samantha steele – Cole's Gameday Blog

Week 5 2014: College Gameday Review #GetUp4Gameday

Posted on September 27, 2014 by gamedaycole

Well it looks like the show is over, the picks are entered into the official record, so it must be time to review our morning on College Gameday. The show was broadcasting live from the Columbia, South Carolina for the big-ish matchup between the Missouri Tigers and the South Carolina Gamecocks. In case you didn’t hear, Kenny Chesney will be joining the show today to pick games and perform live! There was a wild crowd out today, as is the case in most SEC matchups when Gameday is in town. The sign game was a little bit weak today, but let’s dive right in. Highlights from today’s sign game included “Gary Pinkel types in comic sans”, “Maddy Mauk? Never heard of her”, “Mizzou, Hoosier Daddy?”, “Maty Mauk wears crocks with socks” (also a possible Dr. Seuss title), “Maty Mauk thinks mayonnaise is an instrument”, and the incredibly confusing “Even a bad day in the SEC is better than a good day in Mizzou”. However, this week’s winner comes courtesy of Reddit user yracuse_ and is presented without comment.

After the normal crew of Lee Corso, Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Desmond Howard opened the show, Corso was replaced by David Pollack for the rest of the first hour. We normally get 1 or 2 picks from David Pollack and the other boys during this first hour, but they were going rapid-fire this morning and Pollack managed to get in 8 picks during the first hour. Impressive stuff. Samantha Ponder briefly joined the show to hang out with noted quarterback guru and champion of questionable outfits George Whitfield. They talked about Kenny Hill and his mechanics and vision from the pocket. In other words, the same as most other weeks. This brings us to FASHION REVIEWS with @GamedayJen. The Samantha Ponder outfit of the week is presented below. Jennifer said she loved the leopard print shirt on Ponder, but that the pants looked like leather sweatpants. I don’t know how to describe them any better. This week’s “Georgie Whitfield Mismatched Outfit of the Week” was reviewed by Jennifer as well. She said George “looks like he wants to be a hipster so bad, but he isn’t cool enough to pull it off”. Other comments from Jennifer on his outfit include “Why?” and “Don’t do it again”.

Speaking of which, did you hear Kenny Chesney is going to join us later in the show to perform live and make picks?

Gene W. had a piece on the Yale Bowl, as it turns 100 years old this year. Today’s matchup features Yale vs. Army, which is Yale’s first FBS opponent since the 90s. Did you know that the Yale/Army matchup today features two schools accounting for 24 national championships? This rivalry started in 1893 and ended in 1996, but it is back today. Kirk, Desmond, and David all picked Army over Yale in this one. Good segment with lots of vintage football clips featuring leather helments and gigantic hip pads. As the show moved along, we featured today’s Chef of the Day, John Hair from Jim ‘n Nicks BBQ. He was roasting a whole hog, and was very proud of his hog’s head.

Quickly following this piece was another Gene W. piece about the current dumpster fire known as the Michigan Wolverines football program. He highlighted the fact that visiting opponents now come into the Big House and mock Desmond Howard’s famous Heisman pose after scoring. Hard hitting questions were asked such as “IS BRADY HOKE THE RIGHT MAN FOR THIS JOB?” and “HOW HOT IS BRADY HOKE’S SEAT?” My memory may be fuzzy, but I seem to recall Lloyd Carr being run out of town like a common pygmy after going 11-2 and 9-4, only to be followed by Rich Rodriguez who was run out of town for not being enough of a “Michigan Man”. I also seem to recall the rejoicing in Ann Arbor following Brady Hoke’s hiring as if humanity had achieved world piece because WE FINALLY HIRED A REAL MICHIGAN MAN!!! Oh well, I hope you enjoy whoever coaches you to a 4 win season next year. Also, in case you missed it, this week’s “Desmond Howard Michigan Pick of the Week” featured Desmond Howard picking Michigan over Minnesota by 2 touchdowns. I wish somebody ran a blog where we could track Desmond Howard’s all time record picking Michigan in games *cough* 12-12 all time *cough*.

I’d like to take a moment to remind you that Kenny Chesney will be joining us later in the show to perform live and join us for picks.

