As if you didn’t know, CBS has the biggest college football game of the week with Alabama at Texas A&M live from College Station, TX. This is so big, CBS has sent its pregame show, College Football Today to the site, something it rarely does.
Alabama at Texas A&M also marks the season premiere for the SEC on CBS so instead of ESPN, Fox Sports 1 and the other networks which have had a head start on airing games for two weeks, the Tiffany Network has had time to get ready for this game.
CBS starts its coverage at 2:30 p.m. ET with two pregame shows with host Tim Brando and Spencer Tillman co-hosting. New analyst Brian Jones makes his debut on the show. Of course, Mr. College Football, Tony Barnhart will be on hand as well.
Calling the game will be the usual crew of Uncle Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson and Tracy Wolfson.
Here’s the CBS press release.
CBS SPORTS KICKS OFF 13th SEASON OF NATIONAL COVERAGE OF “SEC ON CBS” WITH NO. 1-RANKED ALABAMA TAKING ON NO. 6-RANKED TEXAS A&M ON SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
“COLLEGE FOOTBALL TODAY” TO AIR LIVE FROM KYLE FIELD IN COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS
CBS Sports kicks off its 13th season of national coverage of SEC ON CBS football with the “SEC Game of the Week” on Saturday, Sept. 14 (3:30-7:00 PM, ET) with *No. 1-ranked Alabama taking on No. 6-Texas A&M.
Verne Lundquist, Gary Danielson and reporter Tracy Wolfson, CBS Sports’ lead college football announce team, call the action from Kyle Field in College Station, Texas. Craig Silver, the Network’s coordinating producer of college football, produces and Steve Milton directs.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL TODAY, the Network’s pre-game, halftime and post-game studio show, airs live from Kyle Field in College Station, Texas. Host Tim Brando is joined by analysts Spencer Tillman and Brian Jones, who makes his debut as a regular analyst on the show, as well as insider Tony Barnhart. COLLEGE FOOTBALL TODAY keeps viewers updated on all the games throughout the afternoon with scores and highlights. The live on-site pre-game programming airs from 2:30-3:30 PM, ET.
Vin DeVito produces and Linda Malino directs. Tyler Hale is Vice President, Studio Production. Harold Bryant is Executive Producer and Vice President, Production.
After CBS Sports’ live SEC game coverage each Saturday throughout the season, CBS Sports Network takes over with SEC TONIGHT (7:00-7:30 PM, ET), providing a recap of all the news, scores and highlights from around the SEC. CBS Sports Network also will air an encore presentation of Alabama-Texas A&M on Sunday, Sept. 15 (10:00 PM, ET).
In addition, CBS Sports will stream the Alabama-Texas A&M game, as well as the entire 2013 SEC ON CBS football schedule live on CBSSports.com. The games are available exclusively on CBSSports.com, (CBSSports.com/SECLive) and on the CBS Sports mobile app for iPhone and iPad.
*AP Poll as of 9/8/13
AUDIBLES with CBS Sports’ Lead College Football
Analyst Gary Danielson(On Johnny Manziel)
He is a fine thrower of the football but it may be the least best thing he does as an athlete. His vision, competitiveness, leadership and ability to see plays before they happen all make him a tremendous weapon. You can’t take your eyes off of him when he’s on the field, very much like a Joe Namath or Magic Johnson. He just seems to command your attention during the game, even when he is on the sidelines.
(On AJ McCarron)
In the loss to LSU in 2011, AJ McCarron did not have a great game. I thought he was off all night and then he came back in the National Championship game and was almost perfect, even though LSU’s coverage was solid. That may have been the best game of his career. I thought McCarron had arguably his worst game of the regular-season last year against Texas A&M. He was all over the field, even the deep balls he hit, including the last one to put Alabama down to the six yard line, was a C throw. If it would have been a B throw, the receiver could have walked into the end zone. He just wasn’t on his game. I expect him to come back with his A game this year.
(KEYS TO THE GAME)
If you don’t have a quarterback that can stress Nick Saban’s defensive back seven, he’ll just over-run you. To beat Nick Saban you have to win on third down. Ryan Swope and Mike Evans were answers for Manziel last year. Will Evans be the answer this year? And who will replace Swope?
Alabama had one area on last year’s team that they could depend on and that was their offensive line running left with Eddie Lacy. When you look at Alabama’s team this year so far, they don’t have that dominating offensive line. And they don’t have Lacy. Both teams are going into this game with missing parts of their repertoire.
(On Alabama)
Initially I’m going to look at Kirby Smart and Nick Saban who I thought were frantic in the first half of last year’s game against Texas A&M. I thought they tried to make too many changes and over-substituted. Their sideline looked out of control. They got that cleaned up in the second half and came out with a much better game plan about how to handle Texas A&M’s no huddle.
Note: Excerpts from SEC on CBS Conference Call on Sept. 9
That will do it for this post.
