January 8, 2026 • 10 mins
Lance talks with Indiana student broadcaster Luke Brennaman about his experience calling the Hoosiers' College Football Playoff run, his analysis of their Peach Bowl rematch against Oregon, and where in the world his grandfather, Marty, might be traveling now.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Good defense inside your own territory. We'll see if the
Indiana can crack the code. Here, third and seven at
the Bama twenty one yard line, Mendoza in the shotgun,
all out blitz. Mendoza drops back to.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
The end zone.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Becker puts down Indiana.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
The Hoosier strike first.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
In Hollywood, a twenty two yard Charlie Becker touchdown reception.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Six twenty seven hundred WLW. The college football playoffs kickoff
tonight Miami versus Old Miss. Tomorrow night, the Indiana Hoosiers
take on the Oregon Ducks. My first guest has taken
this journey with the Hoosiers, calling their games on radio
in Bloomington. He was at the Rose Bowl. He's in
Atlanta right now preparing for the call of the Peach Bowl.
He is part of the first family of broadcasting in Cincinnati.
(00:50):
His grandfather of the Hall of Fame reds announcer, his
father You here mornings here on seven hundred WLW. What
a treat to welcome in, Luke Brenneman, Luke, how we doing.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I'm doing great. I'm thrilled to be on your show. Lance.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
I really appreciate you having me on and down here
in Atlanta. Got in early this morning, and I'm really
excited about the opportunity for yet another It's hard to
believe even say it, Indiana College football playoff game.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yeah, I mean, Louke, how how cool has this ride
been for you? Can you believe you've been riding the
wave and experiencing all this?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I truly cannot lance. I remember when I was a
freshman at Indiana.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
You know, it gets cold and the fall in the winter,
and Indiana was in an overtime thriller in football with Akron.
My buddies and I were watching in our dorm room.
You could in one hand, with one finger, you could
point out and count how many people were in the stands.
There was truly no emotion, there was no pride in it.
And to get there at the time I did and
(01:48):
experience that for a full season, and then I covered
the team as a beat reporter last year. So the
emergence of Signetti and then that was kind of parlayed
with everyone saying this Indiana team, they had a light schedule,
they got by, but they lost when they played a
big team. And now I'll be sitting here fourteen to
oher as the favorite to win the national title now
in the semifinal round.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
This is pretty surreal. Luke, give a listeners some background
who aren't aware. What year are you and I you
and how did all of this come about that you're
doing these games.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
So I'm a junior now at Indiana, and Indiana has
a extremely dynamic sports media program.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
There's a lot of really talented students.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
So early on freshman sophomore year, you're calling a lot
of you know, wrestling events. I did field hockey, track
and field swimming. And then once you kind of do
your time and you continue to put in the work,
you help others out. I'm the co director of our
student radio station that's ninety nine point one FM in Bloomington,
and these playoff games it's kind of a return for
(02:47):
the work we do throughout the year setting up events,
getting credentialed. We broadcast all the women's basketball, men's basketball,
obviously football, men's and women's soccer are on the radio.
So there's a lot of people that deserve credit for
making this happen for me, but the student radio station
has definitely been my spot when it comes to Indiana
sports media, and I'm just so thankful for it.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Luke, are you I assume you're not out there as
a one man band. You've got a crew out there, correct.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
We have a couple guys, so really appreciate mister Dave
Abbott from seven hundred WLW. He actually reached out and
gave us sideline equipment for this game so that we
could even include more people. So it'll be myself. The
co director of the station is Ben Holler. He's a
senior from Mason, Ohio. He had their high school really
get going. When it comes to high school broadcasting, that's
(03:36):
an extremely rare thing all over the country. So Ben
and I will be on the call. And then we
have a third member of our crew who's on site,
Andrew Hillsman. He'll be our spotter but also filling in
on the pregame shows halftime with our studio host Jack Schneider.
