NBC was the other winner from Notre Dame-Clemson (2024)

NBC enjoyed its most massive viewership in 15 years for a Notre Dame game Saturday — an average of 9.9 million viewers, peaking at 14.2 million at the start of overtime — and it must be said that its broadcast team had every bit as spectacular a night as Brian Kelly and the Fighting Irish. Host Mike Tirico and analyst Tony Dungy were superb on the 47-40, double-overtime game.

Tirico, at the outset of overtime, issued the day’s best line: “Maybe 2020 hasn’t been great, but 2020 has given us 40-40.” He also informed viewers that Clemson quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei had blocked his own dad on social media and that Uiagalelei’s roommate was classmate Bryan Bresee, one of the few freshmen in America who was rated higher than he as a high school senior among recruiting services.

Tirico and Dungy respected the gravity of the moment without ever making it seem dour. At one point in the second half, noting that Notre Dame was eschewing sending in plays via hand signals, Tirico quipped, “For those of you who haven’t watched college football in a long time, that’s a huddle.”

Late in the fourth quarter, as the zebras appeared to lose the script, Tirico and Dungy were excellent at calling out their inconsistencies while keeping an even keel themselves. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney may have been tossing his headset at the latest needless video review of an obvious touchdown, but Dungy, ever the face of preternatural placidity, diplomatically explained why things were transpiring as so. At one point Tirico turned to him, almost as if he’d forgotten the they were on TV, and said, “You’re the most patient man I have ever known.”

When it was over, as Notre Dame students stormed the field for the first time in more than a generation (excepting the premature storming of 2005 that was never consummated), Tirico was ready with a call he must have had in his back pocket: “In the midst of the pandemic, there is pandemonium here in South Bend.”

Indeed there was. And you couldn’t have asked for a better lead-in to Saturday Night Live.

College football and elections, where voters determine the winners

The nation awoke Saturday morning to a land where both incumbents, Clemson and the president, remained atop their respective perches. It fell asleep Saturday night to a markedly different country. It was impossible, as all of this transpired on a mid-autumn Saturday, to not notice that the nation’s change in leadership was inextricably woven into the college football conversation.

Hook ’em ’Horns and honking horns. A major Harris who was not Major Harris. Maskless revelers committing a massive fail in terms of social-distancing on the streets of our cities and on a field in South Bend. The Clemson football team, on the eve of its first game at Notre Dame in more than 40 seasons, watching “Rudy” … a film based on a guy who never knew when to quit.

It was easily the most surreal college football Saturday since November 5, 2011. On that day, only hours before No. 1 LSU kicked off against No. 2 Alabama in Tuscaloosa, former Penn State associate head coach Jerry Sandusky was arrested and charged with 40 counts of child sexual abuse. All of this just one week after his longtime boss, Joe Paterno, set the Division I record for most coaching victories (409) in an October blizzard in State College. It would be Paterno’s last game.

This weekend was different because the biggest story on the planet was taking place during college football’s biggest day of the season thus far. And so it was that Rece Davis of “College Gameday”, coming to us from the concourse level of Notre Dame Stadium, reported, “ABC News has declared the election and Joe Biden will be the 46th president of the United States.”

How bizarre was that? For historical context you might have to go back to Howard Cosell announcing the death of John Lennon on live TV during ABC’s “Monday Night Football” in December of 1980.

Over at Fox, the interim “Big Noon Kickoff” crew (more on that below) sent viewers over to Fox News. This only after a brief pause in which host Charissa Thompson might have saved a career or two by shushing her panelists who thought they were already off-air. This, too, was strange. One Saturday Bruce Feldman’s your insider, and the next it’s Bill Hemmer.

This Georgia elections official on finishing counting ballots: "Our hope would be today but could slip into tomorrow. Everybody's exhausted, it's Friday, there's a Georgia game tomorrow, it's a really big one. We have to focus on the important things sometimes." pic.twitter.com/TqzNUPDT44

— Krystie Lee Yandoli (@KrystieLYandoli) November 6, 2020

With the news breaking so early in the day, every person with a hot mic had the chance to test his or her leverage, plus what must have been an irresistible impulse, as to whether to opine on this historic moment. What to do? Fox’s Tim Brando was classy and understated during the Oklahoma State-Kansas State broadcast: “And we wish our new president-elect all the best.”

