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Week 10 2015: College Gameday review! #cfb #BamavsLSU

Posted on November 7, 2015 by gamedaycole

Welcome back football fans to our way-too-late edition of the week 10 College Gameday review. Today’s edition of College Gameday was comin’ to your citaaay live from Tuscaloosa, Alabama for the matchup between #2 LSU and #4 Alabama. Given the fact that this was the third Alabama game of the year featuring Alabama, I feel that the show may be better titled Alabama Gameday presented by ESPN. The crowd was pretty small this morning at Gameday, which can be attributed to the rain, or more likely the fact that Alabama fans don’t care to show up anymore when they get Gameday once a month.

Since we are already in the middle of bagging on this morning’s crowd in Tuscaloosa, let’s go ahead and get signs over with. The signs this morning were probably the weakest of the season so far. We had a lot of corn dog discussion, a “We want Memphis!” sign, and “Les Miles likes being the little spoon”. Since the signs from this morning sucked, I am going to rule no winner this week and instead feature the following:

Speaking of Comin’ to your Citaaaay, I still get a lot of traffic from people wondering who the woman is in the latest edition of the College Gameday intro. For those who need to know, she is Lzzy Hale from the band Halestorm.

An odd discussion broke out early in today’s show when Kirk Herbstreit informed us that Chris Fallica is a savant when it comes to 1980s professional wrestling talent. Fallica admitted this is “one of many” problems he has. Now, I’m not going to sit here and pretend that in 8th grade my plan for life wasn’t to become a professional wrestler, but there was probably a little more discussion of 1980s WWF talent than one would hope for on College Gameday.

Alright now that I’ve bagged on this morning’s show a little bit, let’s turn this review around. The show got back on track this morning with the WEEK 10 SAMANTHA PONDER OUTFIT OF THE WEEK REVIEW BY @GAMEDAYJEN!!!! Jennifer was a big fan of the look today, stating “I really liked the sweater and the rain boots, and I also liked her hair today!” Follow @GamedayJen for all of your college football fashion-related news and opinions.

Sam Ponder had her usual Cheeze-It Real Fan of the Week segment mid-show today, and it was one of the more bizarre Cheeze-It related segments in recent memory. Sam was interviewing some girl who won this week’s contest, and spent about two full minutes interviewing this girl as she proceeded to explain how she painted the letter A on her own face. I haven’t ever painted an A on my face, but I can’t imagine there is THAT much to it.

George Whitfield joined Rece Davis for this week’s casual walking segment while they break down quarterback play in college football. They put on rain boots because the ground was a big mess of mud and puddles, and the highlight of this segment was George Whitfield making a joke referencing Gameday producer Lee Fitting by saying the boots were “Air Fittings”. He was pretty impressed with his joke, as I am sure you are too.

Now let’s stop down because it is time for VIDEOS!!!!

-The story of Clemson Co-Offensive Coordinator Tony Elliott can be found HERE. It details the story of how he lost his mother in a tragic car accident at age 9, went on to become a standout football player, earned a scholarship to Clemson, and in 2002 reunited with Dabo Swinney to join the Clemson staff. I give this segment an A.
-Sam Ponder and David Pollack were back for another zany week of #YouHadOneJob. This has gone from a highlight reel of epic fails to a highlight video of the week’s funny happenings, but I still support it and so should you. SUPPORT IT HERE!!!
-The story of the day was without a doubt Tom Rinaldi’s piece on Sid Ortis. Sid was a youngster who grew up in Alabama as a die-hard LSU fan. Rinaldi has been up and down this year with his emotionally targeted stories, but this one is an A+++. Words can’t really do it justice, so just go WATCH IT HERE!!! Les Miles is featured in it heavily and he is a true orator for the ages. Once upon a time around 2007, a youthful, angry, and possibly inebriated Gameday Cole was the biggest detractor of Les Miles you could find. I didn’t like how he handled all of the Michigan head coaching opening speculation among other things, but this man has grown on me in a big way over the last few years.

As we neared the end of the show, we found out the day’s guest celebrity picker was going to be none other than rap music mogul Rick Ross. They had teased this yesterday as “going to be huge with the kids” and “like no other picker before”. But before we get to the Corso and Ross’ antics, let’s stop down for some Nana Puddin’.

