Is Charles Davis Ready For the NFL on Fox?
Conversations in press boxes can be illuminating at times. At last year's Southeastern Conference (SEC) Championship Game in Atlanta, a local Atlanta sportscaster talked about the challenges facing African-Americans who aspire to be head football coaches, as well as those who aspire to call games on one of the major networks. A specific example he talked about was the Big Ten Network's Charles Davis (pictured left) who has also called BCS bowl games for Fox Sports.
Sam said that in his mind, there was no reason that Davis could not easily and immediately step in and fill a role such as CBS Sports College Football Analyst Gary Danielsen. Now Davis is getting his chance from Fox Sports. For whatever reason, Fox Sports Executive Producer Ed Goren has always liked Davis. With Fox losing the BCS to ESPN, he wanted to keep Davis as part of his talent pool,
To do this, he has paired him with longtime play-by-play man Dick Stockton on the "C" team.
Frankly, I do not understand why. I have tried to watch games that Davis has been assigned to and have not been impressed. While is knowledge is unquestioned, it is often times very painful to listen to him call a game. His timing is off, he often looked and sounded uncomfortable, and it became painfully clear in one game that he did not appear to have fully done his preparation homework.
ESPN Regional Television/SEC Network play-by-play man Dave Neal once said that the in-booth performance has a lot to do with the chemistry between the play-by-play, the color analyst, and the team in the truck. Given that Davis was working with largely unfamiliar people, it is possible that this had an effect.
So for me a simple question remains. Is Goren seeing something that the viewing audience is not hearing or seeing, and will this move pay off?
NFL on FOX announcer pairings for 2009Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Pam Oliver
Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston, Tony Siragusa
Dick Stockton, Charles Davis Thom Brennaman, Brian Billick Sam Rosen, Tim Ryan Ron Pitts, John Lynch Chris Myers, Trent Green
"painfully clear in one game that he did not appear to have fully done his preparation homework." because he didn't address a mascot appropriately? Or because he admitted that he wasn't sure of the owner's name even though he got it right anyway?
In my opinion Charles Davis is a horrible announcer. He is biased, he states only the obvious and roots for southern teams all the time. I don't like listening to him at all. I wished he'd get fired!
Tidbits from Mr. Davis during last night's game:
"The Georgia Tech fans should stand up and applaud that 3 yard gain because they are starting to get to Iowa".
"Stanzi just got bailed out by that blow to the head"
At the end of the 3rd quarter he said that GT had taken over the game in the 3rd quarter and Iowa was in trouble (at the time Iowa was up 17-7 and outscored GT 3-0 in the 3rd).
On an obvious pass interference call on GT that was missed: "I'm glad they didn't make that call"
There were many more examples, but I don't have the time to list them all.
He is very unprepared, biased and just plain awful.