SUBSCRIBER SPECIAL: More than a year after he first looked doomed to be fired, Billy Napier finally got the axe in Gainesville. After a day of making phone calls on this, Richard talks with Alex about the Gators’ big move:

* Napier had a solid plan for this job. Why didn’t it work?

* DJ Lagway’s 2025 season is a tale of how a head coach can get himself into REAL trouble with this one simple trick

* Florida AD Scott Stricklin has now missed on two head coach hires. Most SEC athletic directors don’t get a third attempt and would now be marginalized. But that might not happen here, for reasons Richard explains

* The Gators have had four disappointing (or just bad) head coaches in a row. Is this job still as good as it used to be? Yes, actually

* Jimmy Sexton’s manipulation of the national spotlight this weekend was a sight to behold. Sometimes you have to tip your caps to the greats

* An early trip through some names that you’ll see connected to the Gators

This is a subscriber episode. You can join for $10 a month at www.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe, or get a month free by signing up for the full year. If you subscribe, you’ll get lots more episodes from us (in season, subscribers often get four podcasts per week, rather than two) as well as Q&A opportunities and all of our coaching carousel shows.

Producer: Anthony Vito

Welcome to the Week 8 Sunday Hurry-Up, presented by Dad Water! Rodger Sherman joins Richard to share notes and observations on all the games that caught our eye this weekend, from Louisville’s upset of Miami on Friday (which Richard covered live) through the end of Saturday’s action. Producer: Anthony Vito.

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The latest episode of THE JOB, our subscriber series about the ins and outs of open college football coaching jobs, features four schools.

* Stanford: A once-great Pac-12 program has fallen like a rock as it’s transitioned to the ACC. But the Cardinal are amid a serious fundraising push, and this bad job could become a good job once again.

* Oregon State: No program in college football has had a harder past two years than the Beavers. What will be left for a new coach to take over, and is the athletic department’s financial house in order?

* UAB: This program had some good years after coming back from the dead, but the Blazers’ problems go a lot deeper than Trent Dilfer being a bad hire. What kind of coach makes sense? We have an idea.

* Kent State: Arguably the hardest job in FBS, full stop.

More podcasts for subscribers

* Why Kent State Is Always Bad, featuring guest Rodger Sherman

* All of our previous episodes of The Job, right here. With this episode, we’ve covered all nine current FBS openings. There are more to come.

* As mentioned in the show, here’s that Sportico report on Oregon State’s NIL setup.

Get all of this by becoming a paid subscriber today for $10 a month or $110 a year.

Producer: Anthony Vito