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Week 12 2012: Gameday review!

Posted on November 17, 2012 by gamedaycole

Its the middle of the day here on Saturday. The generic Big Ten action of the morning has ended. The big game between Sam Houston State and Texas A&M has begun. That must mean its time to recap this morning’s episode of College Gameday. As I’m sure you noticed (and cursed me for) things got a late start this morning at the blog due to a meeting at my “real” job. For your record, all of this week’s picks can be found HERE and HERE. Now let us begin.

This week, Gameday was coming at you live from Eugene, Oregon for the big matchup between the Oregon Ducks and the Stanford Cardinal. It was pitch black outside as we kicked off the first hour at 6AM local time in Eugene on ESPNU. It appeared to be quite cold and raining as well. This is the reason that I enjoy Gameday coming from Eugene better than anywhere. The crowd at an Oregon Gameday set all got up extremely early and/or stayed up extremely late (either way partaking in some libations no doubt). They have fought through the rain and cold to be there. They are absolutely rabid, and it makes for a great atmosphere on TV. Chris Fowler opened up the show and welcomed us in before disappearing to somewhere heated no doubt and handing things off to Samantha Steele.

samsteelewk12a — Samantha Steele: Week 12

Jennifer loved this outfit again, and suggested that Ms. Steele has been on an incredible run of great outfits in recent weeks. If you disagree then I guess you are wrong. One of the early stories covered was the drama (i.e. childish grabassery) going on between USC and UCLA in regards to UCLA covering up a Matt Barkley billboard in town, as well as warning the USC drum major that if he stabs the field then they won’t let the band play at halftime. I think this angle might have been covered more than the athletic competition itself, but I’m not sure why when this looks like a pretty significant game itself. As we got into previewing the Oregon/Stanford matchup, we were once again joined by GIGANTIC HUMAN BEING TREVOR MATICH to discuss the Stanford defense being pitted against the Oregon offense. For reference, see THIS for week 10 coverage of GIGANTIC HUMAN BEING TREVOR MATICH. The consensus is that this is a game you should watch. After that was a replay of Gene W.’s piece on Johnny Football from last week. Yawn. Speaking of yawn, David Pollack was either incredibly exhausted this morning during Todd McShay’s film session, or he was incredibly bored. Either way, I’ll let you be the judge based on this look that Pollack had on his face for most of it.

pollackmcshaya — Pollack: Tired or bored by McShay?

There was also highlights of the Oregon Duck mascot losing its head going skydiving yesterday. Don’t worry, the head was recovered safely. Lastly, we got some picks from Pollack and Desmond Howard. They both went with Oregon over Stanford, and agreed on everything except one: Desmond Howard is calling for the upset of Baylor of KState. Take note gamblers. ON TO THE MAIN SHOW!

Fowler, Herbie, Des and Coach Corso opened up the main show on ESPN as the daylight made its presence known. David Pollack was dispatched to go use the internet to tweet at the rubes like always. This week, he was in the Oregon training facility getting a massage from the Oregon Duck (the Duck was doing some strange gyrations while standing on top which we will never speak of again).

pollackinternetduck1a — David Pollack: Internet Aficionado

pollackinternetduck2a — Oregon Duck: Administering massage

We quickly got a Tom Rinaldi beatnik poetry session entitled “Wrath”, in which he discussed the wrath of angry football coaches aimed towards their players. It was basically a highlight reel of coaches screaming profanity at players and refs starring Tommy Tuberville and Bo Pelini. This segued nicely into a discussion by the Gameday crew about how some coaches are getting out of control in their treatment of players. This discussion turned into a dogpile on Bo Pelini; a man noted for being quite surly and someone that I would not want to meet in a dark alley. Thank you Tom Rinaldi.

rinaldi-beatnik2 — Tom Rinaldi performing live

After that, we saw a fresh piece by Gene W. about the preseason attack on Montee Ball. The consensus is that he was randomly attacked by some guys, missed a few games, fell out of the Heisman race before it even started, and is pretty good at football. Thanks Gene. Same story, different day. After this, Coach Corso stopped down to point out that Desmond Howard was wearing a nice blankie under the desk to keep warm. This takes us back several weeks when Herbie was put under the spotlight for wearing a blankie as well. Coach Corso is a real man and wears an overcoat, and he wants you to know it. Also, its hard to tell but it appeared that Desmond Howard and Kirk Herbstreit were wearing the same suit but in two different colors. They both had a white square pattern all over, and it was strange to see if you are as weird as I am.

