ESPN announcers Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit in the booth for the College Football Playoff semifinals between Ole Miss and Miami. Photo Credit: ESPN Photo Credit: ESPN
By Sam Neumann on

Chris Fowler had a night to forget Thursday while calling Miami’s 31-27 win over Ole Miss in the Fiesta Bowl.

ESPN’s No. 1 college football play-by-play announcer, the voice entrusted with the sport’s biggest stages and most defining moments for more than a decade, rarely has nights like this. He’s earned that status, standing atop a depth chart that includes Sean McDonough, Joe Tessitore, Dave Pasch, and Bob Wischusen.

But something was clearly amiss in Glendale.
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By the fourth quarter, the broadcast issues were impossible to miss. With the game still very much up for grabs, Chris Fowler started trending online as viewers and media members pointed out a pattern of weirdness, which is not something you would associate with his calls.

For a voice that’s typically steady on college football’s biggest stages, Thursday night felt different — and not in a good way.

As mentioned above, the most glaring mistakes came late, when the margin for error was smallest. Fowler misidentified an incomplete sideline pass as a catch, misstated the score during an Ole Miss field-goal drive, and then botched the math entirely by suggesting the Rebels could go up eight points with a touchdown while trailing by one.

To his credit, Fowler still delivered in spots. He rose to the moment on several big plays, and when Miami finally put the game away, his call landed the way it was supposed to. That’s been the foundation of his career, and Thursday was not a total collapse.

Still, viewers didn’t imagine what they were hearing.

Fowler remains one of the best play-by-play voices in the sport, and his résumé more than supports that status. One rough night doesn’t erase years of excellence calling college football’s biggest games. But this wasn’t just a bad bounce or a single slip. It was jarring enough to invite questions about whether he should continue to be ESPN’s top choice, especially with Sean McDonough delivering near-flawless performances in his own CFP assignments this season.

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann