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Notre Dame head football coach Marcus Freeman made his scheduled appearance as a College GameDay guest analyst for ESPN ahead of Monday night’s College Football Playoff National Championship game between No. 10 Miami and No. 1 Indiana at Hard Rock Stadium. While No. 11 Notre Dame — and particularly athletic director Pete Bevacqua — had a well-documented, highly criticized response to being left out of the College Football Playoff, Freeman offered thoughts on the snub that drew a handshake from ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit. Here’s Marcus Freeman on ‘College GameDay’ ahead of the CFP national title game. #CFP pic.twitter.com/sCFWHkQxSd https://t.co/9PX37LsBQA — Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 19, 2026 “First when you find out, you’re disappointed,” Freeman told Herbstreit, Rece Davis, Nick Saban, Pat McAfee, and Desmond Howard on College GameDay. “You get in front of your team, you don’t have your answers for why.” “This was never a situation where we deserved to be in the [College Football Playoff] over Miami, or Alabama, or anything like that,” Freeman explained. “The rankings had shown if we continue to win in the fashion we were winning, it looks like we’re going to make the playoffs. And we didn’t. So, the day we found out, the response was one thing. But after 24 hours, the ability to get in front of your team and say, “You know what? We have to move forward.'” “And I remember our first team meeting we just had for 2026, my message was, ‘It’s up to us to leave no doubt,'” Freeman continued. “We left doubt. We lost by four or five points the first two games. We left doubt. And it’s our job to make sure we leave no doubt.” “He’s still campaigning,” McAfee quipped. “I don’t think he’s campaigning,” Herbstreit said. Herbstreit then stood up and walked over to shake Freeman’s hand. “That’s just a great approach to being left out,” Herbstreit said. The Fighting Irish started the season 0-2 with losses to Miami (27-24) and Texas A&M (41-40) before winning 10 straight to close out the season. Notre Dame skipped the opportunity to play a bowl game after the CFP snub. The post Kirk Herbstreit appreciates Marcus Freeman’s response to Notre Dame CFP snub appeared first on Awful Announcing.

It was only a matter of time before legendary college football coach Nick Saban got the docuseries treatment. ESPN, in partnership with production studio Words + Pictures, has commenced production on Saban, a six-episode docuseries “chronicling the life, legacy, and seminal impact of the most successful college football coach of all time, Nick Saban.” “Directed by Russell Dinallo and produced by Words + Pictures’ Connor Schell, Libby Geist, Aaron Cohen, and Alexa Conway along with Tom Rinaldi, with Gabe Honig serving as co-executive producer and showrunner, the series will tell the story of Nick Saban’s extraordinary career, highlighted by his 17 seasons at Alabama, where he led the team to six national titles and reestablished the Crimson Tide as the preeminent program in college football,” reads the press release. “The series will peel back the curtain on the long, closely guarded world of Saban, with hundreds of hours of never-before-seen footage from the locker room and practice fields, as well as many other behind-the- scenes moments in his career at Alabama, and prior to that, LSU, the Miami Dolphins, and Michigan State, among other stops. There’s also a wealth of present-day interviews with Saban and his wife, the legendary Ms. Terry Saban, whose own influence and impact played a massive role in Nick’s success as a coach and leader.” Nick Saban began his head-coaching career with one season at Toledo before moving to Michigan State. He parlayed that into a job leading LSU, where he won his first national title. Following a brief stint with the Miami Dolphins, he returned to college and took over Alabama. Saban coached the Crimson Tide from 2007 to 2023, leading the team to six national championships in nine championship appearances, as well as 9 SEC titles and 10 SEC West Division championships. A five-time SEC Coach of the Year, Saban is widely considered one of the greatest football coaches of all time, if not the greatest. After retiring, Saban has quickly cemented himself as a cornerstone of ESPN’s College GameDay and as a prominent leadership voice in college football. “With my coaching days behind me, Ms. Terry and I have been doing a lot of reflection and realized we were ready to tell our story,” said Saban in a statement. “The team at Words + Pictures has encouraged me to really look back not just at my time at Alabama, but every stop along the way – and not just reflect on what happened but consider the process which made it happen. I interacted with a lot of players and coaches along the way, and I’m happy to see that so many of them have contributed to this docuseries. There’s a lot to tell, and I’m excited to share it all.” Per the announcement, the docuseries will draw on over 30 hours of interviews with Saban and more than 80 with former players, assistant coaches, rivals, family, friends, and observers. Details about premiere timing and episode rollout will be announced at a later date. The post ESPN announces six-episode docuseries about Nick Saban in production appeared first on Awful Announcing.

