george whitfield – Page 4 – Cole's Gameday Blog

Week 8 2014: College Gameday review #cfb #saturdayselections #getup4gameday

Posted on October 18, 2014 by gamedaycole

It is good to be back for another Saturday edition of College Gameday Review. This week’s edition comes to you live from Tallahassee, Florida for the big matchup between Florida State and Notre Dame. ESPN is trying hard to hype this up to the level of the 1993 “Game of the Century”, in which Lee Corso made his first ever proto-headgear-pick going with an FSU baseball cap to choose the Seminoles over the Fighting Irish. A lot of good quick clips from that week for the Gameday crew to reminisce about, such as Fowler’s jet black hair, Corso’s salt and pepper hair, Craig James’ presence before Herbie came in, and lots of football players wearing sweatpants.

Back to 2014. The show got off to a quick start with this week’s “JAMEIS WINSTON SCANDAL OF THE WEEK”. Mark Schlabach was interviewed remotely about the situation, for which he and Darren Rovell have been on the front lines regarding the situation. In case you haven’t heard, Jameis Winston is being accused of signing thousands of autographs for money. I for one am SHOCKED and cannot believe such a thing would go on in this sport. There wasn’t quite as much coverage of this scandal as I would have expected (judging by weeks past when entire shows were stopped down to talk Winston). My notes regarding this scandal include the following:

-Mark Schlabach was sporting a fresh haircut. This year, it seems that he is trying to move into hard hitting journalism, and he needs a haircut to match. No more shaggy Schlabach broadcasting his upset special of the week from his kitchen table each week. What a shame.
-Did Jameis sign all of that stuff for money? Probably. But I don’t think we will ever find a money trail or any proof. People comparing this to the Todd Gurley scandal need to realize that the Todd Gurley scandal allegedly has video proof of Gurley taking money for autographs. Winston’s scandal is nothing more than Darren Rovell pouring gasoline on a huge pile of speculation at this point.
-Every time I see Jimbo Fischer getting all worked up defending Jameis Winston, I get the feeling that there is someone off camera with a gun pointed at his head. I don’t think he believes himself when he is defending Winston, but he is going to go down with the ship at this point. I also happen to agree with him that there is no proof, not much evidence, no crime committed, and that people should perhaps wait until another self-serving investigation is completed before calling for suspensions.

Enough Jameis Winston talk. Let’s move on to something more fun. Like this week’s “SAMANTHAT PONDER OUTFIT OF THE WEEK” review with @GamedayJen. This week she was sporting something which Jennifer described as “classic, simple, and looks good”. Sam Ponder, if you are reading this, tweet at @GamedayJen to discuss fashion with your #1 fan in the world.

She also interviewed Jimbo Fisher about some stuff. This random guy also showed up behind Jimbo Fisher. No idea who he is or what he is doing, but pretty weird.

George Whitfield, noted QB guru and questionable wearer of fashion, was back this week. That means it is time for the “GEORGE WHITFIELD QUESTIONABLE OUTFIT OF THE WEEK” with Jennifer as well. This week we have determined that George Whitfield wears tiny suits. His suits look too small for him in the shoulders and back. He was also sporting a nice yellow rose on his lapel, a tweed tie, and another plaid shirt. Hard to see in this photo, but just go with it. Jennifer described it as “A plaid shirt with a tweed tie? Just No”. Whitfield made so more generic observations of the two QBs from this game. I believe it went “something something something Jameis Winston, but something something something Everett Golsen too”.

George Whitfield: QB Guru, not fashion guru

During one segment early on, Kirk Herbstreit stood up for about five or six minutes straight while behind the Gameday desk. This was really weird and I want to know what was going on because it seemed so out of place. Since we have no evidence, we will wildly speculate that he was about to tinkle his pants. After a few minutes, Fowler called him out on it and he sat back down.

During the first hour, Pollack replaced Corso as usual, and the picks came rapid fire again. The pace they were going at made me think it was because our guest pickers would be the tandem of Brett Favre and Ken Griffey Jr., so maybe they were going to be pressed for time in the final pick segment.

Later on in the show, DJ Babi Mac made another appearance which pleased Chris Fowler. Is she somebody’s niece on this show or something? No doubt, I am completely out of touch with today’s youth, but I have no idea who the hell Babi Mac is or why she is being pushed so hard on Gameday this year.

