Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt Credit: Fox Sports

When you think of Gus Johnson, you think of excitement, big plays, and LOUD NOISES.

That was not the case on Saturday during his call of the Big Ten game between the Penn State Nittany Lions and Illinois Fighting Illini.

Penn State jumped out to an early lead and cruised to victory in what ended up being a 30-13 affair. That said, while not the most thrilling college football game ever played, the outcome was still in question until the third quarter. One would have assumed that there was plenty of space for loud calls and exciting moments.

Instead, audiences ended up hearing a lot of mundane reactions to major turnovers and game-changing plays.

https://twitter.com/awfulannouncing/status/1703122431056245182

Fans and viewers couldn’t help but notice that Johnson’s and Joel Klatt’s call of the game seemed very out of step with what people have come to expect.

We don’t really know if there was something up with Johnson on Saturday. It’s hard to know if the lack of enthusiasm was due to any kind of personal issues or that he and Klatt just couldn’t get excited about Big Ten football (which, to be fair, we’ve all been there).

Johnson and his Fox Sports crew also had a rough opening weekend to the season, with a collection of camera snafus and strange calls by Gus. Perhaps they’re still working out all the kinks over there, but hopefully, we get some of that classic Gus Johnson enthusiasm back next week.

[Connor Griffin, AA on Twitter]

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.