Ok that was yummy. Back to Gameday. When it came time for Rick Ross to disembark the Gameday bus, there is a slight chance that the cameraman was just told that Rick Ross was a big black guy, because the focus was stuck on Rick Ross’ bodyguard for an unusual amount of time before Ross debuted.

“Rick Ross joins us for picks” -Rece Davis

Rick Ross? Close enough I guess... — Rick Ross? Close enough I guess…

Upon joining the Gameday desk, Rick Ross was presented with a gift of pears by Lee Corso as a reference to the following:

If you told me Lee Corso, wearing a fake beard/sunglasses/gold jewelry, would be gifting pears to Rick Ross because of a popular Vine post this year on Gameday, I am not sure I would have believed you before today.

Shoutout to all my pears. pic.twitter.com/mQ7NIRgb46

— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) November 7, 2015

When it came time to get down to the business of picking games, Rick Ross had some fantastic input on the games of the day. He was dropping QB names right and left, but also let us know that he picked TCU because “Boykin is bossin’ up” (whatever that means, since I’m white), and that he really liked Memphis in today’s game because he owns a few of Wingstops in Memphis (and I like wings). As the final pick approached, we can review the Bama/LSU picks so far. David Pollack and Chris ‘The Bear’ Fallica both picked Alabama. Desmond and Kirk both went with LSU in today’s game, and to nobody’s surprise Rick Ross took Alabama. As we all know, Corso is in love with the Alabama headgear. It is surely amongst his favorites, which include the Oregon Duck, Notre Dame Leprechaun, and the FSU headdress. He got the crowd riled up with Sweet Home Alabama, before issuing a ROLL TIGERS and popping on the Bayeux Bengals headgear, which had been modified with a Leonard Fournette beard and Leonard Fournette mouthgear. A really fun end to a show which got off to a rough start this morning. Enjoy your day and have a happy football!

Corso goes for the Tigers, Leonard Fournette beard and braces included, in the @ChevyTrucks #SaturdaySelections. pic.twitter.com/JIkpYg6CCG

— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) November 7, 2015

Week 8 2015: College Gameday review! #cfb

Posted on October 24, 2015 by gamedaycole

Welcome back to the return of our inconsistent and way overdue College Gameday review. We missed the last few weeks to a lot of important business going on (i.e. laziness) and we are glad to be back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Today’s broadcast was coming to you live in color from Harrisonburg, Virginia for the matchup between FCS powerhouses the Richmond Spiders and the James Madison Duke Dogs. After some quick research, it looks like James Madison has an enrollment of 20,181, and judging by the scene out there today every single one of their students were on hand for this broadcast. I thought the NDSU crowd of two years ago was the biggest I can remember seeing, but this may have topped it.

As the show got underway, we were introduced to some woman named Margo who teaches English in Spain. Margo crowdsourced a plane ticket home to JMU for Gameday today. That is dedication.

One note about today’s schedule is that Desmond Howard was particularly giggly during today’s show. Enjoying the Desmond Howard over-laugh is one of the truly great pastimes of any College Gameday connoisseur and today did not disappoint. Jennifer said that maybe he took one too many uppers after the Michigan disaster last week.

Sign game was on point this week. Highlights included “Sober as Sarkisian”, “Lou Holtz parties with Lamar Odom”, “Todd McShay is a Commie”, multiple signs referring to Richmond only eating plain Pop-tarts, and some guy who printed his impressive resume as a sign.

And of course, courtesy of the official College Gameday reddit account:

They recycled last year’s segment by Gene W. about FCS players who made it big in the NFL. Or maybe he rewrote it from this year. Either way I enjoyed it, even though there was a distinct lack of Sam Houston State talent such as Josh McCown, Dustin Long, Rhett Bomar, or Guido Merkens.

They had a segment breaking down down the Michigan Meltdown or whatever you want to call that Michigan State/Michigan finish from last week. Apparently Rece and Kirk shut the game off early thinking it was over, and we all remember Desmond Howard cursing the Wolverines on the sidelines when he tweeted the following:

Now it’s time for VIDEOS!!!