Gene W. had a piece on Notre Dame center Matt Hegarty, who was part of the 2012 team which lost the national championship game. Matt missed the championship game, along with much of the season, when he had a stroke during a team walkthrough in November 2012. Doctors were able to repair two holes in his heart, and he has returned this year as the starting center. His hope is that he didn’t miss his only chance at a national championship. Inspiring stuff about a good kid, who apparently now volunteers working with stroke patients in nursing homes.

Tom Rinaldi had a piece of his own about Art Briles, Gus Malzahn, and Hugh Freeze. All three coaches rose from the ranks of high school coaches to lead powerful programs in college, which I guess is a rarity these days. All I can think about when I see an Art Briles interview is that he just finished changing the oil on a ’57 Chevy out in a barn somewhere, wiped his brow off with an oily rag, took a sip from a glass Coke bottle, and came in to do the interview. He is so down-home.

Signs this week were everywhere, and the sign game was strong. A lot of funny signs made appearances, and a lot of raunchy signs made brief appearances. Notable signs include a Jameis Hancock signature, “Jeff Driskel paid me for his autograph”, the return of the Kim Jong Un sign where he is wearing FSU face paint, “Lou Holtz Splash Zone” and many more. However, we present to you a bunch of funny ones which we will not comment on because we are taking the high moral ground.

So now comes the time we’ve all been waiting for. Brett Favre apparently bailed on Gameday today (or had a mechanical issue with his flight), so today we only had Ken Griffey Jr. This week, instead of “NOT SO FAST”, Lee Corso issued strikes, balls, and foul-tips for Griffey’s picks depending on how much Corso agreed. David Pollack went with Notre Dame for the big matchup. Desmond picked FSU, along with Ken Griffey Jr. Corso flashed back to the ’93 FSU proto-headgear-pick and donned a black wig and FSU cap to make his selection.

Charley the Cat went with Notre Dame with HIGH confidence on this pick today. Or maybe she was just hungry? Jennifer took ND too, so our house is united.

I’d like to take this opportunity to attempt an extra point in this review. A recent disturbing trend has emerged with College Gameday selecting random guest pickers with no real affiliation to the schools competing at Gameday. Oh really, Katy Perry’s manager went to Ole Miss? I work with a guy who went to Ole Miss,so I guess I am now an official Ole Miss representative too. Kenny Chesney is from Tennessee? Makes sense that he previously appeared to represent Tennessee or Vanderbilt, but let’s feature him at South Carolina/Mizzou for being an SEC fan? Were we really in Mississippi for the last two weeks without Brett Favre making an appearance, but decided this FSU/Notre Dame matchup seemed more appropriate? He didn’t make it anyways, but the Ken Griffey Jr. connection to FSU is that he lives in Orlando? I guess I don’t get it. Gameday guest pickers have traditionally been from the home team (although occasionally a visitor) to get the crowd totally fired up by having their representative pick. I’m not saying it has to be the rule all of the time, but let’s just keep trying to make some real connection to the schools in question.

Also, how much longer will we have to wait for Burt Reynolds to make a Gameday appearance for FSU?

Week 5 2014: College Gameday Review #GetUp4Gameday

Posted on September 27, 2014 by gamedaycole

Well it looks like the show is over, the picks are entered into the official record, so it must be time to review our morning on College Gameday. The show was broadcasting live from the Columbia, South Carolina for the big-ish matchup between the Missouri Tigers and the South Carolina Gamecocks. In case you didn’t hear, Kenny Chesney will be joining the show today to pick games and perform live! There was a wild crowd out today, as is the case in most SEC matchups when Gameday is in town. The sign game was a little bit weak today, but let’s dive right in. Highlights from today’s sign game included “Gary Pinkel types in comic sans”, “Maddy Mauk? Never heard of her”, “Mizzou, Hoosier Daddy?”, “Maty Mauk wears crocks with socks” (also a possible Dr. Seuss title), “Maty Mauk thinks mayonnaise is an instrument”, and the incredibly confusing “Even a bad day in the SEC is better than a good day in Mizzou”. However, this week’s winner comes courtesy of Reddit user yracuse_ and is presented without comment.

