Rose Bowl Broadcast observations
I was interested yesterday to see and hear how the game was presented on ESPN after the turbulence during the season and what I find to be a pretty consistent anti-Michigan slant on the "family of networks" going back some years. To my surprise, I thought the game was called very balanced yesterday and actually enjoyed the Fowler/Herbstreit duo for the first time in a while. It also felt like a very Michigan-centric broadcast with the Michigan Marching Band featured multiple times.
The only thing I don't like (and why Klatt is the best IMO) is the unwillingness of this crew to call out bad officiating. There is no way you cannot comment on the lack of flag on the JJ late hit. You have to call that out.
All in all though, credit where credit is due. I thought the broadcast was good, almost no missed plays, insightful commentary, and most of the takes fair and balanced.
What did you all think?
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:26 AM ^
What I loved about the broadcast is that on 4th and 3 in OT, our D completely stuffed Milroe and we WON THE GAME.
Yeah, that was great.
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:29 AM ^
that and they did a nice job of showing how bonkers Conrum’s jump-cut was for the TD in OT.
but yea, other than those two plays it was typical ESPN
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:34 AM ^
The Fowler scream “Ohio State wins!” from 2016 has been replaced by “Milroe stopped!”
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:45 AM ^
Kirk also had Michigan beating Bama. Told SVP on the late night show.
Picked Washington over Texas also.
January 2nd, 2024 at 1:14 PM ^
Funny how he picked them after the fact seeing as he never picks the game he broadcasts
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:26 AM ^
They did call out the no-call on the late hit out of bounds, saying JJ was outside even the white paint along the sideline.
I thought the coverage was fine.
January 2nd, 2024 at 12:34 PM ^
Agreed. They called it out pretty much immediately. They even showed a replay moments later to touch on it. Michigan was kind of in hurry up mode, though, so action moved on pretty quick.
January 2nd, 2024 at 1:19 PM ^
In the first half, I think Herbie even hinted at a classic finish, with perhaps OT.
January 2nd, 2024 at 1:38 PM ^
The coverage was excellent, I thought. Fowler has become one of those guys who makes it a big game just by calling it. He brings real excitement. Herbie is great too--I can get over the fact that he's a Buckeye. He knows the game and keeps it balanced.
January 2nd, 2024 at 3:15 PM ^
That Buckeye was 0-3-1 vs Michigan. Good times.
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:28 AM ^
The one area ESPN outclasses FOX is in game audio. On the ESPN broadcast you can hear the band and crowd. On the FOX broadcast you can barely hear either and the only noise that comes through seems to be the announcing crew. Hopefully in the future FOX turns up the on field mics.
January 2nd, 2024 at 12:25 PM ^
I won't say this definitively about last night because the stadium was 10k over the stated capacity and probably was fairly loud, but in general, ESPN pumps a TON of crowd noise into the broadcast. I've seen half empty bowl games sound like the Michigan-OSU game on the broadcast, and there is just no way that it's real.
Now, if you want to argue that's part of the production and crowd noise should be pumped into the broadcast to bump up the energy, fair enough.
January 2nd, 2024 at 12:36 PM ^
Regarding the stated capacity, UCLA usually covers up a large portion of end zone seats with a UCLA banner because they know they aren’t going to sell those. It’s similar to what the Oakland A’s did to their entire upper deck seats. Anyway, for the Rose Bowl they obviously make those available. I suspect that is the reason for the 10k over stated capacity.
January 2nd, 2024 at 1:02 PM ^
It was certainly filled in our section. My wife and I had to take turns sitting down at times. One thing is that when ticket prices are this high and the game is so big, everyone shows up! I thought the stadium was pretty loud. But the Rose Bowl doesn't have the same acoustics as the Big House without the large enclosed seating areas on both sides of the stadium.
January 2nd, 2024 at 3:10 PM ^
I've never thought about this but now that you mention it, it stands out.
Is it just a difference of network preferences/styles?
Or is there an engineering capability angle that would mean Fox can't just decide to match ESPN?
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:30 AM ^
I watched the Michigan radio feed on ESPN3 and thoroughly enjoyed that decision
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:32 AM ^
Agree.
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:52 AM ^
Doug Karsch still sounds like a pubescent asthmatic to me, but Jansen is great.
January 2nd, 2024 at 12:30 PM ^
Yeah, we tried to watch and my daughter--not a UM homer--hated Karsch's voice. Then when they game started and Karsch and co. were so wildly out of sync with the on-field action (my problem?), we bailed. Sound sync seemed fine with ESPN, so I was stuck with it.
Agree with people in the other thread that Fowler and Herbstreit were not terrible. My wife and daughter, not M grads or huge fans, felt they were biased, but I wasn't enraged by anything. The only thing that I noticed was that when the game started to swing away from us in the second half, they were kind of giving in to the mythic inevitability of a Bama win. . . seemingly based on mystique and past alone.
We put paid to that sh*t. I think sacking Milroe twice on the first series was really helpful.
January 2nd, 2024 at 12:46 PM ^
Personally thought Jansen was terrific yesterday and all season.
January 2nd, 2024 at 1:17 PM ^
Karsch needs to go. He's not a play by play announcer and, you're right, his voice cracks everytime he gets excited. Can't believe they can't do better
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:48 AM ^
Was the picture smaller the whole game? The "boxed" video feed really bothered me in pregame.
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:31 AM ^
We clearly got away with one with the no-call on the "running into the punter" in the 1st quarter.
