samantha ponder – Page 4 – Cole's Gameday Blog

Week 14 2014: College Gameday review #rivalryweek #cfb #cfbplayoff

Posted on November 29, 2014 by gamedaycole

Rivalry week games are in full swing with some great action on the fields so far on this Saturday, so it is time to stop down and review this morning’s College Gameday.

This edition of College Gameday was broadcasting to your television set from Tuscaloosa, Alabama for the legendary Iron Bowl game between Alabama and Auburn. The rest of the rivalry week game slate is nearly that impressive all the way around, so this week’s show was very football intensive and short on nonsense.

The Gameday crew opened up the show with their quick hit segment advertising the ESPN network games of the day, and was then followed by the re-emergence of the mysterious entity known as Babi Mac. Ms. Mac was featured while entertaining the crowd after coming back from the first commercial break, but was completely obstructed from view by the cameraman who chose to record her appearance with a trophy and a pole in the way.

There was an appearance by QB guru George Whitfield to discuss Marcus Mariota with Sam Ponder. It appears that in Whitfield’s spare time he may also be joining the Nation of Islam with this week’s outfit. I do have to admit, his suit fit much better this week and it was much less outlandish on the patters. Please note the teeny tiny lapel rosette for your enjoyment.

Signs this week were pretty disappointing. It was quite a large crowd this week with tons of signs, so I’m sure we missed something good, but it was slim pickings to find gold this week. For that reason, we will highlight the most crude sign of the week, as well as the biggest giveup of a sign this week.

While we are looking at Kirk’s handsome mug above, please take note that he is not wearing a lapel rosette this week. Our public relations department attempted to contact his people for an official statement regarding the lapel rosettes he has been wearing recently, but they declided to comment on his behalf. Or maybe I tweeted at him and he never responded. Jerk.

While we are on the topic of fashion, let’s stop down to review the Sam Ponder Outfit of the Week! This week she was wearing a nice knit sweater with a black skirt and leggings. Jennifer complimented the skirt and sweater combo as well as the jewelry, calling it all around “a good look”. Sam Ponder, if you are reading this for some reason, just remember your biggest fan is waiting for a shoutout @GamedayJen.

A feature piece this week was a segment highlighting “grand entrances” in college football. You know, where teams follow whatever ritual before storming the field prior to the game. Most of this segment seemed to focus on the Michigan banner and Howard Schnellenberger introducing the smoke effect into the pregame entrance at Miami, but the beginning was a pretty funny segment about a youth football team failing to break their entrance banner. I found it odd there was no mention of grand entrances such as the Clemson rock and hill they run down, the Colorado team being led onto the field by a buffalo, OU and Texas coming out of the same tunnel, or whatever your favorite entrance may be. The video can be found here for those interested http://goo.gl/bexlz2

The most important segment of the day was the appearance of Jesse Palmer on College Gameday. In case you missed it, David Pollack and Jesse Palmer attempted to recreate the Odell Beckham Jr. catch from last week’s Cowboys game. The video can be found here http://goo.gl/5pjUxd

Gene W. had a piece covering last year’s Iron Bowl and some of the quirkier aspects you may not have known about. The segment featured the team’s equipment manager Dana Marquez, who sewed together a torn jersey on the sideline late in the game rather than use a spare, because a new jersey might jinx the game. Apparently the field crew discovered that after the field was rushed last year, someone scattered a person’s ashes on the field perhaps in accordance with their last wishes. The main focus was on Auburn student Hayden Hart, who stole Gus Malzahn’s visor after the game last year. They were reunited this year when Gus met Hayden and offered to sign the visor for him.

Nick Saban joined the crew to discuss football items. I know he may have a reputation of being stoic, but I am predicting he will end up as an ESPN mainstay whenever he decides to call it quits at Alabama.

When it came time to pick the games, this week’s special guest picker was none other than Alabama legend, wearer of fur coats, and best friend of Suzy Kolber, the man known as Joe Namath. He seemed in great spirits and sobriety this morning as he picked the slate of games today. On set, both Namath and Corso manifested themselves a pair of fur coats to wear while picking games.

In this week’s edition of “Desmond Howard picking the Michigan game”, a dejected Desmond Howard said his Wolverines would fight hard but that it just wouldn’t be enough to overcome the Ohio State Buckeyes this year. I may have seen a single tear roll down his cheek, but this is unconfirmed.

For this week’s big game, David, Desmond and Kirk were unanimous that Alabama would win today’s big game. Joe Namath too went with his Crimson Tide. Lee Corso goaded the crowd, saying that he picked Alabama the previous year and was let down. Just when you thought he was going to pull the trigger on Auburn, he faked us out and threw that elephant headgear on for another Alabama pick.

Now my memory may be a little bit hazy, but I’m pretty sure that in my Gameday season preview back in August I predicted at some point we would see Lee Corso and Joe Namath wearing matching fur coats while Corso donned an elephant mascot head. Anyways, Charley the Cat did a triple fake-out before picking Auburn to beat Alabama this morning, so we are looking for a showdown between Charley and Corso tonight.

