Mike Golic Sr. has not been shy about what he wants to see and hear when he turns on NBC to watch Notre Dame football. He wants analysis from fellow former Fighting Irish players.
Golic was on his son’s GoJo Show on Friday and the topic of Stanford’s interest in Jason Garrett came up. The NBC analyst is one of two reported finalists to become the school’s next head football coach.
Certainly there is less stress in TV than there is in coaching, but Mike Golic Jr. gets why a job like Stanford could appeal to someone that has seen life away from football.
“It’s a great gig if you like being comfortable in a nice, warm place that doesn’t expect you to win like you’re in the SEC West.”
Senior noted that if Garrett, who graduated from Princeton, does take the job, NBC will have a job to fill. Last year, he told BSM’s Brian Noe that he would be ready to call Fighting Irish football if he ever got the chance.
On the GoJo Show, he amended that a bit to say that there is no reason anyone other than a former Notre Dame player should be Jac Collinsworth’s partner.
“There’s enough former Notre Dame players in the media business that could do that,” the elder Golic said. “We’ve had what? USC, a couple of Boston College guys, a Purdue guy, and Jason Garrett, a former head coach. Like I said, there’s plenty of ND alum out there. Let’s start to move the goalposts that way as an analyst.”
This is a common complaint and debate amongst Notre Dame fans and media critics. Many of them make the same suggestion whenever the idea of filling the analyst role with a former Golden Domer comes up, but Golic urges everyone to be realistic in their expectations.
“I know a lot of people think the main guy or the number one guy could be Brady Quinn, but he is locked down at FOX pretty well there with his morning show and their college pregame show.”
It should be noted that late Friday night, Jason Garrett took to Twitter to say that he was no longer pursuing the Stanford job. He intends to remain at NBC.
As an independent program, Notre Dame does not have a TV deal with a conference. Instead, the school negotiated directly with NBC and has seen all of its home football games air on the network since the beginning of the 1991 season. The most recent agreement between the two sides runs through the end of the 2025 season.
They have treated ND football broadcasts like garbage over the years. the only time they took it serious was the Mike Mayock Dan Hicks days. in the past four seasons they had 4 different game analysts, mostly non college football guys from FINA. Mike is right they need a real commitment to ND broadcasts