Brent Musberger: Love him or hate him?

[StooGrimson]

Not hot.

[DaddyBigBucks]

I really don't understand the people who say he has an anti-OSU bias. My biggest problem with him is that he is sometimes a Buckeye homer to an embarrassing degree.

Apart from that, my only problem with him is that he sometimes hypes things a little too much. I liked him best very early in his career (relatively speaking) when he did very little hyping. Then, one season about 20 years ago, he turned into the biggest hypster in the business overnight. Those who remember the abrupt transition as keenly as I do would agree that he's not quite as bad as that now.

Then of course, there is the matter of doing play-by-play. Most people simply have no idea how difficult this is. Do you EVER use words like uh, um, ah, er, or like, whatever, youknowwhatImean??? When you're an announcer, those words cost you money. Try being responsible for filling air time for 3 and a half hours and always having something to say, and never using "filler sounds". It is far from easy. Most people who criticize booth talent would be absolute train-wrecks in the booth themselves. I bring all of this up because it is in this under-rated aspect of announcing that Musberger excels.

Sure, he is beginning to misidentify things here and there. But for a very long time he has been one of the best. You don't get to call the Rose Bowl if you suck.

[AJHawkfan]

There are times when I find myself muttering things like "shut up Brent" or "no [Mark May], Brent".....However, he is one of my favorite announcers in college football today. I love college football, especially OSU football, so I guess I love him.

[txbuckeye1983]

Originally Posted by DaddyBigBucks

Sure, he is beginning to misidentify things here and there. But for a very long time he has been one of the best. You don't get to call the Rose Bowl if you suck.

Unless your name is Dan.

[crazybuckfan40]

My favorite by far.

[scarletngray]

I'm a big fan of Brent's. My favorite team is Brent, Herbie and Davie.

[BlackBengal]

Brent is the best. You just cant take him too seriously. He is sappy and often states the obvious, but thats what makes the games he calls fun. If I had my way Musberger, Herbie and Davie would do every OSU game. Actually, I would love it if they brough Vermeil back to do games with Musberger. That was the best.

[pianobuck46]

I voted "indifferent," but regret that there wasn't a "funnier than Hell" category.

While he can be entertaining at times, he sometimes comes off as a "media court jester" that sticks his finger in the wind to see which wasy it's blowing.

In the Fiesta Bowl last year, loved the way Weis was "The Little Tuna", "The Guru", gag, gag, gag, then did a "180" to Tressel, who was all of a sudden a genius.

[jimotis4heisman]

like i said early, circa 2001 and one he took over in my mind as the voice of college football. granted he does basketball, nba, racecars, soccer, baseball, underwater basket weaving and pottery in his spare time...

[sm00r]

Indifferent. I remember him in the 90s and he was an ass toward tOSU.

[timBUCK2]

Originally Posted by sm00r

Indifferent. I remember him in the 90s and he was an ass toward tOSU.

If memory serves me correctly, OSU may have deserved some of this...

[milkman21]

I really like him.

He definitely has a great voice for announcing, and I think his natural personality is great... as is evident when he gets all excited and shouts things like "HOLY BUCKEYE". Some of his small talk and "analysis" is a bit lame-brained IMO, but overall I think he does a great job.

As a pure announcer, I think Brad Nessler is my favorite for the college game, but Musberger's quirks make him fun to listen to.

Besides, how many other announcers have a world famous drinking game associated with their name???

[BB73]

Originally Posted by Thump

Love him.

Ice dancer.

[calibuck]

In his early days, his role was to point out things that were done badly (by the teams on the field, etc), or the negatives. As his role expanded to be the 'honcho' of the announcing team, he 'mellowed' to be more of a peacemaker, equilibrium type. That's kinda what you do as the leader, balance out the two guys with you. Now he never says much bad, but only the nice things about a team, never the hard hitting factoids that make an announcer interesting. Now, uninteresting, indifference.

Look at Chris Fowler. He is the foil between Herbie and Corso. They have the opinions, he prods and pulls and provokes the two. Mushmouth tries to do that, but is not as effective. And frankly, network TV is more 'stuffy' than the ESPN maverick, GameDay. They do more, say more negative stuff, become more opinionated. And to go further, Mark May tries to emulate the Gameday boys, but fails utterly.

Just a FWIW,

[BUCKYLE]

Musberger or Kieth Jackson has been a part of damn near every big Buckeye game in my life...till now.

I like him a lot.