No. 5 FSU football (11-0, 8-0 ACC) will be back in action Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in a matchup against the rival Florida Gators (5-6, 3-5 SEC).
The Noles will air on ESPN this week, after airing on the CW channel for the first time last week. Aside from the CW showing the Jordan Travis injury way too many times, I thought the production was good and not bad overall. It was a step up over the ACC Network for sure.
The broadcast trio on ESPN will feature Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, and Holly Rowe. It’s the same team who called the LSU game in the season opener.
This broadcast team is their “A” team, but I have a sneaky suspicion this team will provide a ton of SEC bias, based on how Kirk Herbstreit has talked on the College Football Playoff rankings show. I’m sure they’ll talk about the loss of Jordan Travis and the impact, but hopefully they concentrate more on the game.
I can see Herbstreit looking to point out the difference in FSU with Jordan Travis out, particularly if FSU gets off to a slow start(which they did with Jordan Travis many times). If FSU plays well and starts opening up on the Gators, the narrative will change to everybody scores 30+ points on the Florida defense.
For whatever reason, many ESPN talking heads have tried to downplay FSU all season, despite having better wins than Michigan does. Ohio State or Michigan can play close games, but FSU has to blow everyone out? It’s ridiculous and something I heard on the Egg Bowl broadcast Thursday night.
I won’t hold my breath, but hopefully, they’ll give credit where it’s due is Tate Rodemaker plays well and the FSU offense scores often. It’s a good matchup for the Noles, but they have to execute, and we won’t know what it’ll look like until Saturday night. I wrote why I think Rodemker will play well. Check it out below.