Bowl Season Announcing Recap and Grades- ESPN/ABC

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

So after 32 games, and countless live-blogs I've got your final Network grades for the Bowl Games. As always.....please feel free to share your own thoughts in the comments. ESPN is up first.....

Here is your list of announcers for every single Bowl Game this season on ESPN (I know....I'm psycho for keeping track of this).
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ESPN2 San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl– San Diego Northern Illinois vs. TCU Rece Davis, Lou Holtz, Mark May and Rob Stone

ESPN Pioneer PureVision Las Vegas Bowl – #20 BYU vs. Oregon
Las Vegas Brent Musburger, Bob Davie, Craig James and Lisa Salters

ESPN2 R&L Carriers New Orleans Bowl – Rice vs. Troy
New Orleans Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman and Rob Stone

ESPN2 Papajohns.com Bowl – South Florida vs. East Carolina
Birmingham, Ala. Gary Thorne, Andre Ware and Todd Harris

ESPN New Mexico Bowl – New Mexico vs. San Jose State
Albuquerque, N.M. Bob Wischusen, Rod Gilmore, Trevor Matich and Stacey Dales

ESPN Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl –Tulsa vs. Utah
Fort Worth, Texas Mike Patrick, Todd Blackledge and Holly Rowe

ESPN Sheraton Hawaii Bowl – Hawaii vs. Arizona State
Honolulu Mark Jones, David Norrie and Heather Cox

ESPN Motor City Bowl – Middle Tennessee vs. Central Michigan
Detroit Dave Lamont, Ray Bentley and Vince Welch

ESPN Emerald Bowl – Florida State vs. #25 UCLA
San Francisco Dan Fouts, Tim Brant and Jack Arute

ESPN PetroSun Independence Bowl – Oklahoma State vs. Alabama Shreveport, La. Gary Thorne, Andre Ware and Todd Harris

ESPN Pacific Life Holiday Bowl – #21 Texas A&M vs. #18 Cal
San Diego Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Erin Andrews

ESPN Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl – Clemson vs. Kentucky
Nashville, Tenn. Dave Pasch, Rod Gilmore, Trevor Matich and Stacey Dales

ESPN AutoZone Liberty Bowl – South Carolina vs. Houston
Memphis, Tenn. John Saunders, Craig James, Doug Flutie and Todd Harris

ESPN Champs Sports Bowl – Purdue vs. Maryland
Orlando, Fla. Brad Nessler, Bob Griese, Paul Maguire and Bonnie Bernstein

ESPN Meineke Car Care Bowl – Navy vs. #24 Boston College
Charlotte, N.C. Pam Ward, Mike Gottfried and Jimmy Dykes

ESPN Alamo Bowl – #19 Texas vs. Iowa
San Antonio, Texas Sean McDonough, Chris Spielman and Rob Stone

ESPN Chick-fil-A Bowl – Georgia vs. #15 Virginia Tech
Atlanta Ron Franklin, Ed Cunningham and Dr. Jerry Punch

ESPN MPC Computers Bowl – Miami vs. Nevada
Boise, Idaho Mark Jones, David Norrie and Heather Cox

ESPN Outback Bowl – #17 Tennessee vs. Penn State
Tampa, Fla. Mike Patrick, Todd Blackledge and Holly Rowe

ABC Capital One Bowl – #12 Arkansas vs. #7 Wisconsin
Orlando, Fla. Brad Nessler, Bob Griese, Paul Maguire and Erin Andrews

ABC Rose Bowl Presented by Citi – #5 USC vs. #3 Michigan
Pasadena, Calif. Brent Musburger, Bob Davie, Kirk Herbstreit, Lisa Salters and Bonnie Bernstein

ESPN2 International Bowl – Western Michigan vs. Cincinnati
Toronto John Saunders, Craig James, Doug Flutie and Todd Harris

ESPN GMAC Bowl – Ohio vs. Southern Miss Mobile, Ala. Gary Thorne, Andre Ware and Rob Stone
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Good lord....where do I even start? Well let's break this down Awards style.....

Best Announcing Team- Chris Fowler/Kirk Herbstreit (With the added bonus of Erin Andrews), The Holiday Bowl

I love when they do games. I have to actually TRY to find things wrong with their broadcast, and I rarely do. It's a shame ESPN continues to leave their best teams as the Studio Show.


