College Football Week #2: ESPN, Fox, NBA and CBS Sports Network lead way; Full list of voices and times
By David J. Halberstam 09/09/2020
Update:
As for college football, ESPN confirmed that only feature games and ones running on ABC will be covered by the announcers live from the site. The others will be a mixed bag. The MNF crew will be at the stadium. An ESPN executive said this:
“MNF will travel and so will some of our college teams, including the ABC and ESPN primetime crews. Many of the college crews will either be in studio locations (Bristol, Charlotte, etc.) or the announcers will be in their homes, like (Dave) O’Brien and (Tim) Hasselbeck tonight.”
Frankly, I was watching the game with an educated eye of 40 plus years and could have sworn up and down that the duo was in Miami. We’ll have to investigate the secret to their success. Football has to be tough to do off a monitor. The two called the game nonchalantly.
Sideline reporter Katie George did a fine job but she was required to wear a mask. Unfortunately, she often sounded muffled, presenting challenges for viewers.
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You’ve likely not seen a college football schedule as limited as the one beginning tomorrow night, certainly not by week#2.
It’s the pandemic that’s caused it. The SEC won’t begin until September 26th. The Big Ten, Pac-12 and Mountain West plus UConn, Old Dominion and UMass have all canceled their 2020 seasons. There are rumblings that at the urging of politicians and others, the Big Ten is reconsidering its decision. Stay tuned.
So this weekend, it’s the ACC, including Notre Dame, that takes the spotlight. The Big 12 is in business too but two games have already been postponed because due to incidents of Covid-19, SMU at TCU and Louisiana Tech at Baylor. The postponements have caused shuffling of announcer assignments. Fox’ lead team, Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt has been reassigned from the cancelled Baylor game to Arkansas State at Kansas State. Brian Custer and Robert Smith were scheduled to do that game but because of the cancellation won’t be working this weekend.
Tim Brando has Coastal Carolina at Kansas this weekend and the NFL matchup between the Colts and Vikings next weekend.
CBS announced its SEC schedule for the season (below).
The busy Mike Tirico will be ubiquitous as usual. He does Notre Dame Saturday with Tony Dungy. Then the two fly back to Stamford, Connecticut for NBC’s Sunday Night Football.
I was told by ESPN that Dave Lamont won’t be working college football games this fall. It’s disappointing. Lamont is good, honest, opinionated and giving. You’ll recall that he used what can be considered a misconstrued or misinterpreted word after he thought he activated the mute button on a conference call with colleagues. But the mute button wasn’t off. Unfortunately, in these overly and eerily sensitive times, the only word that’s turned golden is silence. That’s too bad. We all need to ease up a bit and this would be a happier and more productive world.
Joe Tessitore does his first college football game since being taken off ESPN’s Monday Night Football. Joe who was an emotional college voice when he did it, has Georgia Tech at Florida State.
Dave Neal does North Carolina-Syracuse game. His dad is Bob Neal, who for years did the NBA for Turner.
Bob Wischusen, Jets’ radio voice, has two games sets this weekend, college and NFL.
Networks, times and announcers covering college football Week #2.
Thursday, Sept. 10
UAB at Miami (Fla.) | 8 p.m. | ACC Network Dave O’Brien, Tim Hasselbeck
Friday, Sept. 11
SMU at TCU — Game postponed
Saturday, Sept. 12
Arkansas State at Kansas State | 12 p.m. | Fox Gus Johnson, Joel Klatt
Syracuse at No. 18 North Carolina | 12 p.m. | ACC Network Dave Neal, Roddy Jones
Louisiana at No. 23 Iowa State | 12 p.m. | ESPN Tom Hart, Mike Golic Sr.
Louisiana Tech at Baylor | 12 p.m. | FOX Game postponed
Charlotte at Appalachian State| 12 p.m. | ESPN2 Bob Wischusen, Dan Orlovsky
Eastern Kentucky at West Virginia | 12 p.m. | Fox Sports 1 Joe Davis, Mark Helfrich
The Citadel at South Florida | 7 p.m. | ESPNU Lincoln Rose, Stanford Routt
Louisiana Monroe at Army | 1:30 p.m. | CBS Sports Network Ben Holden, Ross Tucker
Duke at No. 10 Notre Dame | 2:30 p.m. | NBC Mike Tirico, Tony Dungy
Georgia Tech at Florida State | 3:30 p.m. | ABC Joe Tessitore, Greg McElroy
Campbell at Georgia Southern | 3:30 p.m. | ESPNU Bill Roth, Rene Ingoglia
UTSA at Texas State | 3:30 p.m. | ESPN2 Dave Fleming, Rod Gilmore
Austin Peay at Pittsburgh | 4 p.m. | ACC Network Chris Cotter, Mark Herzlich
Missouri State at No. 5 Oklahoma | 7 p.m. | Pay-per-view Chad McKee, Chuck Long
No. 1 Clemson at Wake Forest | 7:30 p.m. | ABC Sean McDonough, Todd Blackledge
Tulane at South Alabama | 7:30 p.m. | ESPN2 Mike Couzens, Dustin Fox
UTEP at No. 14 Texas | 8 p.m. | Longhorn Network Lowell Galindo, Andre Ware
Houston Baptist at Texas Tech | 8 p.m. | ESPN+ : Anish Shroff Tom Luginbill
Western Kentucky at Louisville | 8 p.m. | ACC Network Roy Philpott, Tim Hasselbeck
Coastal Carolina at Kansas | 10 p.m. | Fox Sports 1 Tim Brando, Spencer Tilman
CBS has announced its SEC schedule:
DATE TIME (ET) GAME
Saturday, Sept. 26 3:30 PM MISSISSIPPI STATE at LSU
Saturday, Oct. 3 3:30 PM TEXAS A&M at ALABAMA
Saturday Oct. 10 3:30 PM SEC ON CBS GAME OF THE WEEK
Saturday, Oct. 17 8:00 PM GEORGIA at ALABAMA
Saturday, Oct. 24 3:30 PM SEC ON CBS GAME OF THE WEEK
Saturday, Oct. 31 3:30 PM LSU at AUBURN
Saturday, Nov. 7 3:30 PM FLORIDA vs. GEORGIA
Saturday, Nov. 14 6:00 PM ALABAMA at LSU
Saturday, Nov. 21 3:30 PM SEC ON CBS GAME OF THE WEEK
Saturday, Nov. 28 3:30 PM SEC ON CBS GAME OF THE WEEK
Saturday, Dec. 5 3:30 PM SEC ON CBS GAME OF THE WEEK
Saturday, Dec. 19 TBD SEC CHAMPIONSHIP
Brad Nessler and Gary Danielson, along with reporter Jamie Erdahl, are CBS Sports’ lead college football announce team. Gene Steratore is the rules analyst.