desmondblankiea — Desmond’s favorite blankie

We got a full-on Tim Tebow Memorial Segment this week about Chip Kelly’s trip to Ethiopia to help out at a girl’s school there. Like every Gameday segment about Tim Tebow several years ago, we learned the valuable lesson that we are very blessed to be given so much every day. The highlight of all of the segments today was definitely Tom Rinaldi’s piece on Wake Forest assistant coach Tommy Elrod. We heard the heartbreaking tale of how he lost his infant son Byron after only 7 days due to the massive brain tumor he was born with. Elrod’s older son was so excited to finally be a big brother, have someone to play football with, and someone he could fist bump like so many players he has seen on the field. During one of the trips to the hospital, his older son walked into the room and Byron lifted his fist as if by some miracle to give him a fist bump. This was quite touching, and hard for me to explain, so if it pops up on ESPN.com or Youtube check it out.

But let’s get down to the business at hand. It is time for picks. This week’s guest picker is none other than Braden Pape. Who is that you may ask? He happens to be a five year old Oregon fan that you probably remember from last year. He made an appearance on Gameday last year and sang COMIN’ TO YOUR CITAAAY from start to finish. Well he’s back, and this week he is all business. He took some of the obvious picks like Lehigh over Lafayette, and went with Yale over Harvard. This kid might have been one of the best guest pickers ever, with lots of funny lines and moments. He called for Baylor to upset KState, and said “SORRY KIRK” when he went with Wisconsin over Ohio State. The best moment of all was when he went with Yale over Harvard. Lee Corso immediately issued a MASSIVE “Not so fast midget!” in that kid’s face which was incredibly hilarious (See Kegs ‘n Eggs for video). They even let this kid make his own unofficial headgear pick, and he threw a white box with some coloring on it over his head to go with the Oregon Ducks. Coach Corso went with his favorite mascot and put on the Duck head. That wasn’t enough however, as he was handed a live duck which sent Herbie ducking for cover. Then he danced out front with some cheerleaders, the real Oregon mascot, and the live duck. If you didn’t really know what was going on and saw this scene, it would be quite hard to explain. However, you’re reading this entire thing so we are all in the same boat. Enjoy you day folks.

bradenheadgeara — Braden Pape headgear pick

headgear1a — Corso picks Oregon, scares Herbie!

headgear2a — Corso Picks Oregon, dances around

Week 10 2012: Gameday review #saturdayselections

Posted on November 3, 2012 by gamedaycole

Its about noon here and we are in the middle of the morning slate of games, and that means we’ve put another edition of College Gameday in the record books. Today the show was broadcasting live from Baton Rouge, Louisiana for the huge matchup between #1 Alabama and #5 LSU. While LSU has a ridiculous winning record at home (something like 36-1 in their last 37, forgive me if I’m wrong), it is the Alabama Crimson Tide who are about an 8 point favorite going on the road. We opened this morning with Chris Fowler welcoming us to the show and doing some quick clerical duty running down the day’s schedule before handing off the hosting duties to Samantha Steele. Samantha Steele tweeted this morning that she went to Chik-fil-a and witnessed a toddler fight in the playplace as well as a girl fight in the bathroom regarding Alabama. Sounds about right for Baton Rouge. Today her outfit was another FABULOUS one according to Jennifer. She said she would like to have this shirt. However, one must bring up the question: WHY ARE YOU WEARING WHITE AFTER LABOR DAY? I MEAN COME ON, IS THIS AMATEUR HOUR?

samsteelewk102 — Week 10: Samantha Steele

This morning we got a good bit of BCS Guru Brad Edwards breaking down potential scenarios based on future wins and losses. He did a segment on both the early hour on ESPNU as well as the main show on ESPN later on. He seemed to think that aside from Alabama, Kansas State is in the drivers’ seat as far as making the championship game (should everyone in the running win out). The Big 12 is #1 in the computer rankings, so the KState strength of schedule is giving them the edge. Notre Dame may have a pretty good resume on paper, but most of their tough games are behind them. Oregon’s strength of schedule is peaking at the right time, but with Oregon State and USC losing, the Ducks winning out might not be enough to jump an undefeated Kansas State. We are assuming a lot here. Can’t wait to see how it ends up.

