Brian Kelly makes his debut as a college football analyst. Credit: CBS Sports Network
By Tyler Lauletta on

It was a night of debuts in Fargo, North Dakota, on Saturday.

On the field, the North Dakota State Bison were playing in their first game at the FBS level, hosting the Jacksonville State Gamecocks at the FargoDome. Meanwhile, up in the CBS Sports Network broadcast booth, former Notre Dame and LSU coach Brian Kelly was making his own debut as a college football analyst.

Kelly was working alongside play-by-play announcer Rich Waltz and color commentator Adam Breneman.

Online, many college football fans landed on the same joke to welcome Kelly to the booth, wondering what accent he would be using on the broadcast — a reference to his introduction at LSU, during which he put some twang on his voice.

Beyond the jokes, it felt like the reaction was largely mixed to Kelly’s debut performance. He offered some insight into managing the stadium clock crew after the scoreboard went a bit wonky at the FargoDome.

And in an absolutely classic bit of Football Guy talk, Kelly spent a little bit of his spare time in the booth taking a shot at soccer for all the flopping.

Overall, Kelly was fine. Some of his critics said he didn’t seem to talk all that much for a commentator, but making your debut in a three-man booth means there’s twice as many people you have to make sure you’re not talking over. It’s something he’ll have to adjust to. For the most part, some thought Kelly had some good insight, others simply didn’t like him, and others still said they at least preferred Kelly the analyst over Kelly the coach.

Here’s a sampling of the reaction he received online.

As the game wound down to a 33–7 win for the Bison, Kelly expressed his thanks to his teammates in his closing comments.

“You guys have been great. You’ve taken me in. I’ll have to get better to keep up with you guys, but thanks for making this one easier than I thought.”

He also apparently joined Waltz and Breneman on a trip to see the infamous wood chipper from the film Fargo.

It’s fair to say that Kelly’s debut was good enough. It was far from a disaster, but also not an instant launchpad to a great career in broadcasting. We won’t have a real sense of Kelly’s knack for this for at least a few more games.

About Tyler Lauletta

Tyler is a editorial contributor at Awful Announcing, with previous stops at Sports Illustrated and Business Insider during his career covering sports in digital media. He is, begrudgingly, a Truster of the Process and general Philly sports sicko.

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