ESPN's makeover of College Football Final will be a complete one. The network now plans to replace longtime panelist Mark May, a mainstay on ESPN's college football coverage since 2001, in addition to the departing Rece Davis and Lou Holtz. The show will now be hosted by Adnan Virk, Joey Galloway, and Danny Kanell.
Holtz announced prior to the 2014 season that it would be his last year on the program, and ESPN announced in February that Davis would replace Chris Fowler as the host of College GameDay. That left the network with the option of blowing the show up and starting over with completely new hosts or building a similar show back up around May. Considering how cartoonish the show became toward the end of the previous lineup's run, fueled by the petty rivalry between Hotlz and May, it's not hard to understand why ESPN decided it wasn't a dynamic worth preserving.
Virk, with ESPN since 2010, takes over hosting duties for Davis after spending the past several years hosting Baseball Tonight,SportsCenter, Outside the Lines, and occasionally filling in for Keith Olbermann on Olbermann. Galloway, a former Ohio State wide receiver who had a 16-year NFL career, has been providing college football commentary on ESPN since 2012. The most controversial addition to the team is Danny Kanell, who took an abrupt left turn into virulent anti-SEC posturing after years of being an ESPN personality with whom few took objection.
Of course, if Kanell had already been told he was being groomed to replace May, then maybe he knew exactly what he was doing.
Holtz announced prior to the 2014 season that it would be his last year on the program, and ESPN announced in February that Davis would replace Chris Fowler as the host of College GameDay. That left the network with the option of blowing the show up and starting over with completely new hosts or building a similar show back up around May. Considering how cartoonish the show became toward the end of the previous lineup's run, fueled by the petty rivalry between Hotlz and May, it's not hard to understand why ESPN decided it wasn't a dynamic worth preserving.
Virk, with ESPN since 2010, takes over hosting duties for Davis after spending the past several years hosting Baseball Tonight,SportsCenter, Outside the Lines, and occasionally filling in for Keith Olbermann on Olbermann. Galloway, a former Ohio State wide receiver who had a 16-year NFL career, has been providing college football commentary on ESPN since 2012. The most controversial addition to the team is Danny Kanell, who took an abrupt left turn into virulent anti-SEC posturing after years of being an ESPN personality with whom few took objection.
Of course, if Kanell had already been told he was being groomed to replace May, then maybe he knew exactly what he was doing.