Week 12 2014: College Gameday review! #cfb #saturdayselections #bamavsmissst

Posted on November 15, 2014 by gamedaycole

The afternoon games are in full swing, so its time to do this thing. Your week 12 College Gameday review has arrived. Today’s show was broadcasting live from Tuscaloosa, Alabama for the huge matchup between the undefeated Mississippi State Bulldogs and the Alabama Crimson Tide.

As of the show start time, I believe it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 26 degrees in Tuscaloosa, but that didn’t stop one brave fan from proving his toughness/insanity by showing up at least shirtless, while holding the “I’M NAKED” sign. We never saw his lower body, but this reporter will speculate that he surely had at least a pair of tidy-whities on.

Other notable signs included “Jameis Winston’s Lawyer for Heisman” and “Auburn fumbled my other sign”, but this week’s undisputed winner was the following:

While we are talking about the above screenshot, everyone will be excited to know that Herbie was back with the “KIRK HERBSTREIT LAPEL ROSETTE OF THE WEEK”. There is still a lot of speculation going on about this, and while I am sure it is nothing more than an extra little bit of flair for his suit, I assure you our crack investigation team will get to the bottom of this.

The audience at our house was incredibly excited (or not) to see the return of one Babi Mac, who was wowing the crowd in Tuscaloosa with tunes. I still don’t get how she got added to this cast of characters on Gameday, and I find it strange.

There was a duo of touching segments today featuring emotional stories from Tom Rinaldi and Gene W. The first was the tragic story of former Auburn tight end Philip Lutzenkirchen who had his life cut short at the age of 23. Philip holds the record at Auburn for the most touchdowns by a tight end, was described as an incredibly funny guy, and won the 2010 national championship before his career was ended two years later by a hip injury. Philip’s dad then took over telling the story of how he got a phone call from the police one night telling him that his son was killed in a car wreck. After further investigation, it was found that Philip and his passenger were both legally intoxicated and not wearing seat belts. Philip’s father now tours the country speaking about his son, stressing the importance of making good decisions in life as well as the point that life is a privilege; not a right. Check out the full video here: http://t.co/wykbONfGbd

The second touching story was that of Mississippi State running back Josh Robinson. Josh grew up in Bogalusa, Louisiana, and was raised by his grandmother after his father disappeared from his life and his mother was in prison. Sadly, his grandmother died of a heart attack getting ready for church one morning in 2004, leaving Robinson without his caretaker. He bounced around between relatives’ and friends’ households before eventually living out of his car behind his high school football stadium. He said it seemed easy to fall into trouble in life, but he didn’t want to be a bad kid. After being offered a scholarship by Dan Mullen, he has now become a part of the Mississippi State family, and is incredibly close with the Mullen family. He now leads the SEC in rushing touchdowns. The full video can be found here: http://goo.gl/cVaJ7e

Sam Ponder made an appearance this week to interview Nick Saban. The highlight of this was video of Nick Saban dancing with his wife at an event. It is quite surreal to see him in such a human setting. Dancing was brought up because they previously aired a segment about coaches dancing in the locker room. I would describe it in detail here, but it just can’t be properly explained with words. I urge you to watch the video which can be found here: http://goo.gl/VGRYR2

Sam Ponder’s outfit of the week can be found below. Jennifer fell in love with the boots and vest. Around our house, this is not winter or the holiday season. It is “Samantha Ponder Winter Wear” season.

Quarterback guru George Whitfield was back this week, and continues to improve on his style (no doubt thanks to this blog). This week he was wearing a reasonably matching suit and tie, as well as “those damn brown shoes” as we call them around here. The main improvement this week was a slightly bigger jacket which allowed him increased range of movement when goofing off with Tom Rinaldi and Gene W. for a segment.

When it came time for this week’s big pick segment, our special guest picker was noted Sam Houston State alumnus Marcus Luttrell. I think he also wrote a book called “Lone Survivor” and it got turned in to a movie too. David Pollack started off the Gameday site picks by going with Alabama over the Bulldogs. During the finale, Luttrell played to the crowd by picking Alabama as well. Kirk and Desmond both went with the Tide as well. Corso took over at this point, reminding us that he lost his last two Alabama headgear picks. It seemed like he was going to pull the trigger and go with Mississippi State, but he faked us out and went with Alabama to win the big game. Charley the cat picked Alabama as well, so it is 100% unanimous from the panel that Alabama will be victorious. Enjoy the rest of your football evening.

Week 11 2014: College Gameday review #cfb #saturdayselections #getup4gameday

Posted on November 8, 2014 by gamedaycole

The picks are in; the morning games are coming to a close; the afternoon games are about to kick off; it is time for this week’s College Gameday review. Before we get started, I wanted to share for the record that the new woman shredding on the guitar in the new Gameday intro this year is Lzzy Hale from the band Halestorm. Lots of interest each week in who she is is or why she is our Gameday intro, and since I don’t think I ever addressed this issue I thought I would do that right now.

