College football pundits on Friday gave "props to ESPN" after the net "did not exploit the horrific footage" of UCF QB McKenzie Milton's leg injury against USF, according to John Walters of THE ATHLETIC. ESPN handled the injury "exactly as it should have been handled." The net's Clay Matvick said immediately following the play, "You saw it. We saw it. We're not going to play it, out of respect." The decision came despite the fact that Miton is UCF's "signature player and a long-shot Heisman Trophy candidate." Once UCF-USF "went to halftime, ESPN studio host Adnan Virk warned the viewing audience first before showing it" (THEATHLETIC.com, 11/26). SB NATION's Morgan Moriarty wrote ESPN "wisely did not show a replay," as it was "hard to watch." Milton was carted off the field (SBNATION.com, 11/23). NBC Sports' Kevin Mcguire tweeted, "ESPN making the right call to not show the replay."
LUCK OF THE DRAW: THE ATHLETIC's Richard Deitsch writes SEC Network play-by-play man Taylor Zarzour, analyst Matt Stinchcomb and sideline reporter Kris Budden "lucked into arguably the game of the year assignment as they were on the call" for Texas A&M's 74-72 win over LSU that went seven overtimes. Zarzour said, "We did a postgame hit and then spent 15-20 minutes taking it all in and coming to terms that we just called the highest scoring game in FBS history. We were all thankful to be a part of it." Zarzour added that SEC Net Coordinating Producer Steve Ackles was "texting him during overtime to remind him to stay in the moment and to alert viewers about the rules of college football overtime." Deitsch writes that was "important given the likelihood of people tuning-in at different parts of the overtime as word of mouth of the game spread" (THEATHLETIC.com, 11/26).
NOT THEIR BEST NIGHT: In Spokane, Vince Grippi noted Fox' booth of play-by-play announcer Joe Davis, Brady Quinn and Bruce Feldman "made it tougher to watch" Washington-Washington State on Friday night. It "wasn’t just the many times" Davis and Quinn "mixed up" the teams. It "wasn’t just the lack of replays on iffy plays," or the "mistakes on the graphics on timeouts and down-and-distance." Grippi: "It was all of it -- and more" (SPOKESMAN.com, 11/24).
