He's 79, gets around on artificial knees and hasn't stepped into a college football stadium since broadcasting the 2006 Bowl Championship Series title game between Texas and USC, but legendary announcer Keith Jackson has no shortage of opinions.Jackson would not classify the Longhorns' 41-38 victory over the Trojans among the best games he had called during his career. There were too many mistakes, Jackson told the Desert Sun.
"Texas got a free touchdown from the officials when Vince [Young] had a knee down when he pitched it forward and they didn't call it.
"Then the replay dudes down the hall from us, we played back the thing 11 times. They said their TiVo thing wasn't plugged into the right hole and they didn't have the picture. My reaction to that was. 'Why the hell didn't you come down the hall and look at ours?' It was a major decision."
And what about USC?
"There were five plays that were critical plays in the ballgame where Reggie Bush wasn't in the game," Jackson said. "There were little things like that, in hindsight, in perspective of one of the great games, it might scar it a little bit. But for pure, true excitement, it was wonderful. And it goes with that old truth. You'll never know what a 19-year-old is going to do until he's done it."
When it comes to the BCS and the proposed plus-one model, here's what Jackson had to say:
"The BCS goes back to the alliance days which was a power grab and a money grab by certain conferences and it hasn't changed in its intent. To add another game, will it resolve controversy over who's who and what's what? I really truly doubt it. It might clarify it a little bit."
Thanks to College Football Resource.
5 comments:
I thought this guy retired back in 98.
No biggie, but Keith was in fact at an Arkansas game in 07. He was the MC for halftime ceremonies on the night Arkansas honored Frank Broyles by renaming the field. Video here .. you can hear him on the PA.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z60Ak6aCYWA
I hate Texas and SC but I wonder if the score was reversed and Reggie Bush had a spectacular run on 4th down to win the game ... his idea of a "great game" would be true.
hard to fault on old foagie on his allegiance to a conference.
He was going to retire back in '98 but ABC convinced him to stay onboard and he only called Pac-10 games until he stepped aside after calling the 2006 Rose Bowl.
As noted on this site several days ago, what would go a long way towards determining a true national champion is for the major schools to start playing each other more often in non-conference games. Teams should be rewarded heavily for quality games while games like Ohio State versus Youngstown State should come with strong negative consequences to championship hopes.
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