ESPN ANNOUNCER PAIRINGS FOR FALL WOOOOOOOYEAH
ESPN just released their announcer pairings for the fall, something we found via Pat Forde’s Twitter feed. We thank you and your majestic frontispiece of a hairstyle, Mr. Forde. It could cut a skirt steak dragged across it into fajita strips ready for the skillet.
The new arrangements for the fall:
Matt Millen’s Inexplicable Employment Continues. What Matt Millen has to offer to college football that Chris Spielman doesn’t is clear: the stigma of reeking, carrion-strong failure from being the worst GM in the history of the NFL. If the stench is real, his new broadcast partners Sean McDonough will have to wear a gas mask. This would probably be just as good as most in-game commentary, now that we think about it. Holly Rowe moves over from ESPN to join them for ABC Saturdays, and it will probably be a bit blander overall than the Spielman/McDonough combo since Millen’s not likely to say anything as cool as “hunt, dog, hunt!”
Spielman moves to work with Dave Pasch and Bob Griese, and they’ll be working the noon game on ESPN.
The Champagne Crew: Nessler, Blackledge, and Andrews keep the ESPN Saturday Prime Time slot, a.k.a. The Ron Franklin Suite. Musberger, Herbstreit, and Salters on Saturday’s Blue-Ribbon game stay strong, as well.
Caucasian Menudo: The trio of James, Fowler, and Palmer remain together, who for our buck were the most gregarious, entertaining, freewheeling, and surprising crew last year in how much fun they had in the booth together.
Palmer gets additional face time as an in-studio analyst on Saturdays, thus expanding the Gator Nation’s reach into even our most hallowed halls of power like College Football Live. The Jort Illuminati grows in power; we approve. Andrews remains with them, and should really just start brandishing a combat shotgun everywhere she goes.
James will also see a shuffle as he joins Mike Patrick and Heather Cox for Saturday broadcasts on ESPN. Thus ends Patrick’s endless bellyaching over Blackledge’s immortal rabbit metabolism during “Todd’s Taste of the Town,” and begins the ascendency of Cox in the rankings of “soon-to-be-ruthlessly-stalked.” Buy options now.
Most importantly: DAVE LIVES. One of them, anyway. The new agreement effectively turning Jefferson Pilot/Lincoln Financial/Nigerian Space Program Television into ESPN Regional brings along one Dave, Dave Neal, who was forced to fight the other Daves to the death with the broken end of a pool cue by Norby Williamson dressed as the Joker. Neal emerged, bloodied and wild-eyed, and could be visibly shaken as he works with Andre Ware and Cara Capuano on the regionals.
This requires revision: The reverse negative of Ole Miss fan Shepherd Smith–Brock Huard–will proved commentary for the new Saturday night SEC game on ESPNU along with Eric Collins. Ron White belongs in this booth as a third banana, and be promises he’ll keep his Scotch off-camera.









1
cgb says:
Maryland fans projectile vomited half-eaten crabs after that Darren Evans hit.
July 9th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
2
twogreattastes says:
What are the over-unders on the number of times Jesse Palmer will say “boy o boy” or “man o man” per game this year? I swear he said one of those two no less than 51 times in each of last year’s broadcast.
July 9th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
3
Tom Kazanski says:
I miss Ron Franklin calling Saturday night SEC games.
July 9th, 2009 at 3:37 pm
4
Fightin' Englishman says:
Nessler-for-Patrick is a definite upgrade.
Am disappointed that Ron Franklin is, for yet another year, relegated to the Lubbock/Waco/Stillwater hinterlands. Or wherever the heck he’s been.
July 9th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
5
Mr. Pelican Pants says:
Did Lee Corso get absorbed into Smokey Robinson? Did he just retire before or after the stroke? Or was the stroke caused by ESPN breaking up the Dream Team that was College Gameday?
Is Bob “Footbaw” Davie still alive? Why not just make every Ex-ND Coach a career commentator? We could have Holthz, Davie AND Willingham
July 9th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
6
Pandemonium Reigns says:
Can we please get an offseason installment of Mike Patrick’s Cabinet of Wonders?
July 9th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
7
Bobby Briggs says:
#3
I concur. Is ESPN still “disciplining” him for calling Holly Rowe honey? If so that’s ridiculous. Although I guess if they aren’t and just don’t think he’s their best play by play man, that’s even more ridiculous.
