- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,258,220
- Reaction score
- 59
You must be registered for see images attach
Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images / ESPN Images
ESPN appears to have finally answered a question it left dangling earlier this summer.
When the network confirmed that Chase Daniel would take over Jordan Rodgers’ seat on SEC Nation after Front Office Sports reported that Rodgers would move into what was described only as an “elevated role” with ESPN and ABC, the specifics weren’t readily available. Now, we know that Aaron’s brother will be calling Friday night college football alongside play-by-play voice Mike Monaco and sideline reporter Dana Boyle, according to FOS’s Ryan Glasspiegel.
Daniel took over the SEC Nation panel seat as part of a larger overhaul, joining new host Matt Barrie, who is replacing Laura Rutledge as Rutledge shifts her focus to NFL hosting duties and sideline reporting for top college football matchups. Daniel himself had hosted an NFL podcast at The Athletic and co-hosted FS1’s The Facility before joining ESPN to call college football games last season.
Rodgers spent nine seasons, dating to 2017, calling SEC Saturday Night alongside Tom Hart and Cole Cubelic, one of the longest-running commentary trios in the sport. Readers in AA’s own 2025 college football announcer rankings ranked the booth 11th out of 25, calling the trio “the best group you’ve got” and arguing they deserved a bigger national platform than SEC Saturday Night gave them. Rodgers is the only one of the three moving to that bigger platform; nothing has been announced about Hart or Cubelic’s roles this season.
Monaco’s ESPN workload already spans MLB, the NHL, college baseball, college basketball, the Little League World Series and, per his ESPN bio, tennis majors including Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open. He also fills in on Boston Red Sox broadcasts for NESN. Awful Announcing covered his last contract renewal in 2023, a three-year extension signed at age 30. That deal came shortly after ESPN lost two other versatile young broadcasters, Adam Amin and Jason Benetti — who has since left for NBC — to Fox Sports. And Monaco has signed another multi-year deal, per FOS.
Boyle worked the ACC Network’s primetime broadcast in 2025 alongside Wes Durham and analyst Steve Addazio. That pairing drew a 2.10 grade in AA’s 2025 announcer rankings, 20th out of 25 teams, with readers largely praising Durham while singling out Addazio, who one reader said: “sounds like your confused uncle in the booth.” Durham’s own reputation held up regardless of who sat next to him; readers separately called him “the most prepared of anyone in the ESPN family.”
Durham has now had four different primetime analysts in as many seasons, starting with Roddy Jones and Eric Wood at the network’s 2019 launch, then Tim Hasselbeck and Taylor Tannebaum, then Tom Luginbill alongside Boyle in 2024, before Addazio took over in 2025. This season, Durham moves on again to a new analyst, Max Browne. Boyle, meanwhile, is moving too, off the ACC primetime assignment and onto Fridays with Monaco and Rodgers.
“A sideline reporter for the package will be announced in the coming weeks, as Dana Boyle moves into an expanded ESPN college football role,” ESPN noted earlier this month.
The rest of ESPN’s college football booths shifted in the same round of moves. Matt Schumacker, who called games with Dustin Fox in 2025, will lead the SEC Network’s top booth this fall alongside Aaron Murray, who spent last season in a separate SEC Network pairing with Lowell Galindo and Lauren Sisler. Browne, taking over the ACC Network primetime chair from Durham’s old partner, called games in 2025 alongside Chris Cotter and Kendra Douglas on the network’s secondary ACC booth. The reshuffling isn’t limited to those chairs, either: veteran voice Mark Jones retired from ESPN this spring, breaking up his longtime pairing with Roddy Jones, and Dave Flemming is also departing the network, leaving ESPN with real depth to rebuild across its college football lineup heading into the fall.
The post ESPN reportedly pairs Mike Monaco with Jordan Rodgers for Friday night college football appeared first on Awful Announcing.
Continue reading...
