College football coverage on television is always interesting and last weekend was no different. 790 The Zone’s David Pollack has been doing games on ESPNU all season long with play-by-play partner Rob Stone and the last few weeks the young tandem have had some cruddy games. Last week Stone and Pollack were in Blacksburg, Virginia as the Hokies of Virginia Tech faced Central Michigan. The two have also done games involving FIU and Samford but two weeks ago did the Wake Forest/Georgia Tech game. As bad as the games are that ESPNU sticks Pollack with, he clearly won the coin toss with one of his fellow “Experts” cohorts Danny Kanell. As I flipped to ESPNU to check out the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets taking on the Cavaliers of Virginia, I shuddered when I heard the low tones of Pam Ward setting the scene as the Atlanta skyline invited the viewers to Historic Grant Field at Bobby Dodd Stadium. Georgia Tech fans surely groaned as they heard Ward going over the offensive philosophy of Yellow Jackets head coach Paul Johnson, but she didn’t make too egregious of an error for me to comment on here. While Pollack doesn’t have the good games, he also doesn’t have to deal with Ward, though you just KNOW that his 790 The Zone Pollack & Bell co-host Mike Bell would LOVE for Pollack to have been partnered up with one of his famous spoofing targets.
Speaking of Georgia Tech, since I had to mute the television to avoid hearing Ward butcher the call of the game by not knowing how many quarters there in a college game (it sounds ridiculous, but I wouldn’t put it past her…), I tuned in to 790 The Zone to hear Wes Durham call the game. (PS, I believe Ward has a deeper voice) One thing I found interesting was, late in the second half, Durham made the comment after Tech took control of the ball, “And we’ll likely see the Novocain offense here.” Now I am 99.99% certain that this was not a swipe by the Georgia Tech play-by-play announcer at the play-calling of Coach Paul Johnson, but what if subconsciously it was? What if he was just like the REST of the college football world that doesn’t wear Old Gold, Navy and White (and even some that do) that is sick of this boring, high school offense? As one of the play-by-play announcers for GPB’s Friday Night Game of the Week, I see enough of the Wing-T on Friday nights. I don’t need to see it Saturday mornings or even Sunday afternoons as Johnson alluded it could work in the NFL in a recent column in The Sporting News. What if Durham had heard from enough football fans that were fed up with the offense that it seeped into a part of his brain that let it slip when Tech was dominating Virginia? Again, it most likely wasn’t meant with any ill will towards the play-calling, but what did Tech have to lose by trying to give the fans SOMETHING at the end of a game the Jackets were clearly going to win?
Does anyone else that watches CBS’s SEC coverage pick up on the fact that Gary Danielson is clearly a cross between Nostradamus and Stephen Hawking? Seriously! This guy is SOOO freaking smart it is unreal. ANYTHING that happens in the SEC Saturday game of the week, he knows about and he knew it was going to happen. I’m not sure if it is his tone or the smugness with which he delivers his analysis, but something about Danielson just comes across weird. If you tracked his common expressions, the top of the chart would be, “this is exactly what we KNEW would happen Verne.” Interesting, Gary. Why did Verne just say, “Wow, Gary! Can you believe this is happening?” He KNEW that Georgia was going to run onto the field and celebrate in 2007. He KNEW that Auburn would take an early lead over Alabama last season. He KNEW that Ryan Mallet would start Arkansas/Alabama game on such a hot streak with some early TDs. If an alien spaceship were to suddenly descend onto the field at Death Valley, surely Danielson would have foreseen that happening. “Verne, we KNEW this was going to happen. The Green Men are clearly trying to help LSU slow down Cam Newton and this Auburn offensive attack!”
In case you picked up any of the recent Sports Illustrated or The Sporting News issues looking for some predictions on the NHL season and the Thrashers in particular, I doubt you found anything. No, not just on the Thrashers, but on the NHL. WOW, hockey just doesn’t get ANY sort of pub anymore, and you sort of have to blame the NHL as well as ESPN. When the National Hockey League’s television contract was up with ESPN several years back, the commissioner and other league execs shopped the rights around and decided to go for more money with Versus. Apparently that didn’t please ESPN and the Worldwide Leader of course stopped discussing hockey pretty much anytime other than the playoffs. Without ESPN talking about it, the magazines followed suit too and the only hockey preview I’ve gotten this for this season (which has already started, by the way), has come from the Score Atlanta Scoreboard Show this past Sunday on 790 The Zone. Michael Queen broke down the Thrashers’ playoff chances, which he put at 60% and he said that the team likely would not be breaking up the team with all of the new additions and acquisitions because the players are relatively inexpensive. He noted that the team was just five wins away from the playoffs last season, and in his opinion, the team has made the effort to make a playoff push this season. The Thrashers can be heard on 680 The Fan and you can read all about Atlanta’s hockey squad in Score Atlanta.
And PS, could some one tell Jim Mora Jr of Fox and the NFL Network that NO, Michael Vick WASN’T listening to him back when both were with the Falcons!
Can you believe he said that?
“I don’t think anyone would confuse Tim Hudson with a great-hitting pitcher.”
That gem was from TBS’s Bob Brenly after Hudson broke up Jonathan Sanchez’s no-hit bid in game three of the Giants/Braves National League Divisional Series. Brenly was joined in the booth by Dick Stockton and on the field by Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated. Stockton was finally able to alert Brenly that ACTUALLY Hudson led the Braves pitchers in hits this season, for the record. Also, while at Auburn, Hudson was a pretty decent hitter. Just so he knows…
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