ESPN's Bill Connelly joins Steven Godfrey to review the history of college football coaches returning to their old, successful stomping grounds. Get ready to hear about Greg Schiano, Scott Frost, and Mack Brown (but also Jeff Tedford and Bill Snyder!) and the common patterns that explain why this move often doesn't go the way the nostalgic might hope.

This is a preview of the full episode, which is available to paid subscribers – go to phantomisland.show to sign up today. Phantom Island is presented by Homefield and produced by Michael Surber.

Zach Osterman and Mike Niziolek combined their experience on the Indiana football beat to write Unthinkable to Unstoppable: How Curt Cignetti and the Indiana Hoosiers Stunned College Football, and they sat down with Ryan Nanni to talk about the decision to write this book after the 2025 season and not after the stunning turnaround of 2024, how Cignetti built a team with pieces he knew and pieces he didn't, and what other programs should – and should NOT – try to mimic from this Indiana run. Phantom Island is presented by Homefield and produced by Michael Surber.

Arkansas State Head Coach Butch Jones sat down with Steven Godfrey before the start of this football season to discuss the realities of building and sustaining a program in the world of the transfer portal and NIL. How do you build culture when your roster turns over so frequently? Have coaches shifted their perspective on what it means to lose your best players to the portal? And when does a team find its identity in this new system?

This is a preview of the full episode, which is available to paid subscribers – go to phantomisland.show to sign up today. Phantom Island is presented by Homefield and produced by Michael Surber.