Oklahoma play-by-play announcer Toby Rowland criticized Tennessee on Monday for not providing a separate booth for the Sooners’ Spanish broadcast crew at Neyland Stadium — then apologized a few hours later.
The situation is simple enough. Tennessee has three radio booths between home, visiting, and national. For Saturday’s game against Oklahoma, all three are spoken for. The home and visiting crews get their booths, and Touchdown Radio gets the third because Tennessee is contractually obligated to accommodate them, according to Knox News.
That left no room for Oklahoma’s Spanish broadcast team of Enrique Vasquez and Luis Rendón. And, according to Rowland, Tennessee’s suggestion was to have them call the game remotely from a TV feed.
“Tennessee is not providing a broadcast location for our @LosSooners broadcast crew this week,” Rowland posted on X. “Tennessee suggested we leave them home to broadcast off television. We don’t want to set that unfair precedent. Enrique & Luis are treasured members of the Sooner Radio Team.”
Rowland decided that the Spanish crew would make the trip to Knoxville anyway and cram into the English broadcast booth alongside him and his team.
“It’ll be cozy & we may hear each other in background occasionally,” he wrote. “But, we’re excited for this experience, value our awesomely talented @LosSooners crew & hope future SEC foes will be more accommodating.”
Tennessee responded pretty quickly.
UT football spokesman Bill Martin pointed out that Tennessee’s own Spanish broadcast team — play-by-play announcer Carlos Lopez and analyst J.P. Vasquez — doesn’t call games from Neyland Stadium either. They broadcast from the WNML studio because there’s no safe space in the press box to accommodate them.
“For the record, our own Spanish broadcast team doesn’t call the game in our stadium because we have no booth or deck to safely accommodate,” Martin posted. “They call in a studio. We are a glass enclosed press box high above.”
Martin also noted that Tennessee activated an additional broadcast line for Oklahoma’s Spanish crew at UT’s expense, and that the home and visiting booths have three rows — enough space for both crews to work in the same room.
About two hours later, Rowland walked it back.
“My sincere apologies for the tone of my earlier tweet. It was clumsy. Absolutely no shade intended,” Rowland posted. “Simply want fans to know why Saturday’s broadcast may sound different. Tennessee has been 1st class & our entire @OUontheAir & @LosSooners crews can’t wait to be back in Rocky Top!”
Oklahoma’s Los Sooners crew travels with the team, while Tennessee’s broadcasts from a studio back in Knoxville.
Neyland Stadium actually has more booths than most FBS facilities, as Knox News’s Adam Sparks noted. But when you’ve got a ranked SEC matchup on ABC with national radio coverage, the space fills up fast. The rest of the press box is taken up by the TV broadcast crew, coaches, and media covering the game.
So Oklahoma’s English and Spanish broadcasts will share a booth on Saturday night. Listeners might hear some crosstalk. But both crews will be there, which is what Rowland wanted in the first place.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.