Over on ABC’s studio show, host Kevin Negandhi, a Temple alum, noted that his alma mater and its city were a locus of attention while narrating an Owl touchdown run in a loss to SMU. “The highlight today in Philadelphia,” Negandhi quipped. “A lot of highlights in Philadelphia.”

Instead of us fighting and going to court, why don’t we have Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin vote again? We can have it done within a week, and maintain our democracy.

— Herschel Walker (@HerschelWalker) November 6, 2020

It was a day that was nigh impossible to stick to sports. NBC switched over to President-Elect Joe Biden’s speech a few minutes after 8 p.m. Viewers were left to track down the game on USA Network (how do you not put a presidential speech on a network named USA???). ABC did the same, relegating Stanford-Oregon to ESPNews.

By week’s end the country was coming around to the fact that a 46th president would be taking office in January and that Clemson was no longer the top-ranked team in the land. Alabama is now No. 1. Nick Saban rules: Some things never change.

“D’Eriq King’s been playing quarterback since he was three years old.”

— Jason Benetti, ESPN, during Friday night’s Miami-NC State shootout

Frankly, we need more. Where and for whom? Was his nickname “Touchdown Toddler?” By the way, if former Manvel (Tex.) High School coach Kirk Martin is reading this, take a bow. Your erstwhile pupils, King and Florida’s Kyle Trask, combined for 904 passing yards and nine touchdown passes in wins versus the Wolfpack and Georgia, respectively.

Striking a chord

If you want to explain sub-tweeting to a non-millennial, you may want to use the metaphor of Desmond Howard’s record collection. When the Heisman Trophy winner is compelled to appear on College GameDay from his Miami-area home, he places different albums behind him in what appears to be his study. And at times, perhaps we are over-analyzing matters, it feels as if Howard is planting not-so-subliminal messages with his selections.

@jdubs1966 any chance ESPN brass told Desmond to make this change mid-show? pic.twitter.com/ImbsuWCEob

— Stephen Kahn (@StephenKahn12) November 7, 2020

This Saturday morning the first album to appear behind Howard’s left shoulder was “Happy Days Are Here Again”. That’s a rather obscure choice, via The St. Mary’s Academy A Cappella Choir, circa 1967. Is Howard just a fan of vocal groups or was he trying to send a message that the title of this album is … pitch perfect?

This play should be renamed “Hockman Turner Overdrive”

WATCH THE LEAD BLOCKERS ON THIS SCREEN! 🥞🥞🥞 pic.twitter.com/RpIdpfYoUf

— Geoff Schwartz (@geoffschwartz) November 7, 2020

“Let me tell you, you go down to Delaware versus Tubby Raymond and the Wing-T …”

— NFL Hall of Famer Howie Long hyping his collegiate bonafides (played at Villanova) versus those of his co-panelists Emmanuel Acho (Texas) and Terry Bradshaw (Louisiana Tech)

Here’s the thing: Fox’s Big Noon pinch-hitters were entertaining and informative in their one-hour cameo. With the entire Big Noon Kickoff crew sidelined due to “an abundance of caution” related to COVID-19 protocols, and on a Saturday where the show had planned to originate from the L.A. Coliseum, the walk-ons performed admirably.

In fact, with Charissa Thompson at the helm and with the ever-jocular Bradshaw as comic relief, the troupe provided a welcome respite from the weekly Notre Dame-USC rivalry undercurrent. Acho, by the way, possesses all the tools to prosper in this business. ESPN may feel the same about allowing him to get away as Kirby Smart must about Justin Fields right now.

“Joel, I think today you and I are ready for these Polynesian names.”

— Gus Johnson, Fox, at the outset of Arizona State at USC

What in the name of Mosi Tatupu is going on here? In the late 1970s Washington State had a legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate of Polynesian descent at quarterback, but the passer nicknamed “The Throwin’ Samoan” had the deceivingly Anglo name of “Jack Thompson.” Hardly linguistic acrobatics for your Saturday booth jockey.

