September 7, 2010: The Boise State Forum
Brother Nature:
Very exciting, but I am getting really irritated by the announcers. I usually like Musburger but he keeps harping on VT doing this, and VT doing that, and Boise St. did this, but VT did that, and Boise St. was able to do this because VT missed at that, etc.
And he keeps saying VT is starting to wear Boise St. down. I have no idea where he gets this viewpoint from. The coaches are making adjustments, but he says nothing of this. He loves VT.
And luckily so far he hasn’t mentioned the past of VT and playing that out.
I thought announcers weren’t suppose to be biased. The way they are announcing you would think VT is #1 in the nation and Boise St. is essentially Sac St. and shouldn’t even be ranked and would be lucky to get a first down, and that if Boise St. is able to do anything it must be from a VT mistake or mis-que.
We shall see what happens. I would really like to see Musburger to be embarrassed by Boise St. winning by a lot.
Diesel:
I agree with you BN. I watched most of the game and felt that the announcers treated Boise as a novelty more than a serious contender. They even used words like “courage” and “heart” to describe Boise when VT took the lead and the game was getting late. As if to say, “They played their little hearts out, but the are just no match for an established program.” Big teams are scared to play Boise and they even needed to change their conference to get teams to step up.
I love the look of despair on the faces of VT fans when Boise took the lead. Their shouting and pointing with their index finger turned into blank stares. I do like announcers who are a little biased. Not so much that they are annoying but just enough so you can tell they are rooting for a team without leaving out any facts or details.
White Russian:
I didn’t really get the same vibe. I chalked everything up to Musburger being overly dramatic. I didn’t catch as much of the first half as I did of the second half, so maybe by then he was feeling more respect toward Boysee State. Fair or not, they’ll continue to be treated like a Cinderella team, though, because the majority of their schedule is so soft. It will help if Va Tech stays as a top team through this season. If Va Tech has a mediocre season, people won’t be as impressed with this Boise St. win. What’s tough for Boise is that just one loss will bring out all the doubters full force, no matter who the loss is against. They have no margin for error. After the game, Herbstreit said that Boise could match up against any team in the country.
Diesel:
Usually the talk of a single loss in the first week of a season kicking a top 10 team out of title contention is ridiculous (although they say it every year), but with Boise the weak schedule is just so much of a liability. The tops teams can sometimes fall like dominoes week after week, but beating Central Wyoming 59-0 doesn’t do much to push a team up the rankings, even if everyone above them struggles. Boise needs to win the title and produce a Heisman winner for the Cinderella stuff to stop. Everybody in the know is not surprised by their ranking, so not sure who is still wide-eyed by success. I think the BCS computer takes into account current rankings so if VT goes down it could impact Boise’s BCS ranking once that starts up. They might have fixed that though.
Sandman:
I think that until a small team like Boise actually wins the whole enchilada - this David vs. Goliath thing will continue to prevail. It is kind of jacked, though, because Boise in the Dan Hawkins era had a the 4th best winning percentage of all major programs - so although “small” they were winning, albeit not against the stiffest of competition.
The move out of the WAC was major. Also with TCU having a nice win this weekend, that puts two Mountain West Conference schools in the top 10.
Musburger is famous for being dramatic when calling a game to hold a television audience. He is much better in studio as an anchor like when he hosted the NFL today in the early 80’s.