Worst Announcing Team- Tie between Fouts/Brant (Emerald Bowl) & Thorne/Ware (GMAC Bowl)





Lowlights:


Thorne
referred to a player as "Old Man Handy".
"Usually that's a false start when they blow the whistle before the whistle"- Ware
"The eyes are still down the field, which allows him to make the play." - Ware
"Oh no, he broke my ankles."- Ware
"Weakley had one reception on the year coming in, so now he has two."- Thorne
"Effort penalties, I'm okay with - those are just part of the game." - Ware
"This one's starting to have the aroma of a barn burner!"- Fouts
"As Jack talked about this is a flat field because it's a baseball field"- Fouts
"Steve Barth our referee from the USA.....Conference."- Fouts
"Booker looks looked like he was heading to halelujah land"- Brant
"And the fair catch is signaled and....IT'S MIFFED!"- Fouts

Best Supporting Actor (Best Color Guy)- Bob Griese, Champs Sports Bowl

The Greaseman took Paul Maguire to task on a regular basis during the Champs Sports Bowl leading to this exchange.....

"I think it's an honor to sit next to a Hall of Famer"- PM
"Umm, I wish I could say the same"- BG

Best Supporting Actress (Best Sideline Reporter)- Erin Andrews, Multiple Bowls

Come on......who did you think I was going to pick? And before you get all uppity and call me sexist....I needed a category for the women. Pam Ward was not winning for anything and there are no female colorguys persons. (Erin barely beat out Dr. Jerry Punch who I think is just dreamy)


Best Bowl Game- Chick-fil-A Bowl (Georgia/VT)

To tell you the truth the majority of the Bowl Games ESPN showed this year sucked. They were either low scoring or blowouts. This was the only one that didn't disappoint.

AA's Final Grade:

The sheer amount of Announcers ESPN has is mind-boggling. You could probably create an okay team if you nixed a few folks (Ware, Fouts, Maguire, Mike Patrick, etc.) I think the games themselves played a big part in the announcers being pretty bad this year, and I'm not going to penalize them for that. So........

C-

Join me for the NFL Network and Fox tomorrow. Don't forget to stop by at around 9PM for Just Call Me Juice's live-blog of the Wisconsin/Ohio State tilt tonight.

10 Comments:

"Shear?" Come on, now.

Anonymous said...
Jan 9, 2007, 3:19:00 PM  

AA,

I would remind you that the Independence Bowl was actually very exciting and down to the wire. And the Bowl featured the best halftime interview conducted since Bonnie Bernstein mentioned two Dicks while interviewing Dick Jauron and working with PBP man Dick Enberg.

Anonymous said...
Jan 9, 2007, 3:26:00 PM  

Yes, Shear. I was referring to Dan Fouts' Beard.

Very true Radioman...good call.

Jan 9, 2007, 3:32:00 PM  

Not to point out another great bowl game on ESPN you failed to mention, but the Alamo Bowl was pretty entertaining. Given, I'm an Iowa fan, but I think anyone who watched that game was entertained.

Anonymous said...
Jan 9, 2007, 4:22:00 PM  

I think there is a really embarrassingly low number of Erin Andrews candids available on the net.

I believe that every single college football and basketball fan should make it his New Year's Resolution to address this outrage!

In a world of cheap digital cameras and camera phones we should be able to fix this pretty easily.

Jay said...
Jan 9, 2007, 4:49:00 PM  

I am constantly amazed by all the work Tim Brant gets, and especially distraught because for those of us in the DC area this clown is one of the local sports anchors.

T.J. said...
Jan 9, 2007, 7:04:00 PM  

Gary Thorne needs to leave college football alone. Go to Versus and call hockey.

Signal to Noise said...
Jan 9, 2007, 8:20:00 PM  

How can you call Erin Andrews an "added bonus" when she ALWAYS works as the sideline reporter for Herbstreit and Fowler.

Anonymous said...
Jan 10, 2007, 9:06:00 AM  

Fouts wasn't so bad when he was Keith Jackson's color guy. He's fingernails on a chalkboard doing PBP, though.

Anonymous said...
Jan 10, 2007, 3:10:00 PM  

think my biggest problem with fouts is not so much what he says, but for years he was the analyst alongside keith jackson. now with him doing the play-by-play, I feel like he's out of his element and stepping on the other guy's toes.

The Big Picture said...
Jan 10, 2007, 4:54:00 PM  

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