ESPN Announcers Revealed For BYU Football Opener Against Arizona
Aug 23, 2021, 4:23 PM | Updated: 4:33 pm
BYU head football coach Kalani Sitake smiles after talking with host Dave McCann on BYUTV during the BYU football media day in Provo on Friday, June 22, 2018. (Steve Griffin, Deseret News)
(Steve Griffin, Deseret News)
PROVO, Utah – Another sign that the start of a new BYU football season is almost here, tv game announcers are revealed.
ESPN announced their broadcast teams for the 2021 season on Monday, which included the commentators on the mic for BYU’s Las Vegas showdown against the Arizona Wildcats. If you watched BYU football last year, you’re probably familiar with this crew.
Dave Flemming will handle the play-by-play with Rod Gilmore next to him in the booth as the analyst. Stormy Bounonantony will handle the sideline reporting in the $2 billion Allegiant Stadium.
ESPN announcers for #BYU vs. Arizona in Las Vegas: Dave Flemming (PxP), @RodGilmore (Analyst), @StormBuonantony (Sideline).#BYUFootball @kslsports pic.twitter.com/tZ0fjFqdsI
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) August 23, 2021
Flemming, Gilmore, and Bounantony called two BYU games last season (Troy and Texas State). Bounantony was on the sidelines for five of BYU’s 12 games last season. All five games were victories for the Cougars.
ESPN crew for BYU vs. Arizona in Las Vegas
Thrilled to be part of @ESPNCFB coverage again this year & even more pumped for a Week 1 home game @AllegiantStadm !! @BYUfootball fans can’t seem to get rid of me 😂 Cougars vs. @ArizonaFBall next Saturday on @ESPN 🏈 https://t.co/p67mLmr0lo pic.twitter.com/o8Rgs8zSA9
— Stormy Buonantony (@StormBuonantony) August 23, 2021
The former Vegas Golden Knights rinkside reporter gave the college football Twitter world a meme-worthy screenshot last season during the BYU-LA Tech game. She placed a blank white sheet of paper up in front of the camera in the middle of her reporting. Twitter ran with it from there.
— no context college football (@nocontextcfb) October 3, 2020
In his 25th year calling college football on ESPN, Gilmore has called many BYU games over the years. Last season during the Texas State game, Gilmore wasn’t impressed when BYU punter Ryan Rehkow popped off a 49-yard run on a fake punt.
BYU was up 49-14 with 6:35 remaining and Gilmore’s analysis of the fake on the rugby-style punt included, “Yeah, that’s not cool. You don’t need to fake a punt six minutes to go in the fourth quarter up 49-14. And I would doubt that was called from the sideline. I think he just decided, ‘I got something here. I’m going to do it.’ I can’t believe that Kalani Sitake would call a fake punt in this situation.”
BYU was up 49-14 in the 4th when they ran this fake punt 😳 pic.twitter.com/wXbX2TCpyu
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 25, 2020
Gilmore’s suspicions were right. Sitake later in that postgame said that he apologized to Texas State head coach Jake Spavital for Rehkow’s decision to run with it.
Dave Flemming is a fixture in the play-by-play announcer scene on the west coast. Flemming has been an ESPN college basketball play-by-play announcer since 2010. Back in 2016, he became one of the top weeknight voices for ESPN College Football. Along with college sports on ESPN, Flemming is the voice of the San Francisco Giants.
Flemming was on the call for BYU basketball’s landmark win over No. 2 Gonzaga at the Marriott Center in 2020.
BYU versus Arizona will kick off at 8:30 p.m. (MT) on September 4th.
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for KSLsports.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12-3 pm) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.
