team is that they have some interesting running back pickups. They have a running back now, Kanye Udo, formerly of army and then Arizona State, which, like, what a college experience this guy's had to go from West Point to Arizona State to Liberty.
- [29:21]
B
I would read a cultural, absolute cultural whipsaw there.
- [29:25]
A
I would read a memoir from this guy on what his last four years of his life have been like. They also added Cam Davis, who was a blue chip Florida State signee a couple years back. This is all necessary. And they have two or three other running back transfers in the room as well because their last, their last running back, like the star of their team last year, the running back Evan Dickens has transferred to Boston College. He was previously a Georgia Tech guy, but he was like something that went well for that team last year when things were not going very well in general. He's a bc, so they got the cavalry in to try to replace him at running back. That's an interesting bud Rose wise. I do think that just the structure of things kind of points toward a rebound. They have a kind of like grab bag of former P4 quarterbacks, which, you know, doesn't excite me that much. But there's Jalen Henderson from West Virginia, desean Purdy from Wake Forest, and then Ethan Vasco, who most recently was at Coastal with Jamie Chadwell but previously was at Kansas. All in this room. I think Vasco is probably the guy that they would prefer to be the quarterback. But they have a number of guys who have played and could play for them. And I don't think that Jamie Chadwell like forgot between 2020 and 2021 and 2 and now how to design a run game. My inclination is that he still remembers how to do that. If they get the program build and the roster right and they got 40% or sorry, four out of five, 80% of their offensive lineback, they have this kind of gaggle of running backs, a couple of whom are probably going to work out and they scheduled JMU in week one and they're probably going to get crunched in that game. But after that, the way the Conference USA schedule works out for them and the non conference works out, it's pretty easy to imagine this team at least doubling the win total from the 4 and 8 collapse last year and you know, 9, 10 not being a ridiculous place to imagine where Liberty would go. I think that despite everything, because they have so much money, I'd probably still pick them to be the best team in this league if I had to pick one.
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B
I mean the one thing that I
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A
think is Western Kentucky, Jacksonville State may be better long term bets recently, but they still have Liberty has the financial advantage. At least we think they do. They're a private school, so we have certain things that we don't have visibility into, but they have money in a way that most of this conference does not.
- [31:52]
B
I just think the one silver lining on it is just so many of those were one score games, especially November. There's a whole lot of one score games on that thing. And so yes, you can very easily talk stuff into. All right, let's spin the other way.
- [32:04]
A
Yeah, they had a succession of really brutal losses last year. I actually do think that they are in a weird spot right now, institutionally. I sort of feel like they got everything they wanted as a university and the price they had to pay was to have a football season like last year. Like you got the Supreme Court, you got the government, and there's actually a, I think a reasonable question about what it means for Liberty when the dog catches the car, to use a term that you just used a couple years ago. I was talking about this with a couple of our wise sports business friends recently. Liberty as a school, like their hard times historically have been when Christian nationalism has sort of reigned in our politics, or at least when conservatism at a high level has reigned in our politics. Their first really big surge was under Reagan, but Then when Reagan left, Jerry Falwell Sr. Was like, mission accomplished and we've done our job. And the university had some debt problems, some problems meeting payroll. They revived when Clinton came into office. They actually did incredibly well when Obama was in office because of some of the policies that the Education department put into place about for profit colleges and nonprofit colleges and establishing rules around gainful employment and around which colleges could be recipients of students that were taking on a lot of federal aid. And so now Liberty is like this massive school that it's kind of an online degree mill, just has more students than ever, more money flowing in than ever. But like, what do you do when you're not. When you don't actually have anything to like, fight against culturally, you still fight against stuff.
- [33:50]
B
Culturally. That's exactly what you do. You continue to fight against stuff. Culturally, you find other stuff.
- [33:56]
A
Yeah, that's the idea. But I think the. Like, how much do you hear about Liberty University in the last year?
- [34:04]
B
Not a ton, though some of that pretty historically, some of that is because the football team isn't any good.
- [34:10]
A
The boom times for Liberty have been when the libs have been controlling the federal government of the United States, business wise. And we got a question on a mailbag this week that kind of made me think about this because people were asking, or one of our subscribers asked, like, is Miami's football success attributable to hospital dollars that came in during COVID And my thought was, no, probably not. But when we talk about Liberty having so much more money than their peers, I feel like Liberty has more money when they're like standing as the last bulwark for western civilization, so to speak. Right now they're pretty good. So maybe this is, maybe this is the price Liberty has to pay. Richard. Maybe they're gonna go 5 and 7 forever until. Until President Buttigieg or whoever ushers in a new golden age of Liberty football.
