Who's who on ESPN CFB broadcasts this season...

From a PDF sent around the TV industry yesterday. Thought some of you would be interested:


Highlights of new assignments:
 Rece Davis, who will continue to anchor ESPN’s Saturday studio coverage with analysts Lou Holtz and Mark May, will add play-by-play duties for ESPN’s popular weekly Thursday night ESPN College Football Primetime game series with returning analysts Craig James and Jesse Palmer. Jenn Brown will join the Thursday team as the sideline reporter.

 Analyst Brian Griese and commentator Bob Wischusen will work the ESPN2 Saturday noon telecast. Last year, Griese and Wischusen called various games across the ESPN networks.

 Analyst Herm Edwards, who regularly works as an analyst on ESPN’s NFL coverage, will join Clay Matvick on ESPNU’s Saturday prime-time game.

 Erin Andrews will join an expanded three-hour College GameDay, anchoring several segments of the new first hour on ESPNU beginning at 9 a.m. and contributing reports, interviews and features during the ESPN portion of the show. Chris Fowler will return as show host with analysts Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard. As part of her role, Andrews will work as the sideline reporter on the game from which College GameDay originates, if the game is on an ESPN network (ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPNU, etc.).

 In addition to Andrews, reporters Holly Rowe, Heather Cox, Jeannine Edwards and Quint Kessenich will return to work the sidelines with specific game assignments to be determined weekly.

 Former Oregon coach Mike Bellotti and former Washington quarterback Brock Huard will team up with commentator Carter Blackburn to work ESPN and ABC Saturday games primarily featuring West Coast sites.

 Veteran ESPN play-by-play announcer Beth Mowins will call ESPN and ESPN2 midweek games with analysts David Norrie or Robert Smith.

 Former Florida State quarterback Danny Kanell will join ESPN as an analyst on the ESPNU afternoon game with announcer Pam Ward, who worked ESPN2’s Saturday noon telecast last year. Kanell will also serve as a studio analyst on College Football Live, SportsCenter, ESPNEWS and more.

 In addition to select midweek games, David Norrie will work the weekly ESPN Radio game broadcast with returning play-by-play announcer Bill Rosinski and reporter Joe Schad.

 Rob Stone will move from the studio to call play-by-play on the ESPNU noon telecast with former Georgia standout David Pollack, who also worked in the studio last year.

As part of ESPN’s year-round commitment to college sports and the Bowl Championship Series, Fowler -- adding to his extensive duties with ESPN -- will host College Football Live and contribute college football content to SportsCenter during the season. John Saunders, who will continue to anchor Saturday pregame, halftime and postgame studio segments on ABC with analyst Palmer, will also host College Football Live and studio coverage around game telecasts every Thursday and Friday on ESPN and ESPN2. Wendi Nix will return to anchor ESPN2’s Saturday day-long studio coverage with analysts Todd McShay and Robert Smith.
Game commentators returning for their second season together include:

 Brad Nessler and Todd Blackledge working the ESPN Saturday primetime telecast.
 Matt Millen and Sean McDonough calling Saturday telecasts on ABC.
 Analysts Bob Griese and Chris Spielman working the Saturday noon telecast on ESPN with Dave Pasch.
 Veteran announcer Mike Patrick working Saturday afternoon games on ABC with analyst James.
 Dave Neal will call ESPN Regional Television’s Saturday SEC over-the-air syndication games with analyst Andre
Ware and reporter Cara Capuano. Additional returning announcer pairings to television’s deepest field of commentators include: Mark Jones and Bob Davie; Ron Franklin and Ed Cunningham; and Joe Tessitore and Rod Gilmore.

 

Sounds like a demotion for Pam Ward; ESPNU games are usually pretty crappy. Not that most of the noon Big Ten games that she was covering were classics by any means.

 

Millen on TV broadcasts is a goddamn affront to the intelligence of the audience.

And I don't want to hear any fucking bullshit, "he's good as a broadcaster." He isn't.

 

How the hell does Michael Rug-guy stay employed. i know it's the MAC, but he's been shitty for 30 years.
The only TV guy I've ever seen with a lid so bad, you could see the difference in shade between his real hair and toup on a black and white TV...

 

Sorry, but you cannot have Beth Mowins or Pam Ward on play-by-play. Not for football. Voices cause people to hyperventilate.

 

Why does he get the ABC game? Why not Bob Griese? Hasn't Griese done ABC games since he son was playing. Fuckin' Millen.

 

Craig James in the studio again ... on Thursday nights.

Guess he can still go watch his son play ride the bench for SMU Texas Tech.

 

Pam Ward. Queen of the Purdue/Minnesota/Illinois tilt at noon.

 

Bob Griese might be the worst color guy they have now. He's regressed. Badly.

So if the choice is Matt Millen or Bob Griese, I'll take Millen every time.

 

Another sexist/racist comment on your end, quoted to save it for posterity.

 

are you a real person?

 

He's awful. But at least as far as I'm concerned as a MAC grad and fan of one of the teams, he's the only guy with a speck of national exposure who shares a love for the conference. So he's the horrible announcer who actually will talk MAC football and basketball on his radio show and actually put work into knowing the teams before the broadcast. He has covered UT and BG while in Toledo and Lima, he has covered Kent State and Akron while in Cleveland. He knows Ohio and Miami very well. He's as versed in the MAC as any broadcaster in the state, even if he covers it in schmaltz and artificial sweetener.

MAC fans are sick of being put on a weekday game on ESPN and having the announcers not know the teams and spend half the game discussing the biggest game of the week OVER THE PLAYS ON THE FIELD. At one point during MAC games, ESPN ran text messages from fans of Big Ten and SEC fans during the game, as if the game was Total Request Live circa 1998.

It's disrespectful and represents everything goddamn evil about ESPN.

So Reghi, yeah he's a hack. But he's our hack who actually pays attention to the game.

Two years ago before playing Ohio State, one announcer on ESPN touted Ohio's triple option attack...which they haven't run since Jim Grobe/Brian Knorr in 2003. Seven years later and the person had done zero prep work for that game.