Perhaps the best segment of the day was the story of SEC Coach Wives. This highlighted the contributions and lifestyles of various SEC coaches’ wives and how they interact and contribute to their respective programs. Fun notes from this segment include stories of Steve Spurrier’s wife being one of the only people who went to their husband’s Heisman ceremony, Saban’s wife saying she was glad she married him at 19 because she never had to know what a normal life was like, and Les Miles meeting his wife when they were both assistant coaches in the athletic department at Michigan. Dan Mullen’s wife is known as “Mama Mullen” and she likes to go to practice to motivate the players when they are down. Mark Richt’s wife enjoys mixing the team’s Powerade before games because they need to get it just right for that day. Nick Saban made a funny, telling us of how he asked his wife “Did you ever think in your wildest dreams we would win 3 national championships?”, to which she replied “Honey, you’re not even in my wildest dreams”. Gus Malzahn’s wife told the story of how she watches all games from the privacy of her own room at the stadium. After hearing her screaming at the top of her lungs, I can’t imagine why she “chose” to enjoy the games in the privacy of her own room. She also told the story of how every Saturday night, if the team wins, she takes Gus to Waffle House for date night. If anyone wants to get a Kickstarter campaign going to launch “Real Housewives of the SEC”, let me know, because this needs to exist. The absolute best comment of this segment came from LSU head coach and noted wordsmith Les Miles, who said his wife is the “assistant coach, recruiting coordinator, and all around valued opinion”. I would like to go on the record right now that I consider my wife Jennifer to be an all around valued opinion as well.

Stay tuned, because Kenny Chesney will be joining us later in the show to perform live and make picks with us!

We were also riveted to see the return of “Beatnik Poetry featuring Tom Rinaldi”. This week’s piece was entitled “Underway”, and had such philosophical one-liners as “Steele… bronze… gold… here’s the prize [picture of the championship trophy]… now here’s the pain [insert video of teams losing]”. He said some more stuff, and then let us know that the season is “Underway”.

This week’s overly casual roundtable segment (where they leave the desk to go sit in high chairs ten feet away and talk) featured the Gameday boys reviewing their preseason predictions . They each had a mulligan and were asked how they would change their picks today. The highlight was Corso boldly proclaiming he wouldn’t change a single thing in his predictions. Then the guys all talked over each other for a while.

Don’t go anywhere, because coming up later in the show Kenny Chesney will be joining us to perform live and make picks!

Tom Rinaldi had another segment featuring Mack Brown’s brother Watson Brown, who is head coach at Tennessee Tech. He is sitting at a 128-199 record, and is nearing the all-time loss record. However, he has accomplished a few good things in his time, such as building UAB from an FCS team to the FBS level, beating LSU at UAB, and never having a single NCAA infraction in his 30 years as a coach. I guess its like they say, if you’re not cheating in this sport then you’re not winning. Also, Tom Rinaldi was wearing these shoes today.

Tom Rinaldi's shoes — Tom Rinaldi’s shoes

Let’s move on. Coming up shortly, Kenny Chesney will be joining us to perform live and make picks. Now, this week’s “Chris Fowler Hundred Dollar Question”: What FBS team has lost a fumble on each of its opening series in its last three games? The Gameday crew took this opportunity to kick the directional Michigan schools in the crotch, picking Central Michigan, Eastern Michigan, and Western Michigan. However, the answer was UConn, and the hundred dollar bill remains unclaimed.

At this point something happened which you probably weren’t expecting today: Kenny Chesney joined the show to perform live to promote his new album or something!

Now that the Kenny Chesney concert is over, let’s get down to the real business at hand. It is time to make some picks. David Pollack got it started early, picking Mizzou over South Carolina. Kirk agreed, and went with Mizzou. Desmond picked South Carolina. Kenny Chesney was this week’s guest picker (I wish ESPN had hyped this up a little bit more), the only three-time-picker in the history of College Gameday guests. He picked South Carolina over Mizzou as well. Lee Corso poked and prodded the crowd, replaying footage from Gameday ten years ago when he boldly proclaimed Steve Spurrier would NEVER win a national championship at South Carolina! This sent the crowd into a tizzy, but ultimately Corso said they are still good enough to win the game today, as he popped on the Gamecock’s headgear and held up a live chicken. The live chicken marks this season’s first appearance of the “Kirk Herbstreit Subtle Fear of Live Animals” where he leans away cautiously every time a live animal is brought on set. Around the house here, Charley the Cat picked South Carolina as well, so Coach Corso will hold his one game lead over Charley on the year regardless of who wins. Enjoy your day and everyone have a happy football!

