Offseason Vibe Checks 2025: CUSA

Split Zone Duo: College Football Podcast

Richard Johnson and Alex Kirshner

News, Sports, Sports News, Football

4.9 • 916 Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Alex Kirshner, Richard Johnson, and Dave Campbell’s Texas Football senior writer Mike Craven discuss the state of the offseason in Conference USA, a league that was spicier than most of us expected in 2024:

* Jacksonville State loses the braintrust behind a conference championship and will now be completely different

* WKU’s run as the cradle of coordinators continues

* FIU tries an ultra-Floridian approach

* Sam Houston restarts with Phil Longo, who has school ties

* Kennesaw State is just trying to be in less disarray

* Liberty overhauls in the portal as it looks to bounce back

* UTEP is quietly building something intriguing under Scotty Walden

* Middle Tennessee emerges from a Year Zero

* New Mexico State deals with broader athletic department turmoil

* Louisiana Tech continues to ride it out

* And the league soon adds a couple of new members, Delaware and Missouri State. We’ll get to them in season previews. It’s not time yet.

Meet the Offseason Vibe Check: It's not a 2024 recap, and it's not a 2025 preview. It's a check-in with every team in every FBS conference about what's been happening since Thanksgiving. How was the postseason? How was the coach carousel? How was signing day? How was the transfer portal window? And is anything else going on around your program?

Producer: Anthony Vito

Elsewhere in Offseason Vibe Checks

* SEC

* Sun Belt

* ACC

* Big 12

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.splitzoneduo.com/subscribe

Transcript

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0:00.0	We're coming, and we ain't backing down.
0:02.1	We don't need a bunch of cats in here looking in the mirror.
0:04.8	Everybody just do your job.
0:07.0	You understand that?
0:07.9	Hey, will you shut up?
0:08.9	I'm bitterly disappointed with the officiating today.
0:11.4	Guys being dudes, and they run through our like a shit through a ten horn, man.
0:16.6	Thank you, Lee.
0:17.9	Thank you to our listeners.
0:19.0	I'm Alex Kirshner here with Richard Johnson,
0:21.0	and welcoming back a great guest on this program, Mike Craven of Dave Campbell's Texas football.
0:25.8	We're going to talk about the offseason vibe situation in Conference USA.
0:29.8	Mike, how are you? Thanks for coming back on.
0:32.1	Doing good, guys. Appreciate you all having me back.
0:34.2	So Conference USA is in a transitional offseason. There are going to be some new members
0:40.2	in this school or in this conference this year. The University of Delaware comes aboard.
0:46.0	Missouri State comes aboard. Let's get them out of the way first. I think the vibe check for Delaware
0:52.7	and Missouri State is they're transitioning to FBS.
0:55.4	I am not going to even sniff trying to predict anything good happening for either of these teams
1:01.4	this year because it is really hard to come up from FCS to FBS. But yeah, they're not going to
1:07.1	actually be official members of the league until July. So they're still technically FCS programs for the time being.
1:12.9	We can quickly address them.
	...

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