SYNERGY BITES YOU, THE VIEWER, IN THE ASS
We read this bit of news totally and completely the wrong way in great haste. We could pull it, but we whiffed in grand fashion and put it there anyway. We’ll leave it as is as a testament to our own ign’unce. but almost all of what you may read below is wrong.-ed.
The Golden Age of College GameDay–should you wonder, after “We’re comin–and we’re shittayyyy!!!” rang through your ears all season long–ended officially this week. Kirk Herbstreit will move to Saturday night football to work with the odd couple of Bob “Footbaw” Davie and Brent “Red Blooded Male” Musberger. (Gay men, according to Musberger, have green blood. So do guys who don’t find Jenn Sterger attractive, which includes us in the Martian blood category, we suppose. It’s the price we’ll pay to avoid being covered in bronzer each time we have sex with someone.)

Why your wife/girlfriend will suddenly lose interest in Gameday and make no plans for Saturday night this fall.
Doug Flutie will take over the Herbstreit studio spot, tragically sans mullet. Completely untrue–he’ll remain in the studio, with Flutie taking over his spot on Saturday ESPN games. The gives and takes are obvious: Herbstreit will bring his chipper moxie to a potentially disastrous Musberger-Davie blabomination, cutting through much of Davie’s footbaw talk while bringing a spontaneous human side to the broadcast, since Davie can be awfully wooden and Musberger always sounds like he’s announcing, even when he gets in chat mode with his cohorts. (After almost forty years in the booth, we imagine even Brent’s interactions with Indian IT support hotlines sounds like a game-breaking interception return. If this audiotape exists, we will gladly sell our souls to get it.)
It also means GameDay’s dead.Or doesn’t, actually. Though we’re sure they’ll find another way to monkey around with a good thing. At least Mark Shapiro won’t be around to give us more Sportstainment! Corso can only slide further into squinty obtuseness from this point, while Flutie will take at least a season to ease into the groove of things. That leaves prissy Fowler to carry the show, which he’s not capable of doing unless they allow him to leap into crowds and attack offensive sign holders on camera. Toss in your Lacheys, what will undoubtedly be the worst choice for a theme song you can think of (Taylor Hicks? Black Eyed Peas? SOUL PATROL!), and more cocked-up human interest stories like the one about how Matt Leinart overcame myopia (the HORROR!), and we’ll officially declare the program DOA for at least the next year.

Go get ‘em, Chris!
The only song we’d use for the theme song? Ace of Spades by Motorhead, accompanied by nothing but clips of massive hits. If it doesn’t sound badass beyond comprehension to you, we’ll just say that it killed when we showed a video just like it at our wedding. This part may be the only part still true after editing.









