Wes Durham, Eric Mac Lain reflect on ACC Network’s impact on fifth year anniversary

You blink once, and here the ACC Network is, six football seasons in.

As the network celebrates its fifth anniversary on Thursday, Aug. 22, Eric Mac Lain and Wes Durham spoke with Awful Announcing to discuss their experiences and the network’s impact. They shared insights into the network’s growth, the opportunities it has created and the pivotal moments that have defined its journey.

Mac Lain and Durham expressed immense pride in being part of a platform that elevated ACC sports coverage. They highlighted the network’s role in amplifying the voices of athletes, coaches and institutions across the conference, shaping the narrative of the Atlantic Coastal Conference while contributing significantly to their personal and professional development.

“It’s crazy to think this is going to be the sixth one this year with ESPN, with the ACC Network, and as we kind of just been doing all these things, you think back about how momentous it is,” Mac Lain told Awful Announcing. “You know, there were some games I played back in 2011, 2012, where we weren’t on TV. Now, all of that has gone, just the ability to celebrate this conference and all these great athletes in a multitude of sports, but obviously, my heavy focus is football. It’s just really cool to see where it’s kind of gone and how it’s continued to evolve.”

His time as a player influenced Mac Lain’s ascension to the media. In his words, he was lucky enough as a player that his quarterback (Deshaun Watson) didn’t like or want to talk to the media. As a team captain, Mac Lain was given the role of the face and voice for Clemson and its offense.

“It’s something that I never took for granted,” Mac Lain shares. “It’s something that I always, whether it was the local paper or the big worldwide whatever…or ESPN coming in, I always made sure to just give my all. I never knew who was going to see or read what. It was something that I always was very intentional about, that maybe this could lead to some opportunity down the road.”

And it did. But it wasn’t how Mac Lain would’ve drawn it up.

“Funnily enough, I got a call while I was at the 2018-19 National Championship where Clemson just road stomped Alabama,” the former Clemson offensive lineman continued, “and spoke to (ESPN senior director talent negotiations) Patrick Donaher and he kind of told me, ‘Hey, there’s this new network coming. We’d love to fly you up to Bristol, Connecticut, and see if you want to be a part of the team.’ And I blacked out, dude. I had no clue it was coming, who (Donaher) was, any of that.”

Mac Lain thought he was talking to some ESPN writer, sharing his thoughts about the game. Needless to say, the call proved to be a little more than just that. And something that came out of left field as he watched his alma mater clinch its second title in three years changed his life forever and for the better.

“I totally was not prepared for it. And I’ll tell you how funny it is,” he adds. “My wife and I, when I got the offer and told (ESPN) that we wanted to be a part of it, we kind of looked at each other, like ‘Hey, this is a really good opportunity. Who knows where it’s gonna lead? We’ll take a pay cut to do this.’ Needless to say, we did not take a pay cut. But it’s just so much fun ever since, this little journey that we’ve been on.”

And a cornerstone of Mac Lain’s journey at the network includes the development of deep connections with colleagues like Jordan Cornette and EJ Manuel.

“I think it would be silly of me not to mention Jordan Cornette,” Mac Lain said of his former colleague, who was laid off by ESPN last summer . “I think as a mentor, who was our previous host of The Huddle , as a leader, as a guy that’s been in this business, but ultimately as a guy that’s one of my best friends, still to this day. Just the way that he saw things. He’s been a producer. He’s been a color analyst. He’s been and was a host and has now expanded his role even more with NBC and others.

“Just a really wise dude that really brought a ton to us and made us all better. So, I’m forever indebted to him. I think of my brother, EJ Manuel, who has been with me since Day 1. Obviously, our days go back to being rivals on the gridiron, and having the battles that we did at Florida State and Clemson. But just that brotherhood to grow together. And for that to be our first kind of time on TV on the same time, we’re both rookies; we’re both trying to do and grow these things together.

“Those have been two of the more influential people in my life these last couple of years.”

However, perhaps one of the more influential figures at the ACC Network is Wes Durham , who will embark on his second season as the network’s play-by-play voice for primetime action.

“It meant a lot because it’s something that, quite frankly, it was a goal of mine,” Durham tells AA. “When I started on ESPN, I had been on television six years. I mean, it was only 11 years ago that I left radio at Georgia Tech, 2013, and went to television full time. So, to be able to get the primetime package last year was something I thought about. And being honest with you, I wanted the chance to be the lead voice of the ACC in football — and basketball, if I can.

“I certainly respect the scenarios of what these teams are and what these schools/institutions are now, but I’d like to think I’ve got a lot of background and historical context to what these schools are. And now, in my particular case, that means finding out about Cal, Stanford and SMU and digging deeper into what I had previously done with schools like Syracuse and, Louisville and Pitt, and places like that. It’s been great to be a part of the league, professionally, that you grew up in.

“Growing up watching the ACC, as I did as a kid, and now being able to kind of be one of the voices of it from a game perspective on television, I think of all the people that I watched as kids, and certainly, my dad doing Carolina and being in television before that, doing ACC basketball. I take it pretty serious. It’s a serious responsibility for me to be able to provide coverage of the league the way, hopefully, we do week in and week out…

“It’s been a professional thrill, to be honest with you, to have an opportunity to do it like this.”

“I love it, and I love Wes,” Mac Lain said of the ACC Network’s lead play-by-play voice. “And to be 100 percent honest, felt like he should’ve always been the primetime game. I feel like he is the ACC. He’s been around this league. He grew up in this league. Has been a professional surrounding this league for so long. He is so well-respected by every institution…We’re lucky to have him. We’re lucky to have his knowledge, expertise and charisma as a broadcaster, and, man, I’m jacked up that he will continue to be our primetime game and heavily involved in everything at this network.”

