THERE was a pile of compelling college football games to watch, over the weekend – provided you could devote at least four hours to watch each of them.
Friday, Nebraska-Colorado on ABC ran four hours, which, because college football is formatted for 3 1/2-hour windows – up from three just a few years ago – pre-empted the first quarter of Texas-Texas A&M, which then also ran four hours. On CBS, Friday, the Arkansas-LSU OTer ran, gulp, 4:22.
But that was nothing. Saturday’s Tennessee-Kentucky OTer on CBS was a two-mealer – lunch and dinner. It ran 4:45. The Florida State-Florida game that was to next air on CBS, at 5 p.m., didn’t appear until long after six, and with just four minutes left in the first half, Florida up, 21-9.
Geez, four hours and 45 minutes to play a football game. Yankees-Orioles games don’t even run that long.
We’re reaching the point where unless you have some extraordinary personal stake in watching a college football telecast, you have to first decide if you have four hours to spend on a game.
CBS analyst Gary Danielson was sharp throughout Arkansas-LSU. With 1:01 left in regulation, LSU, down seven, had a fourth-and-goal from the three. Danielson, after noting that LSU had five receivers spread, leaving QB Matt Flynn alone in the backfield, said, “Watch the quarterback draw.”
Flynn then scored on a draw, although it was wiped out by a whistle at the snap.
And if Danielson was good at being right, he was better at being wrong. After misidentifying an Arkansas player who’d just thrown a key block, he might’ve just let it go. After all, he got the “good block” part right. Instead, he made the correction and credited CBS’s guys “in the truck” for the catch. Ah, good faith TV, there’s nothing better.
Perhaps that Tony Siragusa thing on Fox would work better if it were given a title, except “Pardon The Interruption” is taken. … So every available misleading, circumstantial offense/defense team-rank, average-this-and-that stat and QB rating numbers were applied to Vikings-Giants, and all pointed to a Giants’ blowout win. But will Vikes, 41-17, stop the same “experts” from leaning on the same stats this week? Heck, no!
Leave it to ESPN/ABC. More than a month out, it began to bang its promo drums for the Christmas Day NBA doubleheader on ABC. Funny thing, though, ABC and ESPN could’ve begun promoting this doubleheader in July and it still couldn’t make even one more person watch.
Reader Sal Marinello points out that while Michigan coach Lloyd Carr was “only” 6-7 against Ohio State – unacceptable – Ohio State was only 7-6 against Carr’s Michigan teams. … Speaking of only, if only the National Anthem were sponsored by Wendy’s or Nike, we’d see and hear it, and in full, before every game.
Friday, when LSU RB Jacob Hester was tackled as he hit the end zone, an official stood right there alongside him before signaling TD. And not only was it the correct call, it was the correct call for the last 100 years. But that didn’t stop the game from stopping to review the call. And if that’s how the replay rule is supposed to be applied, as Samuel Goldwyn once said, include me out.
The only thing missing from the Rangers losing on Ch. 9, yesterday, was the call of the game by the late Win Elliot, host of Ch. 9’s Rangers telecasts – part of the “Schaefer Circle of Sports” – throughout the 1960s.
Dan Marino, on CBS’s pregame, yesterday, suggested that the Giants “try to get some points early,” thus forcing the Vikes to pass. Fascinating. … Actually, I think Mike Francesa knows a lot more about the JFK assassination than he admits to on the air.
This has nothing to do with sports or TV or anything else; I just need to share it with you. Saturday’s Asbury Park Press, included, on Page 2, a bold-faced box headlined, “Correction.” Below the headline appeared:
“The Asbury Park Press regrets the copy error in the Pizza Mike’s Bistro ad that appeared in the Friday, Nov. 23rd edition. The text ‘All You Can Eat’ was incorrect.”
Think there were any problems, Friday, down at Pizza Mike’s?