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Week 10 2012: Gameday review #saturdayselections

Posted on November 3, 2012 by gamedaycole

Its about noon here and we are in the middle of the morning slate of games, and that means we’ve put another edition of College Gameday in the record books. Today the show was broadcasting live from Baton Rouge, Louisiana for the huge matchup between #1 Alabama and #5 LSU. While LSU has a ridiculous winning record at home (something like 36-1 in their last 37, forgive me if I’m wrong), it is the Alabama Crimson Tide who are about an 8 point favorite going on the road. We opened this morning with Chris Fowler welcoming us to the show and doing some quick clerical duty running down the day’s schedule before handing off the hosting duties to Samantha Steele. Samantha Steele tweeted this morning that she went to Chik-fil-a and witnessed a toddler fight in the playplace as well as a girl fight in the bathroom regarding Alabama. Sounds about right for Baton Rouge. Today her outfit was another FABULOUS one according to Jennifer. She said she would like to have this shirt. However, one must bring up the question: WHY ARE YOU WEARING WHITE AFTER LABOR DAY? I MEAN COME ON, IS THIS AMATEUR HOUR?

samsteelewk102 — Week 10: Samantha Steele

This morning we got a good bit of BCS Guru Brad Edwards breaking down potential scenarios based on future wins and losses. He did a segment on both the early hour on ESPNU as well as the main show on ESPN later on. He seemed to think that aside from Alabama, Kansas State is in the drivers’ seat as far as making the championship game (should everyone in the running win out). The Big 12 is #1 in the computer rankings, so the KState strength of schedule is giving them the edge. Notre Dame may have a pretty good resume on paper, but most of their tough games are behind them. Oregon’s strength of schedule is peaking at the right time, but with Oregon State and USC losing, the Ducks winning out might not be enough to jump an undefeated Kansas State. We are assuming a lot here. Can’t wait to see how it ends up.

We got a replay of the De’anthony Thomas/Black Mamba/Snoop Dogg/Snoop Lion piece from about a month ago as filler material this morning. Snoop discovered Thomas at one of his football league games and gave him a nickname: The Black Mamba. The best morning segment today for me was when David Pollack and Samantha Steele were joined by GIGANTIC HUMAN BEING TREVOR MATICH. They were breaking down matchups between the defensive line and offensive line in todays’ games. David Pollack looked terrified pretending to go up against someone the size of Trevor Matich. Keep in mind that in the picture below David Pollack is 6’2”.

trevormatich2 — Trevor Matich: Large human being

Coming back from commercial we got some great video of local Louisiana residents doing whatever boat things they do in the swamp. You can tell I know what I’m talking about here. The highlight of this quick segment was footage of someone who they said was a former Louisiana Tech quarterback from a while back. Seems about right.

To close out the first hour on ESPNU, we got some picks from Desmond Howard and David Pollack. They both went with Bama over LSU to some nice booing from the crowd. You can generally tell how live the crowd is each week based on how much they boo these two. As the main show kicked off on ESPN, Fowler and the crew sent Samantha Steele to the bus and David Pollack to use the internet and tweet at the rubes. This week Pollack arrived to the internet in the Batmobile. I wish it had been the 1960s Batmobile.

pollacinternetwk102 — Pollack likes Batman, likes internet

Early on in the show we got a breakdown of the big game today: the Battle for Myron Claxton’s shoes. They just couldn’t wait til the end of the show to break down the Occidental/Whittier matchup, and neither could I. The predictions were unanimous with Corso, Herbie and Des all picking Whitter over Occidental. I think that’s a solid pick. Before we get to the signs of the day, I do have to ask the question: Where were the Alabama fans? Every time they showed the crowd it seemed like a sea of yellow and purple. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention, but I wonder what the crowd will look like for the game tonight. Anyways, the highlights of the signage today include the LSU “If we lose do we get a re-do?” sign, the “Miles eats grass taller than Saban” sign, and the “Saban is a Keebler elf” sign. Today’s runner up was the “Alabama claims Lance Armstrong’s Titles” sign. This might have won, except that it was too late. Texas A&M already claimed those titles.

signofthedaywk10b2 — Sorry, A&M already claimed the titles

Today’s official sign of the day has to be the following, presented without comment once again.

