Dinardo
- Thread starter BFDCat
- Start date
What can you expect from an elitist collegiate football broadcaster? If the blood pumping through your veins is red rather than collegiate football heritage blue, he's as dismissive as any self-promoting blowhard spewing their smarmy, condescending drivel into a broadcast microphone. He is subject matter knowledgeable, but then, if your college football affiliation is not among perennial top 20-ranked pedigree programs like the Clemson, Abalama, U$C, Meat-Chicken BuckNut, Texa$ or Noted Dames Top Dogs, then he's only got perfunctory commentary for your team & your fanbase. DiNardo's biggest fault as a professional broadcaster is that he doesn't notice how everyone on the BTN set turns off when he opens his pie hole and blathers his opinionated b.s.
Last edited:
DiNardo is fine. He even admitted tonight after the game that he got it backwards in predicting how Wisconsin and NU were going to play.
He definitely has some little grudge against either NU or Fitz but I don't think I have ever head him go the pejorative route of "Their a scrappy bunch" intimating that they are playing over their heads.
Dude coached at Indiana. How does that make him a blue blood?
I think he's a glorified Glen Mason that is still chapped over losing to us. We may have even caused Mason to be fired
DiNardo played on the '73 National Championship team from the Noted Dames, coached by the legendary & now nearly canonized Ara "He originally was HC @ NU" Parseghian. That's when/where he totally believes his blood turned from red to blue. A pretentious oaf who doesn't recognize that his co-broadcasters on the BTN just turn-off hearing-wise when he begins to spew his elitist, condescending blather regarding Wildcat football fortunes (or is that "misfortunes").
Amen. DiNardo always had that air of superiority while at Vanderbilt and Indiana. Let’s just say the Barnett was not a fan of Gerry...quite a few head-to-head recruiting battles back in the day.
Last night they went around giving their biggest takeaway team of the day and he said “Iowa.” Really?
It's all about egos, and his is massive. He could not do what Fitz has done, Fitz makes serious $$$, and he is still working.
I find that very annoying is sports reporting and I think a little unproductive for networks who should be building up their product rather than tearing it down.
I remember the Bill Walton was the commentator during the Bulls championship seasons. It was the championship series so basically the two best teams tops the year and all he did was talk about how badly the teams were playing. Not a word about great backdoor passing or incredible slam dunks. It really took away from those championship games.
Your recall memory on Bill "The Grateful Duck Dancer" Walton's incessant negative drivel commentary during the Bulls/Michael Jordan championship seasons is as spot-on as it was painful to suffer through. I routinely would turn off the sound during NBA playoff games just to give my insulted grey matter a break from Walton's constant insulting evaluations of Batman superstar Jordan, Robin superstar Pippen, HC/Zen-master Jackson, league defensive MVP/socially challenged Worm Rodman, and many other highly valued team members (e.g.: Euro League MVP Tony Kukoc). For many of today's network, cable & internet sports broadcasters, it's all about self promotion and maintaining their thin-ice popularity among the fickle, fawning and incredibly gullible/ignorant sports consuming public. How DiNardo remains relevant in this "what have you done for me lately" sports broadcasting world is a mystery to me.
Kind of like having the negative drivel of @BigNUFan51 constantly popping up in the game threads and him posting new threads, mostly negative, like a junkie.
I've known Gerry & his brother, Larry, for decades and, without a doubt, he's NOTHING like his on-screen sports broadcaster persona. But what he does as a sports broadcaster regarding self-promotion and fanning silly controversy bonfires is done strictly as a means to maintain his broadcasting relevance w/ his audience & any kind of positive revenue stream. To be honest, it's nothing more than a sell-out.
Last edited:
He has made comments like that for quite some time, even when his (nephew?) played at NU. Maybe he wanted the HC gig in Evanston and got nothing.
Yeah I interviewed him more than once when I was at NU and he was always generous with his time and thoughtful with his responses. I know he can be a bit of a windbag on BTN but.. it doesn't really bother me, I guess.
Revsine, my old college buddy, has nothing but good things to say about DiNardo. Dave is one of the most diplomatic guys I know.
Yeah, I didn't see whatever segment people are mad about now but I've never really had a problem with him. I actually appreciate that he never seems to fall into the trap that you see with some other analysts, where they sound complimentary but they are really just holding NU to a lower standard than other teams because they have outdated expectations.
I know there have been multiple times DiNardo's gotten hate from our fans for pointing out red flags during BTN's Northwestern fall camp preview show, with DiNardo ultimately being 100% correct.
