Fox Sports officially hires Les Miles, Mark Helfrich and Danny Kanell
In addition to his role with SEC Network, former LSU head coach Les Miles will do television work for Fox Sports this fall.
Fox announced the addition of Miles on Tuesday while also confirming it has added former Oregon coach Mark Helfrich and former ESPN analyst Danny Kanell to its cast of college football commentators.
“We are thrilled to have Mark, Les and Danny join Fox Sports for what is going to be our best college football season yet,” said Fox Sports President of Production & Executive Producer John Entz. “Mark and Les give us decades of coaching experience and an inside knowledge of the college game, while Danny is a polished broadcaster with a great reputation. We can’t wait to get the season started later this week.”
Miles will make his debut in the booth as a color commentator alongside Tim Brando for the Week 3 contest between Northern Illinois and Nebraska in Lincoln on FS1. He will call “select” games for Fox moving forward from there, the network said in a release.
Miles changed course after initially saying earlier in August that he wouldn’t be doing TV after his tryout with Fox. He said it would be a “struggle” when he was accustomed to not having a “censor button on the sidelines.” Not long after, however, Miles told the Baton Rouge Advocate that he would “be in media in a number of different places.” His first stop will be this coming weekend as a guest analyst for SEC Nation on ESPN’s SEC Network.
Miles was fired last fall after the fourth game of his 12th season at LSU. He finished his time with the Tigers with a 114-34 record, including two SEC titles and the 2007 national championship.
Like Miles, Helfrich was also fired last year after Oregon finished 4-8. His firing came just two seasons after he led the Ducks to a national runner-up finish, a 42-20 College Football Playoff national championship loss to Ohio State.
Helfrich, who had a 37-16 record in four seasons at Oregon, will be a full-time analyst in the booth alongside Justin Kutcher and Petros Papadakis. That crew will call its first game together on Saturday when Texas hosts Maryland.
After eight years at ESPN, Kanell, a former Florida State and NFL quarterback, will call select games throughout the season, beginning with Baylor’s opener against Liberty on Saturday night.
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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