We got another piece of beatnik poetry from Tom Rinaldi quiet-talking about the deeper meanings of a loss. He asked coaches about how they handle losses and how they eulogize them in the locker room after the game. They said lots of things about not taking it out on the players, about moving forward, appreciating the wins, and how it can be like a death. Tom Rinaldi summed it up by saying losing is worse than death because it happens more than once. Alright then.

rinaldi-beatnik — Beatnik Tom Rinaldi performing live

We also got a piece by Gene W. about Oregon’s Marcus Mariota. Apparently he grew up wanting to go to USC, but that didn’t work out. Instead, Chip Kelly offered him a scholarship to Oregon before Mariota ever even started a game. His response to Chip’s offer was “are you sure?” I’m not sure that is the response I would give to such an offer. We also got a Bald Man on Campus with Scott Van Pelt featuring AJ McCarron. Apparently when he was young he made a list of things he wanted to be as a grown up, including football player, fireman, and car man (whatever that is). The highlight of this segment was that McCarron said that when Nick Saban comes down on you hard “you feel as small as him”. Lol.

samlolo — Sam Steele & Lolo Jones just because

But let’s get serious. Its time to get down to the business at hand. It is time for picks. The experts are leaning 20 to 3 in favor of Alabama over LSU as of mid-day today. The full slate of picks can be found HERE for your reference. Today’s special guest celebrity is former LSU track star Lolo Jones who was brought in to see if she could top Ryan Lochte’s performance. She had some delightful insight including saying she could beat Denard Robinson in a foot race. Since Denard Robinson is out with an injury today, that’ll go nicely with the rest of her sprinting challenges to injured football players. I mean, she already knows she could easily beat Eric Legrand. Anyways, she had little to contribute to the football discussion other than picking Kansas State over Oklahoma State because they wear purple like LSU. Des and Dave both went with Alabama, and Herbie joined them riding the Crimson Tide. Would coach Corso go with the home crowd favorite in LSU, or the actual favorite Alabama? He had Sweet Home Alabama pumped through the speakers as he went back and forth egging on the crowd. He finally chose Alabama over LSU to an overwhelming boo. As he donned the headgear, Herbie wasn’t quite as scared as he was of live animals, but he continues to be awkward each week leaning away from Corso. Another great Gameday. Enjoy your Saturday.

Week 9 2012: Gameday review #saturdayselections

Posted on October 27, 2012 by gamedaycole

Well folks, if you’re reading this then that means we’ve officially put another edition of College Gameday in the books. Today we broadcasted live from Norman, Oklahoma for the big matchup between the Sooners and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. As we opened the show, Chris Fowler reminded us that it has been something like 56 years since Oklahoma has beaten Notre Dame. Granted they haven’t played very often, but that’s still a long time. The usual morning crew was present with Samantha Steele taking over hosting duties, and her buddies Desmond Howard and David Pollack were riding shotgun for the first hour on ESPNU. Jennifer loved the outfit Samanthat Steele had on this morning, and thought it was the best of the year. Speaking of Samantha Steele, I am starting to wonder if they pre-tape some of her segments from Gameday. It kept going from light to dark when she was on, so its either pre-taped, or the sun does very unusual things in Norman.

samsteelelight2 — Samantha Steele: Welcome to the show!

The first hour of the show was pretty slow this morning. We got a replay of Gene W.’s piece on Jeff Driskell from last week. We got Todd McShay breaking down some generic video from the studio. The highlight of the show was Samanthat Steele introducing us to some 4 year old kid who has parents that were Notre Dame fans. They named him Brady, after former Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn, because… well why wouldn’t you name your kid after Brady Quinn?

samsteelebrady2 — Brady Quinn fan? Name your kid Brady!

The first hour on ESPNU ended with Des and Dave making their picks for the day. David is still riding the Beaver train, with Desmond reluctantly riding along as well. David got some nice boos from the crowd when he picked KState, since KState beat OU already this year. Both guys went with Oklahoma over Notre Dame and were applauded.

The main show opened up on ESPN with Fowler taking back hosting duties from Sam Steele, and they sent David Pollack to go use the internet somewhere. This week, he was in a telephone booth tweeting dressed in a Superman costume. I guess this was for Halloween but it was never really explained.

pollackinternetsuperman2 — Its a bird? Its a plane? Looks like David Pollack.

I guess it must have been cold in Norman this morning, because Samantha Steele was bundled up for a blizzard. More importantly, we learned that Herbie had a pile of hand warmers and was wearing a blanket underneath the Gameday Desk. How cute.

We had a few decent signs, although I’m sure I probably missed some good ones too. Today’s highlights include the “Gym, Tan, Landry” sign, the “I couldn’t think of anything” sign, the “Rudy was a C Student” sign, and “Brian Kelly buys Lou Holtz Depends”. This week’s winner was the one below, even though there was at least one duplicate of this floating around. I enjoyed it.

As our crew started breaking down games, they briefly mentioned the game between the Oregon Ducks and the Colorado Buffaloes, and took this opportunity to kick Chris Fowler squarely in the crotch since he went to Colorado and they are a HUGE underdog against Oregon. There was some discussion about what teams might be on “letdown alert” this week, and I would like to take a minute to address this. I have long been aware of the following concepts: upset watch, upset alert, upset special. However, this is the first season I’ve heard the term “letdown alert”. I’m not a fan of this term, as it seems to me that it is basically a half-assed upset alert. Some day I will break down my official rules for putting someone on upset watch/alert/special, but we’ve got too much to do here today for me to get into that. End rant.

