The College Football Survivor Show

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Team Kirby Smart vs. Team Lincoln Riley for the future of college football Jun 21, 2023

Show notes

What will the next decade of college football look like, and will it belong more to defensive head coaches like Georgia's Kirby Smart or offensive head coaches like USC's Lincoln Riley?

Last week on The College Football Survivor Show, Doug Lesmerises and Shehan Jeyarajah looked into the past and a 2017 playoff semifinal to examine Smart and Riley. Now, on this episode, they look to the future.

That includes analyzing whether Smart or Riley has the edge when it comes to geography, conference and resume. And that extends to a look at how many college head coaches come from the offensive side, how many come from the defensive side, and which one produces better bosses.

To figure that out, Shehan drafts seven defensive head coaches for Team Kirby, and Doug drafts seven offensive head coaches for Team Lincoln.

Which team do you like more? Thanks for listening to The College Football Survivor Show.

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Reliving the Georgia-Oklahoma playoff semifinal that changed college football Jun 14, 2023

Show notes

The Rose Bowl between No. 2 Oklahoma and No. 3 Georgia at the end of the 2017 season was maybe the best playoff game so far of this nine-year playoff era, as the Bulldogs rallied for a 54-48 win in double overtime.

But Doug Lesmerises and Shehan Jeyarajah didn't rewatch and relive this classic just for fun. This game featured Georgia's Kirby Smart in his second year as a head coach and Oklahoma's Lincoln Riley in his first year. Now six years later, Smart has two national titles at Georgia, Riley is entering his second year of his new job at USC, and this semifinal clearly showed us the future of the sport.

It also featured a boatload of talent, from Baker Mayfield to Roquan Smith, from Nick Chubb to CeeDee Lamb, from Sony Michel to Mark Andrews.

But most importantly, it featured two young head coaches on the rise. How have they evolved since then? What did they learn? What would have changed -- potentially in a major way -- if Oklahoma had won instead?

This game matters so much for now, and thanks for reliving it on The College Football Survivor Show.

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The 12-team playoff would have saved these BCS era college football teams Jun 08, 2023

Show notes

From Auburn to Kansas State, from Ohio State to Oklahoma State, from UCLA to Missouri, Doug Lesmerises and Shehan Jeyarajah are putting more teams into a 12-team playoff context on this episode of The College Football Survivor Show.

The BCS existed from 1998 to 2013, as polls and computers determined the top two teams that would meet for the national title, and Doug and Shehan are looking at which teams, coaches and conferences would have been aided by a structure that put 12 teams in the playoff.

There's a lot of Big 12 here, plus a discussion of the shift in the SEC, the underdogs who moved up, and the conferences that may have been affected. Doug and Shehan previously did this on another episode with the teams of the four-team playoff era, and now they've going back a little more into history.

Thanks for listening to The College Football Survivor Show.

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Ranking the 10 most important people in the College Football Playoff race Jun 06, 2023

Show notes

Which players and coaches will determine the four playoff teams and the national champion in the 2023 college football season? On this episode of The College Football Survivor Show, Doug Lesmerises and Shehan Jeyarajah list the people they think will matter most to the College Football Playoff race.

Coaches and players from teams like Georgia, Michigan, Alabama, Penn State, Ohio State, USC, Clemson, Texas, Florida State and Notre Dame fill the list.

Thanks for listening to The College Football Survivor Show.

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Fixing college football schedules, gambling issues, tampering and more as a conference commissioner Jun 02, 2023

Show notes

On this episode of The College Football Survivor Show, Doug Lesmerises and Shehan Jeyarajah are addressing all the major topics that were raised at the recent SEC meetings and doing what is best for college football. Listen to Commissioner Shehan and Deputy Doug on these topics:

Playing eight or nine conference games and what the SEC and other leagues should do
Injury reports and gambling
NIL rules as a conference
Transfer portal and tampering
Streaming services and TV contracts
Field storming

Thanks for listening to The College Football Survivor Show, and Commissioner Shehan is available to be interviewed if conferences are looking for a new boss.

