Week 12 2013: College Gameday review! (signs edition)
This week was a fantastic edition of College Gameday. Last week’s was great, even though we missed out on doing a full review last week, so it is a real treat to get two great episodes in a row. Last week had really fantastic content, and this week had the best signs of the year without a doubt. This week’s edition was broadcasting live from the Stanford/USC game in Los Angeles.
Early on, Fowler and the gang welcomed us in and let us know that Corso is 15-0, UNDEFEATED, when he picks USC as a headgear pick. Take note gamblers.
The boys immediately dove into coverage of the Jameis Winston investigation, and I am already tired of this story. The reason I am already tired of this story is that they are reporting more questions than answers. They need to report this story when they have something to report (one way or the other). The most important note of this story so far is that Mark Schlabach, who has taken the lead on it for ESPN from the start, looked tired as hell and appeared to not have slept in a week when he appeared on Gameday this morning. Get some sleep Mark. Desmond Howard immediately came to the rescue of Winston, as he always does when any player is involved in controversy. I’m not saying he’s wrong; I just notice that he is always first in line to defend a player when they are accused of anything. Since I have nothing of significance to contribute to this story (as if I ever do), I am going to move along.
Quick hits for today’s show: Sam Ponder is nowhere to be found. Absent from Gameday; absent from Twitter. Could we be seeing the end of the Sam Ponder era of Gameday? Wildly speculate amongst yourselves. Cowboy Troy was back in the intro last week as well as this week. Let us celebrate this occasion and not forget several gloomy weeks without a rapping cowboy to start our mornings. Also, Georgie Whitfield was nowhere to be found this week. Good.
Tom Rinaldi had a piece called “All Sizes”, highlighting many of the big rivalries between little schools. D2, D3 and so on is full of fun rivalries with crazy trophies, and its always fun to see these kids out there playing in their own rivalries that mean nothing to most of us. The even better part of this was that while I like to poke fun at Rinaldi for his beatnik poetry segments, this segment actually had a nice soft jazz going in the background as he continues to morph into a modern day poet.
Shortly after that, we got our weekly 6-man yelling roundtable segment featuring Paul Finebaum. In response to Rinaldi’s segment on the small rivalries, Paul Finebaum appeared that he did not have time for these shenanigans, and probably believes that anything outside of the SEC shouldn’t even exist. This week we wanted to debate the Heisman favorites. The consensus was that Manziel is the best player in college football, even though there are a few debatable characters. Paul Finebaum thinks AJ McCarron should be getting major consideration. Since you are likely in shock from such a statement from this man, I will give you a minute to catch your breath.
Tom Rinaldi had a piece on the Michigan State defense. They have nicknames and like to have fun and stuff.
Gene W. had a piece this week about the Skov brothers from Stanford. This was this week’s typical mother/player segment which has seemingly become a staple of the show. These are nice segments, but I feel they get repetitive at times.
We saw the return of the Jake Olson segment this week. If you weren’t familiar with Jake Olson, he is the huge USC fan who lost his eyesight to cancer in his early teens. The night before his surgery to remove his last good eye, he spent the entire evening with the USC football team and went to a game for one of the last memories he would ever see. He also appeared on Gameday as a special guest picker. These days, he is a long-snapper for his highschool football team. Since this is the only position which is protected from contact, it is the only position he could play. He obviously was not good at first, but won the job after many long hours of practice. This was a tear-jerker of a piece. However, his football team was on location today, and we were graced with the presence of THIS GUY!!!
Now onto the best part of today’s show. The signs were everywhere. The signs were hilarious. The signs were offensive. This was an all-time great day for Gameday signs. Let’s get right into it.
There was a guy with a sign of Chairman Mao wearing a USC visor. There was “Corso Asks Jeeves”. “Even Lennay Kekua got into Stanford”. “Kiffin owned a Blockbuster”. “David Shaw bowls with bumpers”. “Fire Kiffin”. “Hire Kiffin”. “Sports”. However, these were the best of the day.
That final sign rivals the “Crap on me Sam Ponder” sign as the most offensive of the year. The presentation might not be as great, but we still salute this effort.
This week’s guest picker was Chris “THE BEAR” Fallica. He is a long-time Gameday researcher who has become a regular on this year’s show when they need to settle a tough debate. This guy has a reputation as someone who knows what is going on and who can pick games, so it was a real treat to have him on the show today. Also, we’ve had a string of pickers with little to no football input, so it was nice to have someone worthwhile picking games. He picked Stanford over USC. Corso immediately started needling the crowd hyping up Stanford. He picked Stanford to win the national championship. Stanford is favored. On and on. Would he really pull a fast one and pick USC? He donned the USC armor and picked USC this week as he began sword fighting with Kirk Herbstreit. In the process, he busted open his lip and started bleeding. Whoever had Corso injuring himself and drawing blood in this week’s Gameday pool just won big.
Have a happy football.