Category Archives: College football

Paper bans columnist from writing about South Carolina football

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Jim Romenesko has a post on why Ron Morris won’t be covering South Carolina football this year. It seems Steve Spurrier isn’t a fan of Morris and has called him out on several occasions.

The 68-year-old football coach won’t have a repeat performance this year, though, because The State has told Morris that he can no longer write about University of South Carolina Gamecocks football. (He’s been writing a lot about Clemson lately.)

“The publisher of the paper has removed Ron from any coverage of the football program, which down there is akin to the Washington Post not letting Dan Balz write about government,” one of Morris’s former colleagues tells me. “Effectively, he’s being forced out at the behest of the football coach, with the publisher not standing up for him.”

Morris declined to talk to me, but others familiar with the situation — including former University of South Carolina and State staffers — told me how The State’s publisher made his veteran columnist agree in writing that he would never again write about Gamecocks football or talk about the USC program on TV and radio shows.

“It was a journalism restraining order,” says one of Morris’s ex-colleagues.

Romenesko did reach Spurrier about the situation.

“Ron Morris just wrote stuff that wasn’t true about me and I reacted,” Spurrier told me over the phone last Thursday. “I was fine with him the first five or six years here, and then he would write stuff that wasn’t true.”

Did he complain to The State’s publisher? I asked.

“I complained to the world about him. I complained to Gamecock Nation on my radio show. But don’t put that on me” that Morris can no longer write about Gamecocks football. “He is responsible for that.”

Of course, a football coach doesn’t have that kind of power, right?

 

Sports Illustrated unloads on Oklahoma State football; 5-part series uncovers much dirt

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Good morning, Oklahoma State. Actually, it isn’t so good.

Sports Illustrated just unveiled the first of a five-part series that alleges Oklahoma State cut some corners to rise to prominence in the 2000s.

Cheating in college football? To quote Capt. Renault, “Shocked.”

Interesting to note that SI’s story will be handled on all of its platforms, and not just the magazine. Yet another example of a new day at SI.

Here’s the official rundown from SI:

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“The Dirty Game,” a SPORTS ILLUSTRATED special investigative report that looks into the transformation of a struggling college football program into a national powerhouse, is set to launch tomorrow morning on SI.com. The series is the result of a comprehensive 10-month investigation into the Oklahoma State University football program. It includes independent and on-the-record interviews with more than 60 former OSU football players who played from 1999 to 2011, as well as current and former OSU football staffers.

The findings will be presented in a five-part series across SI’s family of platforms, beginning with Part 1 (money), which launches on SI.com tomorrow at 9 a.m. ET and is this week’s magazine cover story, on newsstands and tablets Wednesday. Additional live coverage can be found on SI Now, SI.com’s live daily talk show (weekdays at 1 p.m. ET) and across SI’s social media outlets.

After 11 losing seasons in 12 years, OSU turned itself into one of the top programs in the nation. Since 2002, OSU has had 10 winning seasons, earned its first Big 12 title and went to its first BCS Bowl. The report reveals that OSU went to extreme measures to build a winning program, with an increased willingness to cut corners and bend rules. The transgressions began under former coach Les Miles, who was the head coach in Stillwater from 2001 to ’04 and is now the head coach at LSU, and continued under current head coach Mike Gundy, who was promoted from offensive coordinator in 2005.

SI executive editor Jon Wertheim, SI assistant managing editor Hank Hersch and SI.com executive editor B.J. Schecter oversaw the investigative report, which was written and reported by senior writers George Dohrmann and Thayer Evans.

“We wanted to take a comprehensive look at a big-time program, particularly one that made a rapid ascent,” says Wertheim. “There’s obviously a steady drumbeat of scandal in college sports – improper benefits here; a recruiting violation there – and plenty of rumor and hearsay about the unseemly underbelly. For this piece, we were more about venturing inside the factory and seeing how the sausage is made.”