Week 4 2014: College Gameday review #getup4gameday

Posted on September 20, 2014 by gamedaycole

Hey hey there, welcome back to our College Gameday review for week 4 of this season. This week’s edition of College Gameday was coming at you live from Tallahassee, Florida for the big matchup between the Florida State Seminoles and the Clemson Tigers. Surprisingly, the combined crowd at FSU/Clemson seemed to be smaller than the NDSU crowd in Fargo last week. We opened the show with Lee, Kirk, Chris and David as usual, and one member of the team was adamant that he would not be caught wearing the same suit as Chris Fowler after the fashion debacle of two weeks ago. You may have noticed Desmond Howard wearing something like this:

Noted fashion critic and Gameday enthusiast Jennifer pointed out that he is not, in fact, summering in Nantucket this weekend. There has been a disturbing trend of plaid suits and jackets this year, so let’s keep an eye on this and make sure this doesn’t go too far. After opening the show, the first hour or so was dedicated to the latest Jameis Winston news. Unless you were living under a rock for the last week, you surely know that Winston has been in a bit of hot water due to some recent actions on campus. When discussing the suspension for tonight’s game, the crowd got a nice “bullshit” chant going. At one point they kicked it over to Sam Ponder, who had been sidelined this week after coach Jimbo Fisher pulled out of her interview segment. She went on a nice two minute rant about how people, and women especially, are getting fed up with this recent trend of shady situations in the football world. It was a good rant, but only provided us with a glimpse of the Sam Ponder Outfit of the Week. Jennifer liked it, although we couldn’t see much of it, saying it was a nice color and she likes the sleeves.

Signs this week were pretty lacking. Lots of repeats from the past taking shots at Jameis Winston. Highlights include “Samantha Ponder will you go to homecoming with me?”, “Clemson likes global warming”, “Dabo Swinney has a crush on Manti T’eo’s girlfriend”, “Sunshine Scooter for first half QB”, “Even Sarah McLachlan can’t save these cats”, but our winners are this combination next to each other featuring Paul Finebaum as the 60 Year Old Virgin, and Kim Jong Un wearing FSU facepaint.

This was our runner up this week:

As the crew started breaking down the rest of today’s games, they took a moment to cover the Arkansas/NIU game today. Kirk picked Arkansas over NIU to nobody’s surprised, and I am sure that will get NIU all stirred up again. In case you forgot:

There was a touching tribute to close the first hour to the father of Rece Davis, who passed away this week. Shortly after, we had an inspiring piece by Gene W. about Tyson London, daughter of Virginia head coach Mike London. She was born premature and suffered from a blood disorder which lead to cancer. She required a bone marrow transplant at the age of 7, and after a lengthy search, the only match in the country was her dad Mike. He donated the marrow which saved her life, and she is now 11 years cancer free. This has led to many players signing up for the bone marrow registry, and they always need more.

Back to game previews. The crew was previewing today’s game between BYU and Virginia, and after giving his take on the game, Desmond Howard stopped short of picking. Lee Corso must have not been paying attention, because he came flying in with a HUGE “NOT SO FAST!!!!” to which the rest of the crew started cracking up at, since Desmond never picked the game. Desmond then went on to pick BYU along with Corso. Desmond sure thought it was funny!

There was a feature about Oklahoma linebacker Eric Striker with lots of menacing rock music and special effects to highlight the fact that he is a good linebacker. It was a tad bit overproduced for my refined tastes. Other notes include this week’s hundred dollar question presented by Chris Fowler: Who was the QB the last time Miami and Nebraska met in the regular season? Vince Ferragamo obviously. The hundred dollar bill remained unclaimed, but we got a whimsical note that Lee Corso lost as coach of Indiana in 1976 to Vince Ferragamo’s Nebraska team 55-13. We also learned that FSU (now) starting quarterback Sean Maguire’s family had already given their tickets away to this game because they did not expect to see any playing time. Apparently something happened with Jameis Winston this week and Sean will be starting, so the family is coming in. I’m guessing they might be able to scalp a few singles and get into this game. Tom Rinaldi had a piece on perfection with FSU kicker Roberto Aguayo, who is 27/28 on field goal attempts, and 102/102 on extra points. That is 99.2% accuracy for all of you math majors out there.