Today’s most touching piece was the story of Princeton offensive lineman Mason Darrow, who is the first openly gay division 1 player to take the field. Check out the full video HERE!!!

Another “story” piece was reliving the story of that Michigan State Miracle mentioned earlier, which can be found HERE!!!

And finally a piece on Hunter Knighton, who almost died of a heat stroke during practice one day. Check it out HERE!!

Also, we had a bizarre moment when Sam Ponder was interviewing JMU head coach Everett Withers. After the interview, he announced to the team that they would be wearing old school helmets. That’s pretty cool, but the team and crowd went BANANAS when he showed it off.

Other notes from today’s show:

Bear’s Bank was 10-10-1 heading into the show today, where he took Miami Fl with the points, Vanderbilt and the points, and layed the points with USC. However, his ESPN Chalk record against the spread was 30-16 heading into the day. In other words, he is printing free money on ESPN Chalk, but be careful with the Bear’s Bank.

The Sam Ponder outfit of the week was a nice one. Jennifer says “I like the skirt, I like the sweater, and I like the shirt underneath. Overall it is an excellent look. I really like Fall Sam Ponder”.

Apparently Richmond bought a spider to bring for Gameday today so they would have a mascot on hand.

George Whitfield and Rece Davis did their regular segment where they uncomfortably walk through the crowd while breaking down quarterback play. This one actually had a great highlight for once, when the ESPN cameraman fell down going up the stairs and chaos ensued.

https://twitter.com/mikedyce/status/657924872350253056

When it came time to make some picks, today’s guest celebrity was country music singer Dierks Bentley. Corso was conspicuously absent from the set during the entire pick segment. However, Herbie read off Corso’s notes for all of Corso’s picks and it was actually pretty funny. Apparently in the USC/Utah game, SOMEBODY KNOWS SOMETHING when it comes to that spread, and that SOMEBODY was identified as Chris Fallica I guess because he ate 3.5 points early this week, and ate even more laying 6.5 today. Anyways, when it came time to pick the big JMU/Richmond game today, Desmond, Kirk and Dierks were in agreement that JMU would take the victory today. The camera then cut to the JMU campus where Lee Corso emerged from a grand hall, presented by trumpets and streamers while dressed as James Madison before putting on the Duke Dog headgear. I did not think I would write the previous sentence when I woke up this morning. Anyways, pretty funny stuff and a white knuckle ride as Corso walked down stairs unassisted. This marks the second time Corso has dressed up in costume as a founding father, with his previous time being Ben Franklin for the Harvard/Pennsylvania game of 2002. Jennifer and Charley both went with JMU as well, making it a clean sweep in the predictions this morning. Enjoy the rest of your football night.

Lee Corso takes James Madison in epic fashion in today's @ChevyTrucks #SaturdaySelections. pic.twitter.com/30wpTiQejG

— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) October 24, 2015

Charley the Cat picked James Madison today for all interested parties #JMUGameDay #cfb #cfbpicks #richvsjmu pic.twitter.com/VKovHPMXeW

— Cole (@gamedaycole) October 24, 2015

Week 4 2015: College Gameday review! #cfb

Posted on September 26, 2015 by gamedaycole

Welcome to the way-too-late Week 4 edition of the College Gameday review. This week’s edition of College Gameday was broadcasting to your television set live in color from Tuscon, Arizona for the big matchup between Arizona and UCLA. Whenever Gameday is on the west coast for a Pac-12 game, it is always an early start at the show location, and this brings out the best (or worst) of the fans on most occasions. Maybe it is because only the crazies would get up that early to go claim a spot for Gameday, or maybe it is because they can basically go straight from the bar to the Gameday site, but comedy is always present for the 6AM local start.

