What's Wrong With Gus Johnson?

If you know anything about announcers, you know that Gus Johnson gets excited a lot. His Gusgasms at the slightest hint of any action in the games he calls has delighted and aggravated fans for years in equal measure.

So what was up with him on Michigan State’s first touchdown in tonight’s Holiday Bowl? As you can hear in the video above, Gus sounds deadpan, even bored, while Brian Lewerke scrambles out of the pocket and threads a nice pass to take the lead. For any other announcer, that call is slightly odd at most, but when it’s Gus Johnson in the booth—love him or hate him—it’s downright disturbing.

For comparison, here’s the Spanish-language call of the same play. It’s nothing overdone, but it at least alerts a dozing viewer that something cool just happened.

The best explanation I can come up with is that the Detroit native doesn’t want to be seen as a homer. But maybe Gus is just a closet Cougar fan?