We talked a little more Jameis Winston for a while, and showed some highlights of his (most recent) apology press conference. I don’t know why, but I am just as concerned about this gold chain he is wearing as I am the events which got him in trouble this week.

Jameis Winston's gold chain — Jameis Winston’s gold chain

We were then joined by QB Guru George Whitfield to talk about his interaction with quarterbacks and how he tries to coach them in their off-the-field lives as well. He remembered warning John “Football” Manziel about his actions. Johnny was more concerned about missing the college experience, to which George replied “Your current path is not going to get you to the ultimate destination”. This applied equally to Winston. Speaking of Whitfield, he was back with another crazy QB Guru suit this week!

George Whitfield: Qb guru, not fashion guru

After three hours of Jameis Winston talk, it was time to get down to the REAL business at hand: picking games. This week’s special guest picker was FSU volleyball legend Gabrielle Reece. She came on and appeared to be reading notes prepared for her on most of her picks, and I think Lee Corso had a little crush on her. He was overly polite to her, even on his incredibly subdued “not so fast” whispers. After picking all of the games, we got down to the main event. Desmond went with the upset of Clemson over FSU. Reece took FSU to nobody’s surprise. Lee Corso called Jimbo Fisher’s young son out to help make the pick, and they ripped off their suit jackets to reveal FSU gear. They then donned shakos and began conducting the FSU band’s war chant as the show closed. Charley the cat picked Clemson, so this will be a showdown week between Charley and Coach Corso, and we will see who really knows how to pick the big games: Lee Corso, or our cat. Enjoy your day folks, and have a happy football.

Week 3 2014: College Gameday review! #getup4gameday

Posted on September 13, 2014 by gamedaycole

Ladies and gentlemen; boys and girls; children of all ages: Welcome back to our weekly College Gameday review! The show was broadcasting to you live from Fargo, North Dakota, where today we will see the matchup between 3-time FCS defending national champions North Dakota State and something called the University of the Incarnate Word! This was the same location as their FCS visit last year, which was one of the best Gameday editions ever, and this year was no slouch either. The crowd was HUGE again just like last year.

It looked like a chilly edition (if you’re not from North Dakota), and Chris Fowler reminded us that the AVERAGE temperature in Fargo last winter was 4 degrees. In order to make sure that Coach Corso did not freeze to death, he donned a bison-fur coat which was a thing of beauty.

After opening the show in such fashion, Coach Corso went back to the bus and we were joined by David Pollack and Samantha Ponder. She interviewed new NDSU head coach Chris Klieman and they discussed how he can continue the legacy after winning 3 national championships before taking over. This brings us to this week’s SAMANTHA PONDER OUTFIT OF THE WEEK FEATURING OUTFIT REVIEW BY @GAMEDAYJEN!!! Jennifer said she likes this week’s outfit. She said “I like the boots, the jacket has unique details, and I like the pop of the blue with the scarf”.

While we are on the topic of outfits, since we are giving this week’s style award to Sam Ponder, we need to discuss a significant setback in men’s fashion this week. No no, it wasn’t Desmond Howard and Chris Fowler wearing matching suits again this week. This week we need to discuss QB guru George Whitfield’s outfit. Now I may have absolutely terrible fashion sense, and have worn some questionable outfits during my day, I am not a television personality or guru of any kind. I asked Jennifer for an opinion, and all she could say was “There is such a thing as too many patterns, and George Whitfield has exceeded that limit”. We saw brown shoes with grey pants on a plaid navy jacket with powder blue plaid shirt and a heavily patterned orange tie. You may be a guru of quarterbacking but you are not a guru of men’s fashion I’m afraid.

And since we’re on the topic of questionable looks, let’s see this sign featuring vintage Kirk Herbstreit! I’m sure I never looked like this in the 90s.

Other signs featured this week included “Who is FICA and why are they taking my money?”, “Chicken fries are back!”, and “Big 10: Bad Math, Bad Football”. Another great sign was the following:

This week’s sign winner had to be this gentlemen who was incredibly proud of his mullet, and equally proud to have Sam Ponder touch it

But let’s not forget last year’s top sign from Fargo, and one of the greatest moments in Gameday history!

Other quick topics include the fact that deer archery season opens Monday in North Dakota, the panel debated whether NDSU should make the jump to FBS (consensus was no), the Washington State flag made its 150th straight appearance today, and someone or something called “Babi Mac” made a second appearance on Gameday this season. I’m sure I am not down with today’s pop culture, but I have no idea who Babi Mac is.