We got a replay of the De’anthony Thomas/Black Mamba/Snoop Dogg/Snoop Lion piece from about a month ago as filler material this morning. Snoop discovered Thomas at one of his football league games and gave him a nickname: The Black Mamba. The best morning segment today for me was when David Pollack and Samantha Steele were joined by GIGANTIC HUMAN BEING TREVOR MATICH. They were breaking down matchups between the defensive line and offensive line in todays’ games. David Pollack looked terrified pretending to go up against someone the size of Trevor Matich. Keep in mind that in the picture below David Pollack is 6’2”.

trevormatich2 — Trevor Matich: Large human being

Coming back from commercial we got some great video of local Louisiana residents doing whatever boat things they do in the swamp. You can tell I know what I’m talking about here. The highlight of this quick segment was footage of someone who they said was a former Louisiana Tech quarterback from a while back. Seems about right.

To close out the first hour on ESPNU, we got some picks from Desmond Howard and David Pollack. They both went with Bama over LSU to some nice booing from the crowd. You can generally tell how live the crowd is each week based on how much they boo these two. As the main show kicked off on ESPN, Fowler and the crew sent Samantha Steele to the bus and David Pollack to use the internet and tweet at the rubes. This week Pollack arrived to the internet in the Batmobile. I wish it had been the 1960s Batmobile.

pollacinternetwk102 — Pollack likes Batman, likes internet

Early on in the show we got a breakdown of the big game today: the Battle for Myron Claxton’s shoes. They just couldn’t wait til the end of the show to break down the Occidental/Whittier matchup, and neither could I. The predictions were unanimous with Corso, Herbie and Des all picking Whitter over Occidental. I think that’s a solid pick. Before we get to the signs of the day, I do have to ask the question: Where were the Alabama fans? Every time they showed the crowd it seemed like a sea of yellow and purple. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention, but I wonder what the crowd will look like for the game tonight. Anyways, the highlights of the signage today include the LSU “If we lose do we get a re-do?” sign, the “Miles eats grass taller than Saban” sign, and the “Saban is a Keebler elf” sign. Today’s runner up was the “Alabama claims Lance Armstrong’s Titles” sign. This might have won, except that it was too late. Texas A&M already claimed those titles.

signofthedaywk10b2 — Sorry, A&M already claimed the titles

Today’s official sign of the day has to be the following, presented without comment once again.

We got another piece of beatnik poetry from Tom Rinaldi quiet-talking about the deeper meanings of a loss. He asked coaches about how they handle losses and how they eulogize them in the locker room after the game. They said lots of things about not taking it out on the players, about moving forward, appreciating the wins, and how it can be like a death. Tom Rinaldi summed it up by saying losing is worse than death because it happens more than once. Alright then.

rinaldi-beatnik — Beatnik Tom Rinaldi performing live

We also got a piece by Gene W. about Oregon’s Marcus Mariota. Apparently he grew up wanting to go to USC, but that didn’t work out. Instead, Chip Kelly offered him a scholarship to Oregon before Mariota ever even started a game. His response to Chip’s offer was “are you sure?” I’m not sure that is the response I would give to such an offer. We also got a Bald Man on Campus with Scott Van Pelt featuring AJ McCarron. Apparently when he was young he made a list of things he wanted to be as a grown up, including football player, fireman, and car man (whatever that is). The highlight of this segment was that McCarron said that when Nick Saban comes down on you hard “you feel as small as him”. Lol.

