tom rinaldi – Page 4 – Cole's Gameday Blog

Week 5 2013: College Gameday review!

Posted on September 28, 2013 by gamedaycole

Well here we are again folks. Another edition of College Gameday is in the books. Today’s edition was broadcasting live from Athens, Ga for the matchup between #6 LSU and #9 Georgia. Last week’s edition was going to be hard to top after visiting Fargo, ND but Athens has a reputation as one of the rowdiest of locations for Gameday. It was made clear up front that Georgia does not have good luck with Gameday is in town: they are 3-12 all time with Gameday on-site. Could they turn this thing around put up a win? I guess we will find out.

For starters, the crowd was incredibly loud today. They bring serious entusiasm in the SEC when Gameday is in town (possibly enthusiasm brought in bottles). Early on, there were some technical difficulties. I don’t know how to describe it other than it sounded like David Pollack’s mic was being broadcast from the moon, streaming via broadcast.com in 1998 on dialup. Anyways, after we got that sorted out college football hall of famer Herschel Walker joined David Pollack on the stairs outside of a building for an interview. Hopefully this is going to be a new regular feature entitled “OVERLY CASUAL FOOTBALL INTERVIEWS WITH DAVID POLLACK!!!!” Pollack removed his suit jacket and they sat down to very casually discuss Georgia football.

We were then treated to another segment of “QB Guru George Whitfield Talking About QBs”. You couldn’t hear him over the rowdy crowd for the first half of this segment. In the second half he talked about Aaron Murray’s mechanics. Pretty impressive stuff that we haven’t heard for four weeks prior to this. At all.

There was a distinct lack of Samantha Ponder for the first hour or so of today’s show. When she finally showed up, we weren’t sure exactly what she was wearing or why she was wearing it. It appeared to be a nice pair of riding pants sans boots, which looked very strange. Jennifer questioned the choice of these pants, the shoes, and said the jacket made her look boxy. You can be the judge.

Speaking of Sam Ponder, she interviewed Georgia coach Mark Richt. The biggest takeaway of this interview was that Richt’s wife is one of the water girls on the team. Today’s piece from Gene W. was about Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze. Apparently he was portrayed as a complete goober in the movie Blind Side, and he even auditioned for his own part but failed because he couldn’t get his one line right. The funniest part of this was when he told us that if things aren’t working at halftime he likes making changes, including making his offensive coordinator change clothes completely at halftime to turn around the mojo.

Perhaps the high point of today’s show was Tom Rinaldi’s piece about Gameday signs. Apparently the first Gameday sign was on location back in 1994, and nobody knows who the guy was or what his sign said because it was blurry. Since then, things have exploded and as you know, signs are everywhere. This was a really cool segment about the history of Gameday, and I wish they would do more history segments about Gameday. The best part was afterwards when Rinaldi showed up wearing jorts, in reference to a recent sign about Jeff Driskel going for it on “4th and jort”. Classic.

Speaking of Gameday signs, today was a pretty poor effort by the Georgia crowd. I don’t know if they lack the writing skills or what, but today’s sign could barely be made out, and it reads “Mettenberger? More like Mettenbooger”. Come on Georgia, you can do better.

A few more highlights from today’s show include Paul Finebaum declaring that Lane Kiffin is the Miley Cyrus of college football: no talent, but we can’t stop watching. He said “maybe next year they will hire an adult to coach the team”, echoing my sentiment that Lane Kiffin has accomplished absolutely nothing in his career, yet continues to get promoted to better and better jobs. Also, Paul Finebaum loves the SEC and wants you to get off his lawn.

We also had a historical moment today. Chris Fowler’s hundred dollar question was FINALLY won. I hope you remember where you were, so you can tell your children about the time that Kirk Herbstreit won the Chris Fowler hundred dollar bill. Today’s question? What college has the most NFL starting QBs today? Of course the answer is NC State. Russell Wilson, Mike Glennon, and Phillip Rivers. Well done Herbie.

