ESPN loves Blackledge; 2008 presidential candidates and CFB

If any color commentator has really made a big splash this college football season, it's been former Penn State quarterback Todd Blackledge. The three-year starter and Davey O'Brien Award winner joined Mike Patrick and Holly Rowe once again this year as the lead team for ESPN's primetime college football matchups. Blackledge and Patrick have great chemistry, and many of their in-game exchanges have been memorable and entertaining. Todd's weekly individual segment, "Todd's Taste of the Town" has been a fun (dare I say delicious?) addition to the broadcast, where Todd samples local (and mostly heart-clogging) cuisine from campuses across the country. It's been clear that ESPN is giving Blackledge a little bit more of the spotlight than last year.

If you watched happened to be watching ESPN at all during BCS season, it seems as if the network is trying to give him better and higher-profile exposure as of late. Todd sat alongside Rece Davis, Lou Holtz, and Mark May in Bristol on January 2nd for an extended college bowl special, which usually only features the trio of Davis, Holtz, and May. ESPN even flew him down to New Orleans on January 7th for the BCS National Championship, where he shared a desk outside the Louisiana Superdome with the College GameDay crew of Chris Fowler, Lee Corso, and Kirk Herbstreit, offering halftime and extended post-game analysis. You have to wonder if he's possibly being groomed for an future promotion or in-studio position for next season. Even though I would miss the Blackledge-Patrick chemistry if this were the case, I would applaud their decision as I certainly find Blackledge's commentary and analysis insightful and entertaining.

In other news, I recently found an extremely entertaining blog article linked from SI.com's Campus Clicks section that compares 2008 presidential candidates to college football teams. You can always count on Campus Clicks for some pretty good material, including this classic (and not Photoshopped, I swear) photo from the start of the second half of the BCS Championship. No wonder things went awry for the Buckeyes.

"Uhm, fellas..."