Parts 2 — 4 of the report continue on SI.com this week and the series culminates in next week’s SI issue and on SI.com. In addition, SI.com will feature videos of former Cowboys talking about their experiences in Stillwater. SI Now will have live coverage and reaction throughout the week. The series will run as follows:

Part 1: Money (On SI.com Tuesday, 9/10 and in the 9/16/13 SI issue): SI finds that OSU used a bonus system orchestrated by an assistant coach whereby players were paid for their performance on the field, with some stars collecting $500 or more per game. In addition, the report finds that OSU boosters and at least two assistant coaches funneled money to players via direct payments and a system of no-show and sham jobs. Some players say they collected more than $10,000 annually in under-the-table payouts.
Part 2: Academics (On SI.com Wednesday, 9/11): Widespread academic misconduct, which included tutors and other OSU personnel completing coursework for players, and professors giving passing grades for little or no work, all in the interest of keeping top players eligible.
Part 3: Drugs (On SI.com Thursday, 9/12): OSU tolerated and at times enabled recreational drug use, primarily through a specious counseling program that allowed some players to continue to use drugs while avoiding penalties. The school’s drug policy was selectively enforced, with some stars going unpunished despite repeated positive tests.
Part 4: Sex (On SI.com Friday, 9/13): OSU’s hostess program, Orange Pride, figured so prominently in the recruitment of prospects that the group more than tripled in size under Miles. Both Miles and Gundy took the unusual step of personally interviewing candidates. Multiple former players and Orange Pride members say that a small subset of the group had sex with recruits, a violation of NCAA rules.
Part 5: The Fallout (On SI.com Tuesday, 9/17, and in the 9/23/13 SI issue): SI finds that many players who were no longer useful to the football program were cast aside, returning to worlds they had hoped to escape. Some have been incarcerated, others live on the streets, many have battled drug abuse and a few have attempted suicide.

 

Why Eminem acted so bizarre: ‘He was just messing with everyone’

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Richard Deitsch of SI.com has the back story on Eminem’s bizarre appearance during halftime of Saturday’s Notre Dame-Michigan.

Bonnell said Eminem arrived at Michigan’s Big House with a small group in the second quarter, and hung out on an ESPN bus for 10 minutes before ESPN escorted him to a room next to the broadcast booth. Prior to the interview, Bonnell described Eminem as “legitimately nervous doing a live interview.” The rapper spoke with Herbstreit and Musburger before the interview started and told them “How do you guys do live TV week to week?”

Bonnell said what viewers did not immediately recognize was that Eminem took on the persona of his Berzerk character in the video. “He was just messing with everyone,” Bonnell said. “We had no idea he would do that, but if you see the music video, it’s him looking into the camera and doing a throwback to the ’80s. You clearly saw after the video was over, he became Marshall Mathers again. He was goofing around.”

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Whatever, by Monday morning, the above video had nearly 800,000 views. Mission accomplished.

 

 

Who was at fault: Reporters going with wrong info or Florida coach for lying?

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Mike Bianchi of the Orlando Sentinel has an interesting column that should prompt discussion in sports journalism classes throughout the country.

It seems Florida coach Will Muschamp called out the media for incorrectly reporting that he had suspended one of his players for Saturday’s game.

Muschamp, who went on a two-minute tirade during his post-game news conference,  barbecued the Gainesville Sun, Palm Beach Post and GatorCountry.com — media entities that all incorrectly reported that true freshman defensive tackle Jay-nard Bostwick was among the Gators suspended for the Toledo game.

“That was very irresponsible journalism,” Muschamp said. “You guys can write whatever you want to say about me … But when you take a shot at a kid, and it’s inaccurate and it’s written inaccurately, I’ve got a problem. … It’s wrong. Damn wrong …. Our trust is done, I can assure you of that. And you know exactly who I’m talking to. I don’t know where them Gator Country guys are, but I’m going to tell you right now we’re done.

“Who was your source?” Muschamp asked, and got no response. “Church mice in here. If you want to write something, stand up and stand behind it.”

However, Bianchi notes Muschamp did his part to contribute to the bad report.

Muschamp, too, indirectly contributed to the sloppy reporting by telling one of those “coaching lies” that unfortunately have become an accepted part of doing business in college football.

Interesting that Muschamp talked about “trust” when he deceived the very reporters who wrote the errant information. One of the reporters — Jason Lieser of the Palm Beach Post — asked Muschamp during an SEC teleconference on Wednesday if any players — other than middle linebacker Antonio Morrison — would be suspended for the opener against Toledo.

Muschamp’s response: “No, not at this time.”

The fact is, Muschamp knew at that time that four additional players were going to be suspended, but he chose to intentionally deceive the media. Had he been forthcoming and released the names of the suspended players at the time, there would have been no mis-reporting of the facts.

