Tag: Awful Announcing

Jac Collinsworth one of top sports broadcasting flops of past decade

Who thought it would have turned out this badly?

Now that Jac Collinsworth is out as Notre Dame play-by-play announcer for NBC, the postmortem on his tenure can begin. In two seasons calling the Irish, Collinsworth was widely panned by viewers both within and outside the fan base. It was almost like NBC had planned him to fail in this role.

In any case, Awful Announcing has pulled no punches regarding Collinsworth. With his dismissal from Irish broadcasts, the sports media site has named his time doing them one of the biggest sports broadcasting flops of the past decade. The list also includes Drew Brees, who lasted only one season as the Notre Dame color commentator before leaving NBC and sports broadcasting altogether.

The good news for Irish fans is that a familiar voice in Dan Hicks will be back on the broadcasts, and he at least has plenty of experience on his resume. Maybe with a little more seasoning, Collinsworth can work his way back into his now-former role in the distant future. For now though, Irish home broadcasts can be enjoyable again.

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Stephen A. Smith questions Notre Dame’s relevance

This guy.

Believe me when I say the last thing I want to do is bring attention to Stephen A. Smith. I could write a whole post about everything I can’t stand about him, but that’s a topic for another day.

With the College Football Playoff officially expanding to 12 teams, the inevitable topic of where Notre Dame fits in as an independent has come up. It has to given that the top four seeds automatically will go to conference champions, which locks the Irish out of those spots.

Whatever the reason for the Irish entering the conversation though, it prompted Stephen A. Smith to outright question why the program is relevant during the latest episode of ESPN’s “First Take”. He went on so long that Awful Announcing had to split the video in two when tweeting it out:

The only thing worth adding to this is that [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] is working hard to build the program he sees fit, and the hope is that more progress will be made in his third full season at the helm. With luck, Smith will be eating his words before too long.

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Collinsworth/Garrett named worst college football announcing team

Woof.

The relationship between Notre Dame and NBC recently was renewed through the end of the decade. However, the network probably needs to make some serious decisions regarding its announcing team for Irish broadcasts. It should be for no other reason than to appease the viewers.

Awful Announcing recently selected 20 college football broadcast teams and asked its readers to vote on them. Jac Collinsworth and Jason Garrett, the team that has announced Irish games for NBC over the past two years, was one of the teams up for voting.

The results were less than flattering as Collinsworth and Garrett were ranked dead last with the team ranked directly above them not even coming close.

Here’s the website’s interpretation of the team’s ranking:

“The only broadcast team we’ve seen get a score this low is the infamous Joe Tessitore/Booger McFarland/Jason Witten Monday Night Football crew back in 2018. That in and of itself is damning. But overall, there weren’t even many positive vibes for this team. Their percentage of A and B grades was less than half of the team ranked directly ahead of them, and their percentage of F grades was nearly four times higher than the second-highest percentage. This is the second season that Collinsworth and Garrett have called Notre Dame games together, and there will need to be a major step up in year three (if it even gets to that point).”

It’s no secret fans were constantly complaining about Collinsworth and Garrett both seasons they have been on the call, and now, we know exactly how low everyone’s opinion about them is. This is a level of bad that you almost have to try to attain.

Clearly, NBC missed the mark when it brought these two together to call games it had been broadcasting for over 30 years. The only thing to do is shake things up for 2024 because there’s no way it can stick with the status quo without coming off as ignorant, tone-deaf or both.

The network owes it to college football viewers to provide them with a better experience, especially since this relationship with Notre Dame will continue for the foreseeable future.

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Awful Announcing documents criticism of Jason Garrett

What did you think of Garrett’s season-opening broadcast?

As the Week 0 game with the highest profile, Notre Dame-Navy drew a large audience hungry for college football. That meant extended exposure for fill-in play-by-play announcer Noah Eagle and color commentator Jason Garrett on NBC.

Garrett and regular play-by-play announcer Jac Collinsworth, who missed Saturday’s broadcast, both have become frequent targets for Irish fans for the quality of their announcing. Without Collinsworth, Garrett received the brunt of criticism for the season opener, and sports media website Awful Announcing kept track of some of the tweets containing that criticism.

