I know everyone was extremely disappointed when news broke that the Lou Holtz' Pep Talks had been scratched, but I'm throwing my hat in the ring for the Dr. Lou segment right now. Anytime you can get Lou taking messages from Bobby Bowden AND Regis Philbin....you've got a winner.

"Remember, when people need love and understanding the most, is usually when they deserve it the least."

It just doesn't get any better than that and those are words to live by my friends. And the, "wasn't a good honeymoon," line at the end was priceless. I love me some Lou.

Unlike the College Football version of the show, College Gameday for the NCAA Basketball season is planned out ahead of time. Actually five months in advance. ESPN passed around their travel plans for Rece, Digger, Hubert and Jay today and they've done a good job of coming up with completely new schools from last year. The crew will hit eight institutions starting with North Carolina on January 17th, 2009.

Here's the rest of the schedule. The primetime game that night will be in parenthesis.

Jan. 17- Chapel Hill, N.C. (Miami at North Carolina)
Jan. 24- South Bend, Ind. (Connecticut at Notre Dame)
Jan. 31- Knoxville, Tenn. (Florida at Tennessee)
Feb. 7- Spokane, Wash. (Memphis at Gonzaga)
Feb. 14- Madison, Wis. (Ohio State at Wisconsin)
Feb. 21- Austin, Texas (Oklahoma at Texas)
Feb. 28- Berkeley, Calif. (UCLA at California)
Mar. 7- Morgantown, W.V. (Louisville at West Virginia)

A good bit of variety there, but I thought it was good last year when they threw in a mid-major like Southern Illinois. The Saluki fans looked like the only student body that entirely filled the stands that early in the day. I'm also hoping for another quarterback or Football player to come hype the team before their broadcast ala Tim Tebow....

Tim Tebow Pumps Up The Gameday Crew (Awful Announcing)

I know you've been anxiously awaiting this release, and here it is. ESPN even decided to bring on an extra analyst that you maybe very familiar with. English Premier League and England Men’s National Team television analyst Andy Gray will be brought on for the Tournament and he'll be both in the booth and in the studio during the 31 Match Tourney.

Here the rest of your players....

Studio Team: Rece Davis, Rob Stone and Julie Foudy
Play by Play: Derek Rae and Adrian Healey
Analysts: Andy Gray, Tommy Smyth, and Robbie Mustoe
Reporter: Pedro Gomez

It's good to see Pedro Gomez finally getting work now that Barry Bonds is out of the Majors isn't it (I kid, I kid). All in all it looks like a pretty good set of individuals. In the studio, Rece Davis did a pretty good job during the 2006 World Cup and Rob Stone and Julie Foudy are great analysts.

I'm not sure of the announcing teams and who's calling which games, but I'll pass that along as soon as I get word.

(Via ESPN PR)

Caught this clip right before the OSM last night and it cracked me up. Digger Phelps is trying to explain how Memphis fouling at the end of regulation would have helped them and that they didn't need a timeout to set up their defense. Jay Bilas and Bobby Knight disagree. Watch as Digger slowly starts to lose it...

I absolutely love it when people get into a heated argument about two completely different things. The best part is that they got back into it after the break and the whole debate started all over. Also, Bobby Knight's reaction is priceless. Everyone starts to laugh it off, but he just looks fed up.

It's been a long month Bobby, you really think you deal with Digger on a full time basis?

There really hasn't been that much Madness so far, but it's time for Bobby Knight to add his two cents to the conference tournaments. The action gets underway in the Big East at noon today (I'll try to update you as the games are played) but Knight won't be on until 7pm tonight with Rece Davis and Digger Phelps.

Rece Davis is aware that people are watching and had this to say about the former Coach...

Davis says he's told Knight "the one thing we didn't want to do is put him in a box; I want his personality to come out." And, in a clip 'n' save, Davis says Knight didn't say any topic was off limits: "He told me, 'Don't be afraid to ask me what you need to ask me.'"

Bobby is just setting them up for an outburst now. I love it. I was against this hire at first (actually I still am) but the trainwreck potential is definitely exciting.

(Quote via USA Today)

I'm not quite sure why Digger Phelps is THAT pissed about this, but I think he's definitely right. The quartet is discussing how some of the Indiana players skipped out on practice yesterday and what new coach Dan Dakich should do about it. Digger had already said that he would have benched DJ White when the fireworks start....

He almost looked ready to walk off set by the time Hubert Davis started laughing at him. Deep breaths Digger....deep breaths.