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Is Alabama an under this season? College football over-unders May 30, 2023

Show notes

With a win total of 10.5, is Alabama a prime target for an under bet this season? Someone on this episode of The College Football Survivor Show thinks so as Doug Lesmerises and Shehan Jeyarajah run through their favorite potential win total bets of the offseason.

Discussed are teams like Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Washington, LSU, North Carolina State, Florida State, Illinois, Nebraska, Texas Tech, Iowa State, Baylor and more.

Plus, a discussion at the end about Jimmy Butler of the Miami Heat, sports culture and how it might apply to college football.

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The 17 recent teams a 12-team college football playoff would have saved May 26, 2023

Show notes

What teams from the nine years of the four-team College Football Playoff era would have been most helped -- or potentially drastically changed -- by a 12-team playoff?

Could a conference have been saved? Realignment prevented? A coaching career altered? New champions crowned? Other program peaks achieved?

On this edition of The College Football Survivor Show, Doug Lesmerises came up with a 1-10 ranking of the teams that would have been affected the most by a chance in a 12-team world in the last nine years. And then he assigned 17 different teams to those 10 spots. Shehan Jeyarajah had his own list of 15 teams and supplemented Doug's where needed.

From Georgia to Oregon, from TCU to Ohio State, from Tennessee to Stanford, Doug and Shehan give you the recent teams that needed a 12-team playoff the most.

Thanks for listening.

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College football's Forever Five and the QB plans shaping the playoff race May 24, 2023

Show notes

What's the ideal quarterback development path for a college football team with playoff aspirations? How is it different for teams at the top like Georgia, Alabama and Ohio State, and what's it like for programs just below them looking to make a leap, like Oregon, Washington, Notre Dame, LSU and Florida State?

On this episode of The College Football Survivor Show, a QB development issue posed by Shehan Jeyarajah led to a deep discussion with Doug Lesmerises about the history of College Football Playoff quarterbacks and what's shaping up this season.

There are five veteran quarterbacks ready to reshape the 2023 playoff race in a way that few veteran quarterbacks have.

From Georgia to Washington, from Baylor to LSU, from Michigan to Oregon, from Ohio State to Alabama, Doug and Shehan talk quarterback playoff plans on this College Football Survivor Show.

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Ranking College Football's 10 best coaches May 18, 2023

Show notes

From Nick Saban to Jim Harbaugh, from Kirby Smart to Lincoln Riley, it's time to rank the 10 best head coaches in college football on the latest College Football Survivor Show.

Doug Lesmerises and Shehan Jeyarajah each come in with their top 10 lists, and there is some disagreement, including a major ranking difference on one coach for a very specific reason.

Where is Clemson's Dabo Swinney after two playoff misses? How does Michigan's Jim Harbaugh compare to Ohio State's Ryan Day? Does Nick Saban deserve to still be No. 1 or not? And which Big 12 coach should slide in, which is a subject where Doug and Shehan disagree.

Thanks for listening to the College Football Survivor Show.

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Dylan Raiola and other young future stars of the 12-team College Football Playoff May 16, 2023

Show notes

Dylan Raiola, the No. 1 quarterback in the Class of 2024, committed to Georgia this week, and on this episode of The College Football Survivor Show, Doug Lesmerises and Shehan Jeyarajah look at what that means for the Bulldogs and the rest of college football.

Raiola won't play college football until 2024, the first year of the 12-team playoff, so Doug and Shehan use this chance to look at young college football players who should be playing in and impacting the 12-team playoff in 2024 and beyond.

That means the biggest talents and best fits among players about to enter their second college football seasons, their first seasons, and those in the Class of 2024 with another year of high school.

From playoff regulars like Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State and Michigan to teams ready to take advantage of the 12-team field like Penn State, UCLA, Tennessee, Oregon, and Miami, this is a discussion of young players who will define college football and the new playoff in a year of two.

Thanks for listening to The College Football Survivor Show.

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