He's in Sane EXE kid from Cincinnati. And then Graham
Nasho's from Los Angeles, will be on the sideline for
(03:56):
the game.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Unbelievable, What an unbelievable experience. Luke Brennaman checking in tonight
in advance of the tomorrow night's call the Indiana Hoosiers,
take me back to the Rose Bowl experience what it
was like, and it felt like an army of IU
fans had invaded Pasadena.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
For that thing. It truly did.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
I got out there, i'd say two and a half
three days early, and you felt it immediately because all
you hear about, especially growing up in the Midwest and Cincinnati,
is you know, the Alabama Faithful, the Crimson Tide, and
it was all Indiana fans. And you know, I don't
have any bias when I'm calling these games, obviously, but
at the end of the day, I'm a student at Indiana,
so I was excited to see how many Hoosiers have
(04:35):
shown up. And I think a lot of people with
this football success are finally realizing Indiana, out of all
public universities, has the largest alumni base in the United
States of America. So these people have kind of been
a sleeping giant. And we know how the Big ten
in the Midwest loves their football, and there's finally something
to celebrate. And in a season like this, it's hard
not to say this is like the most once in
(04:57):
a lifetime thing ever. But then you dive into the numbers,
it's like, well, Kurt Signetti is going to be at
Indiana through twenty thirty, so is it. But right now
it's as surreal as it gets.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I mean, there's really no other way to put it.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
You've you mentioned all the different sports, you've called, you
called the Cape Cod League last summer. You've been around
a lot of coaches, managers. Ever been around anybody like
Kurt Signetti?
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Truly nobody who can dominate a room like that. And Lance,
I'm so lucky growing up being in you know, NFL
production meetings with quarterbacks, but when it comes to a coach,
and especially these college football coaches, whether it's the portal
or just recruiting in general, I always thought that they
carried themselves like politicians because if you say one wrong thing,
(05:42):
you know, there goes the five star quarterback, because he's
got five other options that have two hundred million dollar
facilities and that are now paying him just as much money.
And with coach Signetti, I covered the team last year,
so I went to the Big Ten media days in
the summer and he went up there and kind of
had another one of his famous press conference moments where
he said, every time they've been picked in the bottom
(06:02):
of the league, we end up winning the league the
next season. Well, he came close last year, and they
won the league this year. So to see that unfold
and just kind of being the only media in the
Monday availability, the Tuesday coaches press conference, he was just
the student media, the sports information directors, obviously, the local
writers and those guys do great work. But now it's
(06:23):
every single time he's talking, there's a Molly McGrath in there,
there's ESPN Radio in there. And it's unbelievable because he
still has that same swagger and he's not doing it
all for clicks, because a lot of the stuff that
he says that generates these clicks. You actually turn on
the TV and you see it. His team plays sixty minutes,
whether they're up by thirty or up by three, and
(06:43):
I think in large part it's led to the success.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
All right, let me get to the important stuff. How
does your dad appear to be handling his the Ohio
State Buckeyes suffering back to back losses to end their season.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Oh man, this is the sensitive topic in the household.
I mean, who would have thought. I give my dad credit.
He's a heck of a fan, but you know, some
of my buddies are looking at me. They're like, your
dad's a Buck Guy fan, but he's got to be
rooting for Indiana. You know, his son goes to Indiana,
and I wouldn't want my dad to change his fandom
just because of where I go to school and to
(07:15):
join my team. My dad is so supportive of everything
I want to do. I mean everything. If you listen
to the broadcast tomorrow and anything good. At least I've
learned from him when it comes to calling these games,
so he helps me where I want the help. When
it comes to fandom and Indiana football. I'll leave him
to the second place Buck guys in the big game. Ah,
very well done, Very well done.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
So give me a thought look ahead into your crystal
ball for tomorrow night. Just give me a thought on
the matchup that you rematch between the two tomorrow night.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Oh, it's going to be a battle.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
I think a lot of people are looking back to
the first matchup in Eugene back in October. Indiana won
that game by ten, so I think it's a little
bit off putting. Oregon missed a sub forty yard field
goal in that game. Indiana had a backup kicker, drill
a fifty nine yard field goal. Dante More ended the
game with back to back interceptions. This Orgon team's better
than that, and it starts at the line of scrimmage.
(08:03):
When it comes to keys to the game, Organ's gonna
have to run the ball well. They're one of those
teams like Indiana that runs it extremely well but has
a top five pick caliber quarterback where once they start
getting four or five six yards of carry on first
and second down, it opens up the explosives. And that's
where these defenses. I gotta give the edge to Indiana.