But let’s get down to the business at hand, which is the picks. Today’s guest celebrities (yes multiple) were Willie Robertson (from Duck Dynasty) and Bubba Watson (from golf). They were a fun group today, with lots of jawing back and forth. Robertson seemed to know very little about football for someone so southern and with such a questionable beard. Watson seemed pretty knowledgeable. Billy the Cat went with Georgia over LSU, bringing his record to 2-3 for the year.

Would Corso go with Georgia for the second time this year? Or would he go with the visiting team in LSU? His headgear picks were 2-2 going into this week, and he put on the Tiger head, going with LSU. He happened to put it on backwards, which was both hilarious, and foreshadowed the LSU loss. Billy the Cat and Lee Corso are tied at 2-3 on headgear picks this year. Boy, what a race! Enjoy your evening folks.

Week 4 2013: College Gameday review!

Posted on September 21, 2013 by gamedaycole

Today is a rare occasion in the history of College Gameday. It is the day that they go off the beaten path and venture out from the realm of the FBS schedule and broadcast from an FCS location. Today’s edition came to you live from Fargo, North Dakota for the big matchup between the two-time defending FCS champions North Dakota State Bison (pronounced BI-ZON and DON’T FORGET IT) and the Delaware State Hornets. You might be saying “BUT COLE! WHO CARES ABOUT THE FCS?” and I say me for one. You might be saying “BUT COLE! WHY NORTH DAKOTA STATE?” and the answer is that this may be the most rabid college football fan base in all of college football. This is not an exaggeration and it is hard to explain unless you’ve seen it in person. This NDSU team went into Manhattan, Kansas and beat KState, and this “cupcake” game for KState drew the 2nd largest crowd in KState history. Having attended the FCS championship between the great Sam Houston State Bearkats and North Dakota State in Frisco, Tx, the Bison crowd outnumbered Texans no less than 3 to 1 IN TEXAS with a TEAM FROM TEXAS playing in the championship. They travel like none other, and if you saw Gameday this morning, you realize that surely most of the town of Fargo was at this broadcast of Gameday.

This crowd today had it all going on. The massive crowd was loud, rowdy, possibly drunk, and had some very quality signage. We had several strong contenders for sign of the day, including “I’m White”, “We’re not all married to our cousins”, and the Beef Cake sign below (which in my opinion is STRONG to QUITE STRONG).

However, this week’s sign of the week is undisputed, offensive, and the guy holding it is INCREDIBLY proud of himself for getting it on TV. We present it below without comment for your review.

Speaking of Sam Ponder, here she is from today. Jennifer enjoyed her outfit today. Great jacket, pants, and shoes. Jennifer expected the return of the boots from last season, but those haven’t made an appearance yet.

There was a lot of talk about NDSU’s program today. I had tweeted at Brad Edwards for his famous “Ask Brad” segment this very question, but never got an answer: Where would NDSU stack up against the FBS programs if they were ranked? Well he is a jerk-face and didn’t answer my question, but luckily we got our answer today. NDSU would be power-ranked 55 in the FBS, and would be a 32.5 point dog against Alabama according to those experts out in the desert. NDSU os 7-3 against FBS teams since 2007 and has beaten an FSB opponent for four years straight. Coach Craig Bohl did an interview with Sam Ponder and it seems like he really his act together. It is something special how confidently he and his players carry themselves against any and all competition. They seem to fear nobody and expect to play with anyone on any given day.

As the day rolled on, we once again did NOT see the return of David Pollack Using the Internet. This is highly disappointing, so please write angry letters to Gameday letting them know that we want more of David Pollack Using the Internet. The Chris Fowler $100 Question for today was “Who was the opponent when Arkansas played a game in the Northeast the most recently?” and the answer was Fordham. The $100 went unclaimed again. Gene W. had a quick piece which was a montage about great FCS players who went on to great NFL careers including Tony Romo and Terrell Owns and Jerry Rice and others. He said you can have the FBS players; he’ll take the FCS any day. Even an FCS fan like me would probably still take the FBS players Gene.

