What to want from Ed Podolak’s Iowa radio successor: Just everything

The University of Iowa has an opening for football radio color commentator after the recent rather sudden announcement Ed Podolak is leaving the Hawkeyes’ radio booth.

He will remain part of the overall broadcast by participating on the pregame show. “Transitioning out” is how the UI’s news release described it.

Podolak declined to comment when I texted him to ask him to discuss leaving the broadcast booth and talk about the experience of his career.

“Letting the release say it all,” he replied, followed by “Go Hawks.”

In this state, the college sportscasters come for breakfast and stay for the midnight snack. Meaning, they aren’t job-hoppers. You don’t need their first names to vividly know their work over the years. Zabel, Taylor, Brooks, Gonder, Rima, Heft, Walters, Hansen.

Podolak.

Players come and go quickly. Hawkeye coaches, even though they stay a long time, are outlasted by the broadcasters. When there’s an opening on the mic, it’s a big deal. A jolt to the system, even.

From before the renaissance of Hawkeye football under Hayden Fry to the most-recent game of Kirk Ferentz’s quarter-century as Fry’s successor, Podolak has been the constant.

Schools want their radio people to be partisan, to often tell their team’s fans that they are the best in the nation and to make it clear that not only is the football program strong, but is filled with some of the finest people to grace the planet.

The color commentators have challenging jobs, more so than many may realize.

You aren’t of much value if you can’t quickly describe what has unfolded on the field. However, you don’t want to get bogged down in footballese for the wonks and honks who are 2 percent of the audience at the most.

The overwhelming majority of us want pictures painted for us if we can’t see the game, but we don’t want to go down rabbit holes with inside-football jargon. I’ve walked through a lot of pregame tailgates, and have yet to hear fans discussing the merits of using more 12 personnel formation.

A game broadcast is entertainment and commerce, not a football seminar. But it’s way more than 2 percent of us who do want to get a clear understanding about what’s happening on the field in bite-sized snacks.

Through the miracle of satellite radio, I’ve heard a lot of teams’ college and NFL announcing crews over the last several years. I’ve heard too many analysts who go too far the other way, and sound like rabid fans who sneaked into the radio booth.

Now, they are hired to be slanted. Nobody dials up Cleveland Browns or Utah Utes radio broadcasts to get balance or dispassionate accounts of the games. The next Iowa guy in the booth has to be an Iowa guy. I assume it’s a guy, given these gigs usually go to former players.

As a sometimes-listener, I want everything. I want the analyst to help me understand the game better without going into football overload. I want him to be charismatic and smooth without straying from his true personality in the slightest.

I want him quickly and seamlessly correcting any mistakes the play-by-play guy makes without making it feel like he’s stepping on his neck.

I want the commentator to have a great sense of humor and quick wit, and to be able to display it at all the right moments and never at any of the wrong ones.

When the officials are wrong, say so. But don’t rant against the refs on 100 percent of the 50/50 calls and turn the game into a conspiracy theory on turf.

Speaking of which, the listeners can handle it if the color analyst doesn’t think their team is perfect on every play or play-call. So I want the analyst to be unafraid to question things without sounding like a cranky scold.

Is all of that too much to request from one person? You might say that. But a boy can dream.

OK, how about this: Just hire a person with Hawkeye knowledge and proven broadcasting chops who is prepared each week and has the potential to wear very well over time. That’s still a lot, but it’s what we got used to with Podolak.

He was a direct link from the fan to the Hawkeyes. That’s a good and rare thing, but it doesn’t mean it can’t happen here again.

Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com