Day: October 24, 2015

Welcome back to the return of our inconsistent and way overdue College Gameday review.  We missed the last few weeks to a lot of important business going on (i.e. laziness) and we are glad to be back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Today’s broadcast was coming to you live in color from Harrisonburg, Virginia for the matchup between FCS powerhouses the Richmond Spiders and the James Madison Duke Dogs.  After some quick research, it looks like James Madison has an enrollment of 20,181, and judging by the scene out there today every single one of their students were on hand for this broadcast.  I thought the NDSU crowd of two years ago was the biggest I can remember seeing, but this may have topped it.

As the show got underway, we were introduced to some woman named Margo who teaches English in Spain.  Margo crowdsourced a plane ticket home to JMU for Gameday today.  That is dedication.

One note about today’s schedule is that Desmond Howard was particularly giggly during today’s show.  Enjoying the Desmond Howard over-laugh is one of the truly great pastimes of any College Gameday connoisseur and today did not disappoint.  Jennifer said that maybe he took one too many uppers after the Michigan disaster last week.

Sign game was on point this week.  Highlights included “Sober as Sarkisian”, “Lou Holtz parties with Lamar Odom”, “Todd McShay is a Commie”, multiple signs referring to Richmond only eating plain Pop-tarts, and some guy who printed his impressive resume as a sign.

And of course, courtesy of the official College Gameday reddit account:

They recycled last year’s segment by Gene W. about FCS players who made it big in the NFL.  Or maybe he rewrote it from this year.  Either way I enjoyed it, even though there was a distinct lack of Sam Houston State talent such as Josh McCown, Dustin Long, Rhett Bomar, or Guido Merkens.

They had a segment breaking down down the Michigan Meltdown or whatever you want to call that Michigan State/Michigan finish from last week.  Apparently Rece and Kirk shut the game off early thinking it was over, and we all remember Desmond Howard cursing the Wolverines on the sidelines when he tweeted the following:

Now it’s time for VIDEOS!!!

Today’s most touching piece was the story of Princeton offensive lineman Mason Darrow, who is the first openly gay division 1 player to take the field.  Check out the full video HERE!!!

Another “story” piece was reliving the story of that Michigan State Miracle mentioned earlier, which can be found HERE!!!

And finally a piece on Hunter Knighton, who almost died of a heat stroke during practice one day.  Check it out HERE!!

Also, we had a bizarre moment when Sam Ponder was interviewing JMU head coach Everett Withers.  After the interview, he announced to the team that they would be wearing old school helmets.  That’s pretty cool, but the team and crowd went BANANAS when he showed it off.

Other notes from today’s show:

Bear’s Bank was 10-10-1 heading into the show today, where he took Miami Fl with the points, Vanderbilt and the points, and layed the points with USC.  However, his ESPN Chalk record against the spread was 30-16 heading into the day.  In other words, he is printing free money on ESPN Chalk, but be careful with the Bear’s Bank.

The Sam Ponder outfit of the week was a nice one.  Jennifer says “I like the skirt, I like the sweater, and I like the shirt underneath.  Overall it is an excellent look.  I really like Fall Sam Ponder”.

Apparently Richmond bought a spider to bring for Gameday today so they would have a mascot on hand.

George Whitfield and Rece Davis did their regular segment where they uncomfortably walk through the crowd while breaking down quarterback play.  This one actually had a great highlight for once, when the ESPN cameraman fell down going up the stairs and chaos ensued.

https://twitter.com/mikedyce/status/657924872350253056

When it came time to make some picks, today’s guest celebrity was country music singer Dierks Bentley.  Corso was conspicuously absent from the set during the entire pick segment.  However, Herbie read off Corso’s notes for all of Corso’s picks and it was actually pretty funny.  Apparently in the USC/Utah game, SOMEBODY KNOWS SOMETHING when it comes to that spread, and that SOMEBODY was identified as Chris Fallica I guess because he ate 3.5 points early this week, and ate even more laying 6.5 today.  Anyways, when it came time to pick the big JMU/Richmond game today, Desmond, Kirk and Dierks were in agreement that JMU would take the victory today.  The camera then cut to the JMU campus where Lee Corso emerged from a grand hall, presented by trumpets and streamers while dressed as James Madison before putting on the Duke Dog headgear.  I did not think I would write the previous sentence when I woke up this morning.  Anyways, pretty funny stuff and a white knuckle ride as Corso walked down stairs unassisted.  This marks the second time Corso has dressed up in costume as a founding father, with his previous time being Ben Franklin for the Harvard/Pennsylvania game of 2002.  Jennifer and Charley both went with JMU as well, making it a clean sweep in the predictions this morning.  Enjoy the rest of your football night.

Lee Corso takes James Madison in epic fashion in today's @ChevyTrucks #SaturdaySelections. pic.twitter.com/30wpTiQejG

— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) October 24, 2015

Charley the Cat picked James Madison today for all interested parties #JMUGameDay #cfb #cfbpicks #richvsjmu pic.twitter.com/VKovHPMXeW

— Cole (@gamedaycole) October 24, 2015