- [34:57]
B
Please. No, I don't. I think that Liberty positions themselves as counterculture. Yeah, totally. The bonafides are there, but it's more the degree mill stuff. Like you boom with Arizona State's the same thing. Like it's the degree mill stuff that. You know, Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon University, there are certainly others. But the degree mill stuff is, is the, the, the future that I'm interested in how that continues.
- [35:27]
A
Yeah, Obama made Liberty. It's true with some of the higher ed policies that the administration put into place and Arizona State and Grand Canyon and all of these that are these massive online degree clearinghouses. Now it's Just is what it is. So maybe they'll retire his jersey for him or invite him to campus sometime in the future. But they should be better this year. They should. If they're not, I think I'm going to go full bore on Liberty. Can only be good when they're counterculture and not when they're dominating the culture.
- [35:57]
B
Middle Tennessee, Richard, with middle. I just don't know what we're doing here. This is third year, year three. Excuse me. I should say, of the Derek Mason Experience, 3 and 9 the last couple years, Roman Gagliano is a bud. He is at least mobile and fun at quarterback. So I. Okay, I will say there's your bud. They were also, and I'm squinting pretty hard at this one, or to make this one, to pick this one out. They were legitimately not bad against the run. So if, like, what is it that Derek Mason does here? Situation here. Okay. They were not terrible against the run. Other than that, I don't really know. Some interesting transfers.
- [36:52]
A
We're about done here, aren't we?
- [36:53]
B
Yeah, I just. I. I don't know, man. I don't know. They have a running back, sophomore running back that they're bringing back. D.J. taylor, he was. It didn't get a ton of carries, but in what he got, made the most of it. So there's something there. I. Maybe there's some explosive plays to be had in this offense, but I don't know, man.
- [37:16]
A
You're.
- [37:17]
B
You're squinting at it with this team. You just are.
- [37:22]
A
It's hard to summon anything to be excited about here.
- [37:26]
B
Yeah, I mean, it's. It's. They were how many? They were 135th out of 136. No, no, sorry. 135th out of 138 in Bill's preseason projections. So it's.
- [37:40]
A
It's just probably going to be bad. Yeah. Does any of this make you rethink moving on from Rick Stock? Still, it doesn't for me because I feel like that was so stale that it was time anyway. I think it's more a college sports economic story here, but this looks like it's juiceless and useless for Derek Mason here through two years. I like. I don't know why he did this.
- [38:05]
B
Yeah, I would. I would tend to agree with that assessment of the situation. Yes.
- [38:11]
A
Lake House man, it's not always so bad. He's a defensive coach, so I assume Lake rather than beach moving forward in this league. I have New Mexico State for my Rosebud Thorn presentation. They were 4 and 8 last year that included a handful of really close losses, including an overtime loss to Missouri State. Could have probably should have been bowl eligible without a lot going differently. But you are your record. Tony Sanchez is the coach. Do you remember him? He's the former UNLV head coach from before UNLV had any money and is basically a guy who just takes really hard jobs. The rose here. This is interesting. Maybe the most interesting rose that I'll do in this episode. I think the money might be coming in a little bit for New Mexico State. There was a really interesting story by Sean Reader of the Albuquerque Journal did a report off of CUSA Media days that I'm going to borrow from for just a few bullet points here you got Tony Sanchez saying that they are now quote in the fight on Rev Share says that a year ago the conversations were hard because we just did not have the ability to keep those guys home. This year we're keeping guys. Says the lack of being involved as in Rev Share has really hindered us the last couple years. Says you're going to lose some top end guys but they were in a problem where they were losing guys to teams that are in their weight class that they play regularly. And even more specific than that, the AD Joe Fields for New Mexico State said that they were dead last in the conference in Rev Share last year. Pretty explicit. But now thinks they're going to be in the top half of the league
- [39:38]
B
dead last in cusa.
