Fox Sports "awful announcing" entry from Saturday

[beorach]

Was anyone else still paying attention when they showed footage of the sideline reporter visiting some kind of storage area at Michigan and pulling out a program from 1997?  There was no mention of Nebraska during the exchanges that surrounded the footage.  One of the announcers said something along the lines of, "They blew out Peyton Manning's Tennessee team."  As if the game itself wasn't bad enough, they were trying to appropriate Nebraska football history.  I'm sure most here will remember that it was Ryan Leaf's Washington State team the Wolverines managed to win against for their postseason game.  The Cougars weren't too interested, as evidenced by their leaving the field with time left on the clock...

I went and looked up the Michigan page of historical scores and found Tennessee only featured once, in a 2001 Outland Bowl, where the Vols blew out the Wolverines.

 

[Nebfanatic]

I think by that point in the game we weren't doing anything good so they focused on Michigan, the ranked team at home. It sucks but its the way it goes when you are winless and getting blown out.

 

[Husker in WI]

I think the worst announcing was neither announcer knowing why they called ineligible receiver downfield on Lindsey's TD that was called back. It was clearly the right call, but Tillman literally says "not quite sure why that was called," and Brando says "well it had no effect on the outcome of the play" before trailing off. All after referring to Woodyard as "Goodyard" for good measure. It definitely did affect the play, the DB wasn't expecting Woodyard to run a route because he was ineligible and so he didn't really cover either player.

I know we had all lost interest at that point, but still - it's not a complicated rule. He was on the line of scrimmage, wasn't the outside guy on the line, and ran downfield on a pass.

 

[California Husker]

I HATE the referees. I don't think they are a necessary evil. I just think they are evil. Of course, we have to put up with them, but it is astounding to me how often they just plain get things wrong. Case in point (and I know it wasn't going to change the outcome of the game), the play where they called a double pass on Martinez. Granted, Martinez did look as though he tried to catch the ball and then realized that he needed to bat it down...which is exactly what he did. The refs said he got possession and then threw another forward pass. That was simply wrong. If you want to test my position, ask yourself if they would have called that a completion had he been a receiver on that play. Of course, the answer is no. And in that situation, once he threw the pass, he does become a receiver. So the correct call should have been: Incomplete pass. Just because he considered catching it and then realized that wasn't the right thing to do, doesn't mean he should be penalized for what he ALMOST did. 

So here's the reason I bring this up here. The last thing I need when I'm watching a college football game is for them to have a former ref in the studio to give me his bad takes and support the decision on the field nearly 100% of the time with his ridiculous justification for the bad calls being made by game refs. 

If we are going to talk about bad things we saw/heard on FOX Saturday, the place we can start was with anything that came from Dean Blando. I swear, every time I'm watching a game and they say "Let's hear what our expert _________ has to say about this call.", I just cringe. I don't give a rodent's backside what the expert former ref has to say. It is always either something so obvious that seeking his opinion is insulting, or he is wrong. Getting rid of the expert official in the studio would be one immediate improvement they could make in ANY college football broadcast. 

 

[DILLY]

I thought it was weird when they showed Nebraskas d coordinator getting mad at his defense, but the announcer said "yeah, I like that" as Michigan gained 30 yards 

 

[GamingGlen]

…. Case in point (and I know it wasn't going to change the outcome of the game), the play where they called a double pass on Martinez. Granted, Martinez did look as though he tried to catch the ball and then realized that he needed to bat it down...which is exactly what he did. The refs said he got possession and then threw another forward pass. That was simply wrong. …

I agree.   I usually think the referees try to be fair, but sometimes it is blatant.  He did not take two steps holding onto the ball, he did not "complete the catch all the way through...".  It was a bogus call no matter what player position you could say of Martinez at that time.  He didn't even have it one second.  

Not all the experts have always sided with the on-field call.  I thought there was one call in this game the expert didn't agree with (I can't recall which one it is).  Oh well, it's kool-aid under the goalposts at this point.