Heart of the Rivalry is a Blade-produced YouTube series and podcast available on all major platforms that covers the heart of college football through the sport’s own treasured programs of Ohio State, Michigan, Toledo, and Bowling Green.

The weekly show is led by The Blade’s sports columnist, David Briggs, with co-host/producer Phil Kaplan.

In this episode, The Game is here. Ohio State will play Michigan in Ann Arbor for the 122nd edition of college football’s rivalry-iest rivalry.

Dave sets the stakes with some historic quotes from both sides of the border.

Phil’s hat says more than he does, though armed with more stats than usual — they are perhaps kept inside the giant hat.

Toledo look to take care of business against Central Michigan, and hope for the weirdest series of dominoes to fall to end up in the MAC title game. As always with the Rockets, hat or no hat, confounding stats surround them. Find out what other great stat where Toledo is top-10 nationally.

Bowling Green will wrap up its 2025 campaign Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. as a 3-score favorite against UMAss, the only winless team left in FBS college football.

Cameos include the flag-planting incident of 2024, weather in the form of “precip,” Earl Bruce (again), John Cooper (again), the suddenly questionable Carnell Tate, Michigan’s psychological lock on the Buckeyes, and the extra dramatic, unique nature of this year’s edition of The Game.

All that and more from Heart of the Rivalry, the only show to cover exclusively the rivalry programs of Bowling Green and Toledo, as well as Michigan and Ohio State.

Heart of the Rivalry is a Blade-produced YouTube series and podcast available on all major platforms that covers the heart of college football through the sport’s own treasured programs of Ohio State, Michigan, Toledo, and Bowling Green.

The weekly show is led by The Blade’s sports columnist, David Briggs, with co-host/producer Phil Kaplan.

In this episode... and then there was one.

Next week is Thanksgiving and, of course, The Game. But before Ohio State can visit Michigan in an attempt to right wrongs past like so many Scott Bakula scripts, they must first battle the inevitable squads of Rutgers, in Columbus, and Maryland, in College Park.

Dave is back from Pittsburgh and thinks the MAC may have completely buckled. Phil extrapolates the machinations of money onto the Bowling Green versus winless UMass tilt going up on a Tuesday at 4:30 in the afternoon on ESPN.

Toledo wins again, and again, remains a statistical anomaly with the nation’s second-ranked defense.

Cameos include the People’s Hurdle, Dequan Finn — who might be here in reference, but wasn’t at Miami against Toledo — junior high football primetime, the Primanti Brothers (sandwich), the Antivillains (contemporary Toledo music), Ragtime Rick (old Toledo music), and Pat Narduzzi (Nuz).

All that and more from Heart of the Rivalry, the only show to cover exclusively the rivalry programs of Bowling Green and Toledo, as well as Michigan and Ohio State.

Heart of the Rivalry is a Blade-produced YouTube series and podcast available on all major platforms that covers the heart of college football through the sport’s own treasured programs of Ohio State, Michigan, Toledo, and Bowling Green.

The weekly show is led by The Blade’s sports columnist, David Briggs, with co-host/producer Phil Kaplan.

In this episode, Dave and Phil give live reports from the weekend’s games, as respectively they each attended UT’s bare-bleacher win and BGSU’s standing room-spectacle loss.

Briggs correctly predicted Ohio State pulling punches, but doesn’t pull any when talking about the Michigan vs. Michigan St. rivalry missing its punch this year.

Phil wasn’t punched, but puts the over/under for times he was reprimanded by field security at 2.5, and for mentions of Pudge the Cat at even odds with comparable Eddie George mentions.

All that and more from Heart of the Rivalry, the only show to cover exclusively the rivalry programs of Bowling Green and Toledo, as well as Michigan and Ohio State.