We FINALLY got to the part you’ve all been waiting for, as the guys took a minute to break down the heated matchup going down today between Lock Haven and Gannon. Lock Haven hasn’t won a game since 2007, and is currently riding a 48 game losing streak which is the all time D2 record. Coach Corso and Desmond took Lock Haven to shock the world and pick up a win today, with Herbie picking Gannon over Lock Haven which is where the sharp money is at. After that, we got a Gene W. piece about KState coach Bill Snyder. We learned the story of how he took over Kansas State when they were THE worst team in major college football, and turned them into a national powerhouse. Then he retired. Then things went downhill. Then he came back. Things are now back on track, and they are one of the best teams in the country. The highlight of this piece was the baby Bill Snyder which was featured.

snyderbaby2 — Bill Snyder. Bill Snyder baby.

Up next, let us speak of what is probably the most bizarre segment I’ve ever seen on College Gameday. It was teased earlier in the show that we would hear from the top five ranked coaches in the country to get some feedback on how the season is going. What we were given is very hard to explain. We got our five main hosts of Gameday dressed up as the five head coaches, including uniforms and incredibly creepy masks, and each one did some schtick about their team which was pretty funny. We had Coach Corso as Bill Snyder, Herbie as Will Muschamp, Fowler as Nick Saban, David Pollack as Brian Kelly, and Desmond Howard as the black Chip Kelly. Some of the impressions were pretty spot on, including the Snyder and Saban impressions. See below to understand better.

coachmuschamp2 — Coach Herbstreit-Muschamp

coachkelly2 — The Black Chip Kelly: Desmond Howard

Let’s move on. We got a quick 30 second Tom Rinaldi piece about Notre Dame entitled “Relevance”. I still don’t understand these segments where Tom Rinaldi rambles on about something obscure for 25 seconds, then plasters a big title card on the screen with his name on it. I think I figured out why they drive me just a little bit crazy. I feel like each one of these pieces was written by Tom Rinaldi, and that he performs them live the night before Gameday at some beatnik poetry night at a coffee shop while wearing a beret and smoking a cigarette. “What is relevance? What does it mean to be relevant? How does one become relevant? Does one need to prove their relevance to be relevant? The Fighting Irish represent these questions. I’m Tom Rinaldi”.

We got the usual Tom Rinaldi queit talking piece, except this week it was hosted by Samantha Steele. She did a story about Jonathan Banks from Mississippi State. He is on his way to being an All-American, and is expected to play on Sundays. However, he has had a tough road to get to where he is. When he was a baby, his mother abandoned him and he was left to be raised by his father and grandparents. His father worked 16 hour days as a log cutter to support him, until he was tragically killed in a car accident when Jonathan was 8. His grandparents raised him the rest of the way, and he turned into a stud athlete in higschool playing baseball, basketball and football. Things were looking great, until he impregnated his girlfriend at age 18 as a senior. He now has an 18 month old son who he strives to spend time with while balancing school and football, but he makes the extra effort because it reminds him of the time he spent with his dad. Really great piece.

Tom Rinaldi had his own full segment interviewing Landry Jones. I didn’t pay much attention to this, other than the fact that Landry Jones takes most of the blame for losing to KState. But enough of that; its time to get down to the business we all came here for. The picks. Today’s special guest celebrity was none other than the drummer from Kings of Leon; Nathan Followill. You might be saying “HEY COLE! HASN’T HE BEEN THE GUEST CELEBRITY PICKER BEFORE?” and the answer is yes. Just check my page on the Guest Pickers. Chris Fowler welcomed him back, wished him luck, and said he did great last time he was on the show. He did great last time he was on the show, except for the fact that he went 3-7. Oops. All of Saturday morning’s picks can be found HERE for your reference. His highlight today was picking Auburn when asked who he liked between Oregon State and Washington (a nice Ryan Lochte reference from last week). When it came down to that time, Followill went with Oklahoma to nobody’s surprise. Herbie is calling the game tonight with Big Game Brent, so there was no pick there. Would Coach Corso be the only one to pick Notre Dame other than Dr. Lou? NO WAY. He donned the Sooner headgear, and started firing the Sooner guns into the air. He almost fell off his chair, and everyone went running for cover as you can see below. Enjoy your day of football folks.

Week 8 2012: Gameday review! #saturdayselections

Posted on October 20, 2012 by gamedaycole

Today College Gameday (brought to you by the Home Depot obv) is coming at you live from Gainesville, Florida for the big matchup between South Carolina and Florida. Our blog is coming to you live on the road from Jennifer’s parents’ house where we will be partying all day. I don’t have quite as big of a crowd in the front lawn as they do for Gameday in Gainesville, and the only sign someone brought was Jennifer’s sign that says “Pollack waxes his eyebrows” so that’s weird. This week’s fun facts brought to you by Chris Fowler are that Gameday has broadcasted live from a Florida Gators game 33 times in the past both home and away, and Lee Corso is 0-2 this year picking against the Gators. Take note gamblers.

