The 2012 Pam Ward Chronicles Week 2
Week 2 of the Pammies are here! Will Matt Millen cement his status as this year's frontrunner? Will Brent Musburger keep the Disney censors on their toes once again? Will Georgia teach Missouri a lesson in old man football? Will people finally realize Beth Mowins is NOT Pam Ward? We'll find out this week!
"An AFC/NFC doubleheader on Monday Night. There's no NFC team in there, but a doubleheader none the less." - Carter Blackburn (via bigddan11)
"Odell Beckham, getting ready to bend it." - James Bates (via sctvman)
"Munchie LeGaux has had an appetite for big numbers tonight and the Bearcats are eating it all up." - Rece Davis (via AA)
On the same pass deflection from the Idaho at Bowling Green football game:
"That looked like a bunch of seals playing with a ball at the circus. Bounce, bounce, bounce." Greg Franke
"That looked like a setting sprey at a volleyball game. Set, set, set, set." Tom Cole
"Obviously these Tigers are quite as quick as those Tigers down in Baton Rogue." Doug Andersen- Texas Southern at North Texas
"I think he just punted that left footed. That guy's not left footed. We need to look at that again. Yes, he punted that left footed." Blaine Fowler
"They had the blues in the blue zone last week." Dave McCann- BYU refers to the Red Zone as the Blue Zone, but they scored on 5 of 6 possessions last week, not very blue.
"It's a big weekend for football in the state of Utah. Utah at Utah State was yesterday up in the Wasatch Mountains and Weber State at BYU is today. It's not often the FOUR TEAMS of that stature match up on the same weekend in the state of Utah." Dave McCann- There are 6 D1 teams in the state of Utah, not 4. Southern Utah is the 5th D1 football squad in the state of Utah, and Utah Valley is also D1, though the don't play football.
"Only one loss for Riley Nelson as a starter, last year at TCU." Dave McCann- Weber State at BYU- Actually Riley Nelson was 1-2 as a starter in 2010. He lost at Air Force and at Florida State. It was the game at Florida State in which he got hurt and Jake Heaps became the starter for the rest of the season.
I think much of your analysis is spot on, LikeABos. As a former sports anchor myself, I tend to watch the coverage like so many of us that frequent this blog do, but I also watch for production value.
Living in Omaha, I have to watch the Huskers every week, so I'll start with Fox last night:
- Gus and Charles are terrific, however you can tell their producer/director come from the NFL side of things... not nearly enough emotional shots of players and coaches, few, if any, fan shots, a very 'corporate' type of broadcast
- I said it on Facebook and I'll say it here, I think Erin is a terrific sideline reporter--does her homework, has excellent rapport with players and coaches... but she CANNOT host in the studio, and it doesn't help that her analysts are also relatively green
OK, other observations:
- Sean McDonough is so underrated it's not funny. I think Spielman is a good guy, but he's severely lacking passion in the booth. I know people don't like Millen, but he and McDonough had a decent thing going last year.
- Tessitore and Gilmore were great together last year on Friday's, really disappointed they broke them up. Carter Blackburn is a serviceable pbp voice, but Tess provides that 'big game' excitement
- Justin Kutcher was calling a game on FX yesterday--not sure if he got canned from ESPN or is allowed to work outside, but I found that interesting
- Watched a little BTN, my friend Kevin Kugler was calling the Iowa/Iowa State game... 3-man booth was a little crowded, I thought
- As for sideline reporters, how does Jenn Brown go from being in a prime time game to a noon spot--someone at ESPN missed something
- And speaking of a poor hire, this Julie Alexandria that's working with Gus and Charles on Fox couldn't ask a respectable question if she had a gun put to her head. She as speaking as if she was on Broadway to Jim Mora at halftime (which was a taped interview, by the way)... Brutal!!!
That's what I've got for now...on to the Sunday afternoon league!
A few thoughts from a long time observer of college football TV after 2 weeks are in the books (save for a few west coast prime time games to finish). *Note - I have DirecTV, so unfortunately I don't get the Pacific-12 Channel. Other than that, I have pretty much every other sports channel in my package.
ESPN THOUGHTS
- Rece Davis has really developed into the new generation's voice of college football. He's cool, hip, and comes up with fun nicknames for coaches and players. Very smooth as a play-by-play announcer and in the studio.
- ESPN's new Friday Night lineup of Carter Blackburn and Rod Gilmore is good. Blackburn is one of the new young talents at "the Mothership" and Gilmore has improved so much over his tenure at ESPN. In my mind he is one of the strongest color commentators Bristol has to offer.
- Once Brent Musberger hangs it up (which from all accounts won't be anytime soon), I think you can count on Joe Tessitore to take over the reigns as the top dog in the booth. Great voice, extremely knowledgeable, and knows when to get excited and when to hold it back. Sean McDonough would be the other choice to replace McDonough, but he has his hands in a few more sports, where as Tessitore is pretty much all in w/ college football besides a few boxing calls.
- Matt Millen is overrated as a color commentator. He has been propped up the past few years by McDonough and again is being helped out immensely by Tessitore. I'd like to see Ed Cunningham switch spots and work w/ Tessitore in prime time, but the thought of Mike Patrick and Matt Millen together make me cringe.
