The College Football Survivor Show

Latest Episodes:

The plan to make the 12-team playoff a monster success May 11, 2023

Show notes

How should the 12-team College Football Playoff be scheduled starting in 2024? How should it be discussed? How should it be branded and cultivated and built into a new huge part of sports calendar?

On this edition of The College Football Survivor Show, Doug Lesmerises and Shehan Jeyarajah are offering advice on that because they think college football needs the help.

How many games should be played around New Year's? What's a better name for the playoff? Should the entire college football schedule be moved up a week or not?

The new college football postseason has a chance to be spectacular -- but the sport has to make it happen. This is the plan to do that.

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Ranking the top five college football teams coming out of the spring May 09, 2023

Show notes

On this College Football Survivor Show, Shehan Jeyarajah is back to join Doug Lesmerises as they look at everything they've learned from spring football.

The assignment of this episode is to rank the top five teams coming out of spring, not based on schedule or conference or playoff path, but just based on how teams looked and what questions they answered or still have lingering coming out of spring.

Doug and Shehan offer their rankings in the second half of the pod. The first half includes a deep look, which they haven't yet done on the pod this spring, at a team in the running for the No. 1 spot. That's Michigan, and Aaron McMann of MLive.com joins Doug to dig in deep on the Wolverines, who did their spring football early and are more than five weeks removed from their spring game.

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Oregon and Notre Dame, united by veteran QBs, in position for playoff runs May 04, 2023

Show notes

The Oregon Ducks and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are on this latest edition of The College Football Survivor Show as Doug Lesmerises checks in with two more teams after spring football.

Both teams make sense on this pod because they are led by veteran transfer quarterbacks -- Bo Nix at Oregon and Sam Hartman at Notre Dame -- looking to elevate winning programs.

James Crepea of OregonLive.com joins Doug to talk about the Ducks, with Nix back for the second year as a starter after his transfer from Auburn.

Then Eric Hansen of InsideNDSports.com joins Doug to talk about the Fighting Irish, who landed Hartman from Wake Forest this offseason and saw two other quarterbacks leave as a result.

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A last gasp for weak divisions in a changing college football playoff world May 02, 2023

Show notes

The Big Ten West is entering its final season as we know it before USC and UCLA join the Big Ten in 2024 and change the conference and college football.

With the ACC Coastal and Pac-12 South already gone as weaker college football divisions, and with Georgia strengthening the SEC East, the Big Ten West this season is the last of a dying breed -- a weak division that has a chance to give the winner a backdoor to a college football playoff berth.

On this episode, Doug Lesmerises lays out that case, and then talks to three experts about three programs in transition in the Big Ten West:

Colten Bartholomew on Wisconsin
Zack Carpenter on Nebraska
John Steppe on Iowa

Where are the Badgers and Cornhuskers (with new head coaches) and the Hawkeyes (maybe with a head coach on the way out) right now heading into the 2023 season after spring football?

And where will those programs be once the Big Ten changes in 2024?

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Can Deion Sanders purge Colorado into an eventual contender? Plus Oregon State and Washington Apr 27, 2023

Show notes

On this College Football Survivor Show, Doug Lesmerises is joined by two guests to talk Colorado, Oregon State and Washington in the Pac-12.

First, Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.com joins Doug to discuss the massive turnover at Colorado under new coach Deion Sanders. Adam visited Boulder for a story earlier this year and has a view on the nearly 50 transfers to leave Colorado since Sanders took over. New talent is coming in, but what's the take on how Colorado is going about it, and how soon it might make the Buffs more competitive?

Then Nick Daschel of Oregonlive.com joins to talk about the Oregon State Beavers, coming off a 10-win season, and whether they can compete for a Pac-12 title and a playoff spot. What will new QB D.J. Uiagalelei bring to Corvallis?

Finally, Adam comes back to talk about Washington, an 11-win team a year ago that brings back quarterback Michael Penix and two 1,000-yard receivers. If the defense is better, and it should be, can the Huskies make a real playoff run?

