CFB Newsletter: The Job, The Job, The Job
Our roundup of this week in college football and SZD in particular.
It’s Week 5, and several teams are already in disarray. UCLA, Virginia Tech, and now Oklahoma State are looking for new head coaches after an unprecedented Tuesday firing down in Stillwater.
These schools are going to have the most time to look into potential new coaches. But more importantly, they’ll have the time to be existential about the position: What’s expected of the incoming head coach as teams’ financial situations are in flux? Oklahoma State is the best example of this. As Richard pointed out this week, Mike Gundy was Oklahoma State. Does the program get an influx of money to rebuild its roster to try to keep up, or does it stay put?
Even programs that haven’t fired their coaches are looking inward. After all, did we expect Marcus Freeman to publicly critique his Notre Dame defense in Week 5? Lots of teams are wondering exactly who they are right now.
These are the types of questions we’re asking in a new series we’re calling The Job, where we examine an open head coaching role in detail and then tell you whether it’s a good job or not. We already have three episodes this season, and two of them arrived this week. These are subscriber specials!
Here’s what the SZD crew dropped into your podcast feeds this week
The Virginia Tech job is open after the Hokies fired Brent Pry. Because of that, we have the second episode of The Job, where Alex and Richard examine what makes this role special or difficult to take on.
The third episode of The Job is about Oklahoma State, Mike Gundy’s legacy, and everything the job entails for whoever becomes the next Guy After the Guy.
What happens when you fire a coach in season? Well, that’s when the interim steps in. Rodger Sherman, Alex, and Richard broke the interim coach role down into seven different personality types.
Rodger joined the gang for the Week 5 Tasting Menu. He even dropped some important news to Richard: Baylor has a Reggie Bush II who is not related to that Reggie Bush. who is also named Reggie Bush II. If you want to see the video version of that reaction, it should be on your preferred social platforms by the time you read this.
For the Main Course, we talked Penn State-Oregon, and there’s no better person to talk about the Nittany Lions than Audrey Snyder, who writes over at Inside the Lions. Here’s the video version of that segment:
Elsewhere in the college football world:
If you want more football that isn’t necessarily games, Alex reviewed Jordan Peele’s new football movie, Him, over at Slate.
Coaches are always looking at ways to get the most out of their roster and staff, which is why it only makes sense that some of them are exploring AI to do that. Richard talked to over a dozen people about how that’s changing the recruiting process for CBS Sports.
Richard also wrote about how Trinidad Chambliss bet on himself and went from Division II to starting quarterback for Ole Miss.
Oregon has so many uniform combinations. Creating them and having them ready for the season is its own job. Paolo Uggetti of ESPN talked to Kenny Farr, the man behind the process, to learn about what it actually takes to get the design from a sketchbook to fabric.
Thanks for reading, enjoy the games, and we’ll see you on Sunday for the Hurry-Up, presented by Dad Water. Expect that later in the afternoon this week.