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Week 6 2012: Gameday review

Posted on October 6, 2012 by gamedaycole

So this morning I rolled over and looked at the clock and saw that the early hour of College Gameday on ESPNU wouldn’t start for about an hour, and I tried to go back to sleep. Like a kid on Christmas morning, I just couldn’t do it. I decided to get up and go jog for a few miles, do some pushups, and have some freshly made carrot juice. Or maybe I just went to lay down on the couch, have a monster energy drink, and started watching college football coverage on my DVR from yesterday. Its hard to remember exactly how things went down. Anyways, as College Gameday kicked off on ESPNU, we were broadcasting live from Columbia, South Carolina for the highly anticipated matchup between #5 Georgia and #6 South Carolina. This promises to be a great game tonight, but I’m not sure the game could compare to how good Gameday was this morning. Lots of schtick this morning from the Gameday crew, an insanely rowdy/drunk crowd, good stories and some AMAZING signage. Keep reading if any of this interests you.

As always, we opened up with Chris Fowler welcoming us to this glorious day before disappearing for the next hour. Samantha Steele took over along with Desmond Howard and an incredibly unpopular David Pollack (who was booed every time he opened his mouth). We got a few nice replays of the legendary David Pollack Fat Guy Touchdown from about ten years ago at Georgia. Samantha Steele let us know that she got paint on her outfit from a sign for the first time ever. Speaking of Samantha Steele’s outfit today, here’s what Jennifer had to say: “Better than last week, but it needed a belt”.

samanthasteeleoutfit2 — Samantha Steele: Week 6

In the early hour we got a little piece on Northwestern and their coach Pat Fitzgerald. He seems like a genuinely good guy, as evidenced by this interview done by the Pigskin Project (you guys need to start updating the site more!). The highlight of the piece was during practice when he made a great reference, yelling something to the effect of “Just like Dumb and Dumber, we have to totally redeem ourselves!” . That made me giggle a little bit. We also got an official pick from Samantha Steele. She is taking Iowa State over TCU today in case you were wondering. Later on in the show, they went to a shot inside the bus where David Pollack said Samantha Steele was making more picks as you can see below. Snickers? Milky Way? Nestle Crunch? Take your pick!

samanthasteelepicks2 — Samantha Steele: Week 6 picks

We ended the first hour on ESPNU with David and Desmond’s picks as usual. Desmond played to the crowd like most weeks and took South Carolina, while unbiased former Georgia defensive end David Pollack said the Georgia defense would be the difference in this one; he took the Bulldogs. After that, they sent David Pollack to go use the internet and live tweet with fans, and he showed up this week making a pecan pie somewhere while tweeting.

pollackusesinternetpie2 — David Pollack: Famous athlete, world class chef

Chris Fowler took control of things, previewing the day by not only reminding us of the FIVE ranked versus ranked matchups today, but by letting us know Lee Corso is picking SEVEN upsets today; an all time record! As they began to run down the games, we got to Michigan/Purdue, to which Chris Fowler said “It is a HUGE day in Purdue today”. I’m not sure that statement has every been uttered before. We once again got the random 35 second production piece from Tom Rinaldi, of which 15 seconds were the title card “Indefensible: by Tom Rinaldi”. That segued into a discussion of how form tackling has gone out of style in today’s college football, mostly due to the fact that nobody practices it anymore due to the risk of injury. Blah blah defense sucks now blah blah David Pollack not impressed with tackling today blah blah blah.

Today’s Tebow Memorial piece was one by Gene Wojciechowski, and featured Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o. We learned how he was born and raised a Mormon in Hawaii, but that he believes God led him to choose to travel a vast distance to play at noted Catholic university Notre Dame. We also learned the heartbreaking story of how earlier this year, his grandmother died one night after a long sickness. Six hour later his girlfriend died from leukemia. In accordance with their wishes, he went on to play the game against Michigan State that weekend, and dominated on defense in their win. Heck of a story.

After that we saw Todd McShay travel to West Virginia to meet up with Geno Smith and review some game tape. They compared him last year to this year, and the consensus is that this year he is better than last year, and this year he is pretty good (for those of you who missed the Baylor game). Then to discuss the Oregon State/Washington State, along with the Beaver Train, we brought back David Pollack who delivered some (questionably) fresh In-n-Out Burger. For those of you who missed it, the Oregon State head coach takes his team to In-n-Out after wins whenever they are on the road somewhere that has said burgers. David Pollack reminded everyone that he is still riding the Beaver train, and it was humorous.

pollackinnout2 — David Pollack’s gig before ESPN?

