In addition to announcing the start times for five of Notre Dame’s six home games in 2020, Notre Dame and NBC also announced a major shakeup to the broadcast crew that is sure to delight Notre Dame fans around the country. Doug Flutie is OUT as the primary commentator and NFL Hall of Fame head coach Tony Dungy is in. Mike Tirico, a fan favorite, returns as the play by play commentator.
Unlike Tirico, Doug Flutie was not a fan favorite among the Notre Dame faithful who tune in to NBC for every Notre Dame home game. From almost the start of Flutie’s tenure covering Notre Dame games, Irish fans were turned off by Flutie’s seemingly over abundance of praise for Irish opponents and at times, gleeful responses for poor Notre Dame plays.
Replacing Flutie with anyone would have been met with praise from Notre Dame fans, but the addition of Dungy, one of the most respected NFL head coaches of the last quarter-century is like upgrading from a Yugo to a Tesla.
Dungy has been part of NBC’s coverage of Football Night in America – the pregame show for their Sunday night game of the week since 2009 and has worked many games over the year including prime-time games on Thanksgiving night.
Some Notre Dame fans complain that their fellow Irish faithful placed too much negative attention on Flutie over the years, but count me as one of those fans who is delighted by today’s news.
Notre Dame fans won’t be entirely rid of Flutie all together though. Flutie will still be involved in telecasts from the studio on “select weeks” similarly to how he was involved with NBC;s coverage of Notre Dame’s previously before he moved into the booth.
NBC also announced that Notre Dame alum Jac Collinsworth will host NBC’s pre-game, half-time, and post-game shows each week.
Rounding out the NBC coverage this year is once again, Kathryn Tapper. She will be the sideline reporter for the seventh consecutive season. How that coverage will change this year given the current circumstances was not announced at the time of the release.
What a Godly man and class act. This is awesome.
The new crew should be good. I can’t wait to hear Dungy.
nothing against Dungy at all, i just dont understand why we cant never have a ND guy.
Tirico doing play by play, fine. 2nd guy should be a homer, its the only game nbc carrys, why not act like you like ND?
other channels carry various games, makes sense,
be impartial. but not when its your only game.
smh
I love it… however I kinda can’t wait until we get Brady Quinn to call the games. I’m a huge Mets fan and have come to know Gary, Keith and Ron like family. I would love for Brady Quinn to fill that role for ND football games so we have a voice that we can always look forward to on Saturdays.
“Replacing Flutie with anyone would have been met with praise from Notre Dame fans, but the addition of Dungy, one of the most respected NFL head coaches of the last quarter-century is like upgrading from a Yugo to a Tesla.”
Xactly!
Dungy is an absolute bore!!!- OMG I can’t bear to listening to it it worse that a bad toothache- Flutie was great!! You’ve made a huge mistake- I am a 60 fan of ND!!! Get rid of Dungy!!!
Hallelujah!
Almost anyone would have been an improvement over Flutie. I realize NBC was to project some impartiality into their coverage of ND games. That’s fine. But too often Flutie was all but celebrating when ND screwed up or lost a game.
I don’t need someone to sugar coat things. The Irish screw something up it’s fine to call that out. I call it out myself. But you don’t need to almost celebrate it.
sound will be turned off