IlliniBoard.com» We Love No Other

First, a few things that I’ve put on Twitter in the last few weeks but I’m not sure I linked them on the blog.  The We Love No Other podcast is on iTunes and can be found here, so if you want to subscribe that way, go for it. We also have an RSS feed which is available here. Or you can just come to the site to listen. And thanks to Dave from Limelightbookcovers.com for designing the podcast logo (which will be updated on iTunes soon). I think that covers everything. Here’s this week’s podcast with Tyler Griffey where we discuss playing hoops in Austria, turning around a losing streak, and Rick Majerus’ unique recruiting methods. And I actually kept it to a half hour this week, so three points for Robert.

When I read Steve’s book, I promised to do an interview with him on the blog.  That was around 18 months ago.  So now that I finally have the podcast up and going, I was able to get Steve to join me to talk about his book (for 15 minutes) and Illini Football (for 45 minutes).  So if you have an hour, and you want to listen to two rabid Illini football fans go on and on about how six wins might be possible, do I have a WLNO for you. And if you’re interested in Steve’s book – and you should be – you can find it here.  The Kindle version is $3.  You spend that on tacos daily. Skip the tacos, read Steve’s book.

It’s FOLD Week! FOLD stands for February Offensive Line Discussion week.  Happens the last week of February every year around here.  Why the last week of February?  Because a certain internet troll once told me that I was “the only person on earth who wanted to talk about the Illini offensive line in February”. And I set out to prove him wrong. And right here? This podcast? It’s PROOF. Martin O’Donnell and I discuss the Illini offensive line for the better part of 45 minutes. And that’s not all – that’s just the start of FOLD Week. I’ll break down the tackles tomorrow, the guards and centers on Wednesday, and then, after covering the Nebraska game on Wednesday night, Martin and I will discuss offensive line play (in written form) to end FOLD week. Everything you ever wanted to know about this OL in one week. Starting with this podcast. Martin breaks down the current line, future players like Nick Allegretti, and the possibility that this is a six win team. Listening time: 45 minutes.

Steve Greenberg from the Chicago Sun Times is my guest on this week’s We Love No Other podcast.  This one goes a little bit longer – 41 minutes to be exact – but that’s a good thing.  Steve discusses his first year as the Sun Times beat writer for the Illini, what it was like to cover some of the Illini football seniors, and what it’s like to start covering a team when they’re in the basement. And yes, we discuss the Sun Times article after the Cliffmas nightmare, and John Groce’s reaction to the headline, and his thoughts on the whole ordeal. Link is below, RSS feed will be posted soon, and the iTunes thing will be set up once I finally get back to Brumby with some of the information needed to post it there. No, really, it will be there soon.  Seriously.

Sorry, Nate.  Apologies, Will.  This is my favorite podcast so far. Joining me for this one: Bryce, the publisher of Illini blog Orange And Blue Craze.  You’ve heard Bryce on this site before – we chatted during the From The Stands mini-podcast after the Wisconsin game in 2011 (and I even play that as part of this interview here). Today, Bryce joins me to talk Illini football, Illini basketball, and what it’s like to be a fan during this school year where nothing seems to go right.  I refer to the 1998-99 school year, but there’s a reason Bryce doesn’t remember that…

From the Daily Illini to Deadspin to New York Magazine to Sports On Earth, Will Leitch has climbed the sportswriting ladder over the last 15 years.  Not bad for a guy who never really wanted to write about sports.  Sunday, he was covering the Super Bowl.  Today, he flies to Sochi. And somewhere in there, he found 30 minutes to talk to me about the Illini losing streak, what it was like to cover the tournament for the Daily Illini, and Vladimir Putin. Link is below. Editor’s note: For those that have requested it, yes, we will have an RSS feed for the podcast, and Brumby has started the process to get it on iTunes.  Once it’s all set up, I’ll link it here.

Finally. I’ve been talking about this for a long time.  I even started and stopped twice.  But now, finally, it’s ready to go: the weekly We Love No Other podcast. When I first tried this, I was recording things on my phone.  One time I tried one of those Julie from Time Life headsets.  I could get the podcast together, and I could even record phone calls, but the sound quality was awful.  So I put the podcast on the back burner until I could get some real recording equipment.  With your help, I was able to purchase it all, and now here we are. My plan: Weekly during the season – maybe bi-weekly during the offseason – I’ll put together a podcast interviewing anyone having anything to do with the Illini.  Sometimes it will be as simple as me breaking down the game with friends.  Sometimes it will be authors.  Sometimes maybe an Illini player or two.  I hope to add “where are they now?” Illini players, too – track down Jens Kujawa somewhere in Germany and see what he’s up to. The format: I’ll try to keep it to a half hour or so – something you can listen to on your commute.  The plan is to post it on Mondays (might be Monday morning, might be Monday night, but the plan is Monday).  You can listen to it here on the site, and we’ll also try to make it available for download elsewhere (that’s the Brumby department, because as I’ve proven time and time again, I have no clue what I’m doing). For this first one, I break all of those rules.  I wanted to kind of beta test this whole thing, so for the first episode, I chatted with my friend Nate about being an Illini fan back in the 1990′s.  The lessons I’ve already learned from this first podcast: I didn’t sit close enough to the mic, so Nate is loud but my voice is too soft. I talked too much and didn’t let Nate talk enough. I still have to figure out how to set the recording levels. We talked for nearly an hour. As I told Nate – and this has nothing to do with him and everything to do with me – this will be the worst podcast I ever do.  I learned of so many bugs going through this process that I can get fixed next time.  Listening to myself I also learned that I need to shut up.  By podcast #26, I’ll really have a good handle on this. For this one, though, here it is, warts and all. Next week I’ll hopefully have it available to download through various podcast avenues (read: I’ll ask Brumby to figure all of that out).  For today, just click on the link below and quasi-enjoy.