George Whitfield broke down Everett Golson’s improvement as one of his paying clients (yes he thinks Golson improved greatly under his tutelage). We then reached two segments in which we saw Desmond Howard get FIRED UP big time. Gene W. had a nice piece on Everett Golson’s fall and triumphant return to Notre Dame and how he spent 14 weeks working with George Whitfield to improve his pocket presence. Golson said he was motivated to do do this because it finally hit him when he was watching Notre Dame play Michigan last year without him that the world does not stop because he was kicked off the team. Now back to Desmond’s opinion. He had the opinion that spending 14 weeks in San Diego working on your craft with the world’s best QB guru is hardly punishment for the offenses committed. They finally had to cut him off because the conversation was going nowhere.

Desmond also got FIRED UP when discussing the Penn State sanctions being lifted. He said he is tired of seeing sanctions against schools for financial or academic reasons, but then turning around and lifting the sanctions for the Sandusky scandal. Kirk disagreed strongly, citing the fact that everyone involved in the program is now gone from Penn State. I thought this would come to blows.

If you don’t mind, I’d like to stop down for an editorial here (as opposed to whatever the rest of this nonsense is). Our panel of Gameday hosts got into a discussion about LSU’s Leonard Fournette doing the Heisman pose after scoring a touchdown against Sam Houston State University last week. Comparisons were made to Desmond Howard’s legendary pose, and they felt the need to kick SHSU in the crotch for about three minutes. I like to think of myself as the Paul Finebaum of the Southland Conference (is that weird?), so that hurt. However, my beef here is with Leonard Fournette’s Heisman pose. Is there nobody who can do the Heisman pose properly in this world? Has anyone actually looked at the statue before? The Heisman trophy has two feet on the ground.

THIS

IS NOT THIS

Whatever. Now that I’ve wasted 45 seconds more of your life, let’s get back to Gameday. Today’s chef of the day was Dr. David Newman. Doctor of meat I guess? He was making kabobs of some sort with yellow squash and green peppers for a NDSU colored meal.

This week’s overly casual roundtable segment where they leave the desk and go sit in chairs ten feet away was pretty much a segment to kick the Big 10 in the crotch for last week’s performance. Desmond was suspiciously silent. They looked at Big 10 point spreads this week, and it became clear that Herbie and Des don’t really know how point spreads work. Has anyone else noticed how much ESPN has pushed gambling lines this year? They have an entire ESPNU show on Fridays dedicated to it, and highlight the spread when breaking down all the matchups this year. Weird.

Tom Rinaldi had a lovely piece on Marshall QB Rakeem Cato. He came from the Liberty City neighborhood of Miami, and lived in public housing with 9 other children under the same roof. His mother died when he was 13, and he lived through high school staying at football teammate’s houses. He was determined to make it out of such a setting, and was able to be the first in his family to go to college by attending Marshall and leading the Thundering Herd to a bowl win last year. His coach, Doc Holliday, said that he is an example for any kid who thinks there is no hope. Inspiring stuff.

Bald Man on Campus was back, and SVP chilled with Todd Gurly. They discussed his comparisons to Herschel Walker and other greats. Really hip and casual segment.

The Gameday crew discussed Steve Spurrier’s comments about how he has a rule for his teams: if you hit a girl then you’re gone. The consensus was that they all agree. #hotsportsopinions

Chris Fowler didn’t have a hundred dollar question this week, but did have the guys pick the Secretary’s Cup game. In case you are one of the few who didn’t know, that is the game between the Coast Guard Academy and the Merchant Marine Academy. Coast Guard was the consensus pick.

But let’s get down to the business at hand. This week’s special guest picker was former NDSU QB and three time national champion Brock Jensen. He had his championship rings on, and all I can say is BLING BLING. Apparently the only Gameday guest picker with more rings is Magic Johnson. File that fun fact away!

Brock had some good picks, and to nobody’s surprise picked NDSU to win big today. In fact, everyone including Charley the Cat picked NDSU to win today. Lee Corso jumped in a trailer containing Corso the Bison and put on the headgear to match for his headgear pick this week. I think we were near a disaster, with a combination of Lee Corso hanging onto the back of a trailer, a mask I’m sure he couldn’t see through, a live bison in with him, and the trailer taking off down the street. However, everyone survived and we will live to see you next week!