CBS confirmed months of rumors today by announcing that 2016 will be Verne Lundquists’s last calling SEC football games on the network. Lundquist has been in the television business for 53 years and called just about every type of sports competition you could want to watch. But it has been over the past decade calling the SEC’s weekly marquee matchup where he has really endeared himself to those who enjoy honest enthusiasm mixed with canned storylines and name mispronunciation so bad it makes Mama want to come out of the stands and hit somebody.
Lundquist will be replaced in 2017 by Brad Nessler, who’s coming over from ESPN after a pretty impressive two decade run of his own at the Worldwide Leader. Nessler will get a jump on his new gig this year by calling SEC on CBS games when there are two in a given week (usually a twice a year occurrence).But don’t expect Uncle Verne to chortle off into the sunset just yet. Lundquist will continue calling college basketball and golf on CBS. I actually enjoy Lundquist calling golf, so I’m kind of moderately excited about that. And of course, we’ll always have this:
Until later....
Go 'Dawg's!!!