9781422285299

It’s Saturday, and while most of the country has the day off, Charles Davis (left) rises at dawn. Today, Davis wakes up in Eugene, Oregon, where the biggest college football game of the day, Michigan State at Oregon, will kick off this afternoon. As half of FOX Sports’ lead college football broadcast team, Davis and his partner, Gus Johnson, will be calling today’s action from Autzen Stadium. “Everyone has his own routine on game day,” says Davis, 50, “and I certainly have mine. It begins with waking up early.” Davis works as a color analyst, while Johnson does play-by- play. You might think of it this way: Johnson’s job is to drive the tour bus, and Davis’ job is to point out the sights and inform the passengers about what they are seeing. For Davis, who played safety at the University of Tennessee, it is a labor of love. “I love to talk about college football,” he says. Davis starts this day as he does every game day—by reading a packet of notes. The packet, which is about 15 pages long, is filled with notes and reminders that Davis has compiled. None of the information is specific to today’s game. “For example,” says Davis, “I have a line from The Jungle Book . It reads, ‘The strength of the wolf is the pack, the strength of the pack is the wolf.’”

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