Hell Of A Season... And Announcing Crew

Never have I enjoyed watching my team lose more than I did last night during Wake Forest’s 24-13 defeat in the Orange Bowl. Even though the announcers were openly rooting for Louisville, the refs blew a key fumble call that altered the outcome of the game and Louisville scored two late touchdowns to make the hard-fought battle seem like a mismatch, the mere sight of seeing Wake Forest in such a big football game was well worth it. I can’t ever remember being less upset about a loss in my life. Sure, there was frustration during the game, but the moment Riley Skinner threw the interception that sealed the game for Louisville that all went away and all Wake fans began appreciating what a magical season it was.
Alright, now that the Full House music has stopped, it’s time for me to air some grievances with FOX. First of all, let me make clear that I’ve always hated watching sports on FOX. The poor HD quality (they, like ESPN, broadcast in 720p), terrible directing, silly graphics, inane pre-game shows, questionable talent (Jeannie Zalesko?) and mediocre commentating makes FOX seem amateurish compared with CBS and NBC. The ads for The War At Home don’t help either. But this year’s BCS coverage makes all other FOX sports seem like Wide World of Sports in its heyday.
FOX broadcast zero college football games this season prior to the Cotton Bowl. (They did air dozens of games on their regional networks.) Because of this, they have no knowledgeable or credible talent when it comes to college football. There are no Brent Musbergers or Dick Vermeils or Kirk Herbstreits working for FOX because everyone who knows a lick about college football is working for a network that broadcasts it for more than a seven-day stretch in January.
Last night, FOX had Jimmy Johnson and Dave Wannsteadt on their pregame show discussing Wake Forest and Louisville. Johnson, who of course works for FOX’s NFL unit, has probably not watched a single Wake Forest play all season and probably has viewed a handful of college games. Wannsteadt has probably seen even less, considering his Pitt Panthers weren’t invited to a bowl for the third straight year.
In the booth were Terry Donahue, fresh off wrecking the San Francisco 49ers franchise and Pat Haden, who spends his autumns fawning over Notre Dame on NBC. Yesterday, both served as unofficial boosters for Louisville football.
I’m not saying this because I was rooting for Wake, I’m saying this because I have the ability to hear and reason: Haden and Donahue were all over the Cardinal’s jock last night in a way that made Lou Holtz look impartial. I’ve never heard anything like it.
To listen to Haden and Donahue (mainly Donahue, though), Louisville was the greatest football team ever and Wake Forest was lucky to be on the same field with them. Louisville's offense would be able to score at will against Wake's lowly defense, according to them. When the Cardinals struggled offensively for the game's first 50 minutes, all the announcing duo could do was make excuses; never once praising Wake's defense.
The adulation began early and never ceased, even as the Deacs were outplaying Louisville through three quarters. Some highlights:

- With 6:00 left in the first quarter Donahue said, “Wake Forest should feel very fortunate to have the ball on their own 42 and still be tied with Louisville.” This was, to repeat, nine minutes into the game.

- After Wake stopped Louisville on a 3rd-and-short, Donahue said “I’m surprised at how well Wake Forest is playing the run. Louisville is much bigger on the interior.” Minutes earlier, play-by-play man Matt Vasgersian had mentioned how Wake’s run defense was stout, but their secondary was questionable. Donahue also failed to mention that Wake’s run defense was better statistically than Louisville all season.

- In a bizarre jab at National Coach of the Year Jim Grobe, Haden asked incredulously, “how can a coach go 24-32 and even survive for a fifth season?” Hmm, maybe because it’s Wake Forest, you Brady Quinn-loving jackass, and 24-32 at Wake is more impressive than 36-20 in many places.

- Haden, after Wake Forest punted, trailing 10-3: “The Deacons need a big stop here, they can’t let this game get out of hand.” IT WAS 10-3 FOR CRAP’S SAKE!

- Wake gets 24 yards on an end-around. Donahue says if a Louisville player hadn’t gotten his hand on the ball carrier, he’d have scored a TD. Replay greatly disproves Donahue’s theory, showing two defenders coming in at an angle that forced the Wake player out of bounds. Even when Wake did something good, Donahue found a way to praise Louisville.

- Three times during the game, Donahue said a variation of, “I think Louisville should be a top five team,” thus ignoring the fairly obvious fact that LOUISVILLE ALREADY IS A TOP FIVE TEAM ACCORDING TO BOTH THE AP AND USA TODAY POLLS.

- Wake runs an end-around reverse that nets a first down. Donahue sneers, “you go down in the garbage can for that play.” He fails to mention that Louisville’s only touchdown up until that point CAME ON A SIMILAR GADGET PLAY. Garbage can. Man, that one made me mad.

- There were countless times were Haden or Donahue said something like “Bobby Petrino’s guys need to fire it up” or “Louisville has to capitalize on this field position.” Jim Grobe’s guys never received such encouragement.

Vasgersian, whom I like mainly due to his presence in the booth during Rick Sutcliffe’s drunken rant this past May, wasn’t bad but made a number of mistakes including naming Georgia as the team Wake beat in the ACC Championship and not getting the correct down and distance at least four times. George Clooney.
The directing was almost as bad as the announcing. Reminiscent of their baseball coverage, FOX cut to reaction shots from the crowd at least two or three times between each play. Sometimes they’d do this during a measurement or penalty signaling. One time, viewers didn’t see a referee signal which team had recovered the ball after a fumble because the director had inexplicably decided to one of his 400 shots of the Louisville band. Seriously, it was infuriating.
With the announcers babbling about how Anthony Allen needs a bust in Canton, it was difficult at times to keep track of what was going on. They also showed a disgusting amount of close-ups of fans and coaches, so much so that I half-expected to see Joe Torre pop-up on screen.
Still, the announcing was worse. According to Donahue, Wake Forest never had a chance in the game and would be lucky to keep the game even close. When Louisville finally went ahead after an untimely fumble by Wake Forest, Donahue acted as if the result was preordained.
It’ll be fascinating to see how FOX treats tonight’s underdog, Notre Dame. Surely, they won’t give the Irish a chance against LSU since the Tigers are favored by nearly as much as Louisville was (9.5 vs. Louisville giving 10 to Wake). Surely they’ll ignore Brady Quinn while praising JaMarcus Russell, even though the two might put up similar numbers. Surely FOX will mention LSU’s speed a few dozen times and say Notre Dame hasn’t seen anything like it all year. Surely Notre Dame will get dumped on too. Right? Right? Who knows though; with Terry Bradshaw and Howie Long calling the game, they probably won’t even know a receiver need only get one foot in bounds on a catch.
College football on FOX. Gotta love it.