- [39:41]
A
I mean, I mean that's like could be the poorest in FBS is kind of what we're talking about at that point. You might be, you might have the
- [39:48]
B
least money in FBS that are bottom barrel Mac. I mean that has got to be
- [39:53]
A
so they said they their belief is that they were dead last in CUSA last year. That's. That's what they say. And they now think that they're going to be in the top half of the league. You can also see on the roster some supporting evidence for the idea that they have more money now because they have particularly on defense, six starters back, including a lot of guys who filled the stat sheet at various levels of that defense. So that's something for New Mexico State. My bud is that they have a lower level FCS transfer quarterback up. The last time that you'll remember a lower level transfer up quarterback for New Mexico State was Juan Diego Pavia a couple years ago. He came from junior college, not fcs. But the quarterback this year is going to be Trey Hedden who was a productive FCS quarterback At Furman did some big numbers in the SoCon. Not a runner very much a drop back and let it rip sort of guy. This is more interesting for me than any kind of P4 demotion or just oh like here's some dude who used to be the backup at Texas Tech coming in to be our quarterback for the year. I'm always more interested in someone who's played and who's played well and is getting a promotion level wise. So let's see. This is a quarterback situation that's worth monitoring that could give them more than they've gotten in the past couple of post Pavia years.
- [41:12]
B
Sure.
- [41:12]
A
My thorn is that I would say,
- [41:14]
B
I would say the difference between this Diego Pavia has to do with there was an apparatus around Diego Pavia that also got the best out of him and then moved up with him to the place he went. Correct. They took the whole band. Correct.
- [41:29]
A
Correct. Including Jerry Kill coaching. And yeah, I'm not, I'm not expecting that Trey Headen is going to go and beat. Well, I don't think they play Auburn this year. But to go and oh, they play Florida State. I don't expect that we're going to see Trey Head and beating Florida State in week one and then having a thing later in the year where he's like peeing on the practice facility turf somewhere. I'm not expecting a one to one in that regard. But they got something, man. They got some money up and down the roster and they have a quarterback who did numbers in fcs. And that's, that's two points of very legitimate intrigue for me with New Mexico State. My thorn is not really their fault or even really UTEP's fault. It's just circumstance because these teams are both in the realignment blender and they have to do what they can do. But UTEP left Conference USA this year. Remember, New Mexico State only arrived a couple of years ago, 3ish years ago to this league. So for a couple years, that rivalry game that they've played, The Battle of I10 was a conference game which was really cool. Now it is a nothing game. It is not being played. This is a historic rivalry that they've missed less than five times since World War II and it's just not going to be played this year. And if you look at the wide array of challenges that are facing programs like New Mexico State and utep, you know, declining fan support, difficult to get people invested in the program, none of those things seem helped by not having this game be played. Bill had it that New Mexico State's attendance is down 36% since the last Diego Pavia year, which was 2023. So you have that happening and then you take away one of their, probably their biggest game that they care about the most. It's just a bummer. I bet that this team would really like to be in the PAC 12 or the mountain west, and they are in neither. And we continue to lose recipes. I don't blame the schools on this one because I think they're just, they're just on whatever life rafts they can be on. I don't think any of these administrators set out to ruin rivalries here, but it does suck.
- [43:40]
B
Last but not. Well, I can't say not least because I do fear that it might actually be lease Sam Houston
- [43:48]
A
yet. Did you notice, Richard, that last year Sam Houston played in an MLS stadium the entire season?
- [43:55]
B
Yeah, because I watched. God, they had a weird one against. I want to say it was Jacksonville State, but I could be wrong. They had a weird one in that game and I was, I was watching the game on CBS Sports Network, great network by the way. And it was like kind of weird grass, nobody there type situation. And it was because they, I, I knew that they had had a hell of a time with the renovation the year before trying to get that figured out. And so yes, I do believe that was part of the deal.
- [44:27]
A
They had an extremely bizarre season last year. I think my rose coming in is that this will be a normal ish college football season for them. It was Phil Longo's first year. He comes in, they go 2 and 10. They had really the worst offense and defense by scoring in the league. They played their home games not on their own campus, not even that close to Huntsville. The very talented Mike Craven of Dave Campbell's Texas Football had a good story about this, which I read in print, by the way, in my copy of the magazine, which is always a treat to get in my mailbox each year this team traveled 19,000 miles. Last year, the only teams that traveled more in FBS air miles wise were Hawaii, which is Hawaii, and Stanford, which is an ACC team playing in the Bay Area. So that gives you a sense of
- [45:13]
B
how this should not happen in Texas.
- [45:17]
A
Well, it was a weird year and they're in there in a bizarre. I mean, they're not a, not a ridiculous geographic fit by any means for this conference, but they went and played some road games and they didn't. And they had to travel for home games too, remember?