Before the show even started this morning, there was urgent business which almost postponed the entire show. The Washington State flag, which has appeared at 166 consecutive College Gameday shows dating back to 2003, was lost in transit sometime late Thursday or early Friday. The show was almost cancelled by producer Lee Fitting as you can see below:

We have seized all activity on the @CollegeGameDay set until Ol' Crimson makes it to Tucson. We will not proceed without. #FreeOlCrimson

— Lee Fitting (@leefitting) September 25, 2015

Let’s dive right into the sign game this week. Strong contenders this week included “I LIKE SPORTS” and “I’m still drunk”. I was surprised at the lack of Lane Kiffin signs after the rumor mill started buzzing this week, but perhaps they were just confiscated before being allowed to enter the Gameday site. There was a massive amount of signs picking at the alleged minutiae of everyday life for our student athletes and their coaches. Lots of Jim Mora tributes including “Jim Mora waters his lawn” and “Jim Mora is gluten free”. However, the target of more signs than anyone else was UCLA QB Josh Rosen. “Josh Rosen hangs out with his RA”, “Josh Rosen wears socks to bed”, and “Josh Rosen doesn’t even fast on Yom Kippur” were among the many featured. However this week’s co-signs of the week are a little bit edgier that we usually see on Gameday.

For some unknown reason, there was a point early in the show where the crew was discussing the Rutgers/Kansas game. I only point this out because none of the Gameday hosts knew who the head coach of Kansas was except Rece Davis. Poor Clint Bowen.

The Sam Ponder outfit of the week was a hit in our household this week. Jennifer gave it big props, so let us know what you think.

Tom Rinaldi presented us this week’s touching piece about teams surprising some of their walk-ons with scholarships in different ways. This was pretty much a recycled segment from last season on the same subject, but I would be perfectly fine if they did one of these segments every year. Those of you who may have read my reviews before know I love to bag on Tom Rinaldi for sensationalizing certain pieces (see last week’s Lawrence Phillips piece) but seeing walk-ons get scholarships certainly gives me the warm fuzzies.

Speaking of Tom Rinaldi, he and Gene W. did a quick piece on football players and their use of the ice bath. I point this out because not only did we get both of them shirtless, they went into an ice bath and then Tom Rinaldi disappeared as the crowd around him jumped in. We may never see him again judging by the full video.

Today we got to revisit the inspiring story of USC deep snapper Jake Olsen. In case you’re new to the show, he had been featured in Gameday as a 12 year old USC fan who was going to lose his eyes to cancer. He had appeared as a special guest picker posting a 6-4 record picking with Corso and the boys. He had appeared as the only blind high school deep snapper I’ve ever heard of. And today he appeared as the newest addition to the USC roster as a deep snapper. He hasn’t gotten play time yet, but it is a pretty darn cool story with how much he has accomplished. He is playing major college football without the sense of sight. I am laying on a couch eating ice cream while blogging. It is pretty much the same thing I guess.

Gameday did a feature on LSU running back and Heisman hopeful Leonard Fournette. You probably remember his most famous moment when he performed a Heisman pose while squeaking out a win against Sam Houston State last year 56-0.

This piece on him from today featured his story of surviving Hurricane Katrina and a tough upbringing in New Orleans. The most shocking moment was when he casually told us about football practice one day as a youngster in New Orleans. “That spot over there with the swings, that’s where one of the coaches got shot in the head at.” All I could think is:

Still a great segment, so check it out here.

As the show started to wind down, it was once again time for everyone’s favorite segment, #YOUHADONEJOB!!!! Just watch the video because words do not do it justice.

When it came time to get down to the business of picking games, this week’s special guest celebrity initially left me scratching my head. He is famous(?) Arizona alumnus Bob Baffert. I didn’t know who that was until Jennifer told me he was the trainer of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. He arrived on a private jet, so he must be doing well in life. He seemed to have little idea of what is going on in football, and mostly picked games based on a friend or relative who went to a school. To nobody’s surprise he picked Arizona to win today. David Pollack had gone with Arizona earlier in the show, and Desmond Howard agreed. When it came time for Coach Corso to make his pick, he cut to a shot of American Pharoah picking the game and taking UCLA. To my knowledge that is the first time a horse has picked games on Gameday, but I will follow up on that research later. Animals must stick together because Charley the Cat went with UCLA as well, while Jennifer and Coach Corso both took Arizona in today’s featured game. This was the first time Corso has ever picked Arizona as his headgear selection, so this is quite a historical day.

Enjoy your night and have a happy football!

Corso picks Arizona! Courtesy @CollegeGameday