BHGPodcast 73

In Podcast 73, we talk about this week's Nebraska-Iowa game with Erin Sorensen (Twitter @helloerinmarie) of Husker Locker. it includes a discussion of what the HEROES TROPHY PRESENTED BY HY-VEE might be (yes, these are not recorded live), why Friday will see the Big Ten's two toughest halfbacks, the magical resurgance of Nebraska's secondary, and the history of Carter Lake, Iowa. It's also Team Pizza certified.

BHGPodcast 72

We'd rather have a sister in a whorehouse than a brother in West Lafayette, Indiana, but that doesn't mean we can't take a minute to talk about trains, creepy mascots, NBA TV hunting shows, and THE MOST INTENSE RIVALRY IN COLLEGIATE ATHLETICS OH YEAH THAT'S RIGHT SUCK IT MICHIGAN-OHIO STATE with Travis from Hammer and Rails.

BHGPodcast 71

Obviously, in the grand scheme of Big Ten football-related events, this weekend's Iowa-Michigan State game falls right around whether Velveeta shells and cheese is really better than Kraft. We're still an Iowa blog, though, and so we push ahead into Sparty Week with Pete Rossman, longtime writer at SB Nation MSU blog The Only Colors. Enjoy.

BHGPodcast 70

In the more formal, less slide-whistley version of this week's podcast, we discuss this week's Iowa-Michigan game with Brian Cook of mGoBlog. It's a discussion of where Denard fits in the grand scheme of Michigan football history, how Jordan Kovacs has become a poor man's Tyler Sash, and why Iowa might have a chance of winning this weekend.

BHGPodcast 69

Yes, it's the KCJJ thing. Details inside the podcast.

BHGPodcast 67

Northwestern is annoying. Their constant ability to come back from two score deficits to beat Iowa in the last six years is frustrating as hell. Their fans, who have turned from equally stunned to ALL WE DO IS WIN GROWL over that time, are teetering on obnoxious. Their coach, who clearly has a bone to break pick with Iowa, is irritating.

With that said, their web presence (especially considering that Northwestern is a small private school that draws from a nationwide talent pool that, in large part, has no affiliation with Northwestern athletics when they hit campus) is pretty stellar. LTP's troll-baiting notwithstanding, both Bring Your Champions, They're Our Meat and SB Nation stalwarts Sippin' on Purple are must-reads for fans of Northwestern, Iowa, or comedy in blog form. Rodger Sherman from SOP is with us for this week's pod to discuss Gerry DiNardo's nephew, the beauty of Mi'kail McCall's name, how to work Childish Gambino references into your discussion of college football, and yes, Iowa-Northwestern.

BHGPodcast 66

It's a tradition unlike any other. Iowa is scheduled to play Penn State on Saturday, Chris and Kevin from Black Shoe Diaries and Slow States join us for the podcast to tell us how Iowa will beat Penn State, and then Iowa beats Penn State. It's gotten quite boring, actually.

This year's pod in particular is awfully damn entertaining. For one, Penn State might be the most dysfunctional team in the conference this year. For another, yhe simple question of Bolden vs. McGloin has devolved into a metaphysical discussion of whether a quarterback even matters when your offensive line is always a mess and your passing offense is essentially "throw it toward the tall guy." It's a de facto Slow States pod, so there's some beer and music in there, too.

BHGPodcast 65

BHGP Podcast Number 65 Retirement Age Look At Our 65-Year-Old Wrinkly Balls Of Retirement is finally uploaded and ready to do the rocking. We're joined by @frankthetank111 of Frank The Tank's Slant, and do not let the "random internet bro" nature of either of those names fool you -- Frank is and has been for the last 18 months the single best source of information on conference realignment. Realignment is special, because it's essentially big business being conducted by homer fans with way too much influence, and if that sounds like a terrible idea, it is, so as with all terrible ideas, it's best to have a lawyer around to talk you through all the different scenarios in play.

BHGPodcast 64

It doesn't feel like Pitt week. Sure, it's been four years since we faced the Panthers, so it hasn't felt like Pitt week for quite some time, but this one feels especially hollow. Without the grizzled visage of Dave Wannstedt on the opposing sideline, it just isn't the same. It's like Pitt is bringing their JV team to Kinnick Saturday morning.

In any case, we talked about all things Pitt with Chas Rich, the proprietor of Pitt Blather and an overall good, honorable Pitt fan. His team barely beat Maine last week. Our team lost to Iowa State. And Dave Wannstedt is still gone. There is much sighing. So much sighing.

BHGPodcast 63

For this week's podcast, we talk with one of the few men to see Iowa State's one-point victory over Northern Iowa that we can actually tolerate, John Bohnenkamp of the Burlington Hawk-Eye. Bohnenkamp, whose Twitter feed is a wonderful mix of sports information, inside sports reporter jokes, and weather warnings, tells us his thoughts on Steele Jantz, the ISU offensive and defensive lines, and the current wave of Vandenbergmania sweeping through southeast Iowa. This is a very dangerous storm.

BHGPodcast 61

Last week, when AJ and I were previewing the season, we spent about fifteen minutes previewing Tennessee Tech. The podcast went on for about an hour and a half, and we ended up leaving the TTU preview on the virtual cutting room floor so that we could fit more discussion of actual competitive football into the podcast.

No worry, though, because we kept it and put together a second podcast for today, this one with just the Tennessee Tech infomation. And, by information, we mean the sort of blatant lies we usually trade in when we have no actual information about an opponent. I just wish we could have somehow fit the Gadsden Purchase into the discussion.