- [45:31]
B
Yeah, yeah.
- [45:32]
A
So they, they just Had a bizarre season. Longo told Mike at Dave Campbell's that that had an effect on them. He used the word subdued. It subdued us, made it hard to get things going. That could be a B.S. excuse me. It could also be real. Now their stadium work is done, or at least done enough that they're back in there. It's year two, not year one with the staff and so they can at least tell a good story about how they were 3 and 9 their first year up in FBS. Then 10 and 3, then 2 and 10. So they're on a roller coaster and maybe the roller coaster is due to go back up this year and they'll have a bit of stability, at least geographically that they did not have last year. My bud is that they have maybe some quarterback stability. They definitely did not have it last year. They had three guys kind of passing it back and forth. The quarterback is going to be Landon Locke, who is a sophomore. He came in and played in November and played in both of started one of their only two wins of the year. Oregon State and Delaware had really ugly numbers. Like we're talking sub 50 completion rates both games. So there is work to do. But he was a true freshman. He was coming off an ACL tear in September of his senior year of high school. So this guy had not played football ever at this level or really competitively at all for a year. He had been a Wisconsin commit once upon a time. His brother Braden Locke, you might remember, was a quarterback at Wisconsin as well. Braden went into the portal. This guy after signing, went into the portal as well, wound up at Sam Houston and it's now his gig and he actually has all of his four top wide receivers back from last year. So that's something. This has been a problem for years for them where they have been unable to get one quarterback to stick the entire season largely because of injury. They have a guy who they are going to try to build around this year and who is the clear guy and that's helpful. Thorne. It's 2 and 10 team. It sucked at everything last year. The defense was abominable. The schedule is really tough to the way it's laid out. They have a road game at Troy which we don't know about. They have a home game against Tulsa that they could win. They play an FCS game, then it's like at Texas Tech at Liberty against a Western Kentucky team that's probably way better than them. So there's a pretty reasonable chance that they're going to start against FBS like 1 and 4, oh and 5. And just not be able to get out of the blocks. So you're going to have to take a bit of a long term view. Phil Lanka's whole thing, right. Is like Mr. Score points quick and they scored 18 points a game last year. I would say that if they don't up that by what, 50% this year gets like 27ish points a game, we could probably say that this is not working.
- [48:12]
B
Yeah. They also had, if I recall correctly, they're like best players. Offensive lineman, I think is out.
- [48:21]
A
Correct?
- [48:22]
B
Correct. If I recall correctly.
- [48:24]
A
So I can tell you specifically they had an offensive tackle, Colt Dieterich, who we talked about in the offseason vibe. Check who is going to play for Washington in the Big Ten. That's a very good point. I'm glad you brought it up. He's a very important part of Washington's whole like stop Demond Williams from getting sacked all the time thing that they're trying to do this year.
- [48:44]
B
Good idea.
- [48:45]
A
He comes from Sam Houston. Yeah. And so you have it like when you have a 2 in 10 team that loses a starting offensive tackle to a Big Ten program from Conference usa, that's a tough combination. That suggests you didn't have that many good players and the ones that you did are not still here.
- [48:59]
B
So I, you know, the thing that I noticed actually the player that we talked about earlier, Josiah Rockwell, I believe was at Sam Houston. At Sam Houston. And then went down, if I am looking at this right. Yeah, it was at Sam Houston. It looks like the year before, the year before Longo got there and then went down to Prairie View and is now back up.
- [49:30]
A
That's Sam Houston. I'm pretty worried about them and don't think this is going in a good direction, but at least they get to play in their own stadium this year. Richard, preseason superlatives for Conference USA. Now that we're through the 10, your split zone duo. Preseason dude of the year.
- [49:48]
B
Do the year. I'm gonna go minicucci. I just think they're gonna be. Look, they're gonna be in a lot of games, I would imagine with that defense where he's going to be allowed to shine. He will be putting his team on the back though.