- Brad Nessler and Todd Blackledge have it in cruise control after working together for a few years now. Great insight and they bring their "A" game week in and week out.
- Brock Huard has improved immensely compared to last year in my mind. He and Mark Jones make a nice combo. Desmond Howard has also made great strides too on College Gameday.
- New ESPNU play-by-play announcer Joe Davis, at just 24-years old, is going to be around for a long time. Smooth delivery and proves to be very knowledgeable. Hard to believe he was calling AA minor league baseball prior to making the jump to ESPNU.
- I miss Ron Franklin doing afternoon play-by-play. I always thought of him as a 'poor man's' Keith Jackson. I hope he's enjoying his 'forced' retirement.
- Jesse Palmer is okay in the studio, but over analyzes waaay too much on the Thursday night games. I know ESPN is grooming him to be another Kirk Herbstreit, but he comes off as trying too hard---it doesn't seem natural for him. It's a little better now that Craig James is gone. I felt so bad for Rece Davis having to babysit both of those frat-boys every Thursday night last season.
- It pains me to say this, because he has meant so much to college football, and I think you can credit him for the meteoric rise of ESPN's coverage of college football over the past 15 years, but the grains on the top half of the hour glass are dwindling for Lee Corso. After his mild stroke a few years back, he just isn't the same. He's getting harder and harder to watch and a lot of times Chris Fowler and Herbstreit are left cleaning up his suspect musings and analysis.
NON-ESPN THOUGHTS
- It's clear FOX is positioning itself to make a strong push at taking viewers away from the ABC prime time slot. Gus Johnson is, well, Gus Johnson. Everyone knows what they are getting with him, but I am really impressed with his partner, Charles Davis. When Davis came on the national scene a few years ago, I thought he was rough, but he's really honed his broadcasting skills, and the Johnson/Davis team is one of my favorites now. Yeah, they threw Erin Andrews in the studio. I've never been a fan of EA, especially anchoring a studio, but she is a big name that will draw in the single men sitting at home, all alone on a Saturday night flipping through the channels. Eddie George is good and helps cover up the lackluster Joey Harrington. Now, if they could only get some quality matchups for Gus and Charles!
- The SEC on CBS, I anticipate, will be status quo for the whole season after watching the Notre Dame/Navy game last week. Call me old fashioned, but I am a huge fan of the Vern Lundquist/Gary Danielson combination. They just play off each other so well and there are always a few laugh out loud moments the viewer gets from each of them.
- NBC's Mike Mayock is top-notch on the Notre Dame broadcasts. One of those guys who would be a household name among casual fans if he was on ESPN.
- CBS Sports Network is not batting a very good percentage when it comes to bringing in newly fired head coaches to do color for them. Mike Leach was "rough around the edges" to put it mildly the past couple years, and Ron Zook, for the first two games he's called this year, has a raspy voice that sounds like he's either been out partying all night w/ college co-eds a la Larry Eustachy, or is secretly coaching high school games on Friday night. Somebody give the Zook-ster a Hall's!
- Sideline reporters, as a whole, have hit an all-time low. Lynn Swann and Jack Arute have got to be shaking their heads watching all of these hot pieces of ass prancing up and down the sidelines in high heels....
I know all of us on here get caught up and have fun pointing out one-line mistakes all of our favorite announcers make, but I'd be interested in hearing some general analysis from some other fellow 'watchmen.'
Cheers!
@NCAAFB_LikeABos Sorry, but I completely disagree with you on Blackburn. Yes, he has an enjoyable voice, but he makes way too many mistakes. I counted at least 15 mistakes he made on the Utah at Utah State game. In addition to the NFC/ AFC comment above, which I think will make this weeks worst lines poll, here are a few of the other bigger mistakes he made.
"BYU and Utah play one more time next week before taking two years off for a Utah/ Michigan home-and-home series." No, they play in Provo in 2013. Utah/ Michigan is in 2014 & 2015.
"The Aggies lead with 5:10 to go." Actually there was 9:10 to go.
"We will step away with 2 seconds to go. What? We're keeping it here?"
And while I agree that Gilmore has improved, I think he had a lot more chemistry with Tessitore than he does with Blackburn. He made more mistakes in the Utah/ Utah State game than in any of the 8 Friday night games I listened to last year. Included in them were these two gems:
"Did you just say jolly green?" Rod Gilmore "I said jolliest you've ever seen." Blackburn
"New QB coming in. Well old QB, because Hayes came in when Wynn was knocked out at the end of the first half."
Really Gilmore, I was unaware that Travis Wilson and Hayes were the same person. You were right when you said new QB coming in (Travis Wilson), but when you changed it to old QB (Hays) because he came in for Wynn at the end of the 2nd Half you were completely wrong. In fact when he made that cal, it was the first play for Travis Wilson on the field in the regular season. I understand a few mistakes, but the Utah at Utah State game was the worst game I've ever heard called, even worse than most Matt Millen games.
"That'll bring up a 3rd and 20. Wait, that was a 2nd down. Correct myself, that makes it 2nd and 20." Craig Bolerjack- Wisconsin at Oregon State
"That looked like a rugby scrum at the end of that thing." Blaine Fowler- Weber State at BYU
