re: Anybody else hear Chris Blair screw up the Dillon TD?

Man I know some of you are being very critical but how in the hell do you screw up a offensive TD and call it a defensive pick 6?

That in itself is mind blowing!! I can understand getting a players name wrong but to completely screw up it being on offense or defense, lawd!

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At least in Hawthorne’s case, it was a Hail Mary with multiple receivers bunched up.

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None of whom were a defensive back wearing #8.

Face it. He blew the ball on one of college football's historically iconic plays.

Yesterday was my first time listening to a game for any real length of time

The broadcast was fricking terrible. Blair had no inflection, no emotion, nothing. I had no idea if the way was promising until it was over and he said what happened. He constantly cut Rush off and Doug just doesn’t add anything anymore

It was just brutal to listen to

Agree but I'd add that he's too patient with the play, which is perfect for baseball, as opposed to being able to give real-time play-by-play in a football game.

Sometimes he'll describe the play slowly without giving any indication if the play even resulted in a first down or not

I grew up my entire life listening to Hawthorne. In a sense, LSU sports and Hawthorne are synonymous for me. I’m certain others agree. But Jim retired after a long, great career. He deserved it.

We searched and I remember the LSU AD posting sound cloud links for the applicants they chose to interview. Chris Blair was easily the best available. Was he or is he the best? Well...I’m sure he’d admit that the answer is no. But he is talented, and he’s also pushed the production value and quality of our broadcasts, and also generated new content that I enjoy with podcasts, etc.

He is not synonymous with LSU for me. To be honest, he may never be. But that is more a function of the fact that every single game in every sport is available to watch on a broadcast or cable network, if not stream online. Even Baseball nowadays.

I think he was and is a great hire. People make mistakes. Hawthorne Homers and Jack Hunt TD’s are part of Jim’s lore and appeal if you ask me. Hell, going back even further, a member of the radio broadcast crew drowned out the call of Billy Cannon’s Halloween Night punt return for a TD back in the late 50’s by adjusting the crowd mic feed up louder than the announcer said in the middle of Cannon’s run. From simple slip ups to milestone moments, people in this job have proven they are human.

So let’s not act as if any of us can expect infallibility in a radio broadcaster. No one ever bats 1.000.

Jim Hawthorne called the 2003 National Champions the “2004 National Champions” at the end of the Sugar Bowl. He also said Jack Hunt caught the Blue Grass Miracle. He also said every pop fly hit in Alex Box was a home run. He had a good voice.

I grew up with him and loved his voice. It registers to me as LSU football. That said, it was time to go. He was old and couldn’t see anymore.

I have only heard Blair a few times. He sounds bland and corporate to me. But let’s not kid ourselves like Hawthorne was really good. The thing Jim had was a “one of us” argument.

Blair manages to make very important plays sound routine.


Yep, well said. No emotion.

How about John Ferguson?

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I mean, Hawthorne's entire national perception was based around him fricking everything up. Deadspin did an article on it: LINK

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The last few years I used to get so annoyed at Hawthorne. He just stopped telling you what was actually happening so he could react for a few seconds. Was it a damn catch? First down? What the hell happened, once you are done saying "oh my" or "oh you gotta be kidding me". I like how he was passionate about it, but when you are only getting radio audio, you need the guy to tell you what is happening, not just react to things. I swear sometimes you had to wait 20 seconds to get what was going on.

So maybe all of you who are so much better should have applied and auditioned for the job??? He's not Hawthorne who I enjoyed for the chuckles from time to time BUT he's coming along -- I find him getting better and sounding more "LSU like".

I think the longer he spends here the more he'll get passionate about it and throw that emotion in there. It takes time when you didn't grow up loving the team like some of us. And he's good at basketball, which is really the tough one to do.