Happy New Year! Here's 45 minutes of food reviews, recipes, music thoughts, and some stray football and basketball observations.

Thanks to all of you for your continued support of CrimsonCast. We hope you have a tremendous end to 2021 and a better start to 2022.

A special Christmas Eve edition of CrimsonCast sees the guys recapping the Northern Kentucky game, before taking some questions from fans about a range of topics related to men's basketball and football. (The food and music questions have been moved to a different podcast which will appear later in the week). We discuss the surprise statistical aspects of the team, provide some analysis for IU's long-term offensive prospects in basketball, discuss how complete football's roster looks heading into 2022, and address some other questions brought up by you the listener.

Happy Holidays from CrimsonCast and the whole crew at the Back Home Network!

We're back and talking IU men's basketball, as the Hoosiers pick up their first win away from home with the neutral court victory against Notre Dame in the Crossroads. We talk about the performance, the positives from the victory, and the ceiling that the team may have over its ultimate potential .We also discuss the end of the Crossroads Classic as an event, and whether the event should be buried or praised.

Then at the 59 minute mark, Taylor Lehman joins the show to talk IU football recruiting. We dive into the program's remarkable showing in the national recruiting rankings and the transfer market, who the most exciting and intriguing prospects are, and what work still needs to be done before the window closes in February.

Scott @CrimsonCast317 is joined by Ed from The Power Rank @thepowerrank - to chat about the numbers, odds and opportunities available for those looking to bet the B1G teams in bowl games. Also get Ed's #1 confidence pick from his annual Bowl Report.

After a stumble at Syracuse, IU basketball got back on track with a victory at home over Nebraska. We talk about the Syracuse game and what we learned from it, discuss the most critical position on offense for this Indiana team and what some of the concerns are moving forward, and discuss the aspects of the team that are most likely to get better over the next month as the Hoosiers prepare for the bulk of conference play in January.

In the aftermath of Indiana's football season, changes are afoot. Michael Penix Jr. announced his intention to transfer, and IU appears set to hire offensive coordinator Walt Bell, formerly of UMass, Florida State, and Maryland. We discuss both of those situations and give an update on our thoughts regarding the direction that IU football appears to be headed.

NOTE: This podcast was recorded on Sunday morning, and as we were hitting "publish", IU announced Nick Sheridan had been fired as Offensive Coordinator. So keep that in mind as you listen --- we'll have more reaction coming soon.

On this podcast, Scott and Galen recap one of the worst IU performances in a Bucket game, before delving into the much larger and more concerning aspects of where the program is at. From the highs of 2019 and 2020 to the depths of 2021, we discuss the issues that this program currently faces and what Tom Allen needs to do to try and address those issues.

Indiana's football season comes to a merciful end in the next 36 hours as they travel to West Lafayette to match up against Purdue in the Old Oaken Bucket game. We compare and contrast the seasons from these two teams, discuss what Indiana needs to do in order to stay competitive in this contest, and give a prediction for how we think the game will turn out.

Galen and Scott are back, talking about Indiana men's basketball --- and we're joined by Back Home Network co-contributor Tony Adragna. We talk about the start of the basketball season and give our observations and impressions of the Hoosiers through the first four games.

We then talk about some of the individual pieces of this team and discuss what we've seen so far --- from the impressive changes in Trayce Jackson-Davis's overall game to the key of Race Thompson's role in the offense. We also discuss the backcourt and some of the interesting play styles that IU's guards are exhibiting, and what it all might mean later on in the season.

We start the podcast with some heartfelt thoughts and hopes for a member of the IU football family who is dealing with some significant health issues.

The rest of the podcast delves into the loss to Minnesota, and the larger problems and implications that were on display on Saturday.