The SEC on CBS sounds different this year, with Verne Lundquist retiring and stepping out of the booth for the first time in more than a decade. In his place is veteran play-by-play man Brad Nessler, who joined CBS from ESPN last year to get some broadcasts on CBS under his belt before taking over Lundquist’s seat alongside Gary Danielson in their No. 1 booth.
Nessler spoke with UPROXX Sports this week ahead of CBS’ primetime broadcast of LSU at Alabama (8 p.m. ET) about advice he’s gotten from Verne and the nerves of that first broadcast in a legend’s chair, accepting fans and his friends accusing him of bias, the state of the SEC, the art of calling blowouts, and the rivalry games he was most excited to get to call.
UPROXX: So you’re now two months in to the new gig with the SEC on CBS. How would you say the first two months have gone and how nice is it to be back in the booth after some time off?
Brad Nessler: Well, it was only two months off, but it felt like a year when I went through September and October, I was going absolutely crazy because that’s the first time in like, 37 years that I wasn’t in either an NFL or a college booth, or both on a weekend. So I really felt pretty lost. By the time I got back … this is the weekend I got back, exactly a year ago because we started doubleheaders.
Yeah so, man, I was never as happy to get back in the saddle as that but it has been even more fun than I thought it would be and part of it is because I wasn’t doing games there for that eight week stretch I just missed it. When you lose something you love that is that big of a deal and even if you don’t think it is, it is. When you get it back, it makes it that much more fun, especially at my age.
So I’m appreciating, pretty much, every weekend and I even like coaches meetings and stuff that I don’t normally like so … so far so good. It has been a blast, really.
You’ve been at this for a long time but, coming in and obviously stepping into a seat that was filled by Verne Lundquist for so long and he had become a legendary voice, were there any nerves on that first broadcast and what were your conversations with Verne like about taking that spot?
I talked to him … I don’t know if we text or talked a couple of nights before that and he was so gracious. I know he was already getting ready to miss it and I wanted to say something about him in the first broadcast and that’s the only time that I had been nervous and I don’t remember so long. You get the juices flowing and that type of thing, right before kickoff but I wanted to make sure that my first broadcast was kinda thanking Vern for handing the baton to me and I didn’t wanna screw that up so, that opening couple of minutes, I meant every word of it. I
didn’t tell anybody what I was gonna say, I wasn’t 100% sure of what I was gonna say, the truck didn’t know what I was gonna say. They said, “If you wanna say something about Verne, go ahead. If you don’t, just start your broadcast and get into it …”
So that first couple of minutes, the first week was a little nerve wrecking but once I got going, it was just like old times and back with Gary, so it’s been really smooth. I’ve talked, probably, to Verne more this year, either in emails or texts, than I did going into the season. Yeah, when you take over for a Hall of Famer, it’s a big responsibility and I knew that coming in and have tried to do my best through the first eight weeks, anyway.
Anytime you do a broadcast, for the NFL, college football especially, you’re gonna hear from fans about it but, kinda, the SEC on CBS, I wrote about the SEC at CBS Sports for two years, and it’s just such a different … the fans have such a different kind of passion about the broadcast itself and the feeling of … there is a bias here, there is a bias there. Did Verne or Gary, or anybody kinda talk to you about what you were stepping into and handling that? What’s it been like the first couple months?
They both told me, “You’re not gonna believe what you’re in for, on social media especially.” And I was like, “I’m really not on social media, so that’s not gonna bother me too much.” But I was telling somebody the other day, living [in Georgia], every Sunday I get together with my buddies to watch the Falcons or just watch NFL in general, and everybody I know is either a Georgia fan, an Auburn fan, a Florida fan, an LSU fan, so I hear it right to my face. My friends don’t mind coming up to me and repeating something I said the day before, the night before and say, “You suck.” And I’m like, “Thanks a lot, I thought we were friends.”
So I get it face to face and I know what goes on, on social media but the thing is, I just figure, I’m glad they are that passionate because it’s hard to explain to people like my brother who lives in Big Ten country, and I know there is a lot of that up there too, but he lives in Minnesota so, the Gophers is not that big of thing, it’s all Vikings. So I said, “Come down here and live in my shoes for two weeks and I’ll show you what passion is for football.” So it’s pretty hard to explain but, I figure, I’m just as passionate about what I do as the fans are and they should be about how I’m doing my job and if I’m not doing well, I’m gonna be the first one to know.