Lzzy Hale, comin' to your citaaay — Lzzy Hale, comin’ to your citaaay

Anyways. This week’s edition came to us live from East Lansing, Michigan for the biggest Big 10 matchup of the year, Michigan State vs. Ohio State. It was a chilly morning in East Lansing with the balmy weather somewhere around 37 degrees for the show. It should be noted that Desmond Howard was apparently broadcasting from somewhere in the Arctic circle this morning, or he was at least dressed for it.

37 degrees out in the wind is pretty chilly, but I’d like to compare it to what Kirk Herbstreit was wearing this morning:

One man wears a normal business suit, and another man is bundled up to explore the North pole. Was it never cold up there at Michigan when Desmond was busy winning Heismans? Anyways, another item we need to discuss is Kirk’s lapel rose this morning. This appears to be a recent trend in weeks where the Gameday crew (and SEC network crew) are sporting lapel roses. I’m not sure what to make of this, but lots of people are apparently interested, so let’s keep an eye out for Kirk’s lapel rose each week.

While we are on the topic of fashion, let’s review Gameday’s fashion version of the odd couple. Samantha Ponder was sporting a nice winter outfit this morning which Jennifer was a big fan of. She loved the jacket, loved the colors, and loved the details on the jacket. Jennifer said she loves “how sassy Samantha Ponder dresses” in the winter. She got two thumbs up from Jennifer this week. Someone who did not get two thumbs up was “Quarterback Guru to the Stars” George Whitfield. He appeared to be making progress with the matching colors this morning, but was still sporting a tiny coat with a teenie tiny lapel rose. If he was wearing “those damn brown shoes” as Jennifer calls them, at least they matched this week. Let’s keep making progress George!

We had two special feature stories this week, the first of which featured the only appearance of one Tom Rinaldi this week. It was a rehashing of a 2012 feature on Clemson wide receiver Daniel Rodriguez. Rodriguez served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and while in Afghanistan made a promise to a fellow soldier named Kevin Thompson that if he ever made it out of there alive he would play D1 college football somewhere. After a battle in which 8 soldiers were killed, including Thompson, Rodriguez was awarded a purple heart and bronze star. He returned home and put together a recruiting video with a friend and posted it to the internet. It caught the eye of Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, who saw an incredible work ethic and desire to play, which was punctuated by the fact that Rodriguez was not asking for a scholarship; only a chance to walk on. Since then, Rodriguez has played in 37 games straight. A great quote from Daniel to top it all off: “What do you do after your dream comes true? Go and live another dream”. The segment can be found here: http://goo.gl/sH9lis

The second feature of the day was presented by Gene W. and was a piece about Arizona State running back D.J. Foster. Foster’s backstory (like most Gene W. and Rinaldi pieces) is a great story of overcoming adversity. Foster lost his 19 year old sister at the age of 15, one week before his first ever varsity high school football game. He made it a point to not give up on living his life, and on the very first play of his varsity career returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown. When it came time to pick a college, he committed to stay close to home and attend Arizona State university, where he has kept the team on the national radar ever since. The touching finale was the story of the five year anniversary of his sister’s death, when Foster and his father met on the Arizona State practice field to release a bundle of balloons with his sister’s picture attached. They did this not to mourn her loss, but to celebrate her life.

Now that the touching stories are finished, let’s get to some wacky signs we saw this week in East Lansing. Strong work this week included “IS THIS THE NICKELBACK CONCERT?”, a bunch of Urban Meyer/Oscar Meyer weiner references, “Urban Meyer doesn’t wet his toothbrush”, and “RUSH HOUR 3 WAS OK”. This week’s inappropriate winners are the following:

Urban Meyer stole Tim Tebow's virginity — Urban Meyer stole Tim Tebow’s virginity

And of course…

Nice work fellas.

When it came time to get down to the business of picking games, Desmond Howard could do nothing right for this Michigan State crowd, as I’m sure you can imagine. He did manage to get back on track with the “OFFICIAL DESMOND HOWARD MICHIGAN PICK OF THE WEEK”, picking Michigan to take down Northwestern. The counter is reset this week, so our running count of Michigan picks is back at 1.

Our special guest celebrity this week was Alice Cooper, of rock and roll music fame. He is from Michigan I guess. He was very casual and non-chalant with his picks, and didn’t get too technical with his picks. I feel like the overly technical celebrity pickers tend to underperform, while Katy Perry wins the week for some reason. Mr. Cooper of course went with Michigan State over Ohio State, to the delight of the crowd, so his casual selections may be a good sign for Sparty. Desmond and David Pollack both went with Michigan State as well, while Kirk had another no-pick since he is calling the game. Coach Corso reminisced over his first ever official headgear pick, when he put on the Brutus the Buckeye headgear back in 1996. This got the crowd fired up, but he quickly changed his tone, as he ripped off his overcoat to reveal green armor, and his assistants put on a gigantic Spartan headgear and set of fake hands for him. Charley the Cat went with Ohio State, and may be due for a win, so this should be a good matchup between the two.