Alabama-Michigan game notes: Announcers set, Tide set for rare open practice

Alabama and Michigan will meet for a spot in the last national championship game in the four-team era of the College Football Playoff on Jan. 1.

The iconic Rose Bowl stage in Pasadena, Calif., will host to the game. It’s the sixth time the Crimson Tide has met the Wolverines (3-2). ESPN’s Chris Fowler Kirk Herbstreit, Laura Rutledge and Holly Rowe will be on the broadcast for the 4 p.m. CT. kickoff.

On the Crimson Tide Sports Network, it’ll be Chris Stewart, Tyler Watts and Roger Hoover. Eli Gold hasn’t traveled with the team this season, only calling home games. (He did call the Birmingham Bowl on Friday, Dec. 23.) For Michigan’s cast, it’ll be Doug Karsch, Jon Jansen and Jason Avant.

ESPN’s radio broadcast features Joe Tessitore, Dusty Dvoracek and Quint Kessenich. ESPN will also have its typical megacast for the CFP.

Here are some takeaways from the game notes, which both teams released this past week.

–Alabama will hold its first open practices in nearly one year (Sugar Bowl against Kansas State), with media getting a “limited viewing period at the beginning” of a session on Thursday, Dec. 28 and Saturday, Dec. 30. Typically, UA Athletics releases an edited clip of practices from Tuscaloosa which are closed otherwise.

–Alabama will also put both its head coordinators in front of a microphone for the first time since the preseason as Tommy Rees and Kevin Steele are scheduled to discuss the matchup against No. 1 Michigan.

–Alabama redshirt freshman offensive tackle Elijah Pritchett is listed as a backup on the team’s depth chart. On Dec. 20, Pritchett was arrested in Tuscaloosa for knowingly transmitting an STD. Pritchett posted bail. UA has not made a public comment on Pritchett’s availability.

–Alabama is 5-1-1 in Rose Bowl games, lastly winning the 2020 matchup in Texas over Notre Dame due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Current UA players reminisced about Alabama’s 2009 Rose Bowl win over Texas earlier this week:

“It’s kind of a thing when Mark Ingram scored and kind of put his gloves up like that, I went to practice the next day and every time I scored, I would do the same thing every single time I scored. I definitely remember that, and it’s going to be fun playing there,” senior Malachi Moore said.

–Nick Saban has the highest winning percentage among active coaches with at least 10 years of experience(80.8%). Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh is fourth at 71.1%. This will be Harbaugh’s 10th bowl game with the Wolverines and first Rose Bowl.

“He’s a good man, good friend. It’s a great family, the Harbaugh family. I knew the dad. He used to help me when I was a secondary coach. His brother John are great football people. I’ve got a lot of respect for the entire family and Tom Crean is part of that family,” Saban said of Jim Harbaugh on Dec. 18.

–Michigan has had continuity this year, at least on the field. Fourteen players have started all 13 games, including quarterback J.J. McCarthy and running back Blake Corum. The Wolverines offense has scored in 46 of its 52 quarters this season while being the least-penalized team per game.

Saban: “I think they do a really good job on offense of week-to-week they’ve got a pretty good plan (with their formations) in terms of their ability to go out and give you some different looks. It’s a challenge for the players to have the discipline and the eye control to look at the right things so that when those kind of plays come up, you’re in position to play them. I don’t think that they do it any more than anybody else that we play.”