ESPN's Basketball version of College Gameday is set to kick off this Weekend and they have seemingly pulled out all the stops (not really) to let you know it's coming. I'm sure you've seen this ad on the "Leader", but if you haven't it's about the weirdest thing you'll ever see.....

What the hell was that? I always thought the name Digger Phelps sounded like an STD ("Did you get the results?", "Yes, and I've got the Digger Phelps."), but that's just scary.

Anyway, Rece Davis is your host and he's with analysts Jay Bilas, Digger Phelps and Hubert Davis in Gainesville, Florida this weekend. The Basketball version of Gameday consists of two one-hour shows leading up to Saturday Night's action with the first at 11am and another at 8pm leading up to the game at 9pm. Here's the rest of the schedule for the Season.....

January 19- Kentucky at Florida
January 26- Creighton at So. Illinois (ESPN2)
February 2- Arizona at UCLA
February 9- Georgetown at Louisville
February 16- Michigan State at Indiana
February 23- Tennessee at Memphis
March 1- Kansas State at Kansas
March 8- North Carolina at Duke

I really thought I was going to end the year with the Illinois pep talk, but Lou Holtz just blew (blowed?) my mind. Lou, Rece Davis, and Mark May were talking about the Chick-Fil-A Bowl when Holtz said he wouldn't even go out for New Years Eve because this game is so good. Mark May then responded by saying he's in Bristol and there's nowhere to go. That's when the fun starts.....

Hilarious. Lou's old school Mark! Do NOT mess with him!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!

So you show a video of Ron Zook when he was in College. Great player and great coach now. You then refer to the facial hair and the fact the he could start in "Independent Film". Oh! Like "Mad Max" or no...."Donnie Darko"! No? That's not what you meant???

OHHHH! Porn 'stache! Why didn't you just say that? Oh, you can't??? Well played my friend.

I was actually blown away by this call from Lou Holtz during last night's Akron-Ohio game on ESPN 2, and I think Rece Davis was too. The game was crazy throughout, but Ohio had just recovered a fumble on the first play from scrimmage, and converted it into a FG.

The Bobcats were kicking off and all of a sudden Lou turns into Kreskin....

Where was the "Pep Talk" for the Bobcats last night Lou? You could have helped them out!

God I wish I was kidding when I heard this last night. As the Navy/Pitt game was heading into overtime one Louis Leo Holtz started a brief diatribe on why he hates overtime in College Football. Basically he was saying it was because he never won, but then he dropped this on the viewing public....

"I hated overtime I'd rather hook...it's like kissing your sister, but that's a lot better than kissing your brother"- Lou Holtz

See/Listen for yourself....

Hahahaha. What in the hell does that even mean? Look I know Lou Holtz loves Football and has been around the Sport since Abe Lincoln was in office, but come on! That is just nonsense.

I know the guy is old, so I hate to pick on him, but here are some other gems from last night.....

“I’ve never seen the yellow light, umm the yellow line be wrong.”

“I could not see who made that play but that was a great play by that defensive linebacker” (As opposed to the Offensive Linebacker?)

“The team that’s on defense first (in overtime) has the advantage because they know whether they need a touchdown a field goal or just a score.” (Umm, riiiight)

.....and the winner of the most random comment of the night.......

Rece Davis and Lou Holtz were contemplating the two sandwiches that they were eating when they went into this diatribe.....

"That's like comparing Joan Collins to Linda Evans."- Lou Holtz
"Now for a more modern reference, like Eva Longoria to Teri Hatcher."- Rece Davis
"I don't know who that is."- Lou Holtz

Bam!!! Lou Holtz don't care about you whippersnappers and your damn Distressed Women or whatever they call them shows on the talking box these days!!!!

(Thanks to G-Money for that last gem!)

I would expect something like this to happen in hour 8 as the hosts approached 3am, but I'm afraid this happened right at the top of hour 3. Rece Davis thought they had Florida Head Coach Urban Meyer on the phone. Turned out to be Offensive Coordinator Dan Mullen. Rece caught it right away, but it took the graphics department a little bit longer to figure it out....

I threw the Mack Brown one on there just for the fun of it. It's going to be a long night for Rece Davis.....especially if Mark May keeps chiming in with gems like, "Do an imitation of Urban Meyer!" That gets you the Rece Davis "Hand Wave" Mary May. You be careful son.....Anything could happen at 5:30 in the morning big boy.....anything (Lou Holtz jacked up on Red Bull is not something you want to mess with).