Bianchi correctly notes that the reporters still are to blame for not getting the facts right. He concludes:

Call me a dreamer, but I believe journalists should do everything in their power to make sure their facts are correct.

Then again, I also believe coaches should be honest and truthful when dealing with the media.

Keep dreaming about that last point, Mike.

 

Minister Lundquist? After 50 years, announcing still is Verne Lundquist’s ‘calling’

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Here’s the link to my USA Today piece on Verne Lundquist. The great CBS announcer recently celebrated his 50th year in the business.

However, after he graduated college, he almost went into another business.

From the story:

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If Verne Lundquist had felt the calling, he might be beginning his 50th year as a minister.

After graduating from Texas Lutheran College in 1962 with a degree in sociology, he had planned to follow in the footsteps of his father. However, after six weeks at the Lutheran School of Theology in Rock Island, Ill., Lundquist realized he didn’t have the dedication or the calling.

“I have six (credit hours) in Greek, which hasn’t come in particularly handy,” Lundquist said.

While preparing for what figures to be a huge season opener for CBS — Alabama at Texas A&M on Sept. 14 — Lundquist, 73, reflected on his milestone anniversary.

“I know it is a cliché, but I can’t believe I’ve done 50 years,” Lundquist said. “I was thinking, ‘How could this have happened?'”

Lundquist inherited his father’s voice skills. He soon put them to use, landing a job at a radio station in his hometown of Austin. Aug. 31, 1963, Lundquist launched a career that has made him among the most popular and enduring broadcasters in the business.

He eventually became a sports anchor in Dallas. In the days before ESPN, he recalled, he was a one-man operation, shooting and editing his own film.

It was his Lundquist’s radio work on Dallas Cowboys games that attracted the attention of the networks. He started at ABC in 1974 and joined CBS in 1982. He is the network’s lead voice on college football and is a fixture on its NCAA basketball tournament coverage.

Lundquist has been part of the familiar soundtrack for both sports. His play-by-play features an easy and engaging style that adds a distinctive texture to the telecasts.

“My role model was Jim McKay,” Lundquist said. “He was the greatest storyteller we’ve ever had. I try to do the same thing.”

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There’s more in USA Today. Coming next week, I will have the complete interview with Lundquist.

Former Northwestern QB launches innovative new college football site; features former athletes writing about their schools

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C.J. Bacher threw for 7,319 yards and 43 touchdowns as a Northwestern quarterback from 2005-08. Good numbers, to be sure, but after getting cut by the Bears, Bacher put his Masters degree in communication into use.

Football, though, remains in his blood. Ultimately, it led him to his new enterprise, HuddlePass.com. The video provides an explanation.


Danny Ecker of Crain’s Chicago Business writes:

That’s the basis of HuddlePass.com, the 27-year-old’s college sports commentary website, which launches today and brings together the written insights and opinions of 92 former players (to start) into a single hub.

It’s free for users, and it’s different from popular “message board” sites like Scout.com and Rivals.com, which offer “insider” information about teams from week to week. “Huddle experts,” as they are called, will write articles that provide context to what coaches might be thinking, why teams ran certain plays and what players go through on a day-to-day basis.

Here’s more from Bacher in a Q/A.

Short version: How do you describe this concept to people who ask you about it?

HuddlePass is a platform for former college athletes to share their unique perspective with Fans and ultimately bring the Fans closer to their favorite programs. This perspective is focused on two things: providing a behind-the-scenes look at the day-to-day routine of the team and teaching the strategy of the game.

What made you go in this direction?

Over the past three years, I had been writing segment for Wildcat Report focusing on the same type of information (providing an insider’s perspective & teaching the game) and the segment generated a lot of interest from Wildcat Fans. I wasn’t doing anything special and I’m not an exceptional writer; I just focused on what I knew about the program and about the game and the reception of this information was better than expected. Fans want to be closer to the Huddles of their favorite teams.

Talk about some of the people who are contributing?

We’ve got a great group of contributors for HuddlePass in 2013. Kyle Kleckner (Illinois DB), Brandon Villarreal (Purdue OL), and Chris Malleo (Northwestern QB/TE/LB) have assembled a team with a strong emphasis on “diversity of perspective”, which our Chief Brand Officer TJ Jones (Northwestern WR) has stressed. Football is a completely different game for different positions and there is a lot to learn. I have found myself learning the game in more depth from some of our guys that played other positions, particularly DL and LBs. Some of the more notable Experts that will be contributing to HuddlePass include Eric Crouch, Craig Krenzel, Juice Williams, Zack Mills, Jeff Smoker, Stuart Schweigert, Bobby Carpenter, Brandon Williams, Tyrone Carter, Keith Conlin, Josh Gaines, Justin Kershaw, and many more. We were very selective in our choosing of Ambassadors from each school, who in turn put together their team of Experts. They have done a great job and our new Ambassadors that we are recruiting in our National Expansion efforts are doing a great job too.