The past half-century had seen a smattering, at best, of Polynesian pigskin performers, from the aforementioned Tatupu (1970s, USC) to Marques Tuiasosopo (quarterback, Washington) to Manti T’eo (linebacker, Notre Dame). Most of them were raised in Hawaii or on the west coast and played either in the Pac-12 or Mountain West. Some were All-Americans (USC defenders Troy Polamalu and Junior Seau come immediately to mind, as well as Oregon’s Haloti Ngata).

In the past few years, however, the massive influx of both Polynesians and Nigerians in college football has compelled broadcasters to stay up late on Friday evenings practicing their phonetics. Let’s refer to this as the “D.J. Uiagalelei Effect.” Here’s just a cursory listing of impact players in college football this season whose names must be properly pronounced for an announcer to retain his credibility: Clemson’s Uiagelelei (pronounced “dee-jay”… just kidding … “ooh-ee-AHN-guh-luh-lay.”), Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah (LB, Notre Dame), Amen Ogbongbemiga (LB, Oklahoma State), Taulia Tagovailoa (QB, Maryland) and Vavae Malepeai (RB, USC).

Before he calls the Clemson/Notre Dame game Saturday night on @wyffnews4, @miketirico had to make sure his pronunciation of DJ Uiagalelei was correct (and he's got it down!)

Hear from the @NBCSports great tonight⬇️
Showdown in South Bend | 7PM | WYFF pic.twitter.com/fKvVHIhx9f

— Marc Whiteman (@MarcWYFFNews4) November 6, 2020

Last week NBC’s Mike Tirico joked that, when speaking to family, he was ending every sentence with “ooh-ee-AHN-guh-luh-lay” for practice. It paid off, as during one play in the second half of Clemson-Notre Dame Tirico exceeded ordinary degree-of-difficulty standards by packing Uiagalelei, Owusu-Koramoah and (Myron) Amosa-Tagovailoa into one call.

Meanwhile, before the game, Tirico’s former booth partner Doug Flutie, now working pregame for NBC, misfired at his one shot at pronouncing the precocious passer’s name. “I blew it, I know,” Flutie said.

Not everyone can be named Mac Jones.

“I think Michigan was uninspired a week ago.”

— Kirk Herbstreit, College GameDay

College GameDay devoted some time to a “What’s Wrong With Michigan?” segment, which is odd because they had a “What’s Wrong With Nebraska?” segment earlier this season. Coming soon: “What’s Wrong With Penn State?”

It’s funny to us that “Stranger Things”, the Netflix series that introduced the term “the upside down”, takes place in Big Ten country. Because that’s exactly what the B1G is in 2020, with undefeated Indiana, Northwestern and Purdue (cumulatively 8-0) juxtaposing the hapless Wolverines, Cornhuskers and Nittany Lions (a combined 1-7).

The only creature impervious to the upside down is Ohio State. The Buckeyes should also go by “Eleven.”

And by the way, if Michigan was “uninspired” for Michigan State, isn’t that a symptom of an even bigger problem in Ann Arbor?

The B.S. Wonders …

If you noticed that the massive chamber inside Notre Dame’s radiation lab is painted to resemble a football? … Were you also oddly captivated by the Friday night truck race finish that delayed the kickoff of BYU-Boise State more than 15 minutes, and why don’t more victorious coaches and players proclaim in postgame interviews that they’re going to “drink a few cold beers”? … Did you catch ABC’s Chris Fowler squatting what we surmise was 315 pounds three times on his IG story before the video disappeared? You’re up, Mike Tirico. …

Why don’t networks do more to incorporate Twitter and TikTok into their pregame and game telecasts? That 18-30 demographic is all over these forms of media — why aren’t you? … Did the parents of USC kicker Parker Lewis name him in homage to the ’90s sitcom “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose” or were they simply unaware of its existence? As we wait for a punter named Homer Simpson to appear …

If maybe Clemson should not have watched “Rudy” on Friday night? May we suggest “The Empire Strikes Back” for the night of Dec. 18?… Why were Indiana linemen hoisting white folding chairs on the sidelines during the Michigan game? Signals? … If you noticed that both BYU and Notre Dame scored on 60-plus yard runs on their first rushing attempts? …

