It’s officially Week 1 of the 2023 college football season and teams across the country are trying to brush off the cobwebs and shake off the rust.
Seems that’s also the case for Fox Sports’ broadcasting crew covering TCU vs. Colorado on Saturday.
While the main complaint about Fox’s 2023 college football broadcast heading into the weekend had been their new “how do you do, fellow kids” graphics package, some curious calls and curiouser camera angles were what caught audiences’ attention on Saturday.
We start with Gus Johnson, who seemed to be having a hard time keeping track of what was going on at times. Early in the game, Johnson called an incomplete pass as a completion and then talked about the play as if Colorado had possession (TCU did).
Rough sequence for Gus Johnson out of the gate here.
Calls the play as a completion (was incomplete) than flips to saying it’s Colorado who was on offense (TCU had the ball) pic.twitter.com/1wXJndALg2
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 2, 2023
Later on, when TCU’s kicker missed a field goal, Johnson referred to it as “incomplete,” which we suppose is technically correct but, you know.
"And it's incomplete, as he pushes it wide right."- Gus Johnson on TCU's missed field goal vs Colorado https://t.co/dtQCP9HzMt pic.twitter.com/L47kC2ZzVr
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 2, 2023
And then there was Gus saying that a punt ended with a touchback only to realize that it had actually gone out at the one-yard-line.
Another Gus gaffe, this time on the punt that went out of bounds at the one-yard-line. https://t.co/krnO2X41Bn pic.twitter.com/m0st6HVHHU
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 2, 2023
To be fair, Johnson did get back on track in the second half and started making some very Gus Johnson-esque calls, like this one on a Travis Hunter interception.
https://twitter.com/thecomeback/status/1698043864077250721
Meanwhile, Gus wasn’t the only one getting into game shape during the course of the day. Fox’s camera people had some snafus of their own. Most notably, as Colorado’s Dylan Edwards scampered into the endzone on a 75-yard touchdown run, Fox suddenly cut to a shot of equipment on the sidelines for no discernable reason.
The Fox camera angle as Colorado's Dylan Edwards was reaching the end zone for a touchdown. https://t.co/OFE0Zc5ABR pic.twitter.com/lG07bKCxgO
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 2, 2023
Later on, the cameraperson appeared to be asleep at the wheel when Colorado’s Shaduer Sanders fired a pass downfield before quickly realizing they’d stopped tracking the ball.
https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1698043069315379668
And on what was the game-sealing play for Colorado, Joel Klatt had to explain to Johnson that the Buffaloes failing to get out of bounds didn’t really matter; getting a first down with 36 seconds remaining — while TCU had no timeouts remaining — allowed the Buffaloes to be able to just kneel down and run out the clock.
"It's a first down and now [Colorado] can just take a knee. So, yes, he shouldn't have run out (of bounds), but at least he had the first down and they can sit there and take a knee, Gus."- Joel Klatt https://t.co/IvQBGGldm4
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 2, 2023
It’s gonna be a tough recap production meeting at Fox Sports on Monday after this one.