Will they be getting paid. If not, why are they doing it?

First off, I want to mention that the site is completely free to Fans. 50% of all revenue that we generate will be split with our contributors based on the metrics their Huddles generate. Additionally, every Ambassador and Expert that is with us through 2013 will own an equity stake in HuddlePass. It’s really less about the money and more about improving the Fan experience and the Student-Athlete experience at our respective programs, but as Stuart Schweigert put it at our HuddlePass Conference that we held in Chicago in July, “Profit is not a bad word.”

How will your site be different than the myriad of other college football sites out there?

This is a great question. Most sites that are currently out there do a great job of telling Fans the “What.” Our focus is on the “Why”. Why did the Head Coach decide to punt on 4th and Inches? Why did the curl-flat combination work against Cover 3? Why did the team get off to a slow start? This is information that is covered well at the National Level by ESPN and covered at the Conference Level by the Conference Networks like BTN, but not really covered well at the Program-Level.

How would you define success for this site?

Success is defined by the enhancement of the Student-Athlete experience, which is a byproduct of the Fan experience. College Football is such a thrilling experience and it’s really the Fans that make it so great. The more engaged that we can get the Fans and the more knowledge that they have, the more thrilling the Student-Athlete experience will be.

Anything else?

Many people ask us when we will be expanding to other schools and if we are going to expand to other sports. We are currently expanding rapidly to other schools across the country utilizing the network that we have built. As soon as we have the correct infrastructure behind a Program’s Huddle (Ambassadors and Experts, Managing Content Editors, a solid Marketing/PR plan, Program Support, and much more), we will release that school on HuddlePass. We are probably a week or so away from releasing Maryland and Rutgers and we are getting close with other schools like Alabama, Oregon, Oregon State, Boston College, Georgia, and many others. As for other sports, we have begun the process of building out Basketball Huddles, which is going great, and we have plans on expanding to other sports from there.

 

 

One and done: Craig James in, then out at Fox Sports Southwest

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Richard Deitsch of SI.com reports Craig James’ return to the analyst’s chair didn’t last long.

The Craig James era at Fox Sports Southwest will be a short one.

SI.com has learned that the veteran broadcaster will no longer appear on the network. Fox Sports executives were not happy with the hire by the regional network, according to sources, and the hire had not been fully vetted at the highest levels of Fox Sports management. A formal agreement had not been finalized, even though James appeared on FSS on Saturday night. “Craig James will not be making any further appearances on Fox Sports Southwest’s football coverage this season,” said a Fox Sports spokesperson, when asked for a comment.

Q/A with author on new book on Notre Dame’s 1988 national title team: Miami game was among best ever

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Whenever I get asked about my favorite game to cover, I always go back to Notre Dame-Miami in 1988. Of course, the famous “Catholics vs. Convicts” game.

I can’t remember ever attending a game that had a more electric atmosphere than at Notre Dame Stadium on that October Saturday. The game then lived up to its hype, with Miami’s missed two-point conversion at the end sealing the Irish’s 31-30 victory. The thrilling finish left everyone spent, not just the players.

It’s all recounted in a new book, Unbeatable, by Jerry Barca. Barca, who attended that game as an 11-year-old tells the complete story of Notre Dame’s 1988 national title team. It will serve as an early Christmas present for Irish fans.

As someone who covered most of its games that year, including Notre Dame’s win over West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl, it was a chance to relive some old memories.

It’s hard to believe 25 years have flown by. Here’s my Q/A with Barca.

How did this book come about?

I was helping produce the documentary film Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself when I met with literary agent Scott Gould. I was asking him if any of his clients had been influenced by Plimpton’s sports writing. As the conversation splintered into different tangents, I told him I was surprised no one had gone back and revisited Notre Dame’s 1988 national championship team. He didn’t believe it. At that point, the thought was that if I could gain access to the archives, and the former players and coaches, this idea could become a book. The next day, I was on the phone to the Notre Dame Sports Information Department and work began that day in late 2011.