After the normal crew of Lee Corso, Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard opened the show, Corso was replaced by David Pollack for the rest of the first hour. We normally get 1 or 2 picks from David Pollack and the other boys during this first hour, but they were going rapid-fire this morning and Pollack managed to get in 8 picks during the first hour. Impressive stuff. Samantha Ponder briefly joined the show to hang out with noted quarterback guru and champion of questionable outfits George Whitfield. They talked about Kenny Hill and his mechanics and vision from the pocket. In other words, the same as most other weeks. This brings us to FASHION REVIEWS with @GamedayJen. The Samantha Ponder outfit of the week is presented below. Jennifer said she loved the leopard print shirt on Ponder, but that the pants looked like leather sweatpants. I don’t know how to describe them any better. This week’s “Georgie Whitfield Mismatched Outfit of the Week” was reviewed by Jennifer as well. She said George “looks like he wants to be a hipster so bad, but he isn’t cool enough to pull it off”. Other comments from Jennifer on his outfit include “Why?” and “Don’t do it again”.

Speaking of which, did you hear Kenny Chesney is going to join us later in the show to perform live and make picks?

Gene W. had a piece on the Yale Bowl, as it turns 100 years old this year. Today’s matchup features Yale vs. Army, which is Yale’s first FBS opponent since the 90s. Did you know that the Yale/Army matchup today features two schools accounting for 24 national championships? This rivalry started in 1893 and ended in 1996, but it is back today. Kirk, Desmond, and David all picked Army over Yale in this one. Good segment with lots of vintage football clips featuring leather helments and gigantic hip pads. As the show moved along, we featured today’s Chef of the Day, John Hair from Jim ‘n Nicks BBQ. He was roasting a whole hog, and was very proud of his hog’s head.

Quickly following this piece was another Gene W. piece about the current dumpster fire known as the Michigan Wolverines football program. He highlighted the fact that visiting opponents now come into the Big House and mock Desmond Howard’s famous Heisman pose after scoring. Hard hitting questions were asked such as “IS BRADY HOKE THE RIGHT MAN FOR THIS JOB?” and “HOW HOT IS BRADY HOKE’S SEAT?” My memory may be fuzzy, but I seem to recall Lloyd Carr being run out of town like a common pygmy after going 11-2 and 9-4, only to be followed by Rich Rodriguez who was run out of town for not being enough of a “Michigan Man”. I also seem to recall the rejoicing in Ann Arbor following Brady Hoke’s hiring as if humanity had achieved world piece because WE FINALLY HIRED A REAL MICHIGAN MAN!!! Oh well, I hope you enjoy whoever coaches you to a 4 win season next year. Also, in case you missed it, this week’s “Desmond Howard Michigan Pick of the Week” featured Desmond Howard picking Michigan over Minnesota by 2 touchdowns. I wish somebody ran a blog where we could track Desmond Howard’s all time record picking Michigan in games *cough* 12-12 all time *cough*.

I’d like to take a moment to remind you that Kenny Chesney will be joining us later in the show to perform live and join us for picks.

Perhaps the best segment of the day was the story of SEC Coach Wives. This highlighted the contributions and lifestyles of various SEC coaches’ wives and how they interact and contribute to their respective programs. Fun notes from this segment include stories of Steve Spurrier’s wife being one of the only people who went to their husband’s Heisman ceremony, Saban’s wife saying she was glad she married him at 19 because she never had to know what a normal life was like, and Les Miles meeting his wife when they were both assistant coaches in the athletic department at Michigan. Dan Mullen’s wife is known as “Mama Mullen” and she likes to go to practice to motivate the players when they are down. Mark Richt’s wife enjoys mixing the team’s Powerade before games because they need to get it just right for that day. Nick Saban made a funny, telling us of how he asked his wife “Did you ever think in your wildest dreams we would win 3 national championships?”, to which she replied “Honey, you’re not even in my wildest dreams”. Gus Malzahn’s wife told the story of how she watches all games from the privacy of her own room at the stadium. After hearing her screaming at the top of her lungs, I can’t imagine why she “chose” to enjoy the games in the privacy of her own room. She also told the story of how every Saturday night, if the team wins, she takes Gus to Waffle House for date night. If anyone wants to get a Kickstarter campaign going to launch “Real Housewives of the SEC”, let me know, because this needs to exist. The absolute best comment of this segment came from LSU head coach and noted wordsmith Les Miles, who said his wife is the “assistant coach, recruiting coordinator, and all around valued opinion”. I would like to go on the record right now that I consider my wife Jennifer to be an all around valued opinion as well.

Stay tuned, because Kenny Chesney will be joining us later in the show to perform live and make picks with us!