Tom Rinaldi did a segment traveling around Fargo to cover NDSU more in depth. There were three highlights. The first was the fact that Coach Bohl goes to EVERY high school in North Dakota that has a football program to recruit players whether or not the program is one of any significance or not. The second was Tom Rinaldi running around with a bunch of Bison. The third was that Coach Bohl does a kickass Lou Holtz impression.

We also unfortunately saw the return of “GENERIC QB TALK WITH QB GURU GEORGE WHITFIELD”. He talked about NDSU QB Brock Jensen and said he is good. Whitfield also wanted to remind you of how great his paying clients like Braxton Miller and Johnny Manziel are. I’ll say it again; this segment needs to go away.

Today’s edition also had a pair of Tim Tebow memorial emotional segments. Gene W. had a piece on UCLA freshman WR Nick Pasquale who died two weeks ago after being hit by a car while walking home. Apparently he was a scrappy young guy who had offers to play football at smaller shcools, but instead chose to walk on at UCLA. Against Nevada, his teammates campaigned for him to get into the game for a single play, which was the highlight of his career. His life was ended a week later. Coach Jim Mora Jr. had his parents speak before the Nebraska game about playing how Nick would have wanted them to play, and it inspired them to a tremendous comeback win over Nebraska. The most touching part was learning that his ashes will partially be scattered on the Rose Bowl field where he saw his only college play.

We got a Tom Rinaldi emotional piece about Louisville QB Teddy Bridgewater and his mom. His mom was diagnosed with breast cancer while he was a star QB in highschool. Teddy offered to quit football forever, get a job, and support his mom while she underwent treatment. She wouldn’t let him, and after enduring treatment she is in remission and is now attending his games. She always thought he had a gift for football and didn’t want him to give up his gift for her.

The strangest moment of the year so far was experienced today when Chris Fowler busted out this little guy below. It is apparently the trophy awarded to the winner of the D3 Concordia/St. Olaf game. Bizarre.

Other highlights from today’s show include Lee Corso repeatedly criticizing Bo Pelini for “bitching” about his fanbase. He repeated the word “bitching” several times, and was warned that he is still on probation by the other guys from his famous SMU incident several years ago. We also saw the return of TODD MCSHAY LOOKIN’ AT THE TAPE!!! He looked at tape of FCS players and reminded us that some of these guys are good, including his #2 overall FCS prospect Tim Flanders from Sam Houston State. There was also a piece of Tom Rinaldi beatnik poetry about North Dakota entitled “Lonely”. He discussed the significance of the cosmic vastness of the open land in North Dakota, and included the incredibly deep line “We are dust….”. I feel like he probably just stays up the night before Gameday smoking pot while writing stream-of-consciousness poetry about the location.

Anyways, let’s get down to the business at hand. Today’s guest picker was former NDSU DB Tom Hansen. He came on and made some good picks and kept the energy of the segment going much better than Mark Harmon. No surprise; he went with NDSU over Delaware State. For the record, Billy the Cat also took NDSU too.

Who would coach Corso pick? It was never in doubt. NDSU is a big favorite in today’s game, and Corso wasn’t even on set when the pick was made. He came busting out of a local theater with the Bison head on pulling a live baby bison along his side. Jennifer called this one ahead of time saying he would show up with a baby bison, and I think Corso made the right choice. The Bison fans are not to be tested, and they would have run him out of town with pitchforks if he picked Delaware State. Enjoy your day!

Week 2 2013: College Gameday review!

Posted on September 7, 2013 by gamedaycole

Welcome back to another great Saturday of college football folks. The afternoon games are in full swing, and that means it is time for another College Gameday review. This week the show was broadcasting from Ann Arbor, Michigan for the big matchup between Notre Dame and Michigan; THE LAST TIME THESE TWO TEAMS WILL EVER MEET*! The show opened up at 8AM central, for what is supposed to be this year’s normal schedule of a three hour show on ESPN every week. The crowd wasn’t exactly the biggest I’ve seen, and wasn’t as big as Clemson/Georgia last week either. I expected a little bit better from these two schools. Its too bad they will NEVER MEET AGAIN TO PLAY FOOTBALL.