While at IU, GD lost in OT to the Cats his last 2 years ('03 and '04). The '04 game in 2 OTs was especially excruciating with NU hitting a doinked fg to send it OT and Baz throwing one up for grabs in OT that some how was caught for a TD in the back of the Endzone.
Maybe he's still bitter...kinda like me. TIC.
Maybe he's still bitter...kinda like me. TIC.
DiNardo lacks the stage flexibility to express an accurate, comprehensive reflection of his thoughts on the Cats on BTN.
My ongoing issue with Dinardo is that his post-game analysis when NU wins always feels heavily weighted to how the other team lost, rather than acknowledging how we won. It's a subjective thing and it may just be my perception, but that's how I always feel during the BTN postgame show.
Dinardo and Mason cater to the huge schools in the BT! Those same schools which are having poor seasons,are suffering financially too. This includes Nebraska, Penn State,Michigan and MSU!
Yeah, now I really do agree with you. Initially I said DiNardo was fine, but after that comment tonight I've changed my mind about him. I think you nailed it to begin with.
Dinardo may be gracious and a good guy, but holy **** is this a bad take:
Indiana ahead of NU? Indiana's wins have come against teams that are a combined 4-15. I don't disagree with them being ranked and I'm rooting for them the rest of the season, but to suggest that the CFP should rank them higher than us because they have a more explosive offense "on paper" is absolutely, 100% asinine. More bulletin board material for Fitz and crew.
Indiana ahead of NU? Indiana's wins have come against teams that are a combined 4-15. I don't disagree with them being ranked and I'm rooting for them the rest of the season, but to suggest that the CFP should rank them higher than us because they have a more explosive offense "on paper" is absolutely, 100% asinine. More bulletin board material for Fitz and crew.
Last edited:
Indiana should NOT be ranked higher than NU and that’s a dumb thing to say. However, if we played today, I am not sure NU would be favored. I know a few families with students at IU that follow the team, they think IU would beat NU. That isn’t far fetched. It would be a good game, but I like the Cats to win. If it happened, I would be able to secure a bunch of friendly wagers.
The most important stat on paper is wins and losses. In that we have out performed Indiana in having a better record and have beaten teams with better records. That is all that matters. and all you can control. Most fans want to think their team is better. Dinardo just proves why he will never go further than the BTN and why he never lasted as a head coach.
Fans for Maryland, Iowa, Nebraska, Purdue, and Wisconsin all thought they would beat NU. They all thought they had high powered offenses that would put up points on us (some of them actually did in fact prove to have high powered offenses against other B1G teams), and they were all wrong.
Wisconsin's offense didn't look any less explosive against other B1G teams than IU. And you see what we did to them. IU only scored 24 on MSU. They would not score 20 on us. And only double digits if we gifted them a couple turnovers like we did against Iowa and Nebraska. I feel like I'm having another conversation with that BYU guy again.
Shocking! They follow IU and they think they could beat NU. Whoever heard of such a thing.
There are any number of teams ranked below us that could possibly beat us, Indy included. That doesn't matter. The Cats have earned their ranking. There is a very real chance one of our remaining opponents will beat us. Does that make that team #6 in the country?
Answer: no
I have to agree, this is a terrible rationale for his argument. NU is undefeated and accomplished that against the 21st hardest strength of schedule, according to ESPN's college football power index. IU has one loss and has played the 38th toughest scheduled to date. These are objective metrics, not an "eyeball" test "looking at the tape".
Then, he has the gall to say that Io_a has looked better in the their past few games than UW. I'm sorry, Wisconsin crushed their other two opponents before playing us, so what is he really trying to say?
I've never been Dinardo's biggest fan, but I've always tried to keep an open mind about his statements. But his opinion is just not defensible. What a doofus!
Glorified Glen Mason??? Mason had a much more impressive career than Dinardo dreamed of having. He brought back Kansas from the dead to beat UCLA 55-7 in Bowl game. He then accepted the Georgia job, then changed his mind and went back to Kansas (big mistake).
Mason, a year later, went back to Minnesota and came close to bringing Minnesota all the way back from the dead. He fell a little short in a very uphill battle.
The back breaking Michigan game where a 28-7 lead was blown in 2003 (and the the 38-7 blown lead vs Texas Tech 3 years later) cost him dearly.
He still won a lot more than old man Gerry ever did. Or at least he took over two doormat programs and put them close to the top. If he had been able to keep the current DC at NU, who he had worked with at Kansas with him in MInnesota the story would have been different.