The Buffalo Bills sent shockwaves through the NFL world Monday morning when news broke that they’d fired nine-year head coach Sean McDermott. Those shockwaves were felt by both NFL Network and ESPN, whose live shows were interrupted in real-time by the news. And in both cases, it gave the shows a jolt of excitement as audiences watched to see how they would cover it. On ESPN, Get Up was in the middle of a discussion around the Houston Texans and whether or not they should have benched quarterback C.J. Stroud in their loss to the New England Patriots when host Mike Greenberg suddenly got very serious. Here’s the moment Get Up learned that the Bills had fired Sean McDermott, featuring Adam Schefter running back on set to discuss the news. pic.twitter.com/JUQ8gU4agl — Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 19, 2026 “I have major breaking news,” said Greenberg, removing his glasses and looking directly into the camera. “I’m just gonna break in with it right now. Schefty just ran out of the room, and I know now why he did. My control room may not know this yet, but it’s been on Twitter for 16 seconds. The Bills have fired Sean McDermott.” As Greenberg dropped the bombshell, analyst Dan Orlovsky looked stunned as he digested the news. As Greenberg says what happened, both Rex Ryan and Damien Woody shook their heads in acknowledgement, as they’d previously floated the possibility. Adam Schefter, who had left the desk to go find out more about the breaking news, hustled back to join the conversation. “Schefty, come running back in here if you can,” said Greenberg. “Let’s make sure his mic is on. We now understand why you got up, and the chair flew behind us.” Schefter noted that there had been talk “in league circles” that this could go down, and added that this was something of a make-or-break year for the Bills. Not the most critical analysis, but it was still enough to catch audiences up as they took in the shocking move. Over on the NFL Network, Good Morning Football’s Kyle Brandt and Ian Rapoport just so happened to be in the middle of a discussion around the Bills’ 33-30 overtime loss to the Denver Broncos on Saturday when Rapoport’s eyes dart to his phone, his eyes go wide, and he jumps right in with the breaking news. “And then moments later, all the air goes out of the room, and we find out the news about Bo Nix,” said Brandt. “Can you tell us the process about how you heard this and where we stand?” “Uhhhh, no, I cannot, Kyle,” responded a flustered Rapoport, who looked back at his phone for confirmation. “I’ll be with you in one second.” Live TV can take you in a lot of directions. Sometimes, news breaks in real time. Here is how the news that the #Bills fired coach Sean McDermott ended up on @GMFB. pic.twitter.com/wRLQIBmWVp — Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 19, 2026 While Rapoport was doing his confirmation work, the GMFB crew bantered about the fallout from the Bills’ loss, which turned out to be fortuitously timed. “What is Ian doing?” wondered Brandt after they watched clips of Bills players getting emotional following the loss. “I was worried it was maybe a personal issue, but I’m told it’s not,” before predicting the news was “coaching-related.” Rapoport then reappeared at the perfect time to confirm Brandt’s hunch. “Sources tell the Insiders that the Buffalo Bills have fired Sean McDermott,” said Rapoport to stunned faces and silence in the studio. Whereas there had been joking and jubilation a moment ago, the scene now felt almost funereal. “It’s not exciting news,” added Rapoport. “It’s unfortunate news.” ESPN and its counterparts have taken a lot of heat in recent years over how they’ve covered breaking news and how they use insiders like Schefter and Rapoport. In this instance, it turned out to be a perfect scenario for both networks. Schefter and Rapoport are the ideal people you want on the air to break the news and offer context, before handing it over to NFL-focused analysts who can share their…

