Am I the only one who thinks we need more John Saunders in the announcing booth? He does a good job with it. I'm not a huge fan of just having a gimmick-y "we're all from Canada!!" booth, though.

Anon - I'm with you there. I'd like to have him out there more often, and it's clear that he, Flutie, and Palmer have chemistry in the booth.

I'm guessing he's just more comfortable in the studio personally.

Yeah, there definitely is chemistry there. It'd just be nice to hear the three of them in a non-International Bowl setting.

I'd vote for this team to get a BCS game to call when the contract with ESPN begins, that's for damn sure. Let's guess Musberger and Herbie get the BCS Championship Game and whatever regular BCS bowl it's in, Mike Patrick and Todd Blackledge get another, the Nessler/Maguire/Griese team gets one.

That leaves a fourth for Saunders, Palmer, and Flutie in my eyes.

Let me put it this way: if John gets a post-season Pammy, it's because he said something funny, not because he screwed up the call.

The sideline reporter, David Amber, is also from Canada.

Also: BEST PLAY EVER just happened.

Buffalo punted and it sent the UConn returner so far back the ball went off his foot into the end zone, and Buffalo recovered for a touchdown.

I'll pass on John Saunders. He's a POS. I'm tired of his on-again, off-again kool-aid drinking and pandering to the sports that ESPN covers...ie the B(c)S.

You all can have him. I'll just take a pass.

I don't particularly endorse his Sports Reporters opinion-making and tolerance of Mike Lupica, Anon. If I ever met him, I'd try to engage him kindly but forcefully (verbally) on the BCS and Barry Bonds.

But I just like him a lot in the booth.

"Somebody's got a lot of guts to be wearing a Montreal Canadiens jersey in Toronto. That's like wearing a Yankees jersey in Red Sox territory." - Jesse Palmer

Flutie used to do games but he wanted to move to stuio, because one of his kids has a medical condition(I forget what it is), and he wanted to be home more. The studio job involves less travel.

"Jesse Palmer all fired up about his Gators" - Dari Nokwah

To complete the Canadian theme, they should have Barry Melrose do some commentary

"you love tight ends" - Saunders to Flutie

"That's what tight ends are for. They're sacrificial lambs. You've got a big guy, you send him down the field, and you say 'Catch this one for me and hold on tight, 'cause you're gonna get hit."

I want to say that was Jesse Palmer. It didn't sound like Flutie.

"Back to the land of the Leafs" - Nokwah sending it back after a studio update.

Neither Flutie, Saunders or Palmer can do math. When they were comparing Ray Rice and the UConn RB's stats, it said Rice carried 35 times, and UConn's Brown had carried 24, but they said at least 10 times that he was nine carries away from what Rice did...

somebody tell john saunders that barack obama is half-WHITE!
i just can't believe blacks are taking credit for him when he's not even totally black.

Re: everyone calling for more John Saunders

Are we watching the same game? Saunders is mispronouncing names and just seems slow to react to whatever is going on on the field (the muffed punt and UConn's touchdown to make it 24-20 being the most egregious examples). He does not sound on top of things at all - ill-prepared and just sloppy. I really like John Saunders as a studio guy, but he just seems out of his element in the booth.

I personally enjoyed John Saunders still bemoaning the lack of black head coaches (i.e. the lack of "Rooney rule") despite the fact that there numbers have increased this offseason...give it up ESPN...

As an aside, was anyone else absolutely befuddled when Floyd Keith invoked Curt Flood's name in the context that he did...if anyone should be invoking Curt Flood it should be the "student-athletes"...

2 TEs, a FB, and a running play on third and five. Time warp play of the season

*Their* numbers have increased this off-season, the black coaches, that is...

A interesting column from Michael Wilbon on New Years Day:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/02/AR2009010200840.html

I'll give you that it did seem out of context to talk about the Rooney Rule and stuff after we now have 7 black head coaches with DeWayne Walker taking the New Mexico State job, and a bit of typecasting for Saunders.

Hopefully Walker, Ron English, Mike Haywood, and Mike Locksley can build programs. Turner Gill and Kevin Sumlin are obviously on the right path.

JG - interesting is true, but I wonder how, in the age of the Internet, that a guy wondering when the Fiesta Bowl is played can't simply Google the date. I surmise he's trying to make a point there, though.

Although this bothered me: "Why watch Alabama play Utah (another perfect No. 1 vs. No. 8 playoff matchup) if the Crimson Tide has no chance to finish No. 1?"

Reverse those teams please, big school media bias.

easier to keep whining about the lack of blacks, instead of doing some research and realizing the situation has improved!
that's the blacks way.
is barack sending all blacks a $10,000 check on january 20th. that's what they think. isn't it?

S2N

Not only that but I'm sure espn or wp's web site (as do many others)
have some sort of bowl schedule up, and the post devotes a fair amount of resources to covering the national college football scene.

I agree about the big school bias, and the non-BCS schools winning these games is a mixed blessing, because the BCS wont want to play them, and if the non-BCS loses in a rout it'll be said they cant compete, and like last night it was what Alabama did wrong not what Utah did right.

The nightmare scenario for the traditonal powers in college football would be a playoff ending in TCU/Boise State vs Utah. The Miami-Nebraska Orange Bowl of 1984
wouldnt happen today.

anon 2:38 you're right
i can't believe either that al sharpton, jesse jackson, louis farrakhan are taking credit for a half-WHITE person making the White House! times have changed.

John Saunders also made reference to Ron English as the "great defensive coordinator at Michigan who then went to the SEC"...

Initially I only noticed the obvious hyperbole, but now I realize that English actually wound up at Louisville before he took the EMU job (ironically, enough Ron Cooper parlayed the head job at EMU into the head job at UL, and that job should be opening up in the next few years, oh, and they are both black)...