Week 3 2015: College Gameday review! #cfb
After a hiatus last week due to some extracurricular activities last Saturday, the Officially Unofficial College Gameday Review is back for week 3! Today’s College Gameday was broadcasting to your television live in color from Tuscaloosa, Alabama for the big matchup between Alabama and Ole Miss.
Let’s dive right into this week’s sign game. The SEC has historically been a strong conference for Gameday signage, and today was no letdown. Highlights this week include “WE WANT JACKSONVILLE STATE”, “Chad Kelly shaves his arms”, and “Make sure you’re on the potty before you go hotty toddy”. My favorites this week were the following:
Kirk, David and Desmond in particular engaged in a somewhat controversial discussion about Florida head coach Jim McElwain’s sideline behavior last week with Kelvin Taylor. While all agreed that it was excessive, David was the the reasonable voice saying that he was yelled at plenty during his career and didn’t think it was deserving of suspension or discipline. Desmond Howard was highly criticized on the internets for seemingly trying to work up a situation where both himself and ESPN can take a strong moral stand against this type of behavior. I may have not played a down of football past the 8th grade, but I find it hard to believe that Desmond never took a tongue lashing from a coach. While most of the heat was targeted at Desmond in particular, I have a bone to pick with Kirk Herbstreit over his comments on the topic. During his own lecture, he said that coaches like Bear Bryant, Bo Schembechler and Woody Hayes would never have gone as far as Jim McElwain did last week. I’m no expert on Woody Hayes (or any other subject for that matter), but I would think if you are trying to contrast Jim McElwain with a legendary level-headed coach, you might not choose one that ended his own career by punching a student athlete during a game.
.There was a segment highlighting the quick rise of BYU quarterback Tanner Mangum. This is a 22 year old true freshman who was the MVP of the Elite 11 QB camp (over one Jameis Winston), but went on his Mormon Mission spending two years away from his family, friends, and game of football before returning to pull out two miracles this year at the end of games. Will he make it three in a row? We certainly hope so.
Tom Rinaldi did a Tom Rinaldi piece on former Nebraska running back and current Kern Valley State Prison inmate Lawrence Phillips. I know Rinaldi loves putting together stories to touch your heart, whether it is a tragic fall from grace or a story of overcoming adversity. I felt this one fell a little flat, considering it was pretty much the story of a truly great athlete who had a hobbies including domestic violence, assault, vandalism, and most recently being charged with murder while incarcerated. Normally Rinaldi’s stories of falls from grace have a redeeming quality at the end, but I wasn’t feeling it for this one. Sorry Tom.
On the other hand, we had a more inspiring story of Laquon Treadwell’s return after disaster last season. You may remember him as the Ole Miss wide receiver who seemingly scored the winning touchdown in a showdown between #3 Ole Miss and #4 Auburn last season. Upon further review, it couldn’t have been farther from the truth. It was ruled he fumbled at the 1-yard-line while being taken down into the endzone, while simultaneously dislocating his ankle and breaking his leg, which also brought an end to a magical Ole Miss undefeated season. He is back after a tough rehab regimen. Check out the full piece here.
Our new favorite segment on Gameday is called #YOUHADONEJOB and it features Sam Ponder and David Pollack playing the most ridiculous clips from the football week along with said hashtag. Really funny stuff, so just watch the video here.
Nick Saban visited the set for an interview at the Gameday desk. He talked about generic coaching things in vague terms, so the highlight was his response to which coach he would want to team up with during a tag team brawl. He said Urban Meyer due to his success in coaching, but Kirk said Charlie Strong would be his leading contender. Anyways…
When it came time to get down to business and start picking some games, this week’s “Bear’s Bank” picks were Purdue+6.5, UCLA-16.5 and Ole Miss+7. Go call your bookie and then come back to finish this. This week’s special celebrity guest picker was country music bro Eric Church. While I have no knowledge of his music or talent, he was one of the most well-informed guest pickers we’ve ever seen on Gameday. He was dropping so much knowledge on the Gameday boys that Corso eventually had to quit explaining his picks and just give us the winner. As they went into a no-huddle-offense to finish on time, Herbie broke down the game since he is calling it and can’t pick the game, while Desmond and Eric both took Alabama. Corso asked if he could borrow Church’s acoustic guitar, which Church handed over, and he started “playing” Sweet Home Alabama before donning the Alabama headgear once again. Charley the Cat took Ole Miss in an upset, so this is quite a showdown we will see between Coach Corso and our cat tonight. Enjoy your day folks.
