In his most recent mailbag, college football’s newest author* ranks his favorite announcers.
My USC and LSU of play-by-play guys, if you will, remain the same — Ron Franklin and Brent Musburger. (Don’t start with me, Brent haters. I’m not ashamed to admit I still get a kick out of hearing those three words: “You’re looking live.”) Unfortunately, ABC/ESPN has marginalized Franklin — the undisputed voice of prime-time SEC football for a decade — by shifting him to ABC’s afternoon Big 12 games (and replacing him with Mike Patrick?? C’mon. If I wanted to be preached to for three hours, I’d go find a church). Both decisions baffle me, as does Dan Fouts’ decision to become a play-by-play guy.
Amongst color analysts, Bob Davie has really grown on me the past couple of years, and Kirk Herbstreit has ascended to undisputed status (in my opinion at least) as the most insightful in-game commentator. So if I were to redo those lists three years later, my play-by-play guys would remain mostly the same (No. 1 Franklin, No. 2 Musburger, No. 3 Brad Nessler, No. 4 Verne Lundquist and No. 5 Sean McDonough), while the analyst list has changed to: No. 1 Herbstreit, No. 2 Todd Blackledge, No. 3 Davie, No. 4 Charles Davis (the surprise star of FOX’s first BCS broadcasts last year) and No. 5 Chris Spielman.
Call me a Brent hater if you will, but Brent Musburger has to be in the top 5 worst. When he hosts an event, it’s fine; but when he’s in the booth, all liquored up and cheering for the side he has a grand on (or giving away hand signals), it is simply awful. The second biggest mistake of this list is Charles Davis as the 4th best analyst. Frankly, Charles’s analysis on TBS games was so bad that the only way to watch those games was in silence. Charles needs to go back to the Golf Channel and the Grey Goose 19th hole and stay away from college football.
With that off my chest, here is my list of the best announcers and analysts for college football (national only). Feel free to provide additions or deletions in the comments.
Announcers
- Brad Nessler
- Ron Franklin (we agree with Mandel: he has been screwed by ESPN)
- Pam Ward (she never steps on the analyst’s words, and she is unbiased)
- Verne Lundquist
- Sean McDonough
Analysts:
- Gary Danielson (his work with Nessler was the best)
- Kirk Herbstreit
- Todd Blackledge (except that he gets killed by Mike Patrick)
- Chris Spielman
- Pat Haden (even better when not with Tom Hammond on the Notre Dame swallow-a-thon)
Sideline:
- Erin Andrews (that’s it—that’s the list)
* Although you should read Dan Jenkins’s Saturday’s America first.
August 22nd, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Please save a place on the Worst list for former SMU ponyboy Craig James. Even after his incessant on-air trashing of the Pac-10 leading up to his prediction of an OU smackdown of USC in the 2005 Orange Bowl (oops), ABC continues to inflict his giggling, overgrown-frat-boy “commentary” on the cfb audience year after year.
The most frightening sentence on his Wikipedia page?
“James also operates his own broadcasting school, eponymously called the Craig James School of Broadcasting.”
August 23rd, 2007 at 12:59 pm
I like your play-by-play list and would probably have Lundquist even higher. He also lets his analysts do their thing and he has genuine enthusiasm to match the big SEC games he calls. I’ve always been a Ron Franklin fan and can’t figure out why he has such a low profile there now…
Two others for the analyst rankings…Andre Ware and Petros Papadakis. I really enjoy Ware and think he deserves better games. And I’m not putting Petros in there just because I’m an ‘SC fanatic…I think he really knows his stuff.
August 24th, 2007 at 7:08 am
Pam Ward you have got to be kidding. The radio comes on and the tv goes mute the instance I hear her voice announcing WVU games.
August 25th, 2007 at 11:15 am
I’ve got to agree somewhat with Defender90 on Craig James. James has a real nice television presence, but he’s got this Texas sense of nationalism that he tries real hard to cover but it just comes glaring through. He’s a real SEC homer as well. A James quote from last year on USC: “They’re just not that good” …Oh yeah?…Ask Michigan, pal. (and Cal, Notre Dame, and Oregon as well).
Bob Griese wins the most annoying sidekick award hands down. I’m always left wondering about his intelligence (This guy QB’d a Superbowl Championship team?). His infamous quote from the 2005 Orange Bowl (USC vs OU): “I really like this kid (Matt Leinart), but he doesn’t have a suporting cast”…. What? Reggie Bush? LenDale? Duece Latui? Baker? Kalil? Jarrett? Smith?
Again, What was that you said Mr. Griese? Lofa? Shaun Cody? Matt Grottegood? Where has your head been? That was several years ago, but Griese continues to amaze with his “brilliant” commentary.
For reasons obvious to everyone in this nation (with the possible exception a few very dense folks from South Bend), Lou Holtz takes the most annoying award for college football “analyst”.
January 12th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
[...] In the pre-season, I made a list of analysts and announcers that I liked. Now, I took serious heat for my Danielson and Ward opinion. After watching them in 2007, I must have been drunk or not watched a game that they had broadcast since 2003. Danielson and Nessler were great on ABC, but Gary and Verne Lundquist were nearly on Mute by halftime in every SEC game I watched. Pam Ward should never be allowed in a booth for a football game ever again (of course having Ray Bentley as an analyst does not help at all). [...]
January 14th, 2010 at 10:08 am
Craig james is by far the worst. And after he used his bully pulpit to force action against Coach Leach. What an A Hole. This guy lacks character ( remember he took money to play at SMU ) and it shows. Now it appears he has used his poor judgement to kill two college football programs. What a douche.