T1B

in the barnstorming thread after Killian's last post, i did a little googling just for my own info (since i honestly do think it's all about recruiting--not to discount K's post at all). and i run across an article about Tony Roberts who (like the late Radio Fan) I used to enjoy on Westwood One in simpler days. He was a total homer: "3rd and 8, hand off to Vegas Ferguson*.....(shouting with weird glee)....AND A THREE YARD GAIN FOR THE IRISH!".

*not really Vegas F, but i couldn't think of a ND back off-hand from the late 90's/early 00's. and i liked VF.

why did he get dumped? Tony Roberts, that is? i know it was 06 but still. Criqui? He's OK.

TR had a great radio voice. hardly the worst. fuckin hell you ought to hear the guys who do OU and Colorado games (teams i'm most familiar with)....the action is indecipherable 80% of the time. you listen for crowd noise to tell you whether something "good or bad" is happening for your team. and they keep down and distance a mystery.....that's really all i want to know.

Terry was the one that made those points. I agree with you. This is simply a revenue whoring move designed to up the exposure of ND in areas where they have struggled to recruit, under the guise of letting ND's national fanbase see a game. If the last point was true, why not just schedule games against Texas, Florida, FSU, Miami, Texas A&M, etc. to accomplish that goal?

As for TR, I loved him. I have a CD of ND's greatest radio calls and he is on there quite a bit. The rumor that I heard was that Tony basically stopped doing prep and research. He would show up, call the game and leave. I think it pissed him off when they got rid of Tom Pagna (who was also awesome in a totally homer way). They brought on Allen Pinket, who has gotten better, but was brutal as the color man for Roberts.

Tony was getting pretty bad in '05. He was missing calls, players names, wouldn't let you know the score and was inconsistent with the down and distance. I wish they wouldn't have gotten rid of him or if they had to replace him, go with ND alum George Blaha. I can't stand Criqui.

my mistake Killian. I thought TinC made some interesting points....though, i don't like that competition and athletics have come to that even if you are an independent and wanna stay that way to do this kind of revenue gymnastics. but that's just how things are.

Tony Roberts was OK in my book. like i said, OU's longtime legend Bob Barry is helluva a nice guy (did Ou games in the 50's!) but he's incomprehensible. he also did games for OK State for a while...which is wrong and wrong and wrong. the interim team, John Brooks and Mike Treps are much loved among Sooner fans of my generation and the one before. i don't remember the Blake years on purpose was too stoned during the Gibbs era.

i respect both you guys as posters, even though OU fan with a sense of history will never love ND. but we spanked you pretty good in your own lot in
56. otherwise; ND, Bethany College of Kansas, and USC are teams that any OU fan will grudgingly admit to respecting because you've had the better of us.

Killian wrote:Terry was the one that made those points. I agree with you. This is simply a revenue whoring move designed to up the exposure of ND in areas where they have struggled to recruit, under the guise of letting ND's national fanbase see a game. If the last point was true, why not just schedule games against Texas, Florida, FSU, Miami, Texas A&M, etc. to accomplish that goal?

No doubt it's a revenue whoring move, since NBC has those games. I'm not quite sure what they're accomplishing in terms of "letting ND's national fanbase see a game" with a game in San Antonio, though. Not saying there are no ND fans in Texas and the surrounding area, but the fanbase there is not nearly as significant, on a per capita basis anyway, as it is in many other areas of the country. Yeah, Texas is a little closer than ND for the west coast fanbase, but it's not exactly like Texas is next door for them, either. Besides, ND plays a game on the west coast every year (USC or Stanford).

As for TR, I loved him. I have a CD of ND's greatest radio calls and he is on there quite a bit. The rumor that I heard was that Tony basically stopped doing prep and research. He would show up, call the game and leave. I think it pissed him off when they got rid of Tom Pagna (who was also awesome in a totally homer way). They brought on Allen Pinket, who has gotten better, but was brutal as the color man for Roberts.

Tony was getting pretty bad in '05. He was missing calls, players names, wouldn't let you know the score and was inconsistent with the down and distance. I wish they wouldn't have gotten rid of him or if they had to replace him, go with ND alum George Blaha. I can't stand Criqui.

I loved Tony Roberts as well. I also enjoyed Tom Pagna, although [Zysdale]Allen Pinkett was a classmate of mine[/Zysdale], so I can't get too mad about that move. I didn't want to see them get rid of Roberts. But (and this is where we disagree), I thought Criqui was an excellent choice to replace him. He's also a ND alum, a fellow U&R homey, and he's been doing football play-by-play for years. Blaha is a basketball play-by-play man, not to mention that his contract with the Pistons would've made it very hard for him to call ND games in the second half of the season.

In any event, it doesn't really matter for me. All the local radio stations dropped the Westwood One broadcast of ND games. :brad:

Btw, my Zysdale note on Criqui: his college roommate at ND is the father-in-law of one of my friends.

Blaha also does the football game for MSU and does a very good job. I just think Criqui is a little dull, and is more of a baseball-type announcer, if that makes any sense.