Broadcasts are like blind dates

Look it up: I told you that the Strake-St. Thomas game would be much more competitive this year than in recent seasons. And it was. Who’s your Big Daddy now?

Strake still won, for the twelfth season in a row, but St. Thomas should take a lot away from this game that they can build on for their season. For starters, their offense moved the ball pretty well all night. The defense made some big plays too. The problems, and the differences in the game, were special teams, turnovers and fatigue that comes with having multiple players who have to play on both sides of the ball.

Strake appeared to find their field general in Hunter Schiro. We (Brett Mills and I) gave him the nod as Strake’s player of the game. Ron Counter gave three QBs some field time (again, as I predicted…man, I’m good!) but Schiro was clearly the most poised under game conditions.

The final score was 38-27. The game will be archived for you to listen you right here. But, proceed with caution on that front.

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Best sponsor name of the night: Elder's Absolutely Cool Automotive.

How money is that name? It's a cheesy broadcaster's dream! And don't think I didn't run with it last night!! "That was an Absolutely Cool play, brought to you by..." Pure cheese! Put a blue star all over it!

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Doing a broadcast is a little like going on a blind date with a good-looking woman. You get really psyched up beforehand. You always wonder if this might be ‘the one’. You get there and she’s gorgeous and you are SURE this WILL be ‘the one’. But you quickly come back to the real world and remember that she’s not automatically going to just fall for you…you’ve still got a lot of work to do.

And it’s that work that you do during that blind date that really determines whether she really will become the one, or will be a bad memory or funny story to tell someday—or both.

Last night’s blind date (i.e., the game broadcast) was okay…but I kind of hope she doesn’t want to see me again. I think the other guys—Brett Mills, Michael Silvers, Jeremy Branham and even Kevin Joseph (KJ of 1560 The Game fame)—probably feel the same way. I think we all had higher hopes for the date.

Hopefully, a lot of you who listened didn’t hear a lot of the strain. All of us worked pretty hard to make it a decent date…but we’d like to ‘go out’ with a broadcast that didn’t require SO MUCH work to make it fun. Because, when you do find ‘the one’, it doesn’t feel like work—everything kind of flows naturally.

So, Week 0 Broadcast, we had a really nice time. We’ll call you. Really, we will…no, no—don’t call us. We, uh, we are going to visit our sick aunt in the hospital. But, I mean it, we’ll call you…

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A quick word or 100 about the guys I work with: they are the best!

First of all, I got paired up last year with this Mills character and he has turned out to be one of my favorite guys to work a game with. I have had the privilege of working regularly with some genuinely good guys (Eric Folkerts and John Kemper come immediately to mind) but Brett Mills is shooting to the top of the charts.

Most importantly, I think our senses of humor mesh well. We see most things with the same bemused viewpoint. But he also knows the game well and really gives some good insight as to what is going on down on the field. Plus, he’s raised an Aggie, and we Aggies love it when we add to the fold. Did I mention he’s a good guy, too?

Jeremy Branham is a good young and talented broadcaster. You can listen to him and know that, if he wants to, he will be a long-term success in the broadcast bidness. He’s still ‘a kid’ (from my 48-year-old viewpoint) but he’s already well-seasoned behind the mic. He handled last night’s curve balls with ease and grace and his knees never buckled. It’s going to be a lot of fun to have him back at the studio all season.

Michael ‘Long John’ Silvers is the man. He’s the engine, the driving force, behind the on-air product for LSN. He made things go last night. He’s had years of dealing with unforeseen last-minute obstacles and poorly-planned productions, so he’s learned how to make things work when everyone else would be throwing up their hands in surrender—or screaming at the hired hands.

It’s those guys who are going to make us successful on all our weekly blind dates this year.

I’ll be in the studio tonight, hosting halftime and postgame shows. I’ve heard this blind date is nice and has a great personality…