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:36 AM ^
I just don't think that was a penalty. The punt was away and our player was literally walking. You can't just leave your leg up indefinitely and then fall down when somebody brushes by you and expect it to be flagged.
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:45 AM ^
You can't just leave your leg up indefinitely
That's not what happened. And, you kind of can. M player simply has to not walk into it. He turned his head away from the punter. If he made sure to avoid contact he could have. And should have.
Punter's reaction was absurd though.
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:47 AM ^
I just thought it was rightly a no-call. I am admittedly not an officiating expert but it is not a call I would have made.
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:54 AM ^
Agree, but also like the no-call. Not calling that would be like giving the offense 3 extra seconds to snap the ball after one of those incredibly annoying slow D substitutions. Letter but not spirit of the rule.
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:56 AM ^
Punter's reaction was absurd though.
Clearly the punter was a soccer player in a previous life.
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:57 AM ^
I thought the punter was incredibly courageous to continue to play after such a horrific acting job on his flop. To his credit he set aside his pride and did not even fake limp the rest of the game. I think the ref may have thought to throw a flag but not after that poor flop job, thank you ref and thank you punter!
January 2nd, 2024 at 12:33 PM ^
That is called roughing 9 out of 10 times. Very surprised and happy that it wasn't called. Dodged a bullet there in my opinion.
EDIT: Sorry, I chose the wrong term (roughing vs running into), I simply meant that it would be called a penalty.
January 2nd, 2024 at 12:38 PM ^
Definitely not a roughing, but probably a running into the punter.
January 2nd, 2024 at 12:39 PM ^
Running into (5 yards) maybe, roughing (15 yards) I don’t think so. If the punter didn’t oversell it so dramatically he might have gotten the 5.
January 2nd, 2024 at 12:55 PM ^
if it was Michigan's punter I would have been screaming for a call. you can't make that much contact, especially when his leg is still in the air. it should have been a penalty and they were 4th and 4, so it would have been a 1st down.
That being said, their Oline got away with a shitton of holding. McGregor was tackled on one play and Jenkins on another. Overall, the officials did a good job of not being the main topic of conversation. (unlike the the crew that did the Lions/Cowboys game.
January 2nd, 2024 at 12:57 PM ^
That's completely what happened.
January 2nd, 2024 at 2:21 PM ^
Punter's leg goes up to kick, starts to come back down. Gets run into on its downward motion. How is that leaving his leg out indefinitely? It was all part of the normal motion of punting.
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:39 AM ^
They more than made up for that with the Bredeson personal foul for finishing a block on a defender in the ball carrier's path.
January 2nd, 2024 at 1:55 PM ^
Truthfully we're lucky Bredeson wasn't called for targeting on that play.
That "unsportsmanlike" was almost like a warning, bogus as it looked to us...
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:40 AM ^
I agree but am guessing there was no call because the kicker swung around in an airborne 360 like like he was hit by a speeding truck.
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:49 AM ^
I 100% think that was a penalty but the punter oversold it to the point the refs assumed he was diving.
January 2nd, 2024 at 12:01 PM ^
That was some soccer-level shit. Karsch and Jansen got in a nice burn on the Flopper from Down Under. When he came out again to ply his trade, one of them said "Remarkably, the Alabama punter was able to return to the game."
January 2nd, 2024 at 12:29 PM ^
No Call!!! How about JJ getting slammed down 5 yards into the Bama sidelines. Nothing to see there right...................... Didn't matter baby!!
January 2nd, 2024 at 12:34 PM ^
That is also called a personal foul 9 out of 10 times.
January 2nd, 2024 at 12:33 PM ^
Yeah but the play to even set up 4th and 4 Bama got away with an awful hold on Graham that yanked him to the ground on a scramble. Honestly the lack of holding calls has been astonishing to me
January 2nd, 2024 at 1:02 PM ^
I heard the guys from the sideline broadcast say after the uncalled late hit that they had overheard the refs talking to the coaches and that the refs said they were "just going to be observers" of the game. WTF does that even mean? Though we benefitted from them togglging off holding as well, I still think Alabama's OL did it way more than ours.
Also, their OL really does grab the opposing DL's helmets regulary as someone pointed out on the board a few weeks ago.
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:32 AM ^
I thought it was a good broadcast. I might be a minority in this but in general I think Kirk Herbstreit is pretty balanced and good at what he does. He also tries to be positive - for example during the "Oh my Lord No!" Jake Thaw punt muff he sort of corrected Fowler to say how good the recovery was to prevent a TD/safety (though I think if Thaw had fallen on it in the end zone it would have been a touchback but I might be wrong).
Fowler just seems to YELL when he sees a big play. Which - I find more annoying than Gus Johnson for some reason.
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:37 AM ^
Herbie is the best. Him, Klatt, and Gus are my favorites
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:39 AM ^
Herbstreit is fine. He has the same issue as almost every American sports broadcaster, which is the need to talk about twice as much as is necessary. I've come to really appreciate soccer broadcasting's practice of very spare broadcast talking during live play so that you can really hear the crowd.
January 2nd, 2024 at 12:21 PM ^
This. RGIII feels the need to fill every moment with commentary.
January 2nd, 2024 at 12:39 PM ^
And as a result, he ends up saying some pretty cringey stuff at times.
January 2nd, 2024 at 11:39 AM ^
Herbie was really good last night...and had the patience of a saint with Fowler, who did not cover himself in glory. Missed players names, misidentified plays...just a really spotty performance from him. He called a Donovan Edwards run an end around, and said that JJ wildly missed the pass that went right through Morgan's hands. Herbie gently corrected him every time.