Thanks to Adam and Nick, and thanks for listening to The College Football Survivor Show.

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Alabama's QB search, Nick Saban's last stand, plus some LSU Apr 26, 2023

Show notes

On this episode of The College Football Survivor Show, the journey through spring football continues. For this show, that means two teams --- Alabama and LSU.

To do that, Doug Lesmerises is joined by Mike Rodak of AL.com to run through Alabama's spring game from top to bottom, starting with a QB battle that was uncertain enough to potentially lead the Crimson Tide toward bringing in another quarterback. Mike and Doug talk through all that, plus offensive playmakers and how good the defense might be in Tuscaloosa.

Then Doug checks in on LSU's spring game, where the Tigers looked once against like a real threat to Alabama in the SEC West, led by veteran quarterback Jayden Daniels and a talented receiver room.

Finally, Doug and Mike wrap it up with Nick Saban's views of Georgia taking Alabama's culture, and Saban rising up to take it back. The best coach in college football history isn't giving up his perch atop the sport without a fight.

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USC, Penn State, Tennessee and Florida State after spring football -- Which looked like a playoff team? Apr 21, 2023

Show notes

Four more college powerhouses are up on this edition of The College Football Survivor Show, as Doug Lesmerises and Shehan Jeyarajah talk about how USC, Penn State, Tennessee and Florida State looked in their spring football games, and what shape they are in coming out of spring football.

First up (0:30) is USC, which has an explosive passing game and a new-look defense heavy on transfers.

Then (26:03) it's Penn State, as the Nittany Lions have a high floor, and a quarterback situation with potential, but that needs experience.

Up next is Tennessee (42:20), which made a few wow plays in its spring game but may be a year away.

Finally, it's Florida State (52:57) which looked pretty darn impressive.

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Georgia vs. Ohio State in spring football; plus Texas and Clemson 5-star QBs Apr 19, 2023

Show notes

A load of College Football Playoff contenders played their spring football games this past Saturday, and Doug Lesmerises and Shehan Jeyarajah are here to run through four of them: Georgia, Ohio State, Texas and Clemson. Expect four more teams to be discussed on the second episode this week.

For now, the guys start (0:30) with the transfer of Georgia defensive tackle Bear Alexander and whether Doug mistakenly willed it to happen.

Then (9:30) it's a comparison of Georgia and Ohio State this spring, how their quarterback battles looked in their spring games, and how their defenses match up.

Then (32:33) it's Texas, quarterback Quinn Ewers, and the offense that might be coming together for third-year head coach Steve Sarkisian.

Finally (46:36) it's Clemson, quarterback Cade Klubnik, an interesting run game and a freshman defensive lineman to watch.

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Six college football megatrades for playoff contenders Apr 14, 2023

Show notes

Recruiting is like the draft and the transfer portal in like free agency -- and beyond that, college football is becoming more like the NFL in a lot of other ways.

But there still aren't trades. And everyone loves trades in sports.

On this edition of The College Football Survivor Show, Doug Lesmerises and Shehan Jeyarajah come up with six trades they wish could be made in college football. They're trading defense for quarterbacks, trading receivers for running backs, and trying to add dynamic talent to some of the best teams in the country.

It's a fun exercise, and thanks for listening to The College Football Survivor Show.

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How college football playoff contenders should, and do, use the transfer portal Apr 12, 2023

Show notes

How should college football powerhouses like Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, Michigan, Florida State, Clemson, Oregon and more use the transfer portal? That's what Doug Lesmerises and Shehan Jeyarajah discuss on the latest episode of The College Football Survivor Show. Among the topics:

Transfers from Georgia to Alabama and how they worked out
Nick Saban's view of the portal
Comparing the portal in women's college basketball to college football
Looking at the spate of Texas A&M transfers
Discussing how many transfer quarterbacks have reached recent playoffs and finished in the top-five of the Heisman
How many major programs might start transfer quarterbacks this season
What-ifs on Drake Maye to Alabama and Lamar Jackson to Clemson

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