College FootballFoxBy Sean Keeley on

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).

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 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.

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.

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.

 

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.

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 gonna be a tough recap production meeting at Fox Sports on Monday after this one.

About Sean Keeley

Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Editorial Strategy Director for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.

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