86 YARDS TO THE HOUSE 🏠 @tylerallgeier17 with the BIG run to put @BYUfootball on top pic.twitter.com/dEBz5XkYJW

— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) November 7, 2020

If you realize that the last time Indiana opened 3-0 (1988), the NBA champions were the Los Angeles Lakers, the World Series champs were the Los Angeles Dodgers and an Elliott won the NASCAR series title? And the national champion in college football that year was? … If you can name the highest-ranked team from a state that voted blue last week (Oregon, 11th)? … If you’ve watched “The Queen’s Gambit” on Netflix and, like me, come away thinking, Yup, another cautionary tale of sports and performance-enhancing drugs?… How deep is Mike Pereira’s closet? Does the sartorial sophisticate embrace a “next suit in” approach to soiled attire? …

If you know the last time Boise State suffered a worse defeat on the blue turf than its 34-point pummeling (51-17) via BYU, because we don’t recall FS1 informing us? The answer: November 23, 1996, by Idaho: 64-19 (45 points). … If you realize that Liberty (7-0) visits Coastal Carolina (7-0) the first Saturday of December? … Have you ever seen three consecutive plays end with the ball in the hands of the same player when at least one of the first two plays was a touchdown? It happened on the blue turf as Boise State’s Khalil Shakir caught a 52-yard TD pass, recovered the onside kick, and on the next play hauled in a 46-yard scoring pass in the fourth quarter.

Kevin & Company

To achieve success on Saturday, a team must put in plenty of reps. ABC’s first-year studio trio of Kevin Negandhi, Booger McFarland and Mark Sanchez had no choice but to bond quickly in 2020.

A Week 1 lightning delay in Tallahassee compelled Negandhi and his cohorts to be on-air non-stop for two hours. In Week 2 a transmitter went out during the Navy-Tulane game in New Orleans with the Midshipmen trailing 24-0, so the threesome went anchors aweigh and called the game from the TV feed in Bristol. “It’s been challenging, but it’s been fun,” says Negandhi, who is in his 14th year at ESPN. “I’ve got two teammates who know what it takes to be a good teammate.”

Because of COVID-19 protocols, Negandhi, McFarland and Sanchez remain in studio watching football for up to 12 consecutive hours. “I literally can’t move,” Negandhi says. “I sit in the chair at noon and walk off after the prime time game wraps up.”

The art of what Negandhi — or any highlights host, be it Matt Barrie (ESPN) or Rob Stone (Fox) or Adam Zucker (CBS) — does is trafficking between the footage we viewers see and narration. “For me, I’m not looking at the video,” Negandhi says. “You’ve hopefully seen the package once before and once you’re going, you’re going. I’m just a conduit and my job is to allow enough room for Mark or Booger to make their points.”

Studio hosts are basically quarterbacks. The best ones know how to be game managers first, playmakers second. “I model my career after Rece Davis,” Negandhi says. “He is flawless.”

“Everyone can claim they love ‘Pac-12 After Dark.’ No, you don’t. It’s a punchline on Twitter. Cuz we’ve seen the ratings.”

— Joel Klatt, Fox, during the 9 a.m. kickoff Arizona State-USC game

The year 2020 will bring about a plethora of permanent changes to all aspects of society, and one of those should be a weekly Pac-12 Before Brunch (credit our fearless leader, Stewart Mandel, for the appellation) game. One is enough, but that puts the Pac-12 solidly in the East coast noon window where it has long been absent. If there’s to be a steady diet of ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC pigskin in that timeslot, then the Pac-12 needs to join them.

How many of you stayed up for the Washington State-Oregon State game that ended near about 2 a.m. Eastern time? When you’re at the bar, the lights are turned up, and the doorman is bellowing, “YOU DON’T HAVE TO GO HOME BUT YOU CAN’T STAY HERE!”, maybe it’s time to find a friendly pillow.

Klatt tweeted a follow-up Sunday with another insightful point: A noon window (9 a.m. or 10 a.m. local start depending on the Pac-12 venue) game is going to be recycled in the highlight packages all Saturday whereas a Pac-12 After Dark game often feels as if it is a rumor (if you don’t believe Klatt or myself, just ask Christian McCaffrey).