They're obviously the best defense in the country in just
(08:24):
about every single important metric, but I think it starts
up front and then who's gonna hit the big ones?
Because third down has been so key when it comes
to this time of year. Indiana is the number one
team at converting on third down offensively, and they're number
two in the country when it comes to getting off
the field on third down. So those third and fourth down,
those critical situations. Both coaches throughout the press conferences this
(08:47):
week have really said that's when we need to be
our best.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Luke, are my listeners able to check in and catch
your game tomorrow night?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Online they can so.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Our student radio has a website it's wiux and then
in the upper left hand corner there's a little button
on our website that says listen. We have a couple
of different stations, but our FM station is ninety nine
point one, and if you click that right there, it'd
be it's a twenty four hour or twenty four to
seven live stream of our radio station. It's just like
(09:16):
ten to fifteen seconds behind the actual station because of
the internet delay, but it matches up pretty well.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
All right.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Last question, another important question, as you're aware your grandfather
and Amanda they're like globe trotters.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
They're everywhere.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Do you know at this very moment, it's six twenty nine,
do you know what city, state, country, continent, Providence, Providence
they might be at at this very moment.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I got asked this question a lot.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Well, thankfully I can be a primary source because I
had dinner last night in Cincinnati, Ohio with Marty. He
was willing enough to send me out and give me
a couple kind words. I know that they're in town
right now, but hey, if Marty was here for dinner
last night, he might be in the US.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Virgin Islands by mid afternoon tomorrow, very Well said, Hey,
this was a blast. I am so glad I was
able to hook up with you and you were able
to make time. I'm so happy for all you're doing.
Just soak all this in and have a great broadcast
tomorrow night.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I am thank you so much for having me Lance.
He was a blast. Take care, Luke, see up all right,
there you go.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Luke Brenneman on the call tomorrow night for the Indiana
Hoosiers and Oregon Ducks.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Oh man, I'm so excited for him.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Let's take the time, I get a check on news.
Let's talk Bengals with Richard Skinner Skinny around the Corner,
RNL Carrier Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevelet, seven hundred
WW
Good defense inside your own territory. We'll see if the
Indiana can crack the code. Here, third and seven at
the Bama twenty one yard line, Mendoza in the shotgun,
all out blitz. Mendoza drops back to.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
The end zone.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Becker puts down Indiana.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
The Hoosier strike first.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
In Hollywood, a twenty two yard Charlie Becker touchdown reception.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
Six twenty seven hundred WLW. The college football playoffs kickoff
tonight Miami versus Old Miss. Tomorrow night, the Indiana Hoosiers
take on the Oregon Ducks. My first guest has taken
this journey with the Hoosiers, calling their games on radio
in Bloomington. He was at the Rose Bowl. He's in
Atlanta right now preparing for the call of the Peach Bowl.
He is part of the first family of broadcasting in Cincinnati.
(00:50):
His grandfather of the Hall of Fame reds announcer, his
father You here mornings here on seven hundred WLW. What
a treat to welcome in, Luke Brenneman, Luke, how we doing.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I'm doing great. I'm thrilled to be on your show. Lance.
Speaker 4 (01:03):
I really appreciate you having me on and down here
in Atlanta. Got in early this morning, and I'm really
excited about the opportunity for yet another It's hard to
believe even say it, Indiana College football playoff game.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Yeah, I mean, Louke, how how cool has this ride
been for you? Can you believe you've been riding the
wave and experiencing all this?
Speaker 2 (01:24):
I truly cannot lance. I remember when I was a
freshman at Indiana.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
You know, it gets cold and the fall in the winter,
and Indiana was in an overtime thriller in football with Akron.
My buddies and I were watching in our dorm room.
You could in one hand, with one finger, you could
point out and count how many people were in the stands.
There was truly no emotion, there was no pride in it.
And to get there at the time I did and
(01:48):
experience that for a full season, and then I covered
the team as a beat reporter last year. So the
emergence of Signetti and then that was kind of parlayed
with everyone saying this Indiana team, they had a light schedule,
they got by, but they lost when they played a
big team. And now I'll be sitting here fourteen to
oher as the favorite to win the national title now
in the semifinal round.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
This is pretty surreal. Luke, give a listeners some background
who aren't aware. What year are you and I you
and how did all of this come about that you're
doing these games.