We also got a full Tom Rinaldi queit-talking piece about Jarvis Jones from Georgia. He was injured making a tackle while playing at USC; a play that briefly made him go numb in the upper body. He was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, and USC would not clear him to play. He then sought the advice of several other doctors across the country who approved him to continue playing (despite the risks), and he transferred to Georgia where he has become a stud and possible future NFL star. Pretty cool that he went from unable to play to being such a beast on the field.

Before we get down to the business we all came here for (the picks), we must discuss the signage from the South Carolina crowd today. As I previously mentioned, the crowd was completely insane, rowdy, and absolutely BRUTAL on the signs today. I haven’t seen a sign day like this in years. The following signs were all spotted, and I initially thought they might be SIGN OF THE DAY, but they did not even end up qualifying:

-We saw the return of the “I’m Asian!” sign
-“Pollack wears shape-ups”
-“Mark Richt drinks wine coolers”
-“Sammy Potkins”
-“Corso loves Nickelback”
-“Texas State SEC 2020”
-“Corso wants cocks”

However, the finalists are the following you see below.

desmondourcocksrise2 — The Cocks rise to the occasion!

fowlerpenisvagina2 — Presented without comment

I’m sure I couldn’t even see them all, but like I said, the signage was completely OUT OF CONTROL and I spent all morning rewinding and replaying it. However, the time has come that we get down to the business of the slate of picks. The guys actually picked a ton of games all throughout the show, so most of the show-ending picks were no surprise, but we did see the return of the celebrity guest picker: Darius Rucker of Hootie & the Blowfish and Darius Rucker fame. This guy was a complete 180-degree turn from dirt-bike man we had in Tallahassee a few weeks ago. Darius Rucker came on the set with no notes, and broke the games down as good as any of the analysts. Apparently he is a pretty huge fan of college football, so we salute you Darius. We also found out Steve Spurrier has a brand of wine named after himself, and learned that Chris Fowler and Darius Rucker may be wine connoisseurs.

The full slate of picks can be found HERE. When the time came for Coach Corso to make his headgear pick, he reminded us that twice this year he has already made a selection with a dog mascot (Texas A&M and Tennessee). He said third time is a charm, hinting that he was going with Georgia! NOT SO FAST! In usual hilarious fashion, he trolled the crowd nicely before picking South Carolina and holding a live rooster that Herbie was TERRIFIED of. It’ll be ok Herbie. Enjoy your day everyone.

southcarolinaheadgear2 — Herbie under attack as Corso picks the Cocks!

Week 5 2012: Gameday Review!

Posted on September 29, 2012 by gamedaycole

Well ladies and gents, it was a long, long day around here due to the fact that my work decided that I needed to be there most of today. Apparently that’s where I get money to pay bills or something, so I couldn’t really argue. As I stated earlier, we were camped out at Jennifer’s house overnight, and we got up early to watch the ESPNU hour of Gameday, along with as much as I could see on the main show before I had to be at work. She was awesome enough to not only DVR Gameday for me, but she watched it twice for me: once to make her own picks this morning, and once when I got home tonight. She also had homemade chile relleños ready for dinner when I walked in the door (and she got the recipe from a real Mexican, so you know its good!). How did I get this lucky? I’m not sure, but I’ll take it.

Anyways, now that I have viewed all of Gameday and had a chance to digest everything, let’s dive right in. We were broadcasting live from East Lansing, Michigan for the matchup between Ohio State and Michigan State. Samantha Steele apparently met her new boyfriend there this week, so sorry to all of you who are reading this and thought you had a shot. He’s a good listener, but not much of a talker apparently.

samanthasteeleboyfriend — Samantha Steele’s new boyfriend

There was a very lively crowd gathered this morning to celebrate Gameday’s broadcast, and they were especially happy to see Michigan Wolverine Desmond Howard grace everyone with his presence. And if you couldn’t tell, that was sarcasm, as it poured boos every time he started talking. What do you expect when your two most hated rivals are playing at each other, and you’re supposed to chime in with your unbiased opinion? On a related note, the sign of the day was inspired by the Heisman winner, and had his face plastered on it.

signcloseup2 — Desmond Howard’s worst nightmare: Sparty vs Buckeye

As things continued, we got the usual Chris Fowler open before Samantha Steele took over hosting with Pollack and Howard breaking things down for us. Anyone who is a regular to College Gameday will surely know Chris Fowler’s $100 challenge, where he poses some obscure college football trivia question nobody will ever know an answer to, and if they get it right he will give them the hundred dollar bill. Today, Samantha Steele started her own version; the $20 challenge. I don’t remember the question or the answer, but this will certainly be an entertaining segment in the future.