1
Erik says:
Doug Flutie… Great Pickup!
Wow, A QB with some actual Talent! (other than Herbstreit documented talent for picking up freshman tail at college bars) Now maybe they’ll get a coach on the panel with some actual talent.
May 25th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
2
Wooderson says:
I thought Herbie was still doing the show when Gameday was i nthe same location as the Saturday night game? I understood he was still on the show, and not a permanent booth member.
I will die of infinite joy if I hear Boob-burger utter the words “Wonder-Twin powers…activate!”
May 25th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
3
Fes says:
Flutie will be on ABC with Saunders and Craig James replacing Aaron Taylor.
May 25th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
4
Will Collier says:
According to the sidebar on the USA Today article (yeah, I know, it’s only one step up from Dan Rather), Herbie is still on Gameday. Not sure how they’re going to work that out, though, unless Gameday commits to being at all of ABC’s Pathetic-10/Big-11/Big-2-Little-10 primetime games (the horror, the horror).
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2006-05-23-hiestand_x.htm
May 25th, 2006 at 1:25 pm
5
Kanu says:
(Webcam fades in to Musburger’s home office)
“Banglador- you’re looking live at my Dell Dimension 3000, which will not boot…”
May 25th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
6
Neal says:
I think Wooderson’s correct there. He’s still going to be on Gameday. The only Saturday night games he’ll actually call is when Gameday is on site.
May 25th, 2006 at 1:41 pm
7
Orson Swindle says:
Yes, we’re totally and thankfully wrong on this. Apologies, and will be duly noted above.
May 25th, 2006 at 1:55 pm
8
Gob Bluth says:
Doug Flutie is the man. It’ll be nice to see him covering college football this fall. Rumor has it that Flutie is actually the spawn of Chuck Norris.
May 25th, 2006 at 2:03 pm
9
PeteJayhawk says:
Banglador?
May 25th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
10
DC Trojan says:
Seconds later, it is proven that you can actually stuff a Bangalore torpedo down a phone line and half-way across the world.
As to using Motorhead for hit clips, I’d like to suggest “Overkill” from No Sleep to Hammersmith… 5 minutes of mayhem with a long burst of feedback in the middle for a slow-motion “hit of the day” wherein impact is synchronized to the restart… oh perchance to dream.
May 25th, 2006 at 2:07 pm
11
Odell 51 says:
Motorhead is awesome. I would agree with the choice of song for a total hitfest highlight reel. Lemmy makes Lordi look like a bunch of pussies. He doesn’t need make up for shcok value. Just the huge, gross, moles on the side of his face.
May 25th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
12
NewAZTiger says:
ESPN, in search for a wider viewing audience, will have the Wiggles perform the new Gameday Opening.
May 25th, 2006 at 2:11 pm
13
Devin McCullen says:
Funny thing is, I saw a link to the AP article mentioning the new announcing teams on another website this morning, and I wondered “Hmm. Are they taking Kirk off of Countdown?” So I go over to ESPN.com’s college football page, see something listed on their headlines – and get the same little AP story! They couldn’t even be bothered to explain it themselves.
May 25th, 2006 at 2:25 pm
14
Kanu says:
Pete-
Sorry, I can’t spell. It’s Bangalore, the epicenter of India IT Outsourcing.
http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3886743
May 25th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
15
StateFans Nation » Blog Archive » ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 Shuffles College Football on-air talent says:
[...] You will enjoy this link discussing some of this in much more detail. [...]
May 25th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
16
dbldomer7375 says:
“Musberger-Davie blabomination” Well done, sir, a finely turned phrase.
Although I would suggest that Boob will indulge in “footbaw tawk.” Could there be some form of oriental mystic learning that keeps Boob from enunciating the “L” sound?
May 25th, 2006 at 2:58 pm
17
Notre Dan says:
Good start Kanu. I think the conversation with Bangalore continues:
“Whoa, now hold on there Jagdesh. I’ve seen a lot of laptop screens in my day and I’m telling you this one has got some major problems my friend. But don’t count it out just yet. There is still a faint flicker of light and I’m here to tell ya that this one is far from over.”
May 25th, 2006 at 5:27 pm
18
Orson Swindle says:
The boot screen is up and IT’S HUMMING ALONG and it looks LIKE WE’VE GOT AN ERROR MESSAGE!!!
May 25th, 2006 at 5:29 pm
19
PSUgirl says:
I gotta admit it – Herbie is pretty darn cute. I hated him for a long time – and I’ll never forgive him for his football lineage – but I’m only human. Golly, that’s a particularly dreamy picture – thank goodness I’m not in an ohio library.
May 25th, 2006 at 5:41 pm
20
Kanu says:
Nice work lads.
All we need now is “well, folks…”, a “Jackaroooot” and a “dandy” we’ll pretty much be done.
May 25th, 2006 at 6:03 pm
21
PeteJayhawk says:
Kanu,
I know what you meant…I just thought it was sounded kind of humorous what with the Bangladesh/Bangalore mashup.
May 25th, 2006 at 6:41 pm
22
Odell 51 says:
Not to point out the obvious, but that has to be the funniest picture I have ever seen.
“Lee Corso is a Penis”
Perfect.
May 25th, 2006 at 9:54 pm
23
Mr. Egger says:
Please, oh PLEASE don’t tell me they’re getting rid of Nick Lachey? Will Chris Connoly be doing weekly ‘human interest’ stories? By the way, when did ESPN and MTV start sharing? I’ve thought it for a little while now, but ESPN is slowly becoming to sports the same as MTV is now to music. Both have slowly morphed away from what brought them their audience in the first place.
May 25th, 2006 at 11:06 pm
24
irishoutsider says:
ESPN has Tom Petty chained up in a sub-basement somewhere, so itll probably be a season full of “Running Down the Dream.”
The next logical step for ESPN is going to be regular live concerts on location. It sounds horrible, but I think we would all pay to see Corso act like Tom Cruise on BET.
May 25th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
25
tzubear says:
“Ace of Spades by Motorhead, accompanied by nothing but clips of massive hits”
LOL! Hilarious. I might actually wake up early enough to catch that.
May 26th, 2006 at 9:37 am
26
Orson Swindle says:
We’ll make it as soon as we can, Tzubear.
May 26th, 2006 at 9:39 am
27
clark williams says:
Nothing has been the same since they yanked the best TV college football announcer Ron Franklin and Mike Gottfried. They knew the Southeastern Conference like very few other analysts and understood the importance of it in everyday lives.
May 26th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
28
jaybuzz says:
Actually, CBS had a really nice Green Day “Wake Me Up When September Ends” highlight montage during the Bama-Gator beatdown last year.
And I understand the Herbie thing- my wife tolerates my Jeff Bridges mancrush without emasculating me for it.
Lust on friend, lust on.
John Saunders-”Arrogant Blowhard”… discuss.
May 26th, 2006 at 9:39 pm