We opened the show this morning with Fowler, Herbie, Desmond and David doing a slightly extended segment from their usual open. This made Jennifer crazy because she is used to Des, David and Samantha Steele running the show for the first hour on ESPNU. Since we were playing catchup on the DVR, we had to zip through some of today’s content like generic coach interviews with Will Muschamp and Steve Spurrier. I’m sure they had a lot of great insight about how our team has to go out and play hard, focus on today, establish the run and limit turnovers. Samantha Steele was looking good this morning, and Jennifer was quite impressed with the outfit today. “Best outfit of the year so far” was the consensus from the women polled this morning, i.e. Jennifer.

samsteelewk82 — Possibly outfit of the year

Samantha Steele did a live piece with Brian Griese who is broadcasting the LSU/A&M game today. Always great to get the breakdown from the only person on ESPN who is picking under 50% for the season. We got a replay of the Oregon State head coach Mike Riley piece from last week’s show. It was good last week, but this week it was fast forward time. As we closed the first hour we got the usual picks from David and Desmond. David is still the conductor on the Beaver Train. Desmond Howard refuses to pick Oregon State to win, but still gave the Beavers the kiss of death and picked Utah to lose. Both guys took Florida over South Carolina, and it was unusual to see neither of them getting booed.

As the main show opened up on ESPN, Chris Fowler took over and the main crew sent David Pollack to go use the internet. This week he was getting some grilled gator meat from a guy in a funny hat to chow down on while tweeting with all of us rubes. Jennifer noticed that many of his segments lately have been food related, so this might become a feature of David Pollack eating food as well as using the internets. I’m particularly amused from the girl in the background who is very unimpressed with this segment.

pollackgator2 — Pollack: Likes internet, likes food

The special segments today included a full Tom Rinaldi quiet talking piece about Notre Dame QB Tommy Rees. They covered his ups and downs, going from starter to backup to closer to whatever you want to call him. Its pretty amazing how far Notre Dame has come this year running the two quarterback system. I have to think this will run out of gas eventually, and whichever QB is running the show when they lose is going to take some serious heat. We also got a piece from Gene W. about Jeff Driskell and the comparisons to Tim Tebow. Apparently Driskell grew up overseas like Tebow, except it was on a military base in Japan. He can sing Silent Night in Japanese, but refused to, even with Gene W. offering him $10 to do so. Good move, as the NCAA would have immediately declared him ineligible for taking improper benefits. Other notes include Driskell being homecoming king in highschool, dating the Gators’ cheerleading captain, and he is pretty much Tebow without all of the Heismans and National Championships. Sad to say we didn’t get a Bald Man on Campus with Scott Van Pelt.

My favorite piece of the day was a segment about the traveling trophies in college football. It talked about a bunch of the rivalries between two teams, where the winning team holds a special trophy for the year. These include a big axe for Wisconsin/Minnesota, a big jug for Michigan/Minnesota, the Stanford/Cal trophy with a questionable final score from THE PLAY, OU/Texas fighting for a golden cowboy hat, and the Indiana/Michigan State rivalry winner being awarded with the Old Brass Spittoon. Obviously my favorite is the Battle of the Piney Woods, with a trophy that you pretty much might expect for two East Texas teams (source).

After that, Desmond Howard and Chris Fowler took a break to play with toys. This had something to do with Colin Klein AKA Optimus Klein.

Signs of the day included the return of the I’M ASIAN sign, complete with several gigantic heads from the Asians holding the signs. “Garcia graduated with a .2 BAC” is a close second for the day, but today’s offical sign of the day is one I’m sure everybody saw.

But now its time to get down to the business at hand. We are here for the picks, and picks we got. Here is Saturday Morning’s picks for your record. Today’s special guest celebrity picker is Florida Gator and Olympic medalist Ryan Lochte. He looked like he was lost finding his way to the set, picked Auburn when they asked him about LSU/Texas A&M, but was entertaining for sure. To nobody’s surprise, he picked Florida over South Carolina.

Herbie, Desmond and David all picked Florida as well. Would Coach Corso be the only soul to pick South Carolina over Florida? Would he fake out the crowd? Could he pick against Florida for the third time this year? The answer is no, as he threw on the Gator head and was handed a small albino alligator which Herbie was terrified of. Herbie does not like animals, and its just a matter of time until someone gets bitten by one of these animals. Corso also gave us a quick confusing FSU Tomahawk chop. Anyways, here’s how the headgear looked. Enjoy your day!