How difficult is it to produce a college football broadcast in the age of coronavirus?

TOLEDO — Mike Couzens double- and triple-checks that his binoculars are tucked snuggly into his suitcase. Then he checks again. The ESPN broadcaster won't leave home without them because the coronavirus pandemic has changed the dynamic of the broadcast booth. "If I forget those, it's going to be a difficult day," he said prior to the Toledo-Bowling Green game. Couzens and analyst Rocky Boiman were at the Glass Bowl Wednesday with help from fewer friends. In the past, the duo would be ensconced with a stage manager, spotter, and statistician, vital positions that contribute to the television presentation. Safety protocols and financial cuts have created a shortage of people on-site at college football broadcasts. (ESPN laid off 300 employees last week). Information is paramount to any sporting event, so Couzens felt hiring a local statistician served him best. That's why he never leaves home without his Bushnell binoculars, a necessity for reading jersey numbers and tracking the football. "We're changing some of our habits and workflows in how we're producing games," said Stos Hall, a coordinating producer for ESPN who manages game productions. "As a company, we've really ramped up the technology part since April to see how we could do things differently and more efficiently." ESPN, in trying to keep as many people off the road as possible, has installed live-from-home kits in announcers' homes so they can call a game from their house. On-site production crews have shrunk and games are largely produced from studios in Bristol, Conn., Orlando and Charlotte. Everyone is dealing with the unprecedented challenges and unfamiliar circumstances the 2020 season has introduced — players, coaches, media, broadcasters, fans. The entire sport's constituency has been upended. Producing a game has been made more difficult not just because of the virus itself but by the images and sounds in the stadium. Television is a visual medium, with college football's pageantry pouring through the screen — cheering fans, images of iconic stadiums, fight songs, mascots. They all make an appearance on TV screens. Except this season. Some stadiums have no fans, others have a fraction of the normal amount. There are venues where games are played in virtual silence. Having the soul of the sport interrupted is arduous for all involved. "That's the one place when watching a broadcast where it does feel awkward," Hall said. "The first few weeks our directors struggled a little bit with what to do during touchdowns. You miss the cut of the fans going crazy. Directors have to stay within the boundaries of the field because there isn't a whole lot else going on. It's been different trying to maintain that energy visually without fans in the stands." The same element is true in the booth, as announcers attempt to spike the atmosphere. During dramatic plays, broadcasters often go silent for several seconds, letting the picture and sounds tell the story. It allows the audience to absorb the atmosphere in their living room. But drama-filled touchdowns and delirious stadiums don't exist this season, putting the onus on broadcasters to. "The environment compared to NFL stadiums isn't even close. There's so much more energy inside a college football stadium," Boiman said. "No matter how exciting it is, you can't embrace the atmosphere when there is no atmosphere." Couzens went philosophical, drawing on Noam Chomsky's famous book Manufacturing Consent, explaining that there's no need to manufacture enthusiasm because viewers understand that stadiums aren't full. A past in minor league baseball, which is known for empty ballparks, has helped him generate discussion. "By having enlightening conversations with the analyst, we can pick up where that crowd noise may have carried things in a normal year," Couzens said. Something Couzens and Boiman never thought would become a weekly ritual is scheduling a virus test. Conversations with coaches and players have also gone in directions previously unforeseen. "One has been talking to coaches and players about racial equality in the country," Couzens said. "That's something that prior to this spring and summer didn't come up in the course of conversation for a college football game. It's been part of our regular conversations. I talked to Jason Candle about how his team approached Election Day. Those are things that are outside the bounds usually. Normally, we'd talk about, why did you hire Vince Kehres as your defensive coordinator." The level of research hasn't changed. And it's possible that broadcasters have more time since the travel is less strenuous. But anyone who works in the industry will tell you that their preparation has suffered simply because they can't be around coaches and players. There's only so much that can be learned on a Zoom call and the virtual discussion doesn't lend itself to a natural conversation. "You're used to getting there Friday and spending the whole day on campus meeting with players and coaches," Boiman said. "That's the thing I've missed most. When you're on campus and you're spending the entire day at the football office, there are little nuggets of information that you pick up. You stop by the weight room and peek in and talk to the assistant weight coach about so and so. I've missed getting those little nuggets of information." Sometimes, however, there is no game, by far the most grueling aspect of the 2020 season, according to Hall. It forces networks to make quick determinations on how — and where — to proceed. "Out of the nine weekends we've had, we've had to back-fill issues in five or six of the weeks, where on Thursday or Friday we have a cancellation and have to shift things around and change some of the technology about how we produce a game," Hall said. "It's been a challenge on the management side trying to react." Of course, it beats replays of classic games or the World Series of Poker. "Overall," Boiman said, "I'm just so thankful and happy that we're able to play." ___ (c)2020 The Blade (Toledo, Ohio) Visit The Blade (Toledo, Ohio) at www.toledoblade.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.