With the Labor Day launch of Scott Van Pelt’s midnight SportsCenter (#SCSVP), Front Row has been running a series of posts bringing fans behind the scenes with Van Pelt and his production team. Stay with Front Row as we take you “Behind the Glasses” and into a new SportsCenter that will present the world of sports through Van Pelt’s distinctive perspective.
Today, we meet segment producer/commentator “Stanford Steve” Coughlin, who has been with ESPN 11 years.
Vitals: From Ansonia, Conn.; Stanford University, Class of 2000; worked as a radio producer for 11 years at ESPN Radio, starting as a production assistant in 2004.
Top 3 (or 4) teams: Stanford University (any sport); New York Mets; Duke basketball; Indianapolis Colts
In 25 words or less, explain your role on the SVP SC show: I will be in charge of booking the guests for Scott’s new show, while also providing an on-air presence with SVP for him to throw ideas off of and also bust SVP’s chops when need be.
If Stanford Steve were an emoji, he would be: I don’t like to beat around the bush, I want to get stuff done and I prefer face-to-face conversations to emails or texts. So I guess you can say I’m an “in your face” kind of guy. (Editor’s Note: And, duh, the Stanford mascot!)
The best thing about working on the launch of a new show is: It has to be the people; I have met more people here at the company in the three weeks of working on TV than I did in 11 years of working at ESPN Radio!
So far, my favorite graphic for the show is: Bad Beats (see image left) – I promise this will be a mainstay of the program and people will be dying to see the weekly version of this on Monday nights.
In 140 characters or less, my favorite thing about SVP is: In working with SVP the last 6-plus years, it is impossible to not see how genuine and sincere Scott is as a guy. He’s 100 percent real and there is nothing fake about him.