I had a couple of things last week that pretty much, pissed me off, that I didn’t get and I’m sure people are going, “How did he miss that?” And I get it. I’m the first one to know when I do something well or I do something bad so, whatever the fans have to say, and I realize it, you can do a game and it can be 20-20 in the 4th quarter and half the fans are gonna think that you are terrible, the other half are gonna think that you were terrible, or that you were biased one way or another, it’s always been like that so, it’s more prominent in the SEC with their fans, I think, because they just bleed every ounce of football out of every weekend.
You worked with Gary some, back at ESPN and ABC. How much fun has it been getting to work with him again and how much did that kinda help that transition early on?
It helped a lot. We did a couple of games at the end of last year, including the bowl game but the first game we got together was the day after Thanksgiving and it was Missouri and Arkansas. We looked at each other probably five minutes into the broadcast and we’re like, “We never left.” And there was a … I guess there was about a 15 year gap in there, Gary knows the number more than I do, but we worked almost eight years together the first time and had a a blast. I think I’m having more fun, even now. I kinda watched his kids grow up and now I see all the pictures of all the grandkids running around. He’s really no different. I think he’s a little more fun and I don’t know if it’s his grandkids that have made him that way or not but, he just makes me think, he makes me laugh, we have fun together off the air, we have a blast in the booth sometimes. There is always that hint out there that there is something we’re not quite telling everybody and it’s probably because that’s what’s happening but … we don’t need to tell inside jokes it’s just, we go to a certain point we go, “We talked about that yesterday, but we probably can’t say that on the air.”
So we just look at each other and sorta laugh you know? And then go on to the next play. But he is a blast to work with. He’s great. He’s one of the best analysts there have ever been and I walk away from games, I remember a long time ago I thought a compliment that I gave somebody … I used to work Jefferson Pilot games way back in the day with Billy Packard, and I used to walk from games and I’d go, “I never thought of that.” Something he said, and that’s what Gary is. I walk away from games and go, “I never really thought of it that way.” Or “I didn’t think of that play being that big a deal.”
So that part is fun because it makes me think, keeps me on my toes and I don’t mind arguing with him when the time is right or if we don’t agree. We don’t always think alike but I pretty much always know what he’s thinking. I bet he can say the same thing about me.
The SEC this year it seems, as much as we’ve seen in recent years is, there is a really, seemingly, defined hierarchy between the haves and havenots in both divisions. You’ve done a few ‘Bama games, you have done a few Georgia games that have all been lopsided. What is it that seems to really separate those two from the rest of the pack, so far at least?
I think the, due to the detail that Nick has always had and his coaching staff has always had and it carries over into his players. Their whole thing is about executing every play. Kirby has instilled that I think, at Georgia. Georgia’s gotten faster, bigger. You go to Alabama practices, a couple of weeks ago, we were over there and Gary and I were at practice and I looked at him, I said, “You know what? Even the little guys are big.” They look like an NFL team sort of and Georgia is starting to look like that. They are playing like Alabama. I know Kirby probably gets tired of the comparisons but, they do so many things alike and when you got a system that works as well as Nick’s does, why wouldn’t you copy it? Same thing in our business, I think. If you’ve got some sort of … thing that you go by and it’s working, why not do it that way.
I don’t know, they look pretty similar right now. We did two Alabama’s and two Georgia’s and I don’t know if I have the math in front of me, but I think the cumulative score was 190-14 between those four games. And one of those, was a defensive score and one of them was, last week, Florida scored with two minutes and 30 seconds to go, just to avoid the shutout. So we’re talking about one offensive touchdown in those four games against Alabama and Georgia so, it’s been, we’ve had some lopsided games, you know?
I guess the one thing about seeing those teams, and it’s hard to do blowouts, I’m gonna be honest with you, although we’re getting to be experts at it so, we had that one two week stretch where I was gonna get T-shirts made for the crew that said, ‘100 to nothing’ because we had back to back shutouts. 59 to nothing, 41 to nothing, so we were laughing about that but when you do a blowout, it’s not easy to do but you can actually look at how good one team is playing and just go, “Wow, these guys are really good and they don’t make many mistakes” so you kinda get an awe of how well somebody can play sometimes, when it’s a lopsided game like that. You always feel bad for the other team. In the case of the other coach, that’s the last we saw of coach McElwain was at the game the other day.
