Week 8 2014: College Gameday review #cfb #saturdayselections #getup4gameday
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”.
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?