The odyssey of No 15 here. https://t.co/yGfnNvkXjK

— John Walters (@jdubs1966) November 8, 2020

(Watch USC safety Talanoa Hufanga (15) on this ASU scoring play. While his effort is ultimately fruitless and frustrating, he never gives up. Tenacious D is more than just a band.)

Again, we’d suggest to Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott just one game per week and that no member school hosts more than two per season. You want to accommodate the fans in the stands, but 9 a.m. (or 10 a.m.) local starts are essential for national branding. Or, as Urban Meyer said during his brief remote appearance on Big Noon Kickoff, “The Pac-12’s gotta become relevant again.”

The Sun Devils-Trojans season premiere could not, by the way, have been any more on-brand for the Pac-12: wildly entertaining, filled with missed assignments and miscues and, as oft happens, a heartbreaking defeat for Sparky. The Sun Devils controlled the second half except for USC’s Kedon Slovis connecting on a pair of fourth-and-long touchdown passes — the former, a gift of dumb luck; the latter, a precision strike — sandwiched around a successful onside kick.

“I don’t think we want to show that more than one more time after this.”

— Brad Nessler, CBS, during Florida-Georgia

Here’s the situation: the Bulldogs had just apparently scored a touchdown on a completion to Marcus Romy-Jacksaint to go ahead of the Gators 14-0 in the first quarter. Two problems: The officials were going to consult instant replay to see if Romy-Jacksaint had broken the plane of the goal and, oh yeah, his ankle was flopping around unnaturally (think Dak Prescott from a few weeks back).

What to do if you’re in the CBS truck? Viewers were curious to see for themselves if it was six. And yet the footage was sickening. By our count CBS showed the replay one more time (and from a different angle) than Nessler would have liked, which is not egregious.

Nothing comes immediately to mind in terms of precedent for this: a gruesome injury caught on camera on a disputed scoring play.

Kyle Pitts gets rocked on targeting call 😳 pic.twitter.com/YrSZ2Vy0lG

— Clint Lamb (@ClintRLamb) November 7, 2020

One quarter later CBS found itself weighing a similar decision on a downfield collision between Georgia defender Lewis Cine and Florida’s All-Universe tight end Kyle Pitts. On what in real time looked like the scariest collision of the season, both players were fortunate to walk off the field. CBS showed appropriate discretion in terms of replays.

“How do you leave here in three hours with a win?”

— NBC’s Jac Collinsworth to Clemson coach Dabo Swinney

Ha! When’s the last time an NBC broadcast of a Notre Dame game hit the under on three-and-a-half hours? Particularly one in prime time. For the record, and thanks to a pair of overtimes and a few unnecessary visits with the replay booth, this one came home at four hours and nine minutes.

Kudos Korner

Props for these sundry Saturday superlatives:

• To the producer at Fox who wrangled a copy of USC’s Oct. 31 itinerary sheet that showed how the Trojans did a dress rehearsal for the season opener a full week earlier.

• To CBS’ Jamie Erdahl, who trailed injured Georgia player Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint as he was being carted off the field at TIAA Bank Stadium. Erdahl noted that the Dawg wideout was watching a replay of his catch-and-run score and after seeing it, said to no one in particular, “That’s a touchdown.”

• To Fox for noticing early the duel-within-the-game between Arizona State corner Jack Jones and USC wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown. On a run toward the near sideline Klatt pointed out that St. Brown had blocked Jones into West Covina but that Jones fought back and nearly made the tackle.

• To Fox’s indefatigable Petros Papadakis, who served as an FS1 analyst on Friday night’s BYU-Boise State broadcast and followed it up in the same role for FS1 on Saturday evening in Corvallis with Washington State-Oregon State. Papadakis is no dulcet-toned co-pilot, but he always brings the enthusiasm and insight. During Friday night’s game the former USC team captain noted that Boise State’s Andrew Van Buren attended Chaminade High School in West Hills, Calif., which also has a blue turf field. For that we give Petros props-adakis!

“Kirby had the elevation, but Stevenson did not.”