How much time did you spend with Lou Holtz? What memories stood out for him after 25 years?

I spent about two and a half hours with him in New York City. Since there was a lot of source material on him, including two books he wrote, I wanted to know details about games from ’88, and specifically what it takes to win a championship at Notre Dame and how it was different than other places where he had coached.

There were a lot memories that stood out for him: visiting the Notre Dame dorms to talk to students; scrutinizing his quarterbacks in practice; the players who weren’t stars, but great character guys.

Among many others, two other memories stand out and they have to do with the No. 1-versus-No. 2 matchup to end the regular season at USC. I found it funny that both he and Tony Rice talk about Notre Dame’s first offensive play from scrimmage – a play action bomb to Raghib “Rocket” Ismail with Notre Dame backed up to its one-yard-line – and without prompting they both remember ABC play-by-play announcer Keith Jackson misstating that Rice had stepped out of the back of the end zone. The other memory was of Rice’s 65-yard touchdown run. Holtz actually ended up using my notebook to draw up the play. He specifically designed this reverse option to get a half step on the USC middle linebackers and spring Rice for a big play.

Besides Holtz, the other compelling character in the book was Tony Rice. What memories stood out for him?

He has a very detailed memory of how Lou Holtz coached him in practice and that Holtz did not even call him by his name until his junior year. Instead, Holtz called him Rickey, as in Rickey Foggy, an option quarterback out of South Carolina who played for Holtz at Minnesota.

I covered that Miami game, and it is in my top 3 for favorite events I attended. For those who weren’t there, what was the atmosphere like in Notre Dame Stadium?

The atmosphere, it wasn’t just the stadium. It was the campus. It was the months, weeks and days leading up to it. Ever since Miami put that 58-7 pasting on the Irish at the end of the ’85 season Notre Dame fans had the game in ’88 marked on the calendar because it would be the first time the ‘Canes would visit South Bend since that thrashing. It was really as if nothing else was going on in the world.

Loud is probably an understatement to describe the fans inside the stadium. They wanted the win so bad, maybe even more than the players, if that’s possible. I was in the corner of the student section in the 59th row of what was then a 60-row stadium. When Pat Terrell returned an interception for a TD to put the Irish up 21-7 I remember my older brother having to quickly grab me and move me out of the way as this mass of bodies piled on each other in celebration.

As a sporting event, it was the perfect combination of storylines. Miami was the elite program of the era and Notre Dame was resurgent. The revenge factor from ’85 played a role and of course the flashiness of Miami and its pro-style attack countered the veer-option run-first style of Notre Dame. But let’s be honest, the student-made bootleg T-shirt dubbing the game “Catholics vs. Convicts” took the game and the series to an unmatched, galvanizing level.

Besides what people already know about that team, what surprises did you learn while researching the book?

How much the hypocrisy of NCAA and the battles about big-time college football haven’t changed all that much. The particulars might be different, but the fights for TV rights, and, more pointedly, money, along with the questionable fulfillment of the “student-athlete” ideal were as ever-present then as they are now. 1988 provides a great snapshot in time just before the full-on explosion of college football that we have today.

Talk about the legacy of that team?

I think it gets overlooked. While talking to Notre Dame and college football historians during my research, they were quick to tell me, “You know, this wasn’t Notre Dame’s best team.” But people forget this is the group that started and accounts for more than half of the longest winning streak in school history. The ’88 roster had 34 guys who went on to sign NFL contracts. Then the gauntlet of teams they went through, beating the No. 1, 2, and 3 teams throughout the year, winning 10 of 12 games by a double-digit margin. That’s a pretty good legacy to leave.

As someone with close ties to Notre Dame, are you surprised they have gone 25 years without winning a national title?

In 1988, I think if somebody offered you a bet that it would take Notre Dame at least 25 years to win another national title, you’d think the person offering it was crazy. Back then, not winning another title for this long was inconceivable. But things changed and in the post-Holtz era it has taken a while for Notre Dame to find the right guy at the helm. It seems like now they have that type of a leader in Brian Kelly.

 

NBC bumps up Irish coverage: Will do live pregame shows from Notre Dame Stadium

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In addition to Dan Hicks taking over the play-by-play chores this year, NBC is bringing the entire gang to South Bend this year.

