Over the past couple of seasons, NBC has been playing musical chairs with its football broadcast teams, as the impending departure of Al Michaels led them to bringing in Mike Tirico from ESPN, and they tried to capture the same magic CBS had with Tony Romo by hiring Drew Brees in hopes he could be a long-term replacement for Cris Collinsworth in the booth.
However, a year after pairing Tirico and Brees on Notre Dame games as a trial run for Sunday Night Football, Brees has left the network completely, Collinsworth’s standing at NBC appears stronger than ever, and the Notre Dame booth needed a total revamp with Tirico sliding into Michaels’ spot. On Sunday, word broke from Andrew Marchand of the New York Post that with a few weeks left until the start of the Notre Dame season, NBC had decided on their top college football booth, and it’s probably not a pairing that will bring too much excitement to Fighting Irish fans.
Jac Collinsworth (a Notre Dame grad) and Jason Garrett, who were the lead broadcast team for NBC’s USFL coverage, will take over the call in South Bend this year for NBC. Their first game on the call will be Notre Dame vs. Marshall on September 10, and it will be interesting to see the reaction from Notre Dame fans to their new lead broadcast team. For those that didn’t tune into USFL coverage, this will be the first time for many seeing either member of the booth in this role, as most of our introduction to them has been in studio show coverage (which both will continue on Football Night in America).