I don't recall growing up with a lot of great college football announcers, but outside of Brent Musberger, there was never anyone who made me want to mute the television and then throw it out the window anyways. This past weekend, however, while watching college football on television, I was bombarded by some of the worst play-by-play and color men in the business. Which is to say, nearly all of them.
I honestly can't come up with a worse pairing than Musberger and Gary Danielson calling the Michigan-Michigan State game. One of my strongest college football memories is the Rose Bowl some years ago featuring Jake Plummer's Arizona State team against Ohio State. As Ohio State marched down the field in what would become the last second scoring drive, every single pass that Ohio State didn't catch, Musberger would get irate and yell "That was pass interference!" I vividly recall a ball thrown fifteen yards out of bounds being met with the Musberger Mantra.
And as for Gary Danielson, you know what? You were a better than average college quarterback who will never be named with Bob Griese and Drew Brees in West Lafayette. You were a mediochre at best professional quarterback. I realize that you hold some resentment against some folks and against your own inferiority, but get out of my television. You could possibly be the worst color man in college football. These two in the closing minutes of the Michigan-Michigan State game managed to misstate every single "fact" they uttered, misinterpret every coaching decision and every rule, and expound theories on college football that died during the Roosevelt administration. The first one. And poor Jack Arute - a legend - had to sit on the sideline and wait for someone to get injured.
These two may be the worst pairing, but neither of them matches Todd Christensen for pure idiocy. When Joe Paterno broke Bear Bryant's all-time wins record, Christensen babbled on meaninglessly for fifteen minutes, quoting Erasmus and Robert Frost, and who knows who else. To top it off, he has possibly the sports world's most annoying voice, like he's constantly choking on a pierogi while talking through the bottom of a can of Foster's. He's another one who doesn't seem to grasp what in the world he's saying, but continues to say it ad nauseum.
Bob Griese. The name will make Ohio State fans roll their eyes in disgust. I'm not exactly sure why, since I never personally saw anything wrong in his handling of the 1997 Michigan team bearing his son at quarterback. Many did, and have held it against him ever since. But I remember him saying in one game that the other team needed to blitz more, knock the quarterback around, get him off his game. His own son!
I honestly can't come up with a worse pairing than Musberger and Gary Danielson calling the Michigan-Michigan State game. One of my strongest college football memories is the Rose Bowl some years ago featuring Jake Plummer's Arizona State team against Ohio State. As Ohio State marched down the field in what would become the last second scoring drive, every single pass that Ohio State didn't catch, Musberger would get irate and yell "That was pass interference!" I vividly recall a ball thrown fifteen yards out of bounds being met with the Musberger Mantra.
And as for Gary Danielson, you know what? You were a better than average college quarterback who will never be named with Bob Griese and Drew Brees in West Lafayette. You were a mediochre at best professional quarterback. I realize that you hold some resentment against some folks and against your own inferiority, but get out of my television. You could possibly be the worst color man in college football. These two in the closing minutes of the Michigan-Michigan State game managed to misstate every single "fact" they uttered, misinterpret every coaching decision and every rule, and expound theories on college football that died during the Roosevelt administration. The first one. And poor Jack Arute - a legend - had to sit on the sideline and wait for someone to get injured.
These two may be the worst pairing, but neither of them matches Todd Christensen for pure idiocy. When Joe Paterno broke Bear Bryant's all-time wins record, Christensen babbled on meaninglessly for fifteen minutes, quoting Erasmus and Robert Frost, and who knows who else. To top it off, he has possibly the sports world's most annoying voice, like he's constantly choking on a pierogi while talking through the bottom of a can of Foster's. He's another one who doesn't seem to grasp what in the world he's saying, but continues to say it ad nauseum.
Bob Griese. The name will make Ohio State fans roll their eyes in disgust. I'm not exactly sure why, since I never personally saw anything wrong in his handling of the 1997 Michigan team bearing his son at quarterback. Many did, and have held it against him ever since. But I remember him saying in one game that the other team needed to blitz more, knock the quarterback around, get him off his game. His own son!
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