Speaker 4 (02:17):
So I'm a junior now at Indiana, and Indiana has
a extremely dynamic sports media program.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
There's a lot of really talented students.
Speaker 4 (02:25):
So early on freshman sophomore year, you're calling a lot
of you know, wrestling events. I did field hockey, track
and field swimming. And then once you kind of do
your time and you continue to put in the work,
you help others out. I'm the co director of our
student radio station that's ninety nine point one FM in Bloomington,
and these playoff games it's kind of a return for
(02:47):
the work we do throughout the year setting up events,
getting credentialed. We broadcast all the women's basketball, men's basketball,
obviously football, men's and women's soccer are on the radio.
So there's a lot of people that deserve credit for
making this happen for me, but the student radio station
has definitely been my spot when it comes to Indiana
sports media, and I'm just so thankful for it.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Luke, are you I assume you're not out there as
a one man band. You've got a crew out there, correct.
Speaker 4 (03:14):
We have a couple guys, so really appreciate mister Dave
Abbott from seven hundred WLW. He actually reached out and
gave us sideline equipment for this game so that we
could even include more people. So it'll be myself. The
co director of the station is Ben Holler. He's a
senior from Mason, Ohio. He had their high school really
get going. When it comes to high school broadcasting, that's
(03:36):
an extremely rare thing all over the country. So Ben
and I will be on the call. And then we
have a third member of our crew who's on site,
Andrew Hillsman. He'll be our spotter but also filling in
on the pregame shows halftime with our studio host Jack Schneider.
He's in Sane EXE kid from Cincinnati. And then Graham
Nasho's from Los Angeles, will be on the sideline for
(03:56):
the game.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Unbelievable, What an unbelievable experience. Luke Brennaman checking in tonight
in advance of the tomorrow night's call the Indiana Hoosiers,
take me back to the Rose Bowl experience what it
was like, and it felt like an army of IU
fans had invaded Pasadena.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
For that thing. It truly did.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
I got out there, i'd say two and a half
three days early, and you felt it immediately because all
you hear about, especially growing up in the Midwest and Cincinnati,
is you know, the Alabama Faithful, the Crimson Tide, and
it was all Indiana fans. And you know, I don't
have any bias when I'm calling these games, obviously, but
at the end of the day, I'm a student at Indiana,
so I was excited to see how many Hoosiers have
(04:35):
shown up. And I think a lot of people with
this football success are finally realizing Indiana, out of all
public universities, has the largest alumni base in the United
States of America. So these people have kind of been
a sleeping giant. And we know how the Big ten
in the Midwest loves their football, and there's finally something
to celebrate. And in a season like this, it's hard
not to say this is like the most once in
(04:57):
a lifetime thing ever. But then you dive into the numbers,
it's like, well, Kurt Signetti is going to be at
Indiana through twenty thirty, so is it. But right now
it's as surreal as it gets.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I mean, there's really no other way to put it.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
You've you mentioned all the different sports, you've called, you
called the Cape Cod League last summer. You've been around
a lot of coaches, managers. Ever been around anybody like
Kurt Signetti?
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Truly nobody who can dominate a room like that. And Lance,
I'm so lucky growing up being in you know, NFL
production meetings with quarterbacks, but when it comes to a coach,
and especially these college football coaches, whether it's the portal
or just recruiting in general, I always thought that they
carried themselves like politicians because if you say one wrong thing,
(05:42):
you know, there goes the five star quarterback, because he's
got five other options that have two hundred million dollar
facilities and that are now paying him just as much money.