We were also riveted to see the return of “Beatnik Poetry featuring Tom Rinaldi”. This week’s piece was entitled “Underway”, and had such philosophical one-liners as “Steele… bronze… gold… here’s the prize [picture of the championship trophy]… now here’s the pain [insert video of teams losing]”. He said some more stuff, and then let us know that the season is “Underway”.

This week’s overly casual roundtable segment (where they leave the desk to go sit in high chairs ten feet away and talk) featured the Gameday boys reviewing their preseason predictions . They each had a mulligan and were asked how they would change their picks today. The highlight was Corso boldly proclaiming he wouldn’t change a single thing in his predictions. Then the guys all talked over each other for a while.

Don’t go anywhere, because coming up later in the show Kenny Chesney will be joining us to perform live and make picks!

Tom Rinaldi had another segment featuring Mack Brown’s brother Watson Brown, who is head coach at Tennessee Tech. He is sitting at a 128-199 record, and is nearing the all-time loss record. However, he has accomplished a few good things in his time, such as building UAB from an FCS team to the FBS level, beating LSU at UAB, and never having a single NCAA infraction in his 30 years as a coach. I guess its like they say, if you’re not cheating in this sport then you’re not winning. Also, Tom Rinaldi was wearing these shoes today.

Tom Rinaldi's shoes — Tom Rinaldi’s shoes

Let’s move on. Coming up shortly, Kenny Chesney will be joining us to perform live and make picks. Now, this week’s “Chris Fowler Hundred Dollar Question”: What FBS team has lost a fumble on each of its opening series in its last three games? The Gameday crew took this opportunity to kick the directional Michigan schools in the crotch, picking Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, and Western Michigan. However, the answer was UConn, and the hundred dollar bill remains unclaimed.

At this point something happened which you probably weren’t expecting today: Kenny Chesney joined the show to perform live to promote his new album or something!

Now that the Kenny Chesney concert is over, let’s get down to the real business at hand. It is time to make some picks. David Pollack got it started early, picking Mizzou over South Carolina. Kirk agreed, and went with Mizzou. Desmond picked South Carolina. Kenny Chesney was this week’s guest picker (I wish ESPN had hyped this up a little bit more), the only three-time-picker in the history of College Gameday guests. He picked South Carolina over Mizzou as well. Lee Corso poked and prodded the crowd, replaying footage from Gameday ten years ago when he boldly proclaimed Steve Spurrier would NEVER win a national championship at South Carolina! This sent the crowd into a tizzy, but ultimately Corso said they are still good enough to win the game today, as he popped on the Gamecock’s headgear and held up a live chicken. The live chicken marks this season’s first appearance of the “Kirk Herbstreit Subtle Fear of Live Animals” where he leans away cautiously every time a live animal is brought on set. Around the house here, Charley the Cat picked South Carolina as well, so Coach Corso will hold his one game lead over Charley on the year regardless of who wins. Enjoy your day and everyone have a happy football!

Week 4 2014: College Gameday review #getup4gameday

Posted on September 20, 2014 by gamedaycole

Hey hey there, welcome back to our College Gameday review for week 4 of this season. This week’s edition of College Gameday was coming at you live from Tallahassee, Florida for the big matchup between the Florida State Seminoles and the Clemson Tigers. Surprisingly, the combined crowd at FSU/Clemson seemed to be smaller than the NDSU crowd in Fargo last week. We opened the show with Lee, Kirk, Chris and David as usual, and one member of the team was adamant that he would not be caught wearing the same suit as Chris Fowler after the fashion debacle of two weeks ago. You may have noticed Desmond Howard wearing something like this:

Noted fashion critic and Gameday enthusiast Jennifer pointed out that he is not, in fact, summering in Nantucket this weekend. There has been a disturbing trend of plaid suits and jackets this year, so let’s keep an eye on this and make sure this doesn’t go too far. After opening the show, the first hour or so was dedicated to the latest Jameis Winston news. Unless you were living under a rock for the last week, you surely know that Winston has been in a bit of hot water due to some recent actions on campus. When discussing the suspension for tonight’s game, the crowd got a nice “bullshit” chant going. At one point they kicked it over to Sam Ponder, who had been sidelined this week after coach Jimbo Fisher pulled out of her interview segment. She went on a nice two minute rant about how people, and women especially, are getting fed up with this recent trend of shady situations in the football world. It was a good rant, but only provided us with a glimpse of the Sam Ponder Outfit of the Week. Jennifer liked it, although we couldn’t see much of it, saying it was a nice color and she likes the sleeves.