One series of tweets Awful Announcing chose to focus on were those saying Sam Hartman hasn’t worked with a running back like Audric Estime when the Seattle Seahawks’ Kenneth Walker III had played with Hartman at Wake Forest. Awful Announcing also highlighted tweets criticizing Garrett’s repeated mentions of the Midshipmen’s “mental toughness.” Still other tweets didn’t like what was perceived as Garrett’s lack of enthusiasm or energy.

We’ve had only one NBC broadcast in 2023, but social media already is in midseason form. There’s no place for critiques of Garrett to go but up. Who knows what’s in store for Collinsworth when he presumably returns for the Irish’s home opener this coming weekend?

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Jac Collinsworth main subject of Awful Announcing story on nepotism

Good discussion to have?

For the past two years, Notre Dame’s NBC broadcasts have come under heavy criticism. Never was it on display more than during and after the Irish’s stunning dominance of USC. Social media bashed the broadcast early and often. People seem to have had enough of what they’ve been exposed to on coverage of Irish home games.

To that end, Jesse Pantuosco of Awful Announcing saw it fit to pen an article about nepotism in sports with Notre Dame play-by-play announcer Jac Collinsworth being the story’s primary subject. Jac, of course, is the son of NBC Sunday Night Football color analyst Cris Collinsworth. He also is a Notre Dame alumnus. But he hasn’t won many fans calling Irish games, and this article in particular says he didn’t rise to the big moment of the Irish walloping the Trojans.

Here’s the main argument against Collinsworth in the story:

“The elder Collinsworth is one of the best in the business, and maybe Jac will get there someday, but Saturday proved the 28-year-old is still very much a work in progress, failing to meet the moment in his biggest assignment to date.

Naturally, Collinsworth’s relative lack of polish has sparked a larger discussion about nepotism in sports media, with many questioning his credentials while wondering if Collinsworth is qualified for his current role, leapfrogging more deserving broadcasters on the strength of his last name. Not only was Collinsworth ill-equipped for primetime, but his rapid ascent presents problematic optics that NBC will now have to answer for, fast-tracking a novice announcer in desperate need of seasoning.”

The story goes to cite similar situations in Noah Eagle, Chris Simms and former Irish offensive lineman [autotag]Mike Golic Jr.[/autotag] None of those broadcasters have come under as much scrutiny as Collinsworth though. Whether it’s merited or not, it’s unfortunate that the situation has necessitated this discussion. Here’s hoping Collinsworth has a better end to the season.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Fox likely to get Notre Dame-Ohio State game in exchange for Joe Buck

Would you rather see this game produced by Fox or ESPN?

Much already has been made about Notre Dame opening the 2022 season at Ohio State, Marcus Freeman’s alma mater. Now, it appears the game has been involved in Joe Buck’s decision to leave his longstanding job at Fox for ESPN, mainly to call “Monday Night Football”. In exchange for allowing Buck to walk, Fox will be able to select one Big Ten game for the upcoming season. Awful Announcing is reporting that Fox likely will select the Irish-Buckeyes matchup as that game.

This isn’t the first time there has been a prominent exchange involving a high-profile sports announcer. When Al Michaels left his longtime post at ABC in 2006 to call “Sunday Night Football” for NBC, Disney acquired the rights to Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which Walt Disney lost the rights to before he created Mickey Mouse. It just goes to show that when someone has been at the head of your network’s sports broadcasts for a long time, you won’t just allow the competition to get something for nothing.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Watch: Applebee’s commercial college football fans can’t stand

Will you be able to stand this ad?

Are you planning to watch a lot of college football this season? If you’re reading this site, you most likely are. If you have flipped on any game in the early days of the season, chances are you’ve seen this Applebee’s commercial, which features a parody of the recent hit “Fancy Like” by Walker Hayes:

It really doesn’t matter whether you like it or not. All we know is that according to Awful Announcing, it has incurred the wrath of college football fans the world over. To make matters worse, there are four such Applebee’s ads out there.

Do college football fans in general not enjoy country pop or TikTok? Is it simply the frequency with which this commercial has been airing? All we know is the ad doesn’t appear to be going anywhere. We don’t know if Applebee’s has sold any ad space for Notre Dame home broadcasts on NBC as it has elsewhere, but you better brace yourself for the possibility now.