When Frank Beckmann reached the end of his run as the play-by-play voice of Michigan Football, he told then-sideline reporter and pregame host Doug Karsch that he should aim for the job. This was in 2013. Immediately, Karsch started practicing.
“That was probably the first time it was really in play,” said Karsch. “As a kid you dream of everything, right? You think you’re doing everything. But where it became a reality was back then, like, ‘Whoa, this could happen.’”
Now it has. Michigan announced Tuesday that Karsch will be the team’s play-by-play man on the radio beginning in 2022, replacing Jim Brandstatter. He’ll be joined in the booth by former Michigan All-American Jon Jansen, who’s moving from pre- and postgame analyst to color commentator in place of Dan Dierdorf. Brandstatter, 71, and Dierdorf, 72, retired at the end of last season.
For both Karsch and Jansen, this is the realization of a longtime goal. Jansen said it’s a “dream come true.” Karsch, who grew up in Ann Arbor listening to legends like Beckmann and Bob Ufer and calling his own games in the backyard (Karsch drops back to pass, makes a man miss), said “it still hasn’t sunk in.” Asked how it felt when he learned he got the job, Karsch thought for a bit, talked for a bit and decided, “I don’t know because I still can’t even wrap my head around it.”
Karsch, 52, joined Michigan’s radio broadcast in 2006, the year the Wolverines went 11-2 and staged an instant classic against Ohio State in a clash of the top two teams in the country. “I thought, ‘This job’s easy,’” he laughed. Jansen, one of the best offensive linemen in Michigan history, joined in 2014, five years removed from a 10-year NFL career that concluded in Detroit.
“Even before I retired, I identified this as something that I would be interested in doing,” Jansen said. “Coming back eight years ago and getting to work with Jim and Dan and Doug, this was a dream job for me.”
Jansen, 46, filled in for Dierdorf a couple times per season over the next several years. Karsch was down on the field, reporting live to the guys in the booth and “thinking about how I would call something if I ever got that chance.” He’ll have a better view above the chaos: “I get to watch the games again,” he said with a laugh. The duo has called a few spring games and bowl games together, like last year’s Quick Lane Bowl between Western Michigan and Nevada before which a slew of Nevada players transferred and half the coaching staff left.
“That was a tough preparation,” said Karsch.
Turns out, it was also good practice. The former Nevada head coach took over at Colorado State and brought a bunch of players and coaches with him. Michigan’s first opponent – and Karsch’s first study – in 2022? Colorado State. “So I feel like I got a head-start,” he said.
In addition to about 10 football games, Karsch guesses he’s done play-by-play for 200-some-odd baseball, softball and women’s basketball games. He and Jansen have also practiced together several times since securing their new roles (and will continue to do so this summer), setting up a studio, putting on headsets and calling old Michigan games off the press box TV feed overlaid with the stadium sound.
“Stuff’s going to happen that you haven’t seen before,” said Karsch. “How do you describe a play that catches you off guard? It’s hard to mimic that, but you just try and be prepared for everything. I want to know what I need to work on so that I can try and experience the growing pains off the air before on the air.”
To that end, he has some new reading material.
“I decided I’m going to read the entire college football rulebook,” Karsch said. “Did you know the goalposts can also be white? Do you know how wide the yard lines are on the field? Four inches. That’s useless crap, but I’m trying to learn everything. It’s going to take me all summer.”
Karsch said he’s also chatted with Brandstatter, who transitioned to play-by-play in 2013 after 34 years of doing color and “told me a lot of mistakes he made that I can try and avoid.” Like, for instance, reviewing the names of the officials before introducing them for the coin toss.
And Karsch’s best resource as he prepares for his first season upstairs has been the radio voice of the Tigers on 97.1 The Ticket, Dan Dickerson. Dickerson, once a sideline reporter for Michigan football himself, was in a similar situation to Karsch in 2002, taking over for a member of the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in legendary Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell. (Not that anyone compares to Harwell.)
