Welcome back. College Gameday is just ending, the full day of games are just beginning, and its time for us to take a minute to reflect on this morning’s activities. Things were a little hectic this morning as we suffered some technical difficulties involving the FIOS box, DVR, and their ability for me to view College Gameday. Luckily we had a backup TV, but might have missed a couple of details while I was getting things back into working order. Things are back online, and all is normal in the universe.
We kicked off things live from Tallahassee, Florida this morning for the big matchup between Clemson and Florida State. Going into this show, they said FSU is only 3-5 when Gameday is present on their campus, so take note of this important information gamblers. Coach Corso also comes into this week riding a two-week losing streak for his headgear picks. Can he turn it around? Tune in tonight to find out. Who did he pick? Read on and you will see (or just scroll down if you could care less about anything I say). Things started off the first hour as always with Chris Fowler welcoming us to the presentation with Desmond Howard and David Pollack. Then Samantha Steele took over hosting the first hour because, as she put it, the humidity was killing his hair. We got discussions on all the games including tonight’s game, which has now been dubbed “The Battle of Jimbo and Dabo”. We got a replay of last week’s Dewey Bozella piece and his inspirational story of being wrongfully imprisoned. The first hour closed, as always, with picks from Desmond and David making picks. They both took the Seminoles and got quite an ovation from the crowd. Also, Samantha Steele’s shoes made another return, so Jennifer will be thrilled. No outlandish suit from Desmond Howard; I am disappointed.
As the second hour started, David Pollack was sent back to the bus to go use the internet. I do apologize, but this was during our technical difficulties, and this is the closest picture I got of him tweeting, when the FSU cheerleaders threw one of their members at him and he managed to catch her. Well done David.
During today’s show, we got some footage of Lee Corso’s time spent playing for Florida State back in the mid 1950s. I don’t know about you, but I love watching vintage college football clips. Nothing better than a lazy day watching “Southwest Conference Legends” on Fox Sports Net that used to air a few years ago. Coming back from one commercial, we got a piece by Tom Rinaldi called “Chopped” about FSU, and the piece lasted about 25 seconds. I thought this was going to be a full Tom Rinaldi quiet-talking segment, but it was really short and didn’t have much of a point. I don’t understand why we needed a full title card for “Chopped: by Tom Rinaldi” for a piece less than a minute long. However, we did get a full Tebow Memorial Segment by Tom Rinaldi about Jimbo Fisher’s son Ethan who suffers from Fanconi Anemia. Apparently its a blood disorder that his son has, and the life expectancy is about 25. It sounds pretty horrible, because even if you get a bone marrow transplant to fight the disorder, you are still susceptible to all kinds of cancers. Heartbreaking stuff, but you would never know it looking at Ethan. The kid doesn’t look like he has a care in the world, so best of luck to him.
We got a discussion between Pollack, Herbie and Jesse Palmer back in the studio about Mizzou’s QB James Franklin refusing the needle and sitting out last week’s game. Jesse Palmer chimed in with a great looking opinion that Franklin made the right decision. He talked about his own choice to use painkillers to get through a game, and how it messed him up for weeks after that because he couldn’t feel the damage he was causing to his body. Pollack said if he heard the opposing QB had a bad shoulder, he was coming for the shoulder. We also found out FSU does not like Jesse Palmer, as it rained down boos when he came on the screen. They must be jealous of his good looks.
We saw the return of Bald Man on Campus with Scott Van Pelt, which we have missed the last two weeks. His initial piece was him hanging out on campus with Denard Robinson, and this week was him hanging out on campus with Collin Klein; Kansas State QB. Comparisons were made to Tim Tebow. Both white. Both home schooled. Both religious. Both rugged. Both bring their lunch pale. Both great leaders. They talked about Klein always getting bloodied up from taking the big hits, and he said he always looks at his teammates in the huddle who take bigger hits to help him out. Apparently he supports Tebow, and Tebow supports him. Klein also plays the piano, violin and mandolin. Great segment, and I’m glad we had SVP back.
Now its time to get down to the real business at hand. You probably came here for picks, so its time for picks. For the full slate of Saturday morning picks, check out THIS POST. Last night on Twitter, Lee Fitting (@leefitting on Twitter) said he spent 30 minutes planning out the headgear pick with Lee Corso last night. I could only imagine what they were coming up with. There was also high speculation about who would be the guest celebrity. My vote of former FSU star Burt Reynolds did not win. What they managed to dig up is Tallahassee native and noted motocross driver Ricky Carmichael. Ricky came onto the set with Fowler, Corso and Herbie and did a great job of contributing pretty much nothing to the presentation. He had some great insight like “Gonna be a lot of points in this Oregon-Arizona game”, and “I’m going to the game tonight, so I gotta go with Florida State”. Lee Corso was very unimpressed with this backwards-hat-wearing motorcycle jumper, and pretty much gave him a big MEH every time he picked a game. This all built up to the big game tonight. FSU only 3-5 all-time when Gameday is on campus. Corso riding a two game losing streak on headgear picks. Would he give the kiss of death to the Seminoles this week? What was the big presentation Lee Fitting and Coach Corso came up with? This should answer your question. Also, I can’t be the only one who thought about this separated at birth comparison below. Choose wisely, and enjoy your Saturday folks.