July 9th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
8
Signal to Noise says:
Breaking up the Nessler-Griese-Maguire train wreck is going to make the Saturday afternoon Big 10 or ACC game a lot less interesting.
July 9th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
9
Mike says:
I won’t really believe JP/LF is dead until the season begins.
The visual of the three Dave’s fighting to the death is comedic gold.
July 9th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
10
DrB says:
I miss the days of Franklin and Gottfried calling the night games.
Ron is a good play-by-play man, he should get a good slot.
July 9th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
11
AERose says:
“Is Bob “Footbaw” Davie still alive? Why not just make every Ex-ND Coach a career commentator? We could have Holthz, Davie AND Willingham”
Willingham and Millen commentating team plz.
July 9th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
12
Barbecue Hashmark says:
You forgot to mention that Erin Pageviews will be spending her Saturday nights with us college football fans, as I’m sure she prefers.
Not mentioning Erin? What kind of a blog are you running here, anyway?
July 9th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
13
gosouthgohard says:
@barbecue hash:
He did, under her pseudonym of “Andrews”.
July 9th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
14
Crabapple Buck says:
To counter balance your two Gators – Jesse Palmer and Erin Andrews, tOSU gives you Kirk Herbstreit, Chris Spielman and Robert Smith. ND gives us two former coaches. One who knew how to coach and do magic tricks. The other was magical in the way he mismanaged the clock and the English language.
On a more serious note, Chris Spielman’s wife Stephanie is in another battle with a recurrence of breast cancer. From what I have heard, it is worse than the first time.
He would probably warrant a better assignment than being stuck with Pasch and Griese, but needs to be close to home and ESPN could go with 2 in the booth if need warrants.
July 9th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
15
TigerNacho says:
Still! No Ron Franklin?!
ESPN hates our freedom.
July 9th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
16
Pig Stabbi n Z says:
I am thankful for every year that ESPN decides to keep Rece Davis in the studio show. That guy is fantastic.
July 9th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
17
CADawg says:
Uncle Verne shat out the remaining Daves without remorse or pleasure.
July 9th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
18
JD says:
Good to see Pam Ward still patroling the third-tier ACC/non-BCS game on ESPN2 on Saturday afternoons. And shutting down the town’s biker bars the night before.
July 9th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
19
Ryan says:
Great stuff here: The Ron Franklin Suite and the Dave Death Match are both gold.
July 9th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
20
JimHalpert says:
Dave Neal will be a sad, cold man without the other two. The whole of The Daves was definitely better than the sum of its third-rate parts.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:35 pm
21
Ltrain says:
I wish Fox would do Saturday games so I could miss a few snaps a game to see a band member staring blankly into space…
July 10th, 2009 at 8:43 am
22
hobeg8r says:
Ltrain – or get the downs wrong on a goal-line situation.
July 10th, 2009 at 9:44 am
23
Brizzle says:
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: I hate Mike Patrick. He ruins every sport he touches. Fuck him in the ear with a wire hanger. That said, Paul Maguire deserves a fate worse than death. I hope they put him out on that fuckin chair again and he gets struck by lightning and shit on by a flock of birds at the same time.
July 10th, 2009 at 9:46 am
24
EZ says:
@ 9,
Amen. Not seeing Buzz Baker at 11am is gonna be tough. I’m gonna miss that dorky little party ball.
July 10th, 2009 at 10:50 am
25
Hawgustus Caesar says:
Matt “Meathead” Millen is to an NFL GM Office as Chris “Monosyllabic Grunt” Spielman is to the broadcast booth.
July 10th, 2009 at 11:18 am
26
Miss Horn Dawg says:
No more Buzz?!?!? Goddammit to hell. Yeah, a dorky little party ball. I used to think he was disabled because he was always in that chair!
July 10th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
27
Card carrying member says:
Jort Illuminati… Delightfully evil. A term for the ages. No doubt Pope Urban will replace the phrase “Gator Nation” with it in the gospel according to Tebow starting with “the speech”.
July 10th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
28
Al-D says:
@ 27
the term Jort Illuminati just made my whole summer.
The dave’s fighting to the death is the funniest mental image I’ve had in years. That said, until last year when they added some hi def, JP/LF’s graphics that were so bad my xbox 360 definitely looked more like a actual football game
July 11th, 2009 at 9:28 am
29
icgold says:
Agree with those calling for more Ron Franklin. Why must they keep forcing Pam Ward on us?
July 11th, 2009 at 8:20 pm