Iowa Potluck, Friday: Punting Emerald Feces

Hawkeye-Themed Tortilla Chips (You should click on this link)

We can’t let Iowa week go by without talking about punting and the fact that the BHGP staff are leaving.

The Puntiff himself has had struggles in recent years with giving up fake punts in huge spots, refusing to return punts, and generally having bad special teams. Then last year he finally embraces the shield formation, and Desmond King is allowed to return punts. Hallelujah! The results were a bit of a mixed bag, though. While King was 2nd in the conference in punt return average, the punting unit was still a little shaky, allowing a couple of big returns. Add on top that Iowa will be breaking in a new punter this season. Most likely, it will be Colten Rastetter, who just happens to be the nephew of the president of the Iowa Board of Regents, and all around political king maker, Bruce Rastetter. Any thoughts on Iowa’s punting situation?

But this is Friday, and BHGP is pretty legendary. You got a favorite article from there? Let’s do some reminiscing.

Candystripes: Given that Iowa doesn’t punt on every down, I feel that the Hawkeyes are punting a minuscule amount compared to what they should be doing. Also, I’ve never ventured over to BHGP, and for the life of me, I cannot fathom why I should want to, as I have little to no interest in Iowa other than sharing a conference with them, and occasionally scolding them for thinking they own the tenderloin.

WSR: Iowa’s not hurting as bad as Minnesota could be with the loss of great punter and better human being Peter Mortell. The only good thing is that Rastetter will be getting much more practice than whomever we punt with.

And in regards to my favorite BHGP posts, it’s either Jebus’s “Are you there Cyclone Fan? It’s me, Jebus” , it’s sequel (which is the 2nd-best sequel ever after Godfather II), or BlackHeartGoldPodcast #45.

Jesse: I have no idea what Iowa is doing, but not-necessarily-bad nepotism and punting sounds like it fits the Ferentz regime to a T.

As for my favorite BHGP post, I have to admit that it’s hard to pick one. As a fan of theirs for a while - and as someone who literally discovered SBNation because of it - I can honestly say it will be a little weird not having them around these parts. Back to favorites... Probably my favorite thing were gamethreads. I so enjoy the community that was built, and Vint’s near meltdown two years ago probably was the best thing I’ve read about Iowa. So there. Can I be done saying nice things about the Hawkeyes now? [EDITOR’S NOTE: No. Also, do you mean the “That’s Football” meltdown?]

LPW: I wouldn't be here if not for BHGP. Somehow I found the pro wrestlers as college football programs with JoePa interrupting when PSU was compared to Bruno Sammartino. Then I found the JoePa chronicles and Marchifornication.

My favorite moment on that site was when they found the site that allows you to customize commemorative pictures of football stadiums and they went to town on Iowa State. And then the rest of the NCAA. Both of those links are very NSFW and extremely funny. ReplayPhotos forced BHGP or forced SBN to take those articles down. But everything lives forever on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine!

Creighton: First BHGP— This is a pretty sad thing for me. I had no idea what SB Nation was before I started reading BHGP. I’ve followed those guys for years. Sure, they’re still going to be around and writing about my beloved Hawkeyes just as before, but their departure from SB Nation is the end of an era. The only reason I’m here writing dumb articles about Iowa while taking cheap shots at Nebraska and Iowa State is because of them, and I feel like no matter how late I stay up re-writing individual sentences in my articles or how many notes I take while watching Big Ten football for 12 hours straight on a Saturday...everything I do is AAA ball compared to what those guys do week after week. Whether you love or hate Iowa (we all know there is no middle ground), Vint, Ross, Jacobi and everyone else have created one of the finest blogs on all of SB Nation. I wish them good luck, and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for the future. Godspeed you magnificent bastards. My favorite thing they ever did was Horace’s Pro Combat uniforms for every team in the conference. 12 Articles of pure comedy gold.

As for punting: Ferentz loves being able to stack special teams full of backups. Due to talent issues, he hasn’t had that luxury the last couple of years. Shield punts and Desmond King as a returner need to stay. If he can find a way to get production out of scout team guys on punt formations again, I’ll be happy. Now a lot of this falls on whether or not Chris White can put the right guy in the right situaton, but punting is very much still Ferentz’s forte. I think the punting situation will improve this year, but to be honest I’m perfectly happy with Ferentz’s recent foray into practicing/executing going for it on fourth.

MNW: All this talk about punting, and we STILL fail to mention that in addition to Rastetter, Iowa specifically brought in a graduate transfer from Central Michigan to be a punter?! This is the most fucking Iowa thing ever. Click that article. Ferentz even talks about how he's excited that Coluzzi brings "experience" to the position. Never change, Kirk.

If I'm actually thinking about it beyond that, I wouldn't be surprised to see Kirk figure out which punter does what best (rugby-style, I20-punting, kickoffs) and assign them accordingly. He occasionally had Koehn punt rugby-style in 2015, and you know he's had a huge throbbing one for specialized punting ever since.

BHGP is just a bummer, man. All the Batshit Insanity—sorry, Fake Lie Stories That Are Not Real— were amazing, even the ones that involved Pat Fitzgerald and rectal...actually, go search for that one... [EDITOR’S NOTE: found it] or an angry...well, go find that one yourself, too [EDITOR’S NOTE: that one, too]. They blended so many things so well. Most of all, though? Touchdowns for Kids. They took a great community and put it toward doing great things. Kudos, happy trails, and best wishes to that staff (except Mike Jones).

Stew: MNW has it right. Teams are only allowed to invite 105 players to fall camp, for the Hawkeyes this year, 8 of those will be specialists. I’m going to guess at least half of those get multiple chances in actual games. Ferentz has not been afraid to use multiple punters for several seasons, whether it’s Koehn going rugby style last season, or using a former elite 11 QB as a pooch punt specialist (while never once using said former QB to fake it, even when one of the gunners is completely uncovered).

As for BHGP, well, damn. A lot of great stuff has been mentioned already, so I’ll just say go here: Fake Lie Stories that are not real (This includes anything that used to be Batshit Insanity)