The Indiana Hoosiers will play for the college football national championship on Monday night. That’s a sentence no college football fan ever thought they’d read in their lifetime. On November 30, 2023, Curt Cignetti was named IU’s head football coach, the latest in a long line of well-intentioned leaders thrown to the wolves to presumably be lunchmeat for the Big Ten’s big dogs. With one winning season in the previous 16 years, and a longstanding reputation as one of the losingest programs in the sport, not much was expected of Cignetti, who had spent the last five seasons turning James Madison into a formidable team. At his introductory press conference, a reporter asked Cignetti how he planned to sell his culture to potential recruits and transfers “It’s pretty simple. I win,” he said without a hint of irony. “Google me.” The only thing more shocking than hearing the new head coach of Indiana football call down the thunder like that was that he has backed it up and then some. In the two seasons since, Cignetti has turned the Hoosiers into a legitimate power program. After going 11-1 and making the College Football Playoff in his first season, the 64-year-old head coach led the Hoosiers to an undefeated 2025 campaign, a Big Ten title, and now to the national championship game. Along the way, they defeated Ohio State, Oregon (twice), and Alabama. On Saturday, Cignetti was asked whether he thought this kind of success would come so soon after that infamous introduction. “I don’t think I ever thought that far away, honestly. It was such a quick hiring process, and then when I got here, I found out so many things I didn’t know, 10 offensive starters in the transfer portal, and some other things that — like two universes colliding,” Cignetti told reporters. “We had pretty much won championships year in and year out, and doom and gloom on the Indiana side, and that’s kind of why I got out there a little bit the way I did. “I knew I was out on a limb. I had to find out if the fan base was dead or on life support. The basketball game was the first thing, and then Google me was our press conference, signing day press conference, when I was asked the same question for about the 14th time. I had a lot of confidence in myself and the staff because we had had success. That’s why I took the job. But I can’t say I ever thought this far ahead.” The irony is that Cignetti has only made his Google results better since throwing down the gauntlet. On Monday night, he has the chance to make them unimpeachable. The post Curt Cignetti reflects on infamous ‘Google me’ press conference: ‘I knew I was out on a limb’ appeared first on Awful Announcing.

Black Monday came a couple of weeks late for Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott, who was fired after losing a heartbreaking Divisional Round game to the Denver Broncos on Saturday. McDermott marks the 10th NFL head coach relieved of his duties so far this season and continues a remarkable trend of successful coaches either leaving their posts (in the case of Mike Tomlin) or being fired (in the case of John Harbaugh). As is customary in these circumstances, especially when a coach has achieved a certain level of success, the team will release a statement praising the departing coach’s achievements. That was no different for McDermott, who led the Bills to a 106-58 record in nine seasons, including the Bills’ first playoff appearance in 18 years during his first season with the team. But the team’s statement didn’t get off to a hot start, and many on social media latched onto a rather humorous typo in the first sentence. pic.twitter.com/q7IqOpSryX — Buffalo Bills (@BuffaloBills) January 19, 2026 “Sean has done an admiral job of leading our football team for the past 9 seasons,” the beginning of the statement, credited to Bills owner Terry Pegula, read. Has McDermott done an admiral job? Or an admirable job? Seems the Bills might’ve meant the latter. But that didn’t stop the jokes from flying. “Sean has done an admiral job” pic.twitter.com/rB35fS1wZl — Pittsburgh Clothing Co. (@PGHClothingCo) January 19, 2026 Using “admiral” instead of “admirable” in the first sentence of a controversial head coach firing is a brutal mistake. Truly a captain offense. https://t.co/dHqk8wTPMs — Benjamin Solak (@BenjaminSolak) January 19, 2026 The Buffalo Bills official statement … But what is “an admiral job”? pic.twitter.com/2BVGpK39kt — Ralph Vacchiano (@RalphVacchiano) January 19, 2026 First sentence say he did an”admiral” job. The professor I am has me shaking my head.. https://t.co/Aux8PNoCm5 — Andrew Brandt (@AndrewBrandt) January 19, 2026 Incredibly, the statement was posted at 10:30 a.m. ET and is still up, unedited, at the time of this writing (around 2 p.m. ET). Either the Bills’ social media team took the rest of MLK Day off, or they have more important business to tend to. Whatever the case, the flub made for some great content alongside the rigorous debate over McDermott’s firing. The post Buffalo Bills roasted for writing Sean McDermott did ‘admiral job’ in statement appeared first on Awful Announcing.