Whether it’s been on College GameDay in the past or calling the big Saturday game of the week on ESPN/ABC, Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit have worked together for 27 years. It is a special bond where if you work with somebody that long in your life, you tend to know the person very well.
Fowler was a guest on The Press Box podcast with Bryan Curtis and he said because he knows how Herbstreit views the game, they don’t really discuss what the gameplans are for each team going into a game as they prepare to call the CFP National Championship Game Monday night, which surprises many in the industry.
“That’s what’s fun about working with somebody you’ve worked with for 27 years. 27 seasons together. I sort of know what Kirk is going to say and how he views a game and how he’s wired. We do almost no talking about the gameplans ahead of time. People in the business don’t believe that. We don’t sit around and have a big conversation ‘Hey when TCU has the ball, this, this, and this. Here’s what I expect Georgia to do. If this happens, what are you going to say?’ We don’t do any of that.
“I’m not saying it’s a better way to do it. We just have kind of our method at this point and it’s to be spontaneous.
“That comes from a lot of time spent watching games together. We don’t talk about every game we do, but we watch a lot of football together. Figuring out sort of how each other is wired. If you haven’t figured it out by 27 years, you are not going to.”
Fowler compared the way the two of them work together to how he works with John McEnroe during ESPN’s tennis coverage, where McEnroe does not want to know what Fowler is going to ask him before a big match.
“John McEnroe is like that in tennis. John does not want to know what you are going to ask him in the opening of a Wimbledon championship match. He doesn’t want to go over it, he will not rehearse it, he wants to be surprised and react.
“Kirk’s not quite that, but he likes to sort of not hammer it home in rehearsal. We are a terrible rehearsal team. I like to think we are pretty good when the lights go on, but not because we practice this stuff.”