Here is the official rundown from NBC:

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Stamford, Conn. – August 21, 2013 – NBC Sports Group will produce a live pre-game show from Notre Dame Stadium, prior to every Notre Dame Football broadcast on NBC, during the upcoming 2013 season. NBC Sports Group’s Notre Dame Football pre-game show will debut Saturday, August 31, at 3 p.m. ET on NBC, preceding the Fighting Irish’s first game of the season against Temple. Beginning on Saturday, September 21, and prior to all remaining Notre Dame Football home games in 2013, including the annual off-site Shamrock Series game, the pre-game show will air on NBCSN.

Liam McHugh will host the show from the field at Notre Dame Stadium, and will be joined on-site by 1984 Heisman Trophy winner Doug Flutie and two-time Super Bowl champion Hines Ward.  McHugh, Flutie and Ward will also handle half-time coverage on NBC broadcasts, all of which will originate from the field.

In addition, NBC Sports Group will produce a post-game show, on NBCSN, after three Notre Dame Football broadcasts on NBC.

NBC will broadcast seven Notre Dame Football games this season, including two in primetime. NBC Sports’ 2013 Notre Dame Football schedule is highlighted by the Fighting Irish’s primetime game against USC on Saturday, October 19, at 7:30 p.m. ET.

Continuing its annual off-site Shamrock Series, Notre Dame will host the Arizona State Sun Devils at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX, on Saturday, October 5, at 7:30 p.m. ET. This is the fifth straight season that NBC will broadcast a Notre Dame off-site home game in primetime.

Live game coverage of Notre Dame Football on NBC begins Saturday, August 31, at 3:30 p.m. ET, when the Fighting Irish host Temple. The 2013 schedule also includes 3:30 p.m. ET games against Michigan State on Saturday, September 21; Oklahoma on Saturday, September 28; Navy on Saturday, November 2; and BYU on Saturday, November 23.

The post-game shows, where applicable, will air on NBCSN, immediately following game coverage on NBC. Post-game shows will air after Temple – Notre Dame on August 31, Oklahoma – Notre Dame on September 21, and BYU – Notre Dame on November 23.

Dan Hicks, NBC Sports Group’s longtime and critically-acclaimed golf and Olympic commentator, will lead NBC Sports’ Notre Dame Football coverage for the first time this season as its play-by-play voice. Hicks will join analyst Mike Mayock and sideline reporter Alex Flanagan for NBC’s 22nd season broadcasting Notre Dame Football home games.                                  

Following is NBC Sports Group’s 2013 Notre Dame Football schedule (all times ET):

Date Opponent Pre-Game Network Game Time Network
Saturday, Aug. 31 Temple** 3 p.m. NBC 3:30 p.m. NBC
Saturday, Sept. 21 Michigan State 3 p.m. NBCSN 3:30 p.m. NBC
Saturday, Sept. 28 Oklahoma** 3 p.m. NBCSN 3:30 p.m. NBC
Saturday, Oct. 5 Arizona State* 7 p.m. NBCSN 7:30 p.m. NBC
Saturday, Oct. 19 USC 6:30 p.m. NBCSN 7:30 p.m. NBC
Saturday, Nov 2 Navy 3 p.m. NBCSN 3:30 p.m. NBC
Saturday, Nov 23 BYU** 3 p.m. NBCSN 3:30 p.m. NBC

*Off-site Shamrock Series game from Arlington, Texas.

** Post-game show on NBCSN

NBC SPORTS LIVE EXTRA ONLINE & APP: NBC Sports Live Extra — the NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices, and tablets — will stream all Notre Dame Football home games.

For desktops, NBC Sports Live Extra can be accessed at NBCSports.com/liveextra. The NBC Sports Live Extra app for mobile devices and tablets is available at the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and on select Android handset and tablet devices within Google Play.

NBC Sports Live Extra online will feature a simulcast of the broadcast feed in full HD quality plus one additional online-only bonus camera. The video player will include picture-in-picture capability and full DVR functionality, allowing the user to pause the live video and even review plays in “slo-mo.”

Sideline reporter Alex Flanagan will provide live in-game tweets. Additionally, fans can watch in-game highlights, live coverage of the Notre Dame and visiting teams’ bands at halftime, as well as live postgame footage that will include head coach Brian Kelly’s press conference.

NBCSPORTS.com

NBCSports.com will again continue its Notre Dame football coverage though its Notre Dame Central section. Notre Dame will also be featured within NBC Sports Talk with its popular Inside The Irish blog written by Notre Dame Football insider Keith Arnold.

