Black Heart Gold Podcast noreply@blogger.com (Hawkeye State)

It's a two-parter today. First, we talk about Chris Kingsbury with BHGP favorite The Kingsbury Factor (before you listen to the podcast, you're going to want to watch and read this). There's discussion of the essence of Kingsbury, roster exaggeration, haircuts, the Kingsbury pythons, and Ol' Grand-Dad whiskey.Later, we discuss about three bowl games with Graham Filler of Off-Tackle Empire before his date gets restless and tears him away from the show, probably to go see Bright Eyes. It's one of the oddest moments in podcast history, and completely standard for Graham's previous appearances on the show.

A couple of years ago, Maize n' Brew Dave and I put together a podcast called Maize Pants. In retrospect, it should have been called Black and Brew, because that's a far better name. In any case, it was short-lived and a lot of fun, but neither of us do this as a full-time job, and we ran out of time, and Maize Pants went away.We've now reached Michigan week, and while Maize n' Brew is under new management (Dave's still there, but he's not managing things anymore), the connection remains. We're joined by Zach Travis to talk about just how it is that a blubbery gentleman who likes to point at things turned Michigan around so fast.

A quick note: We're going to change the format of the podcast a bit. During football season, we usually previewed games with bloggers from opposing sites, but Ross was already previewing games, usually with the same bloggers asking the same questions. The podcast got a little boring. So we're going to leave the previews to Ross, and the podcast is going to be for conversations about other stuff.For today, "other stuff" is Iowa basketball. We talk about the pending hoopyball season with Justin VanLaere (@storminspank), basketball reporter/analyst for Hawkeye Nation and former BHGPer. It includes discussion of Roy Devyn Marble's outside game, Aaron White's resemblance to a certain All-Star forward who doesn't know the words to Born in the USA, the weaknesses of Iowa's non-conference schedule (SPOILER ALERT it's the whole thing) and how close we are to getting mad again.

It's Penn State week, so we're getting the band back together for the old Slow States podcast. They are confident. It's an odd feeling.

The Black Heart Gold Podcast returns this week to discuss the upcoming Iowa-Michigan State, the icy Ferentz-Dantonio relationship, Jerel Worthy's resemblance to a fainting goat, and Michigan State's susceptibility to the screen pass with Chris Vannini, managing editor at The Only Colors.  In between, there are phones ringing, dogs barking, and possibly someone playing a guiro.  If you can get past the ambient noise of a very festive farmer's market, it's a pretty good podcast.

We've had a lot of things on this podcast: Reporters, broadcasters, bloggers...well, that's pretty much it.  We've not had a rocket scientist until now.  Of course, the rocket scientist isn't the Minnesota fan, because rockets don't run on snow and unwarranted smugness, but still.  It's a fucking rocket scientist.  That's Paradigm, who is a Florida resident but comes from Minnesota stock, and we have wanted him on a podcast for a while, so why not. Also, our old nemesis MV from Fringe Bowl team fills us in on the Gophers (and if you haven't read his post on Floyd, you aren't properly prepared for Saturday).  He's trying to reduce expectations, as much for himself as anyone else, but it's hard to be humble when you're from Minnesota.  It's just the way they're raised.