<\/p>\n
It’s a busy weekend for ESPN’s Chris Fowler, who called a U.S. Open tennis\u00a0semifinal Friday night, was in Austin for Saturday’s Texas-Ohio State game and then was returning to New York for Sunday’s men’s final.<\/p>\n
CFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
With assignments that include calling three of tennis’ four major tournaments and ESPN\u2019s top college football game weekly through the playoffs, Chris Fowler readily admits he\u2019s living\u00a0the dream.<\/p>\n
His weekend travel itinerary, however, hardly seemed the stuff of dreams.<\/p>\n
After calling Friday\u2019s second U.S. Open semifinal, he was on a private flight that landed in Austin around 3 a.m. Saturday. Following a scant amount of sleep, there was a late-morning production meeting before calling\u00a0Saturday night\u2019s matchup between No. 1 Ohio State and No. 4 Texas<\/a> on ABC, arguably the top non-conference\u00a0matchup in college football this season.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Once Saturday\u2019s game ends, it\u2019s back on a plane to New York for Sunday\u2019s 1 p.m. CT men\u2019s final on ABC between Alexander Zverez and Blake Shelton, with the latter trying to become the first American man to win a major since Andy Roddick at the 2003 U.S, Open.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are my two favorite sports and I get to call the championship events in them,\u201d Fowler told the Houston Chronicle on Saturday afternoon during a brief respite in Austin. \u201cSo that\u2019s a dream job. I live in the dream I had since I\u2019m 10 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n ALSO SEE: UT fans boo Ted Cruz throughout College GameDay appearance<\/a><\/p>\n Fowler, at ESPN since 1986, has called tennis\u00a0since 2003 and after a 25-season stint hosting \u201cCollege GameDay,\u201d shifted to the network\u2019s lead college football play-by-play role in 2014.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n This time of year almost always includes a juggling act between the Open and college football\u00a0\u2014 he called LSU\/Clemson in Baton Rouge, La., last Saturday\u00a0\u2014 but this weekend arguably presents the biggest events he\u2019s called on back-to-back days.\u00a0<\/p>\n Friday\u2019s semifinal between Frances\u00a0Tiafoe and Shelton<\/a> was the first between two Black American men during the Open era (since 1968). Ohio State-Texas is the third\u00a0matchup between the programs since January 2025. Fowler will have called two of the three, the first being the Buckeyes’ win in the 2024 CFP semifinals<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like this game is bigger than Oklahoma-Michigan was in this time slot a year ago and I think that the Shelton-Tiafoe match obviously was historic,\u201d Fowler said. \u201cAnd there\u2019s a lot in it falling on (the 25th anniversary of) September 11th. It was a very involved, elaborate broadcast for numerous reasons. And then going back and doing the men\u2019s final with an American playing for it, trying to end a 23 year drought? So no, probably nothing (before compares) to the one-two-three punch of these days. Probably not equal to that.\u201d<\/p>\n Fowler\u2019s week also included calling a marathon five-set quarterfinal between Shelton and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz that took 4 hours and 28 minutes and ended at 3:33 a.m. ET on Wednesday in the latest finish in Open history.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s nothing quite like the scale of a big, long tennis match when you can be working five hours,\u201d Fowler said. \u201cI\u2019ve called a 5:53 match, almost a six-hour match before. It\u2019s a muscle you develop and you get used to those very long periods of concentration. And certainly (analysts) John\u00a0and Patrick (McEnroe) are very dialed in for those long matches and and so that helps.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cBut, yeah, 3:33 (a.m.), you just try not to look at the clock. I didn\u2019t have to get up the next morning and do anything. But you know you\u2019re going to be disrupted the following day. But that doesn\u2019t matter because it\u2019s a monster match; it\u2019s what you live for, to me. A tennis match when it\u2019s like that is as good as sports get. And I\u2019m including a great football game. To me, tennis can be right on the top end of as compelling as anything in sports.\u201d<\/p>\n Fowler\u2019s tennis work also cut into his prep time for Saturday\u2019s broadcast with analyst Kirk Herbstreit and sideline reporters Holly Rowe and Laura Rutledge. For instance, he was on a Zoom call with Ohio State coach Ryan Day but had to drop out early after an Open match ended abruptly and he was needed back on tennis duty.<\/p>\n \u201cI was working in a little bit of prep here and there, staying up late and doing football, but as I said, I\u2019m going to be working right down to kickoff. which is not in the normal rhythm of the week,\u201d Fowler said. \u201cI know I\u2019ve got a lot of work to do to get ready for this game. I don\u2019t have one eye on tennis and one eye on football. You have to have both eyes on exactly what you\u2019re doing because it requires that, right? So there\u2019s no thought of football during (Tiafoe-Shelton).\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNow the minute it ends, on the ride to the airport, I got the chart out on the plane last night. I\u2019m not sleeping. I\u2019m looking at Texas State versus Texas (last week). I hadn\u2019t had a chance during the week to watch tape, and that\u2019s essential. So that that got pushed to Friday night in the wee hours, and I\u2019m looking at my 38-page analytic report. Every aspect of this matchup dissected and it\u2019s a tremendous mountain of information that you don\u2019t want to smother the game with, but it\u2019s good to know it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Ohio State-Texas game represents what may be a dying breed of marquee non-conference matchups as more teams look to protect their playoff hopes.\u00a0Fowler didn\u2019t mince words about that trend.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI love the sport, and I hate what the pre-conference schedules have become,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd you look around today \u2014 it\u2019s a joke. It\u2019s bad for the sport. I hope that there are repercussions for teams that don\u2019t schedule difficult, but will there be? That\u2019s up to the selection committee.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re not must-win games, but they\u2019re tone setters. And r\u00e9sum\u00e9 builders and all that stuff. \u2026 (Many non-conference matchups) are exhibition games. I\u2019d rather see a scrimmage than watch some of these games.\u201d<\/p>\n Fowler has called his share of high-profile Texas games during the Longhorns’ first two SEC seasons and as always, expectations are high in Austin<\/a>\u00a0after an offseason overhaul via the transfer portal and Arch Manning entering his second season<\/a> as the starting quarterback.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think Texas\u2019 talent that they\u2019ve assembled is impressive,\u201d Fowler said. \u201cThey\u2019ve addressed specific weaknesses. I think they feel like their O-line is better. They\u2019re better at running back. They\u2019re better at receiver (and) Arch\u2019s a year older. I think he\u2019ll play overall better than last year, but I think he\u2019ll pick up where he left off at the end of the season. And I think defensively, they\u2019ve also addressed the needs in a less dramatic way than they did in offense (by) getting guys like Rasheem Biles and and getting guys like Colin Simmons back.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s pressure on Texas because I think this is a game that a lot of people feel they should win. These matchups, these are like heavyweight NFL games. It\u2019s hard to beat a good team three times in 18 months, right? That\u2019s what Ohio State\u2019s trying to do. And if they do it, it\u2019s really impressive. But I think Texas has a little bit of an edge. I\u2019m not making a pick, just so you know, They\u2019ve spent a lot of money, as you know, and made some smart (portal) acquisitions, and now they need to see those weaknesses that were apparent last year and begin to get exposed against the Buckeyes, they need to see those shored up for what they hope is a 15-, 16-game run,\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s a busy weekend for ESPN’s Chris Fowler, who called a U.S. Open tennis\u00a0semifinal Friday night, was in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-434213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}