While Durham’s journey to becoming the lead voice of ACC football has been a highlight of the network, Mac Lain’s unwavering support and admiration for Durham’s work seems to be a shared sentiment, not just one that the former Clemson captain holds.

But that journey wasn’t without its pitfalls, not just for Durham but the network. And despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, the ACC Network has made significant strides in its coverage, particularly in highlighting the stories of student athletes and women’s sports

“Even though we went through the pandemic with the network, it still feels like we just got started yesterday in some respects,” Durham says. “There’s the part from August ’19 to March ’20 and then there’s like that 60-75 days where we just kind of waited to see what would be next, and then it almost felt it some ways that we re-launched. I give a lot of people a lot of credit, because the way we did it before the pandemic and the way we were doing it sometimes after the pandemic…it’s totally different.

“You gotta be mindful of that for starters. But, at the same time, too, I think that in the time that we’ve been on the air, I think the network deserves a lot of credit. It’s easy to say you’ve covered football and you’ve covered basketball and things like that, right? That was our principal motive most of the time but one of the things that we’ve done, I think collaborativity, on ACC Network is, is we brought to light in the first five years the stories of student athletes, teams and sports that, otherwise, may not have been shown if they didn’t have the ACC Network.

“Charlotte North in women’s lacrosse, the great things she did individually, as well as Boston College winning back-to-back National Titles in women’s lacrosse. The one that always stands out is Erin Matson at Carolina in field hockey. The story of what Erin Matson was as a player and now as a coach has happened in the five years we’ve been on the air. That’s one that comes to mind.”

What also comes to mind is what Durham accomplished alongside Mark Packer.

“Obviously, part of the job I started at the network was to do the show with Mark,” Durham continued. “And I think we were able to showcase student-athletes as personalities and coaches that way, not just soundbites and people you might get a ticket to go see a game, or things of that nature. We tried to make it fun, Mark has certainly continued that after the show changed time slots and things like that.”

The ACC announced back in 2022 that its signature morning show, Packer and Durham, would end after over 1,000 episodes. The critically acclaimed show was a groundbreaking program that set a new standard for college sports coverage.

“I’m really proud of the show,” Durham says, “I think Mark would say that, too. Andrew Brooks was one of our producers who helped us really get off the ground on the television side because we had done the show, obviously, on Sirius XM for about a year and a half.

“Amy Rosenfeld, when she originally came and talked to us about the idea and what she wanted, and we had a meeting about it, conceptually, I felt like we would be a fit. Now, television’s different to do than radio, but they committed the infrastructure and technology to Mark’s basement to get the show done.

“And I felt like we did a lot of things that people could No. 1, relate to, but also understand that we could be, the old tried and true addict, ‘You could be entertaining and informative.’ And I think that’s what we were. And I’m grateful again to have had the experience with Mark and still to have the friendship with him. At the same time, too, I feel like we gave everybody when the network launched, kind of a landing place every morning that they could get up-to-date on the ACC, have a few laughs, maybe hear some stuff that was interesting and informative to them.

“We kind of, hopefully, make them better fans. Or we helped them enjoy the association with the network a little bit more as their day went on.”

Although the end of Packer and Durham was a major shift for the ACC Network, Durham’s ongoing involvement in other network projects highlights his commitment to the network and his passion for telling the stories of ACC athletes and institutions.

“I think one of the things we’ve done is we’ve done more stuff related to campus sites, for instance, the ACC Football Road Trip that’s going right now,” he added. “They’ve taken the Nothing But Net show on campus. They’ve done, obviously, the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, the baseball tournament, the softball tournament. I think it feels like — and, obviously, I’m not directly involved in this — but it feels like we’ve done a really good job of being in a present way at big events within the league.

“Like we said at the front end, with football and basketball, that was probably the easy lift. But to be there for the baseball championships, the softball championships, to do things with lacrosse, things of that nature, just speaks to the comprehensive mission I think the ACC Network had when they launched it in August ’19.

“I think that’s one of the things, the second part is, I think we’re doing things like, and I was very fortunate to be part of a great team with the Rivals Reunited with Coach K and Roy Williams. But, that kind of programming, the tournament documentary that came out…those are the types of productions that I think the ACC Network is gonna be capable of going forward.

“And I’m hopeful that I can be part of those, too. I’d like to be part of some more like that. The K-Roy thing was fun to do. I thought John Dahl and his staff did a great job with the tournament documentary. They’ve done some day-in-the-life type things with student-athletes; I think that stuff is really important to tell.

“Along the way, I still think about our coverages of kickoffs and ACC tipoffs with men’s and women’s basketball and stuff like that. The stuff that Mark does in the afternoons with ACC PM is day-to-day programming that gets you set for the games. It helps you build in football season, Monday-Friday, and it helps you lean into what else is going on around the league.

“That’s the program that’s kind of at your core, and the other stuff we do is things that supplements what you’re watching on a regular basis, hopefully.”

Is this anything like Durham would’ve expected five years into his ACC Network journey?

“I’d never been a part of something like this,” Durham says. “Any other jobs that I’ve had, I don’t know that I had an expectation, as much as I just wanted to do my part. I just wanted to help where I could, not just in terms of doing a show; obviously, my history is doing games, and I wanted to make sure when I had an opportunity to do a game, I was doing it as a high-level as I could, not out of respect for what I do as a broadcaster but also out of respect for the league and the product I’m representing.

“To be honest with you, in August ’19, when we went on the air, we wanted to make the show right. But from my standpoint, I wanted to make the show right; I wanted to make games right; I wanted to help where I could in other areas. If there was a question about history, or if there was a question about people that were involved in different things in ACC history or even in the current landscape, could we make sure that we were reporting it the right way or talking about it the right way?”

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