20dollarquestion2 — $20 Challenge: Keep practicing

Speaking of Samantha Steele, Jennifer was torn on her outfit today, as was I. She had on a pink jacket with a green and red scarf, along with some black pants and boots. This marks her first appearance without the wedge heels. Jennifer didn’t think the scarf matched the jacket, and as she put it, she liked the outfit from the chest up and waist down, but not the torso. I’m not quite the fashion critic she is, so I’ll leave it to Jennifer.

We got a replay of some Mike Gundy video they have played all this week on ESPN about their weekly prep. We got some early picks from David and Desmond, including lots of boos when they both picked Ohio State over Sparty. A nice “Ohio sucks” chant broke out. Tough crowd. We also got David Pollack’s third consecutive pick of Oregon State. As he put it, he is “riding the Beaver train”. There were many more immature snickers referencing our Gameday crew’s love of the Beavers. Grow up guys.

As the main show on ESPN kicked off with Fowler, Corso, Herbie and Howard, they sent David Pollack to use the internet. This week he was tweeting live from an ice-cream shop, where he was having some mint chocolate chip with Sparty.

pollackinternet2 — David Pollack: Internet User

We got a nice Chris Fowler interview with Brian Kelly that I mostly slept through. Sorry Notre Dame fans, but Brian Kelly is quite generic. Perfect for Notre Dame. At least he’s doing things better than Charlie Weiss. We had the Gameday crew breaking down the hideous Nebraska and Wisconsin uniforms for tonight. Why can’t teams with classic looks just leave them alone? There was a segment by Gene Wojciechowski about the fall of the Arkansas Razorbacks. The gist was that Bobby Petrino not only screwed himself, but screwed the entire football team (as you can now see). Also, John L. Smith is crazy.

This week’s Tebow Memorial Segment was about De’anthony Thomas from Oregon, who grew up in the hood in LA. After a rough upbringing, he became well known playing in Snoop Dogg’s youth football league, and was such a standout that Snoop himself gave him the nickname Black Mamba, after the snake. Snoop himself had a nice quote about Thomas: “He is like Thomas Edison”. I don’t get it, but sounds good.

We also got a brief Tom Rinaldi segment about the suffering Big 10, highlighting their struggles against… well anyone outside of conference. We got a FULL Tom Rinaldi quiet talking segment about Braxton Miller at Ohio State. Apparently he’s pretty good or something. My biggest takeaway was that Braxton Miller has a gigantic ass, and Urban Meyer likes to let him know this. I didn’t know Urban Meyer was funny.

But enough jokes from Urban Meyer, its time to get down to the business we all came here for. Picks. Lots of them. I’m sure you’ve been waiting anxiously to know who the guest celebrity picker was. Well I’m sure you’ll be as impressed as this Michigan State/Ohio State crowd to learn that there was no celebrity guest. Instead, we got an extra dose of Desmond Howard! Before we get down to headgear picks, let the official record show that Chris Fowler issued a TRIPLE NOT-SO-FAST and called for the Oklahoma State upset over Texas. Heading into this headgear selection, Coach Corso is 10-3 all time picking games in the state of Michigan. What does this mean in the statistical sense? Nothing really, but go with it. He looked back fondly at how his first every headgear pick was putting on the Buckeye headgear 16 years ago. But that was just to fake the crowd out. He reminded us he picked Sparty to go to the Rose Bowl this year! DOUBLE FAKE! He went with the Buckeyes for his official headgear pick, and after all that poking and prodding, the crowd reacted with a nice chant of “Asshole!” as the games kicked off this morning.

week5headgear2 — Awkward wave! Go Buckeyes!

Week 4 2012: College Gameday Review

Posted on September 22, 2012 by gamedaycole

Welcome back. College Gameday is just ending, the full day of games are just beginning, and its time for us to take a minute to reflect on this morning’s activities. Things were a little hectic this morning as we suffered some technical difficulties involving the FIOS box, DVR, and their ability for me to view College Gameday. Luckily we had a backup TV, but might have missed a couple of details while I was getting things back into working order. Things are back online, and all is normal in the universe.