“I had a really good talk with Dan about some of the challenges I’m going to face. He was super helpful,” said Karsch. “He told me he had only done one inning of baseball before he got the Tigers job, and he’s a true pro. Probably the best advice he gave me is, be as prepared as you can possibly be and then you don’t have to look anything up. You don’t have to think about it. It’s all inside ready to come out. You have a bullet in every chamber for whatever happens.”
Karsch says Dickerson has a style he’ll strive for, a “straight-laced, good painter of a picture.” Listeners will always know the location of the ball, the down and distance and the score of the game, the essentials of any broadcast. When it comes to Michigan football, Karsch said Ufer “is the famous one that everybody’s heard of,” the background music of his youth. “But you don’t emulate that guy,” he said.
“To me, Beckmann was great,” said Karsch. “I think if there’s a style I’m going to be like, I would hope that I can come closest to Beckmann, but that’s tough. Look, I’m going to be my own guy. The star of the broadcast is the team, the co-star is Jansen. I’m just the narrator.”
Toward the end of his playing days, Jansen began preparing for a job in sports media. He was always aiming for the one he just got. He did radio shows for the Big Ten Network to start building a resume, which led to side gigs with ESPN and FOX, which ultimately led him to 97.1 The Ticket where he co-hosts the morning show with Mike Stone and Heather Park. (Jansen and Karsch, the co-host of the midday show with Scott Anderson, will continue in their current roles with the Ticket.)
“All of it was to try and prepare for a future career doing radio here, but also being part of the Michigan broadcast during games,” Jansen said.
Like Karsch, Jansen grew up a Michigan football fan. A Clawson native, he considers his life a series of pinch-myself moments, starting with a phone call and a scholarship offer from former Michigan football coach Gary Moeller. Then he was taking the field in the Big House, winning a national championship under Lloyd Carr, getting drafted by the Redskins and playing a decade in the NFL.
“And then you think, can you continue to create these opportunities for yourself or did your luck run out? And this is just another one of those moments where I feel very fortunate,” Jansen said.
Jansen never got nervous as a player, and he says he’s not nervous now. He knows the game of football like the backs of his massive hands. Dissecting what happens in real time will be easy. More than anything, the former Wolverine is eager to lend his insight to the broadcast on “what these three, four, five years are like for these players.”
“When you’re a player at a program like Michigan, and there are a number of programs around the country like this, you become such a student not just of the game but of the history of that program,” he said. “You live and you breathe the history of Michigan football. I hope that’s part of what I bring to this broadcast.”
Karsch, for his part, admits he’ll have some “jitters” on the first broadcast. But he doesn’t expect them to last long. He’s spent his entire life around Michigan football, including 16 years on the broadcast. He has a gravelly voice that suits the game, and a passion for the program befitting the job. He’ll also have Jansen on his wing, and “working with Jon is so easy,” he said.
“We’re just kind of switching our roles, both of us. I think that makes it easier,” said Karsch. “And what’s clear is, they told me they wanted some continuity. Us being around for so long helps, so I’m hoping I can get rid of the jitters quickly.”
There’s a hint of nervous energy in Karsch’s voice as he considers the history he’s carrying forward. Jansen’s is more measured, like he’s seen it all before. It almost feels like a preview of the broadcast, Karsch matching the pace of play, Jansen coloring the lulls between snaps. The goal, said Jansen, is for their voices to “blend into what people are doing in the fall,” to become a soundtrack to Saturdays in Michigan for three months of the year.
“We’ve done this on Saturdays for eight years,” he said. “We’ve developed a relationship. We’re friends outside of work. What it comes down to is, we want people to enjoy listening to the game and the interactions that we have as two guys that love Michigan football, that have lived and breathed it basically our entire lives, that are just sitting there and talking about it just like anybody else would, whether they’re in a bar, a deer blind, on the boat, in the car.
“That’s where I think the relationship we have will really pay off.”