And with coach Signetti, I covered the team last year,
so I went to the Big Ten media days in
the summer and he went up there and kind of
had another one of his famous press conference moments where
he said, every time they've been picked in the bottom
(06:02):
of the league, we end up winning the league the
next season. Well, he came close last year, and they
won the league this year. So to see that unfold
and just kind of being the only media in the
Monday availability, the Tuesday coaches press conference, he was just
the student media, the sports information directors, obviously, the local
writers and those guys do great work. But now it's
(06:23):
every single time he's talking, there's a Molly McGrath in there,
there's ESPN Radio in there. And it's unbelievable because he
still has that same swagger and he's not doing it
all for clicks, because a lot of the stuff that
he says that generates these clicks. You actually turn on
the TV and you see it. His team plays sixty minutes,
whether they're up by thirty or up by three, and
(06:43):
I think in large part it's led to the success.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
All right, let me get to the important stuff. How
does your dad appear to be handling his the Ohio
State Buckeyes suffering back to back losses to end their season.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
Oh man, this is the sensitive topic in the household.
I mean, who would have thought. I give my dad credit.
He's a heck of a fan, but you know, some
of my buddies are looking at me. They're like, your
dad's a Buck Guy fan, but he's got to be
rooting for Indiana. You know, his son goes to Indiana,
and I wouldn't want my dad to change his fandom
just because of where I go to school and to
(07:15):
join my team. My dad is so supportive of everything
I want to do. I mean everything. If you listen
to the broadcast tomorrow and anything good. At least I've
learned from him when it comes to calling these games,
so he helps me where I want the help. When
it comes to fandom and Indiana football. I'll leave him
to the second place Buck guys in the big game. Ah,
very well done, Very well done.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
So give me a thought look ahead into your crystal
ball for tomorrow night. Just give me a thought on
the matchup that you rematch between the two tomorrow night.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Oh, it's going to be a battle.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
I think a lot of people are looking back to
the first matchup in Eugene back in October. Indiana won
that game by ten, so I think it's a little
bit off putting. Oregon missed a sub forty yard field
goal in that game. Indiana had a backup kicker, drill
a fifty nine yard field goal. Dante More ended the
game with back to back interceptions. This Orgon team's better
than that, and it starts at the line of scrimmage.
(08:03):
When it comes to keys to the game, Organ's gonna
have to run the ball well. They're one of those
teams like Indiana that runs it extremely well but has
a top five pick caliber quarterback where once they start
getting four or five six yards of carry on first
and second down, it opens up the explosives. And that's
where these defenses. I gotta give the edge to Indiana.
They're obviously the best defense in the country in just
(08:24):
about every single important metric, but I think it starts
up front and then who's gonna hit the big ones?
Because third down has been so key when it comes
to this time of year. Indiana is the number one
team at converting on third down offensively, and they're number
two in the country when it comes to getting off
the field on third down. So those third and fourth down,
those critical situations. Both coaches throughout the press conferences this
(08:47):
week have really said that's when we need to be
our best.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Luke, are my listeners able to check in and catch
your game tomorrow night?
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Online they can so.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Our student radio has a website it's wiux and then
in the upper left hand corner there's a little button
on our website that says listen. We have a couple
of different stations, but our FM station is ninety nine
point one, and if you click that right there, it'd
be it's a twenty four hour or twenty four to
seven live stream of our radio station. It's just like
(09:16):
ten to fifteen seconds behind the actual station because of
the internet delay, but it matches up pretty well.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
All right.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
Last question, another important question, as you're aware your grandfather
and Amanda they're like globe trotters.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
They're everywhere.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
Do you know at this very moment, it's six twenty nine,
do you know what city, state, country, continent, Providence, Providence
they might be at at this very moment.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I got asked this question a lot.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
Well, thankfully I can be a primary source because I
had dinner last night in Cincinnati, Ohio with Marty. He
was willing enough to send me out and give me
a couple kind words. I know that they're in town
right now, but hey, if Marty was here for dinner
last night, he might be in the US.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
Virgin Islands by mid afternoon tomorrow, very Well said, Hey,
this was a blast. I am so glad I was
able to hook up with you and you were able
to make time. I'm so happy for all you're doing.
Just soak all this in and have a great broadcast
tomorrow night.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I am thank you so much for having me Lance.
He was a blast. Take care, Luke, see up all right,
there you go.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Luke Brenneman on the call tomorrow night for the Indiana
Hoosiers and Oregon Ducks.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
Oh man, I'm so excited for him.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
Let's take the time, I get a check on news.
Let's talk Bengals with Richard Skinner Skinny around the Corner,
RNL Carrier Sports Talk presented by Kelsey Chevelet, seven hundred
WW
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