Saturday night in Happy Valley, Brad Nessler and Todd Blackledge will be on the call for the primetime game between Michigan and Penn State.
This crew last announced a game involving a team from Michigan in September when Michigan State took on Notre Dame. That primetime game turned out to be an instant classic thanks to MSU winning in overtime on a fake field goal. Nessler had a great call of the play and in general is a great announcer. Blackledge is a solid color commentator as well, even if he did go to Penn State. I don't expect him to be a homer or anything, but even if he proves me wrong it beats listening to Matt Millen, who also went to PSU.
Before the season, this game looked like it could easily end up being ABC's main primetime game with Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit announcing it. After all, we knew Ohio State-Minnesota wasn't going to be very interesting, and at the time who could have guessed that USC-Oregon would be so important for the national title hunt since the Trojans are barred from postseason competition. Michigan-Penn State seemed like the most intriguing matchup coming into the year, but now it's just a "meh" Big Ten game between a U-M team on a two-game losing streak and one of the worst PSU teams in quite some time. I guess this is the downside of having to schedule the Big Ten's primetime games during the summer and not in the season.