 

COMCAST SPORTSNET CHICAGO

Beginning this season, NBC Sports Regional Networks’ Comcast SportsNet Chicago will join forces with NBC Sports to help power NBCSports.com’s “Notre Dame Central” (http://www.nbcsports.com/college-football/notre-dame-central).  CSN Chicago will contribute a dedicated Notre Dame Football “Insider” in JJ Stankevitz (@JJStankevitz) from CSNChicago.com, who will serve as a beat reporter providing up-to-the-minute Fighting Irish news and analysis, columns, game previews/recaps, interviews and much more.

 

Fans can also follow the network’s @IrishTalkCSN Twitter handle for the latest Fighting Irish news and updates 24/7.  Also this season, CSN Chicago will provide its TV viewers with same day replays of every Notre Dame home game produced by NBC Sports beginning Saturday, August 31, along with a CSNChicago.com live stream of Head Coach Brian Kelly’s weekly press conferences.  In addition, Comcast SportsNet Chicago has also hired Tony Rice, quarterback of the 1988 National Champion Fighting Irish, to be its ND Football on-air/online contributor throughout the upcoming college football season.

 

COLLEGE FOOTBALL ON NBCSN

In addition to Notre Dame Football on NBC, NBC Sports Group will air 11 games featuring teams from the CAA and Ivy League, all on NBCSN.

 

Date Teams Time Conference Network
Saturday, Sept. 7 Delaware State at Delaware 3:30 p.m. CAA NBCSN
Saturday, Sept. 21 Lehigh at Princeton 6 p.m. IVY NBCSN
Saturday, Sept. 28 Brown at Harvard 7:30 p.m. IVY NBCSN
Saturday, Oct. 12 Lehigh at Columbia Noon IVY NBCSN
Saturday, Oct. 12 Richmond at James Madison 3:30 p.m. CAA NBCSN
Saturday, Oct. 12 Villanova at Towson 7 p.m. CAA NBCSN
Saturday, Nov.  9 James Madison at New Hampshire 12:30 p.m. CAA NBCSN
Saturday, Nov.  9 Cornell at Dartmouth 4 p.m. IVY NBCSN
Saturday, Nov. 16 Penn at Harvard Noon IVY NBCSN
Saturday, Nov. 23 Harvard at Yale Noon IVY NBCSN
Saturday, Nov. 23 James Madison at Towson 3:30 p.m. CAA NBCSN

 

 

Revamped: Fox sets lineups for college football pregame shows

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Fox Sports is going to give it another try. Last year’s first effort did not meet with much acclaim. And that’s putting it nicely.

The show lacked chemistry. Again, that’s putting it nicely. Whether it was the cast, or the inability of host Erin Andrews to tie it together, is the big question.

However, Fox has a considerable investment in Andrews. So she gets another crack with a new time, more time, a new network and a new cast.

Andrews’ show, now two hours, has been moved to Saturday mornings on the new Fox Sports 1. That makes more sense, although it will be competing with ESPN’s much praised College GameDay. Good luck with that.

Out is Joey Harrington (now a game analyst for Fox Sports 1) and in is blogger Clay Travis, among others.

Also, there will be a 30-minute show prior to the prime-time on Fox, hosted by Rob Stone.

Here are the details from Fox:

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New York, NY – As the college football season rapidly approaches and with conference media days underway, FOX Sports unveils the on-air teams and studio personalities calling its expanded college football coverage this season. The announcement was made today by FOX Sports Co-President and COO Eric Shanks. The FOX college football season begins Thursday, Aug. 29, with three straight days of coverage on FOX Sports 1, FOX Sports Networks (FSN) and FOX College Sports (FCS).

Debuting this season is a two-hour edition of the FOX COLLEGE SATURDAY pregame show airing Saturday mornings from 10:00 AM-12:00 PM ET on FOX Sports 1, America’s new sports network. Erin Andrews (@ErinAndrews) hosts the program alongside former college football players Eddie George (@EddieGeorge27), Joel Klatt (@joelklatt) and Petros Papadakis. Also joining the studio crew is rules analyst Mike Pereira (@MikePereira), a former NFL and college official, and college football writer and FOXSports.com writer Clay Travis (@ClayTravisBGID). FOX COLLEGE SATURDAY makes its season debut on Saturday, Aug. 31.