I was gonna ask about how you approached those blowouts and the efforts that you have to make in storytelling and doing your best to keep a broadcast compelling when maybe the competition level isn’t.
I think our truck is so great at it in that, they’ve got so many things ready to talk about bigger picture, or if not that, graphically speaking to maybe compare the teams you are watching to championship years of Alabama, that type of thing and I think people that are watching at home or watching at a bar or restaurant or something are gonna go, “I was wondering how they compared with that team.” So you gotta do a lot of that type of work. The good games come easy. A close game is easy to do, a blowout is kinda tough but we have so much support from the truck either, through graphics or flashbacks or, does this guy remind you of this guy or, just stuff like Nick Chubb moving into top five last week all-time of running backs and Herschel is up there, Bo Jackson, Kevin Faulk, Darren McFadden and you go, “Gee. Nick’s in some serious cabbage here man, he’s in the top five,” and you’re naming those other four guys.
Things like that, I think, help to fill the gaps and make people kinda think and go, “This is really lopsided, but it’s not boring.” If you can make it sound fun at least, even though it’s a blowout, hopefully you can keep some viewers.
This weekend you’ve got ‘Bama again, but you’ve got ‘Bama-LSU. It’s become kind of, outside of the Iron Bowl, the rivalry in the SEC that’s come to define seasons. This year, maybe not quite as much, but LSU has bounced back and it’s become this primetime event. How excited are you about being in Tuscaloosa for that and what are you looking forward to this weekend?
I can’t wait, because this is one where I don’t think it’s gonna be lopsided. LSU, I think the best thing that happened to them was losing to Troy which, had they not lost that one, we might be talking about number ten against number one, but they are playing so much better since that time. And Derrius Guice wasn’t really healthy back then. He is now. He’s ripping off 275 and stuff like that, again. He and Leonard Fournette were doing that last year too, until they hit the ‘Bama defense. That didn’t work out so well. I think Leonard probably got more yardage on his first three NFL carries than he did in 17 against Alabama last year but it’s gonna be a great scene. Tuscaloosa at night, it’ll be so loud in there, you could probably hear the crowd over in Birmingham.
It’s gonna be fun, I’m glad that they’re ranked back up in the top 25 and we’ll see what happens with the rankings tonight, but I’m sure they’re gonna be right in there and they always … this is one of those where you have bruises almost watching the game, much less playing in the game. So I expect one of those. Last year it went down to a couple of drives in the fourth quarter and if LSU can muster anything, if they can get the ground game going at all, and they muster anything with the pass, I think it would be a great game but it’s tough. Alabama is so solid on both sides of the ball.
When you took this job, were there games like LSU-Alabama, that you kinda circled as one’s you were really excited to do. The Iron Bowl almost every year is the CBS game. Did that excite you, to kinda get in where you know each year you’re gonna get to do these rivalry games and get to dig in to one conference?
Yeah, that’s been … I’ve never done Georgia-Florida until last weekend. I’ve seen just about every one of them the last 35 years probably. Either I’ve seen a couple of them in person and the rest of them either on TV or when I’m getting ready to do my game, or tape it at home, whatever. So that was a big thing for me. I had never done Army-Navy and that’s about the only other rivalry game I can think of, that I haven’t done and I have even done some obscure ones between, whether it’d be Gary and I or Bob Griese and Lynn Swann and me, or Todd, Holly and I, whatever.
I’ve done just about everything I wanted to do, so, those two things, I kinda had circled. Georgia-Florida and Army-Navy but, we know right now that from here on out, these games should be lopsided because there is too much at stake and I don’t know what the rest of our schedule is, but we’re hoping it’s Georgia-Auburn, Auburn-Alabama, the SEC championship.
I did one of those. It was the last year before CBS got the contract and I think Alabama was in it against somebody. I don’t even remember. But it was at the Georgia Dome and all that, so that one, that’s the biggest one I’m looking forward to. And if everything keeps kinda heading in the direction that it is right now between the two unbeaten teams, if we end up with ‘1’ and ‘2’, I’ll be the happiest camper alive.