- [50:01]
A
Yeah, he probably is going to be putting the team on the back. They have a. If, if I recall, and I don't have to recall because I have the schedule in front of me. They have a very interesting non con where they have an FCS game to start. They go and play Vanderbilt on the road and that's probably going to be what it's going to be. Then they have like a Coastal Carolina game that I think is an interesting measuring stick for them. Like are they better than a Sunbelt team with a new coach that has some pretty good recent history but hasn't been good recently? It hasn't been the immediate recent past. Then they have a trip to UVA the week after that. So retooled uva, that should handle them. But I think that's interesting. And then they play Liberty the week after that. So like four of their first five games are either guarantee game P4 road trips where maybe they could do something if Vanderbilt or UVA is not what we think. But then they have like legitimate interesting measuring sticks against Coastal and against Liberty. So by early October I think we're going to know if Delaware is a contender for this league or not. Even though they will have only played one game in the conference by that time. My offense due to the year is Kaden Creel, quarterback for Jacksonville State. Just really like watching him play football, like watching them play offense and my defense. Dude of the year. Also Jacksonville State. I expect that I'm going to eventually be picking them to win this league. When we do our prediction special before week one. I like Max Sanders again, the TFL leader in this league last year for Jack State comes back at middle linebacker coach who will not be here next year. Last year, Richard, you took Tyson Helton. That was a whiff. I took Sonny Cumby. That was a whiff. I've taken Sonny Cumby two years in a row and he has outlasted me both times. Sonny, congratulations. No, I'm not tripling down. Sonny, you're good. You have proven tougher than us here at Split Zone Duo. Who you got?
- [51:53]
B
I'm going to go with Derek Mason. Look, I know they don't have a ton of money there, but I just. If they're pulling another three and nine, I think we might be done here.
- [52:06]
A
I'm taking Jamie Chadwell because I think if Liberty goes six and six or something, you have to fire him. And if they go 10 and 2 or 11 and 1, which is also very possible, I would think he would have some chance of getting a look somewhere. Probably not as a like a P2 head coach or anything like that, but perhaps a very well paid coordinator or maybe there's a couple jobs in the ACC or Big 12 that would look at a Jamie Chadwell. Maybe. Even though he quite famously was not able to get the kind of bikes that he wanted when he was Coastal's head coach. So just because of the multiple possible paths to him leaving, I'm going to take Jamie Chadwell, Richard, the minority coach of the week of the year in an interesting schematic spot.
- [52:51]
B
Obviously certainly not an achievement award, not a pretender or a predictor of somatic success. Simply just taking a certain minority coach in a certain schematic spot and saying, huh, that's interesting. It's gotta be Derek Mason, I fear because like I said last year, again you squint at it and you're like okay, good enough against the run. Not really good at literally anything else. But schematically can we replicate at least that against the run? Maybe we've got a shot. Because every defensive coordinator who's or defensive minded head coach, I should say, who's pretty much ever taken to a sideline will tell you that he wants to stop the run first. And so yes, they were able to do that relatively able to do that last year.
- [53:40]
A
Richard, low key games of the year in this conference I want to highlight too. I've decided that this is Jacksonville State is my team in this league. This year they have an opener. Jacksonville State at North Dakota State in North Dakota State's first game as an FBS program will absolutely be paying close attention to that one. Largely on the North Dakota State side. But as you can probably tell from this preview, I'm interested in Jack State as well this year. And then October 7th on a Wednesday night with both teams off of bye they have the conference championship rematch at Kennesaw State might be the best Wednesday or Tuesday matchup that we're going to see all year and has significant conference championship ramifications here as well.
- [54:20]
B
When I originally did the the notes on this I forgot the FAU is not in this league again which I think I did last year. So I will not be taking the Shula ball but I will be taking a different FIU game when FAU plays Jack State. I think that all the things that you talked about Jack State and all the things that you talked about fiu if FIU is going to be if I was going to take a next step or what have you, I think a Jack State potential upset would be huge for them.
- [54:48]
A
I agree. I think they have real upside. So that is Conference USA. It is really refreshing to do a league with 10 teams. The projected order of finish by the way, if you're just interested in SP+ projections or win loss projections, but I'll choose the wins. Bill's numbers have Western Kentucky at the top this year, followed by Liberty narrowly, Jacksonville State, Kennesaw State, bit of a dip. FIU, DE, then a third tier, which is New Mexico State, Missouri State, seeing a fall off there, and then Sam Houston in middle at the bottom. I think the from the tenor of this preview, I think we arrived somewhat organically at Sam Houston and Middle Tennessee being appropriately rated at the bottom. I am really interested in both FIU and Delaware from that middle section because I think they could go up and I think they could go down, and those are the fun teams to watch. Richard, it's conference preview season. This was fun.
- [55:42]
B
We roll on about halfway through at this point in time, aren't we?
- [55:45]
A
I think this is five or six. Yeah, five or six. It's exciting to do these.