Andrews, George and Pereira handled studio coverage on the FOX broadcast network last season, while Klatt, Papadakis and Travis are newcomers this season.  Klatt has previously worked as a game and studio analyst on FSN, while Papadakis has served as a sideline reporter on FOX and FSN and hosts a daily show on FOX Sports Radio. Travis runs the popular blog Outkick the Coverage (http://outkickthecoverage.com/), which is the official college football blog of FOXSports.com. He formerly worked as a columnist at CBSSports.com, FanHouse and as an editor at Deadspin.

Also returning this season are the lead broadcast team of play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson (@gusjohnson), one of the most exciting voices in sports, and analyst Charles Davis (@CFD22), a former standout at the University of Tennessee. The pair team up for their third year of college football on FOX Sports and are joined by sideline reporter Kristina Pink (@Kristina_Pink), who started with FOX in 2012 as an NFL on FOX sideline reporter. Johnson, Davis and Pink make their 2013 debut Saturday, Sept. 7, as Oklahoma hosts West Virginia (7:00 PM ET) on FOX.

College football games on the FOX broadcast network are preceded by a 30-minute edition of FOX COLLEGE SATURDAY featuring George and Klatt as analysts, with Rob Stone (@RobStoneONFOX) hosting. Stone has worked with FOX Sports since 2012 as a studio host for soccer programming on network and cable programs.

Stone also hosts pregame coverage leading up to Thursday evening games on FOX Sports 1, sitting alongside analysts Coy Wire (@CoyWire) and Ryan Nece (@ryannece). Wire played nine years in the NFL and was a running back and linebacker at Stanford. He worked as a game analyst for the Pac-12 Networks during the 2012 season. Nece is a former NFL player and was a four-year starter at UCLA. He served as a sideline reporter for the United Football League and was an analyst and sideline reporter for the Pac-12 Networks last season.

Calling Thursday night games on FOX Sports 1 are Justin Kutcher (@JustinKutcher) on play-by-play, Klatt and Papadakis as analysts and Pink on the sidelines. FOX Sports 1 makes its college football debut on Thursday, Aug. 29, as Utah hosts Utah State (8:00 PM ET). A special one-hour pregame show, hosted by the FOX COLLEGE SATURDAY studio crew, precedes the Thursday night matchup.

Stone, Wire and George, Klatt or Papadakis will provide halftime and between-game updates during FOX Sports 1’s Saturday games. Patrick O’Neal provides game breaks during Saturday’s broadcast coverage. O’Neal most recently worked as a studio host and reporter for FOX Sports West/Prime Ticket.

Other broadcast crews for FOX Sports 1, FSN and FCS games include play-by-play broadcaster Craig Bolerjack (@BuckleUpBoler) with analyst Joey Harrington and Nece on sidelines; Kutcher with analyst James Bates and Brady Poppinga on the field, and Adam Alexander on play-by-play with Chris Simms providing analysis.

FOX Sports televises approximately 165 college football games nationally and regionally on its broadcast and cable networks, which include FOX Sports 1, FOX Sports Networks and FOX College Sports. FOX air Saturday games on the broadcast network beginning Sept. 7, while FOX Sports 1 carries one game each Thursday, starting Aug. 29, and two or three contests each Saturday, beginning Aug. 31. Pregame coverage is highlighted by a two-hour studio show each Saturday from 10:00 AM-12:00 PM ET on FOX Sports 1. Saturday games on the broadcast network and Thursday games on FOX Sports 1 are each preceded by a 30-minute pregame show.

For more on FOX College Football, follow @CFBONFOX on Twitter and “Like” FOX Sports on Facebook (facebook.com/foxsports).

The full list of FOX Sports’ 2013 college football broadcast teams can be found below:

FOX

Play-by-Play: Gus Johnson

Analyst: Charles Davis

Sideline Reporter: Kristina Pink

 

FOX SPORTS 1 THURSDAY NIGHT

Play-by-Play: Justin Kutcher

Analyst: Joel Klatt/Petros Papadakis

Sideline: Kristina Pink

FOX SPORTS 1

Play-by-Play: Craig Bolerjack

Analyst: Joey Harrington

Sideline: Ryan Nece

 

Play-by-Play: Justin Kutcher

Analyst: James Bates

Sideline: Brady Poppinga

 

Play-by-Play: Adam Alexander

Analyst: Chris Simms