SportsCenter

SportsCenter won’t miss a thing in Mississippi

Saturday, Bram Weinstein (left) will co-anchor SportsCenter from Starkville, Miss.; co-anchor Sara Walsh will be 100 miles south in Oxford, Miss.  (Weinstein photo courtesy Jonathan Whyley/ESPN)
Saturday, Bram Weinstein (left) will co-anchor SportsCenter from Starkville, Miss.; Sara Walsh will be 100 miles north in Oxford, Miss. (Weinstein photo courtesy Jonathan Whyley/ESPN)

Bruce will be between anchors Bram Weinstein and Sara Walsh during Saturday’s 8 a.m. ET SportsCenter.

Springsteen?

No. Bruce, Mississippi.

With tomorrow’s two biggest football games originating from The Magnolia State, Weinstein will co-anchor SportsCenter from Starkville, where No. 12 Mississippi State will host No. 6 Texas A&M (noon, ESPN), while Walsh will be 100 miles away — north of both Bram and Bruce, which is about halfway between the two — in Oxford where No. 3 Alabama will visit No. 11 Ole Miss.

Saturday SportsCenter Elements (Times ET, subject to change)

Bram Weinstein from Starkville (SEC Nation set)
8:10 a.m. – Tim Tebow on set
8:30 a.m. – Paul Finebaum on set
8:45 a.m. – Brian Griese on set

Sara Walsh from Oxford (GameDay demo field)
8:15 a.m. – David Pollack on set
TBD Tom Rinaldi-Nick Saban interview (taped)
TBD Tom Rinaldi and Gene Wojciechowski from different parts of the Grove


“It’s going to be a high-wire act, that’s for sure,” Weinstein said. “Can we hear [producers in] Bristol? Can we hear each other? No rehearsals and no teleprompters – it’s going to be memorable and unusual, in that order, I hope.”

What senior coordinating producer Don Skwar called “a confluence of events” led to the decision to attempt what Weinstein described as, “a double remote from places neither Sara nor I have ever been before.”

“Something like this may never have happened before – four top-ranked teams playing in Mississippi on the same day,” Skwar said. “And, we already had the infrastructure in place – coincidentally, we were planning to do GameDay from Oxford and SEC Nation was going to be in Starkville – so, the crews were already going to be there. That gave SportsCenter the opportunity to be in the middle of the day’s major college football action.”

However, all the competition might not be limited to the historic Davis Wade Stadium and Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Starkville and Oxford, respectively.

“I’m going to have more fun in my town than you will in yours,” Weinstein told Walsh, his regular co-anchor. “Oxford sounds like a nice, refined southern city, while it sounds like I’ll be visiting a mosh pit,” (at the legendary Bulldog Bash pep rally).

“But that’s the way I like it – let Sara wear the sun dress and carry the parasol, I’ll eat bar-b-q,” he said.

The SC anchors will be separated by 98 miles. (ESPN)
The SC anchors will be separated by 98 miles. (ESPN)

There’s more than a Felix & Oscar relationship between Saturday morning’s usually Bristol-based co-hosts, and as Skwar said, “These are two creative anchors, with good chemistry who think alike, so they should be able to do this smoothly.”

Preparation will help.

“We’ve talked about it all week with producers in Bristol, and working with GameDay and SEC Nation, we’ll have access to all their resources,” Weinstein said. “We’re also doing live hits throughout Friday — Sara will throw to me sometimes, and I’ll throw to her — so that will help us get a good feel for things by the end of the day.”

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