We keep getting press releases which unveil the announcers for the upcoming football season. Now it’s Fox’s turn to tell us who will be calling the games for the 2015 college football campaign.
We have wholesale changes for Fox as Charles Davis who has been the network’s top analyst for college football moves to the NFL. Joel Klatt who has been the Thursday night and studio analyst will take Davis’ place and we have a CBS reunion on Fox as well.
And for Big Ten Network of which Fox operates as a partner to the conference, there are changes there too.
Summing up, here’s what we have for Fox:
Gus Johnson/Joel Klatt//Molly McGrath
Joe Davis/Brady Quinn//Kris Budden
Tim Brando/Spencer Tillman
Justin Kutcher/Petros Papadakis and/or Steve Hutchinson
So Brando and Tillman who spent many years together in the studio for CBS prior to the SEC Game of the Week reunite after being a year apart on game broadcasts.
On Big Ten Network, the top two teams are as follows:
Kevin Kugler/Matt Millen//Lisa Byington
Eric Collins/Glen Mason//Rebecca Haarlow
Notice that Matt Millen moves to BTN from ESPN and will be the “A” analyst with Kugler. Millen will also do NFL games on Fox.
Glen Mason who worked with Kugler last year moves to the “B” team with Collins.
Here’s the official announcement:
FOX SPORTS & BIG TEN NETWORK REVEAL 2015 COLLEGE FOOTBALL BROADCASTERSSpencer Tillman Reunites With Longtime Colleague Tim Brando;
Former Michigan All-American Steve Hutchinson Makes Broadcasting Debut
Kevin Kugler and Matt Millen Headline Big Ten Network Broadcast CrewsNew York – With kickoff of the 2015 college football season just weeks away, FOX Sports and Big Ten Network finalize their full roster of play-by-play announcers, game analysts and studio broadcasters. Having already revealed its re-tooled lineup featuring new lead game analyst Joel Klatt and studio analyst Matt Leinart, FOX Sports today announces the addition of Spencer Tillman and Steve Hutchinson to its game crews, while BTN reveals its two primary game broadcast teams and studio desk.
Tillman reunites with play-by-play announcer Tim Brando, his longtime colleague and partner at CBS, to call games on FOX Sports 1. The pair worked together for 15 years, from 1999 until Brando joined FOX Sports prior to the 2014 season, in the CBS college football studio, where Tillman was lead analyst and Brando was host of “College Football Today.” A running back at Oklahoma, Tillman helped lead the Sooners to the 1985 National Championship. After college, Tillman was drafted by the Houston Oilers and played eight seasons in the league, including with the Super Bowl XXIV-winning San Francisco 49ers in 1989. Tillman and Brando call their first game for FOX Sports 1 on Saturday, Sept. 5, as Southern Miss hosts Mississippi State at 10:00 PM ET.
Hutchinson joins FOX Sports after a collegiate and professional career in which he made his mark as one of the best offensive linemen of his era. A four-year starter and four-time All-Big Ten selection at Michigan, he was a member of the Wolverines’ 1997 Associated Press National Championship team in addition to earning All-America honors and being named the conference’s Offensive Lineman of the Year in 2000. Taken by the Seattle Seahawks with the 17th overall selection in the 2001 NFL Draft, Hutchinson played every game from 2003 to 2009, a span of 112 consecutive starts, and was voted to seven straight Pro Bowls. He was named a first-team All-Pro by the Associated Press five times and was one of two guards on the Pro Football Hall of Fame All-Decade First Team for the 2000s.
Hutchinson rotates with Petros Papadakis in the analyst chair alongside play-by-play announcer Justin Kutcher calling game action throughout the season. In Week 1, Kutcher, Hutchinson and Papadakis kick off the season together calling Purdue at Marshall on Sunday, Sept. 6, at 3:00 PM ET on FOX Sports 1.
Papadakis has been with FOX Sports since 2004 and has worked as a national college football studio and game analyst since FOX Sports 1 launched in 2013. A former tailback at USC, he continues to host the popular afternoon-drive radio program, “The Petros and Money Show” on 570 AM in Los Angeles.
The two new broadcast teams join those previously announced, Gus Johnson, Joel Klatt and Molly McGrath, and Joe Davis, Brady Quinn and Kris Budden. Johnson, Klatt and McGrath are on the call for FOX Sports 1’s season-opener, as Michigan faces Utah on Thursday, Sept. 3, marking Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh’s first game on the Wolverines sideline, with coverage beginning at 7:00 PM ET. Davis, Quinn and Budden open the season in Los Angeles on Saturday, Sept. 5, as Virginia faces UCLA at 3:30 PM ET, broadcast nationally on local FOX stations. Host Rob Stone joins Leinart and Dave Wannstedt in studio every Saturday for pregame, halftime and postgame coverage on FOX broadcast network and FOX Sports 1. College football insiders Bruce Feldman, Stewart Mandel and Clay Travis also contribute to FOX Sports’ extensive coverage on television and online at FOXSports.com.
FOX Sports partners with Big Ten Network to provide fans extended coverage from across the country. BTN features two primary broadcast teams during the 2015 season, led by the addition of former Penn State standout and four-time Super Bowl champion Matt Millen. Millen makes his BTN debut alongside accomplished play-by-play announcer Kevin Kugler and veteran sideline reporter Lisa Byington. Glen Mason, the former Ohio State linebacker (1970-71) and Minnesota head coach (1997-2006), teams with Eric Collins, who handles play-by-play, and sideline reporter Rebecca Harlow.
BTN also provides an array of in-studio personalities, led by Dave Revsine, Gerry DiNardo and Howard Griffith. Revsine, DiNardo and Griffith anchor the network’s gameday studio coverage for the ninth consecutive year. Mike Hall and Rick Pizzo contribute to additional studio shows throughout the week, and studio analysts include Wannstedt and former Ohio State quarterback Stanley Jackson in addition to others throughout the season.
FOX Sports kicks off the 2015 college football season with seven games over four days on Labor Day weekend, including Harbaugh’s highly anticipated debut as the head coach at his alma mater on FOX Sports 1. That exciting matchup is one of nearly 100 games telecast on FOX Sports’ national and regional platforms, comprising a schedule that features top contests from the Big 12, Pac-12 and Conference USA on FOX broadcast network, FOX Sports 1, FOX Sports Networks (FSN), FOX College Sports (FCS), FOX Deportes and FOX Sports GO.
And we’re done here.