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AJ had lemon ice cubes and vodka. I had Dreadnaught IPA courtesy of Kyle McCann't. We had an hour and a half of previewing to do. It sort of disintegrated. It also had to be broken up. In part one, we do the obligatory schedule breakdown. We'll be back with the Tennessee Tech-specific stuff next week.

BHGPodcast 59

We're 18 days from kickoff, so it's time for our annual Iowa football preview special. This year, we were fortunate enough to be joined by both Marc Morehouse and Scott Dochterman of The Gazette (and the rival On Iowa Podcast) to analyze this weekend's open practice, fill the holes in the depth chart, and discuss a couple of late-breaking news items.

And then Jacobi had some microphone issues and a barking dog and fingers like anvils, and so parts of this sound like an Animal Collective track (and if you play it backwards, it will tell you to punt from your opponent's 30 yard line). We did our best to fix it, but there's not much we can do in editing. So enjoy, and our apologies for anything lost in the mix.

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Michael Felder writes about football in a lot of places, most prominently In the Bleachers but also Onside Kick and Crystal Ball Run. He tweets about football (@inthebleachers) and other stuff constantly. He played football at North Carolina. He once appeared on an internet TV show with me and lived to tell the tale. You can say he's kind of a badass.

He also loves The Devil Wears Prada and ABC Family's "Pretty Little Liars," but we're not going to be the ones to make fun of him for that. Well, OK, yeah, we will.

He's on the pod with us to discuss the fallout of "Butch Davis presents Apocalypto" in Chapel Hill, his overall top 10, and what he sees out of the Big Ten this season. We also discuss his affinity for the aforementioned ABC Family teen drama. Along the way, I forget how the Big Ten divisions are aligned and where Michigan State plays Nebraska. I'm just saying it's nice to have a co-host.

BHGPodcast 57

For the season three premiere of Black Heart Gold Podcast, your hosts are joined by Luke Zimmerman (the artist formerly known as worstfan). Zimmerman is a writer for Every Day Should be Saturday, a writer and podcaster at Eleven Warriors, an Ohio State fan, and one of the preeeminent chillbros of the internet. Given that OSU had a bit of a dramatic offseason and that we don't see the Buckeyes this fall, we figured it's as good a time as any to preview the Evil Empire and the Big Ten at large.

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Viewer mail. Viewer mail. Tonight is the crazy night we do viewer mail.

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There's a whole lotta nothing going on: Wrestlemania 27 is over, spring football is a bore, Name of the Year is just getting started, and Southerners are giving money to refugees (seriously, give what you can in $6.04 increments). Here to make sense of it all is Spencer Hall, nee Orson Swindle of Every Day Should Be Saturday. Also, new theme song!

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It's Wrestlemania Week, which of course means it's time for the annual Wrestlemania preview podcast. Jacobi and I run down the card and get sidetracked by discussions of the hall of fame credentials of Kane, the inherent problems of Triple H's finishing move, and the brewing civil war within WWE. We bring it.

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Spring has sprung, and with it balmy 40 degree weather, snow flurries, rhabdomyalysis reports, and spring football. We talk about it all, whether it be the rhabdo report, the national media's opinion of Iowa football, the spring two-deeps, or the last few Drive By Truckers albums, with The Gazette's Marc Morehouse. It's nearly an hour of solid football, the way George Washington intended it.

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In preparation for this weekend's NCAA Wrestling Championships, we're joined by Iowa City Press-Citizen wrestling writer Andy Hamilton. Ross and Andy discuss Iowa's prospects in Philadelphia, the shocking development of Iowa's youngsters this year, and the origin of the many nicknames of Luke Lofthouse. You can catch Hamilton and the rest of the Iowa writers at the Press-Citizen and Des Moines Register at Hawk Central.

BHGPodcast 51

Your Marchifornication Selection Monday podcast is below. Brackets are above (click for the larger version). Apologies for the voice quality; I've had laryngitis for a week, and it's still nowhere near 100%.

BHGPodcast 50b

In part two of the groundbreaking, revolutionary, wicked awesome fiftieth BHGPodcast, we talk the hegemony of Jacobi with CBS Sports' Tom Fornelli, revise our December predictons with Justin VanLaere, and get our grapplin' on with RossWB. And, yes, there's discussion of Barbasol, circumcised Heismans, and Wrestlemania. That's just how we roll.

BHGPodcast 50a

We did it. We got to 50 podcasts. And, in celebration of this wonderful and glorious event, we've brought back a bunch of our usual guests for a massive two-part podcast. In part one, OTE makes proclamations. Maize n Brew Dave credits us for his site's resurrection. And, in between those, Chris from Slow States plays golf with little people.

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We might be legitimate media now, but we're not The Worldwide Leader in Sports. So for this week, we turn to ESPN blogger, Iowa native, and world's toughest Wheel of Fortune clue Eamonn Brennan to talk Big Ten basketball. Seriously, until someone either guesses 'N' or buys a vowel, it's pretty much impossible.

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Yes, there are fires in Ann Arbor and State College, and yes, there was football still being played in New Orleans, but for the sake of Iowa athletics, this is the first week of Big Ten basketball. And with Jacobi out sick, I talked with the only man who talks to fast for two hosts, our old friend Justin VanLaere of Hawkeye Nation and Storminspank's Hawkeye Ramblings. There wasn't any real form to this -- like just about every other podcast we've ever done -- so it sounds a bit random. But I think it's all in there.