— Gary Danielson, CBS

A first-half ground-level replay of Florida’s Kyle Pitts snatching a one-on-one ball away from Georgia’s Tyrique Stevenson illustrated that while the Dawgs DB was losing his footing in the foreground, head coach Kirby Smart, in the background, was leaping high into the Jacksonville night in, what, anticipation? Anxiety? Frustration?

Kirby Smart has the jump pic.twitter.com/gUk1hNWqRX

— Brad Logan (@BradLoganCOTE) November 7, 2020

This is known as painting the picture. Danielson is peering at the same shot on the monitor that we, the viewers, are and he is reacting to it as an astute observer would. Nessler piped in, “I don’t think Kirby jumped this high when he was an All-SEC receiver at Georgia. No way.” *

* Smart was an All-SEC defensive back

We often hear rumblings — in this comments section, from our colleagues, etc. — that Danielson and Brad Nessler are not atop their games. Frankly, we don’t see it. Week in and week out the duo are as fun a listen as exists in college football, and if there’s an occasional misidentification (or if they type “Hawkeyes” when they mean “Cyclones”), it’s a small price to pay for the lively banter.

Rock on, boomers. Rock on.

A proposal for Provo

We’ve made no secret of our BYU infatuation this season dating back to the first installment of the B.S. in September. So here’s the next hurdle for our Provo peeps: How to add another game to a schedule whose only remaining games are against FCS North Alabama (Nov. 21) and at San Diego State (Dec. 12). To us the easiest game to arrange, and the Cougars should be willing to travel, is a tilt against Marshall (6-0, 16th in the AP poll) on Thanksgiving weekend. Both schools are currently idle then.

“This is the kind of guy who makes you forget Trevor Lawrence.”

— Mark Sanchez, ABC studio show, waxing euphoric on D.J. Uiagalelei, moments before Clemson and Notre Dame booted off

It’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Sanchez also predicted that Big Cinco would be responsible for five touchdowns (“three in the air, two with his legs”). Uiagalelei was precocious if just shy of magnificent (two in the air, one with his legs, 439 yards passing) in Clemson’s overtime defeat.

Sanchez’s pronouncement was audacious, but it was not absurd. Let’s check back in a year.

Trivia question

Chris Fallica’s AFLAC trivia question on ABC’s “Saturday Night Football” was a veritable doozy: In the AP poll era, which is the only current Power 5 team not to have had a five-game losing streak?. We’ll give you a minute or two to ruminate on that one before we provide the answer later in the column.

“I wanna know, does every referee in college football have to hit the weight room?”

— Robert Smith, FS1, in the second half of Baylor-Iowa State

Look at what you have wrought, Ed Hochuli. Here’s a related question: Have you ever seen a referee with a beard?

Trivia answer

Ohio State. Bear expanded on this info dump to note that the Buckeyes had not dropped five in a row since 1897. If you really want to impress your friends at the Thirsty Scholar in Columbus, name the five schools that thumped Ohio State back when William McKinley was president. In order: Columbus Barracks, Oberlin, at West Virginia, at Cincinnati, and Ohio Wesleyan. Cumulative score of those contests? 108-0.

Hitting above the belt

When your coach is too hyped 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/XxyqaRoipC

— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) November 7, 2020

Not sure if this is targeting, but Indiana coach Tom Allen definitely launched here.

The Inconvenient Truth

In the past week the U.S. set a record for new coronavirus cases while 10 FBS games were canceled. That’s the most of any weekend so far this season. Also, temperatures are dropping as a backloaded season continues apace with a full slate of contests scheduled through the first two weekends of December.

Some seasons hinge on strength-of-schedule and common opponents, etc. This one may very well be decided at the end of a swab. Not assigning blame. Just being the captain who informs passengers to buckle up and remain in seats as we are about to encounter at least five more weekends of turbulence.

Signoff

(clears throat) why should we reward notre dame for leading a mediocre conference when BYU has accomplished so much as an independent

— Ryan Nanni (@celebrityhottub) November 8, 2020

It’s a legitimate question but the answer, of course, is that the Fighting Irish will have one more “data point.”

(Photo: Matt Cashore / USA TODAY Sports)