samlolo — Sam Steele & Lolo Jones just because

But let’s get serious. Its time to get down to the business at hand. It is time for picks. The experts are leaning 20 to 3 in favor of Alabama over LSU as of mid-day today. The full slate of picks can be found HERE for your reference. Today’s special guest celebrity is former LSU track star Lolo Jones who was brought in to see if she could top Ryan Lochte’s performance. She had some delightful insight including saying she could beat Denard Robinson in a foot race. Since Denard Robinson is out with an injury today, that’ll go nicely with the rest of her sprinting challenges to injured football players. I mean, she already knows she could easily beat Eric Legrand. Anyways, she had little to contribute to the football discussion other than picking Kansas State over Oklahoma State because they wear purple like LSU. Des and Dave both went with Alabama, and Herbie joined them riding the Crimson Tide. Would coach Corso go with the home crowd favorite in LSU, or the actual favorite Alabama? He had Sweet Home Alabama pumped through the speakers as he went back and forth egging on the crowd. He finally chose Alabama over LSU to an overwhelming boo. As he donned the headgear, Herbie wasn’t quite as scared as he was of live animals, but he continues to be awkward each week leaning away from Corso. Another great Gameday. Enjoy your Saturday.

Week 9 2012: Gameday review #saturdayselections

Posted on October 27, 2012 by gamedaycole

Well folks, if you’re reading this then that means we’ve officially put another edition of College Gameday in the books. Today we broadcasted live from Norman, Oklahoma for the big matchup between the Sooners and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. As we opened the show, Chris Fowler reminded us that it has been something like 56 years since Oklahoma has beaten Notre Dame. Granted they haven’t played very often, but that’s still a long time. The usual morning crew was present with Samantha Steele taking over hosting duties, and her buddies Desmond Howard and David Pollack were riding shotgun for the first hour on ESPNU. Jennifer loved the outfit Samanthat Steele had on this morning, and thought it was the best of the year. Speaking of Samantha Steele, I am starting to wonder if they pre-tape some of her segments from Gameday. It kept going from light to dark when she was on, so its either pre-taped, or the sun does very unusual things in Norman.

samsteelelight2 — Samantha Steele: Welcome to the show!

The first hour of the show was pretty slow this morning. We got a replay of Gene W.’s piece on Jeff Driskell from last week. We got Todd McShay breaking down some generic video from the studio. The highlight of the show was Samanthat Steele introducing us to some 4 year old kid who has parents that were Notre Dame fans. They named him Brady, after former Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn, because… well why wouldn’t you name your kid after Brady Quinn?

samsteelebrady2 — Brady Quinn fan? Name your kid Brady!

The first hour on ESPNU ended with Des and Dave making their picks for the day. David is still riding the Beaver train, with Desmond reluctantly riding along as well. David got some nice boos from the crowd when he picked KState, since KState beat OU already this year. Both guys went with Oklahoma over Notre Dame and were applauded.

The main show opened up on ESPN with Fowler taking back hosting duties from Sam Steele, and they sent David Pollack to go use the internet somewhere. This week, he was in a telephone booth tweeting dressed in a Superman costume. I guess this was for Halloween but it was never really explained.

pollackinternetsuperman2 — Its a bird? Its a plane? Looks like David Pollack.

I guess it must have been cold in Norman this morning, because Samantha Steele was bundled up for a blizzard. More importantly, we learned that Herbie had a pile of hand warmers and was wearing a blanket underneath the Gameday Desk. How cute.

We had a few decent signs, although I’m sure I probably missed some good ones too. Today’s highlights include the “Gym, Tan, Landry” sign, the “I couldn’t think of anything” sign, the “Rudy was a C Student” sign, and “Brian Kelly buys Lou Holtz Depends”. This week’s winner was the one below, even though there was at least one duplicate of this floating around. I enjoyed it.

As our crew started breaking down games, they briefly mentioned the game between the Oregon Ducks and the Colorado Buffaloes, and took this opportunity to kick Chris Fowler squarely in the crotch since he went to Colorado and they are a HUGE underdog against Oregon. There was some discussion about what teams might be on “letdown alert” this week, and I would like to take a minute to address this. I have long been aware of the following concepts: upset watch, upset alert, upset special. However, this is the first season I’ve heard the term “letdown alert”. I’m not a fan of this term, as it seems to me that it is basically a half-assed upset alert. Some day I will break down my official rules for putting someone on upset watch/alert/special, but we’ve got too much to do here today for me to get into that. End rant.