We kicked off things live from Tallahassee, Florida this morning for the big matchup between Clemson and Florida State. Going into this show, they said FSU is only 3-5 when Gameday is present on their campus, so take note of this important information gamblers. Coach Corso also comes into this week riding a two-week losing streak for his headgear picks. Can he turn it around? Tune in tonight to find out. Who did he pick? Read on and you will see (or just scroll down if you could care less about anything I say). Things started off the first hour as always with Chris Fowler welcoming us to the presentation with Desmond Howard and David Pollack. Then Samantha Steele took over hosting the first hour because, as she put it, the humidity was killing his hair. We got discussions on all the games including tonight’s game, which has now been dubbed “The Battle of Jimbo and Dabo”. We got a replay of last week’s Dewey Bozella piece and his inspirational story of being wrongfully imprisoned. The first hour closed, as always, with picks from Desmond and David making picks. They both took the Seminoles and got quite an ovation from the crowd. Also, Samantha Steele’s shoes made another return, so Jennifer will be thrilled. No outlandish suit from Desmond Howard; I am disappointed.

morningcrew — The Early Crew: Looking Sharp

As the second hour started, David Pollack was sent back to the bus to go use the internet. I do apologize, but this was during our technical difficulties, and this is the closest picture I got of him tweeting, when the FSU cheerleaders threw one of their members at him and he managed to catch her. Well done David.

davidpollackinternet2 — Pollack put away the internet; catches cheerleader!

During today’s show, we got some footage of Lee Corso’s time spent playing for Florida State back in the mid 1950s. I don’t know about you, but I love watching vintage college football clips. Nothing better than a lazy day watching “Southwest Conference Legends” on Fox Sports Net that used to air a few years ago. Coming back from one commercial, we got a piece by Tom Rinaldi called “Chopped” about FSU, and the piece lasted about 25 seconds. I thought this was going to be a full Tom Rinaldi quiet-talking segment, but it was really short and didn’t have much of a point. I don’t understand why we needed a full title card for “Chopped: by Tom Rinaldi” for a piece less than a minute long. However, we did get a full Tebow Memorial Segment by Tom Rinaldi about Jimbo Fisher’s son Ethan who suffers from Fanconi Anemia. Apparently its a blood disorder that his son has, and the life expectancy is about 25. It sounds pretty horrible, because even if you get a bone marrow transplant to fight the disorder, you are still susceptible to all kinds of cancers. Heartbreaking stuff, but you would never know it looking at Ethan. The kid doesn’t look like he has a care in the world, so best of luck to him.

We got a discussion between Pollack, Herbie and Jesse Palmer back in the studio about Mizzou’s QB James Franklin refusing the needle and sitting out last week’s game. Jesse Palmer chimed in with a great looking opinion that Franklin made the right decision. He talked about his own choice to use painkillers to get through a game, and how it messed him up for weeks after that because he couldn’t feel the damage he was causing to his body. Pollack said if he heard the opposing QB had a bad shoulder, he was coming for the shoulder. We also found out FSU does not like Jesse Palmer, as it rained down boos when he came on the screen. They must be jealous of his good looks.

We saw the return of Bald Man on Campus with Scott Van Pelt, which we have missed the last two weeks. His initial piece was him hanging out on campus with Denard Robinson, and this week was him hanging out on campus with Collin Klein; Kansas State QB. Comparisons were made to Tim Tebow. Both white. Both home schooled. Both religious. Both rugged. Both bring their lunch pale. Both great leaders. They talked about Klein always getting bloodied up from taking the big hits, and he said he always looks at his teammates in the huddle who take bigger hits to help him out. Apparently he supports Tebow, and Tebow supports him. Klein also plays the piano, violin and mandolin. Great segment, and I’m glad we had SVP back.

Now its time to get down to the real business at hand. You probably came here for picks, so its time for picks. For the full slate of Saturday morning picks, check out THIS POST. Last night on Twitter, Lee Fitting (@leefitting on Twitter) said he spent 30 minutes planning out the headgear pick with Lee Corso last night. I could only imagine what they were coming up with. There was also high speculation about who would be the guest celebrity. My vote of former FSU star Burt Reynolds did not win. What they managed to dig up is Tallahassee native and noted motocross driver Ricky Carmichael. Ricky came onto the set with Fowler, Corso and Herbie and did a great job of contributing pretty much nothing to the presentation. He had some great insight like “Gonna be a lot of points in this Oregon-Arizona game”, and “I’m going to the game tonight, so I gotta go with Florida State”. Lee Corso was very unimpressed with this backwards-hat-wearing motorcycle jumper, and pretty much gave him a big MEH every time he picked a game. This all built up to the big game tonight. FSU only 3-5 all-time when Gameday is on campus. Corso riding a two game losing streak on headgear picks. Would he give the kiss of death to the Seminoles this week? What was the big presentation Lee Fitting and Coach Corso came up with? This should answer your question. Also, I can’t be the only one who thought about this separated at birth comparison below. Choose wisely, and enjoy your Saturday folks.