Signs this week were pretty lacking. Lots of repeats from the past taking shots at Jameis Winston. Highlights include “Samantha Ponder will you go to homecoming with me?”, “Clemson likes global warming”, “Dabo Swinney has a crush on Manti T’eo’s girlfriend”, “Sunshine Scooter for first half QB”, “Even Sarah McLachlan can’t save these cats”, but our winners are this combination next to each other featuring Paul Finebaum as the 60 Year Old Virgin, and Kim Jong Un wearing FSU facepaint.

This was our runner up this week:

As the crew started breaking down the rest of today’s games, they took a moment to cover the Arkansas/NIU game today. Kirk picked Arkansas over NIU to nobody’s surprised, and I am sure that will get NIU all stirred up again. In case you forgot:

There was a touching tribute to close the first hour to the father of Rece Davis, who passed away this week. Shortly after, we had an inspiring piece by Gene W. about Tyson London, daughter of Virginia head coach Mike London. She was born premature and suffered from a blood disorder which lead to cancer. She required a bone marrow transplant at the age of 7, and after a lengthy search, the only match in the country was her dad Mike. He donated the marrow which saved her life, and she is now 11 years cancer free. This has led to many players signing up for the bone marrow registry, and they always need more.

Back to game previews. The crew was previewing today’s game between BYU and Virginia, and after giving his take on the game, Desmond Howard stopped short of picking. Lee Corso must have not been paying attention, because he came flying in with a HUGE “NOT SO FAST!!!!” to which the rest of the crew started cracking up at, since Desmond never picked the game. Desmond then went on to pick BYU along with Corso. Desmond sure thought it was funny!

There was a feature about Oklahoma linebacker Eric Striker with lots of menacing rock music and special effects to highlight the fact that he is a good linebacker. It was a tad bit overproduced for my refined tastes. Other notes include this week’s hundred dollar question presented by Chris Fowler: Who was the QB the last time Miami and Nebraska met in the regular season? Vince Ferragamo obviously. The hundred dollar bill remained unclaimed, but we got a whimsical note that Lee Corso lost as coach of Indiana in 1976 to Vince Ferragamo’s Nebraska team 55-13. We also learned that FSU (now) starting quarterback Sean Maguire’s family had already given their tickets away to this game because they did not expect to see any playing time. Apparently something happened with Jameis Winston this week and Sean will be starting, so the family is coming in. I’m guessing they might be able to scalp a few singles and get into this game. Tom Rinaldi had a piece on perfection with FSU kicker Roberto Aguayo, who is 27/28 on field goal attempts, and 102/102 on extra points. That is 99.2% accuracy for all of you math majors out there.

We talked a little more Jameis Winston for a while, and showed some highlights of his (most recent) apology press conference. I don’t know why, but I am just as concerned about this gold chain he is wearing as I am the events which got him in trouble this week.

Jameis Winston's gold chain — Jameis Winston’s gold chain

We were then joined by QB Guru George Whitfield to talk about his interaction with quarterbacks and how he tries to coach them in their off-the-field lives as well. He remembered warning John “Football” Manziel about his actions. Johnny was more concerned about missing the college experience, to which George replied “Your current path is not going to get you to the ultimate destination”. This applied equally to Winston. Speaking of Whitfield, he was back with another crazy QB Guru suit this week!

After three hours of Jameis Winston talk, it was time to get down to the REAL business at hand: picking games. This week’s special guest picker was FSU volleyball legend Gabrielle Reece. She came on and appeared to be reading notes prepared for her on most of her picks, and I think Lee Corso had a little crush on her. He was overly polite to her, even on his incredibly subdued “not so fast” whispers. After picking all of the games, we got down to the main event. Desmond went with the upset of Clemson over FSU. Reece took FSU to nobody’s surprise. Lee Corso called Jimbo Fisher’s young son out to help make the pick, and they ripped off their suit jackets to reveal FSU gear. They then donned shakos and began conducting the FSU band’s war chant as the show closed. Charley the cat picked Clemson, so this will be a showdown week between Charley and Coach Corso, and we will see who really knows how to pick the big games: Lee Corso, or our cat. Enjoy your day folks, and have a happy football.