We FINALLY got to the part you’ve all been waiting for, as the guys took a minute to break down the heated matchup going down today between Lock Haven and Gannon. Lock Haven hasn’t won a game since 2007, and is currently riding a 48 game losing streak which is the all time D2 record. Coach Corso and Desmond took Lock Haven to shock the world and pick up a win today, with Herbie picking Gannon over Lock Haven which is where the sharp money is at. After that, we got a Gene W. piece about KState coach Bill Snyder. We learned the story of how he took over Kansas State when they were THE worst team in major college football, and turned them into a national powerhouse. Then he retired. Then things went downhill. Then he came back. Things are now back on track, and they are one of the best teams in the country. The highlight of this piece was the baby Bill Snyder which was featured.

snyderbaby2 — Bill Snyder. Bill Snyder baby.

Up next, let us speak of what is probably the most bizarre segment I’ve ever seen on College Gameday. It was teased earlier in the show that we would hear from the top five ranked coaches in the country to get some feedback on how the season is going. What we were given is very hard to explain. We got our five main hosts of Gameday dressed up as the five head coaches, including uniforms and incredibly creepy masks, and each one did some schtick about their team which was pretty funny. We had Coach Corso as Bill Snyder, Herbie as Will Muschamp, Fowler as Nick Saban, David Pollack as Brian Kelly, and Desmond Howard as the black Chip Kelly. Some of the impressions were pretty spot on, including the Snyder and Saban impressions. See below to understand better.

coachmuschamp2 — Coach Herbstreit-Muschamp

coachkelly2 — The Black Chip Kelly: Desmond Howard

Let’s move on. We got a quick 30 second Tom Rinaldi piece about Notre Dame entitled “Relevance”. I still don’t understand these segments where Tom Rinaldi rambles on about something obscure for 25 seconds, then plasters a big title card on the screen with his name on it. I think I figured out why they drive me just a little bit crazy. I feel like each one of these pieces was written by Tom Rinaldi, and that he performs them live the night before Gameday at some beatnik poetry night at a coffee shop while wearing a beret and smoking a cigarette. “What is relevance? What does it mean to be relevant? How does one become relevant? Does one need to prove their relevance to be relevant? The Fighting Irish represent these questions. I’m Tom Rinaldi”.

We got the usual Tom Rinaldi queit talking piece, except this week it was hosted by Samantha Steele. She did a story about Jonathan Banks from Mississippi State. He is on his way to being an All-American, and is expected to play on Sundays. However, he has had a tough road to get to where he is. When he was a baby, his mother abandoned him and he was left to be raised by his father and grandparents. His father worked 16 hour days as a log cutter to support him, until he was tragically killed in a car accident when Jonathan was 8. His grandparents raised him the rest of the way, and he turned into a stud athlete in higschool playing baseball, basketball and football. Things were looking great, until he impregnated his girlfriend at age 18 as a senior. He now has an 18 month old son who he strives to spend time with while balancing school and football, but he makes the extra effort because it reminds him of the time he spent with his dad. Really great piece.

Tom Rinaldi had his own full segment interviewing Landry Jones. I didn’t pay much attention to this, other than the fact that Landry Jones takes most of the blame for losing to KState. But enough of that; its time to get down to the business we all came here for. The picks. Today’s special guest celebrity was none other than the drummer from Kings of Leon; Nathan Followill. You might be saying “HEY COLE! HASN’T HE BEEN THE GUEST CELEBRITY PICKER BEFORE?” and the answer is yes. Just check my page on the Guest Pickers. Chris Fowler welcomed him back, wished him luck, and said he did great last time he was on the show. He did great last time he was on the show, except for the fact that he went 3-7. Oops. All of Saturday morning’s picks can be found HERE for your reference. His highlight today was picking Auburn when asked who he liked between Oregon State and Washington (a nice Ryan Lochte reference from last week). When it came down to that time, Followill went with Oklahoma to nobody’s surprise. Herbie is calling the game tonight with Big Game Brent, so there was no pick there. Would Coach Corso be the only one to pick Notre Dame other than Dr. Lou? NO WAY. He donned the Sooner headgear, and started firing the Sooner guns into the air. He almost fell off his chair, and everyone went running for cover as you can see below. Enjoy your day of football folks.