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FOX’s Top Broadcast Crew Anything But During Penn State’s Win

Gus Johnson wasn’t at his best on Saturday. (Photo via FOXSports.com)

That was not the sexiest of games. That was not the most interesting of games. And that’s saying a lot in a boring weekend of college football on paper. 

But college football deserved much better than the broadcast it got, largely from Gus Johnson and FOX on Saturday, as Penn State took down Illinois 30-13 in Champaign. 

In what is the hallmark showcase for FOX’s college football fleet, Big Noon Saturday felt anything but. 

Johnson, who is usually endlessly enthusiastic, was monotone, unexcited and borderline uninterested on key Penn State plays throughout the afternoon. He seemed displeased with the fact he was sitting in Champaign to call a game. He seemed more interested in the talk of Deion Sanders and the wings he’s going to eat when he calls the Cincinnati vs. Oklahoma game next weekend than he was at Penn State’s defense picking off yet another Luke Altmyer pass. 

It was not what college football deserves from one of the alleged top-tier broadcasting crews in the country.

Maybe Johnson was hoping FOX could have pulled off that mythical trade for the Colorado game this weekend. Maybe Johnson had something going on we don’t know about. 

But Big Noon’s broadcast quality was not what we are accustomed to. Throughout the broadcast, Johnson’s mind seemed to be elsewhere. His energy was absent. His passion only showed up on a Wendy’s ad and Chop Robinson’s nickname during the starter segment.

The broadcast, and particularly the call by Johnson on Saturday, was not the best and then some.

On Penn State’s first touchdown of the afternoon, it was evident as day that Kaytron Allen had scored. You wouldn’t have known it from Johnson’s voice. 

Later in the game, Tyler Warren scored a touchdown on a pass from running back Trey Potts. Yet it took several seconds for Johnson to make the call. Johnson is usually sharp on his call. He was not here. 

As Penn State broke the game open and picked the ball off for the fourth time, this one by Cam Miller, Johnson’s reaction to it was about as lively as if he were talking in my uncle’s funeral home.

A few plays prior to that pick, Penn State’s Adisa Isaac hit Altmyer as he was in a throwing motion. The ball didn’t just hit the ground but also rolled around on the ground before it was picked up by another Nittany Lion. Yet Johnson called it an interception, not an incompletion or maybe even a fumble. 

Mistakes happen but what was happening on the broadcast on Saturday wasn’t a mistake. It was apathy that FOX didn’t have the biggest or best or most interesting game of the season. It showed and Penn State fans in particular suffered for it.

Often, people will say a broadcasting crew was “for” a certain team. There was no sense of bias on the call. There also wasn’t a sense of quality, too.

Johnson’s bread and butter is his energy. It’s what he’s built his brand on. This is the man who gave Trace McSorley a nickname that none of us had ever heard or will use again in 2016. His breaking- the-volume-level squeals are his staple on the game but his random screams, his random phrases were all absent as Penn State took down Illinois.

It’s no secret I’m not Johnson’s biggest fan if you’ve listened to the podcast. But what we got from him on Saturday was borderline unacceptable for a network’s top team. He didn’t serve the viewer the way any other A-team broadcasting crew should or do. 

In fact, Johnson was not on his A-game for as much as Penn State wasn’t on its A-game today. There was a beautiful throw from Drew Allar to Liam Clifford right before half, maybe the best play of the game to that point, and Johnson – who on other games would have broken the microphone –  wasn’t about it. 

It was surprising and shocking to hear Johnson, whose M.O. is to lose his mind over plays, not do that. It was as if he was going out of his way to not do that. 

There was Nicholas Singleton’s final nail in the coffin with a long touchdown run. At other games, Johnson would have screamed “Goodnight from Champaign” so loud he would have blown out your TV’s speakers. Yet, Johnson acted like the sophomore was walking through campus while we all were quietly listening to jazz in the park.

Even on the blocked field goal by Illinois in the first half, Johnson’s call was, well, meh. (That’s a technical term.)

This is FOX’s cornerstone football broadcast. This package of games is why they shelled out the big bucks to get our eyeballs to its channel. It’s why you get pestered with the ads on any of their networks throughout the week. But what fans got was the production level, particularly from Johnson, of a high school football game on local access TV — and honestly, that’s probably offensive to some high schools out there. 

It’s fine when Penn State or any Big Ten team gets an OK broadcast from the conference on BTN or even FS1. You’re not going to get the level of a Fowler-Herbstreit, Eagle-Blackledge every week. I accept that.

But this is FOX’s college football showcase. This is FOX’s top crew. What we just watched was not that.

Maybe we should have known things were going to be weird when there was no lead-in with Johnson or Joel Klatt, and rather got Rob Gronkowski hosting a dizzy bat race at Big Noon Kickoff. The quality of the truck used to produce the game did not seem to be the “A” truck so to speak. The image wasn’t as crisp as it can be. The factoids given didn’t add much. Overall, the production was, in a matter of fact manner, embarrassingly disappointing to watch. 

The Big Ten took a chance moving the eggs out of the ESPN basket and into FOX, NBC and CBS. FOX supposedly is the preferred partner in this new TV contract. But right now, NBC and CBS are the preferred broadcasters of this fan.

Fans of college football and college football itself deserve better than what FOX and Johnson gave the Big Ten, especially on Saturday.

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Darian Somers
Darian Somers is a 2016 graduate of Penn State and co-host of Stuff Somers Says with Steve. You can email Darian at darian@stuffsomerssays.com. Follow Darian on Twitter @StuffSomersSays.

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