Longtime broadcaster 'excited' about new partners

The ACC Network’s booth for primetime football will look a bit different this season.

Wes Durham will still take hold of the play-by-play duties, but there will be a different analyst alongside him in the booth and down on the sideline.

That’s not because the trio of Durham, Tim Hasselbeck, and Taylor Tannebaum failed in any way, shape, or form. In fact, it was everything that the network could’ve asked for and more. But Hasselbeck and Tannenbaum both got opportunities they couldn’t say no to, paving the way for Tom Luginbill and Dana Boyle.

“I’m excited about this year, too, because I think Tom Luginbill is much deserving of an opportunity to be a booth analyst,” Durham recently told Awful Announcing. “And I think Dana Boyle — people are gonna see that she’s done a tremendous job with lacrosse, the PLL, and things like that. And I’m excited for her to be able to take the next step of the full-time football package because I think she’s got a huge, huge upside and just an unbelievable amount of potential to be in this business a long time.”

“I’m really excited because I think she’ll do a great job,” Durham continued. “And I think she’s excited to be a part of a full-time football package. She had done a game here or there in the past, but I think the people in management certainly realized where her potential could be to do something like this. And so, I’m glad that the first time she gets to do a package full-time for a season is with us.

“And then, (Luginbill) has been so ingrained in the football fabric of what ESPN is, not only in college but in high school. It just feels like it was a matter of time before he got to be a full-time analyst, and now, that opportunity presents itself. He came on our Packer & Durham show early when we started back in ’19, so we developed a bit of a friendship there. During the last couple of years, we have stayed in contact. So, when this came about, I was thrilled that when he gets this opportunity to be in a booth full-time, it’s in a package that I’m on so that we can work together.

“I think he’ll bring tremendous insight to the game. I think he will bring great storytelling in terms of these players. Obviously, knowing them probably in some cases as long as he has, or of them. And the last part I think will be important is that the league is going to be pretty good. I think the league is deep, which means we’re going to give ourselves a legit chance to have some really good games every Saturday, too.”

Durham also took an opportunity to reflect on his lone season with Hasselbeck and Tannenbaum. He referred to the former Boston College quarterback as “somebody who I think is one of the smartest guys on television” and also praised Tannenbaum as “a natural.”

“It was phenomenal, and again, we had a great team,” Durham says. “That’s the part about television that you’ve probably heard more than once, the team concept in television is alive and real, and the good ones have great teams. That’s where we were fortunate. We had a great team. Our team at ACC Network was just terrific last year in primetime…

“Tim and Taylor were tremendous. I’m happy for Tim because he had that juice that he wanted to coach, and it just happens to be his kids at Ensworth in Nashville. I would’ve done the same thing. And Taylor is perfect for The Huddle. She’s gonna be tremendous. Our game and The Huddle are kind of married in the fall to sites and things like that. So, knowing that she’s there and hanging out with (Eric Mac Lain), EJ (Manuel) and Eddie (Royal), and Coach (Mark Richt), as much as I do on and off these games each week, it’ll be fun to pair their new show, too, with our show.”

But that chemistry that made Durham, Hasselbeck, and Tannenbaum so great will look to be replicated with a new version of the ACCN booth. A version that gets started Thursday, Aug.29, and will do so without a trial run under its belt.

They’ll be on the call for Western Carolina-NC State in Raleigh on Thursday and then Georgia State-Georgia Tech in Atlanta on Saturday night.

“Ben Ward, who’s our new producer, Ben, I think is really excited about that, as am I,” Durham adds, “because I think that allows us to, look, we gotta put the plane in the air at some point. We gotta get down the runway and go with it. Again, the football management at ESPN deserves a lot of credit, too, because they let us spend a lot of time together at the ACC Kickoff, and do some things together as the announcement was made.

“And so, to have Ben there with Tom and Dana and me for a couple of days…it allowed us to do a lot of the conversations and stuff that might normally take place (the week of Aug. 19). So, that part of the preparation before the season ever began really gave me a lot of confidence about where we really all are, and how the process works individually too, again, hopefully create a little preseason energy to the way the season will play out, too.”

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