The Programming Details For ESPN's 25-Hour College Football Gimmick (Awful Announcing)

Update from the Comments: "The ESPN.com front page right now...none of this is overkill. No, not at all."- Vegas Watch

Nope....not at all.....

I already said my piece about this item in a post last night, but here are the details if you're looking for them. The 25-hour coverage will start August 29th at 7pm and lead up to LSU-MSU at 8pm the following night. Rece Davis will be your host throughout the whole ordeal, and will host every college football show and segments of non-college football programs (i.e. PTI, ATH, SC, etc).

There will be a 25-hour "chat room" set up for all of you computey types, and a roundtable featuring former Notre Dame coaches. Other features to include: Coach and player interviews, Pep Rallies, Reports from VT on how they are coping with the shootings (they actually put that in the press release), and many other "roundtable" discussions (Best QB, toughest place to play, etc.).

I'm still hoping that ESPN can take this stunt into a money raising event for New Orleans and Virginia Tech, but as of yet they are only considering themselves. The event is officially titled.....

25 Hours of College Football Presented by TIVO

Here's the schedule if you care to plan to stay up for the Hawaii interviews at 3am....

8/29	7 p.m.	College Football Live: Live shots from the ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU Thursday night game telecasts; live coverage of the USC practice and interviews with coaches and players; live coverage of Louisville, Florida State and Mississippi State pep rallies plus interviews with coaches and players from both teams; live interviews with various coaches, including West Virginia’s Rich Rodriguez; Notre Dame coaches roundtable with host Brent Musburger and former coaches Ara Parseghian, Lou Holtz and Charlie Weis.
8/29	11 p.m.	SportsCenter
8/30	midnight	College Football Live
8/30	12:30 a.m.	NFL Live
8/30	1 a.m. to 3 a.m.	SportsCenter
8/30	3 a.m.	College Football Live: Live updates with live interviews with Hawaii coach June Jones and Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan
8/30	5 a.m.	SportsCenter
8/30	Noon	College Football Live
8/30	3 p.m.	Outside the Lines
8/30	3:30 p.m.	College Football Live
8/30	4 p.m.	NFL Live
8/30	4:30 p.m.	Rome is Burning
8/30	5 p.m.	Around the Horn
8/30	5:30 p.m.	PTI
8/30	6 p.m.	SportsCenter
8/30	7 p.m.	College Football Live
8/30	8 p.m.	#2 LSU at Mississippi State

I hope Rece can survive this nonsense. That's a lot of programming.


USA Today Breaks ESPN Press Release On 25-Hour College Football Telecast (Awful Announcing)

This video just about sums up Kirk Herbstreit on the radio. He somehow compares Rece Davis to Bip Roberts by providing the explanation that he "does everything". Wouldn't a player like Chase Utley be someone who does everything and not a player with 30 homeruns through 12 seasons? But I digress, enjoy this discussion of Mike Greenberg's Hair!!!

How sick of the hair jokes do you think Mikey is by now?

Mike and Mike have been everywhere lately. No matter how you feel about them...you can't miss them. While the stunts and assignments have been goofy and light-hearted one thing has suffered throughout their adventures.

Their Radio Show.

They've skipped the last two, or two out of three, Mondays...one because they did an AFL game on Sunday (At 1pm...ESPN put the hosts from the later game on their show, and they had to fly back from San Jose), and two because today....Mike and Mike are hosting Sports Center at 6pm.

Like them or hate them...I think they used to have a pretty good show. They gave a good rundown of the previous day's events, had good guests, and seemed to enjoy each other's company. Now it seems like they've run out of stuff to talk about. And like me....you know there's really NOTHING to talk about (Bonds, Steroids, Point-shaving refs, Mike Vick, etc, etc).

This goes right along with everything ESPN has done lately, but be sure to check out how they handle hosting SC tonight at 6pm. Should be fun.

(Source: ESPN Radio)

P.S.- Rece Davis and Kirk Herbstreit were/are hosting for them today. Be sure to take a listen to hear KH sound like an dolt on the radio. Could he possibly come up with more sweeping generalizations?

No probably not the entire state (like us and Ohio), but the people that voted 1971 Nebraska and 1995 Nebraska into ESPN Classic's Playoff of the Top 32 Teams in College Football.



The whole thing isn't that funny until right at the 4-minute mark Herbstreit "gooses" Rece Davis.

"Do Not touch me like that again."- RD

Kirk Herbstreit is Pissed (We Are The Postmen)