*Last time they will meet as advertised by ESPN, unless both schools decide that they like money in which case the series will resume

The show opened with Fowler, Corso, Herbstreit, and Howard at the main desk, to be joined later by Sam Ponder and David Pollack. Fowler had an early hundred dollar question for the group: What was the trophy called that Florida and Miami(Fl) used to play for once upon a time decades ago? The confusing answer is the Seminole War Canoe, and the hundred dollar bill remained unclaimed. Early in the show we also had the return of everyone’s favorite segment, DAVID POLLACK USING THE INTERNET!!!!

He was live Tweeting from the Michigan locker room where there is apparently a shrine to Desmond Howard. He answered about two tweets live before giving up and going back to the TV set. As the guys started breaking down matchups today, Lee Corso reiterated his bold claim that Stanford would win the championship this year, and they would make quick work of SJSU today. We were then joined by Samantha Ponder who had on another nice dress today. Jennifer predicts this will be the year of the dress with the belt to define her waistline (belt not pictured below; hidden by note cards). Other notes include that she parted her hair down the middle, and her wedding ring (courtesy of Christian Ponder) is absolutely huge.

We got an interview with Brady Hoke, and the main highlight was when Hoke declared that one John “Football” Manziel would ride the bench behind Devin Gardner if he played for Michigan. Alright then. There was a very strange segment featuring noted cellar-dweller (at least in my rankings) Mike Greenberg, of Mike & Mike in the Morning fame. Being a notable Northwestern grad, he was invited on campus to be an honorary team captain for today’s game against Syracuse. Highlights included Pat Fitzgerald not having time for this nonsense, Greenberg searching in many wrong places for the team’s offense meeting, and concluded with a goofy inspirational speech from the honorary captain. I found this segment to be unsuccessful, as it included far too much of Greenberg’s sarcastic, overly-dry, self-deprecating humor. And that is coming from someone who is full of unsuccessful, sarcastic, overly-dry, self-deprecating humor. Greenberg needs to stick to his radio show talking the Jets and Tebow every week and stay away from my Gameday broadcasts.

One of the funniest moments of the show was early on when Kirk Herbstreit started an extended speech breaking down some matchup from today, the Michigan band immediately began blaring music behind him and completely drowning him out. Intentional or not, it was quite hilarious.

I happened to notice something peculiar today. Chris Fowler was suspiciously QUITE interested in what the “experts” out in “the desert” thought about how “today’s underdogs” would “perform” against how they were “expected” to. Let me remind you that College Gameday endorses gambling in no way, shape, or form. Neither does Brent Musberger. Other Fowler notes include the fact that he continues to rag on Sam Houston State (who is playing some team from College Station with some guy that won some award last year). Keep it up Fowler, the Bearkat faithful do not forget these things.

George Whitfield Jr., quarterback extraordinaire, was interviewed again this week, and said more generic things about Johnny Football. This would be a cool segment if he went in-depth about how he sees things, but when it is so generic it is quite bland.

There was a GREAT piece by Tom Rinaldi this week about Tulane’s Devon Walker, who was paralyzed last year in a game against Tulsa. I remember seeing that game last year, and it was quite intense to be seeing it live. He wasn’t breathing on the field, and they were performing chest compressions to basically resuscitate him on the field before transferring him to a hospital. He is now paralyzed from the shoulders down, confined to a wheelchair, and is in intensive rehab. He vowed to be back on the sidelines this year to cheer on the team, and he made it. He spoke to the team before their first game this year, and the best moment of the whole segment was when they presented him with his own Tulane jersey to wear. His face absolutely lit up as they put the jersey on him. Nobody likes to give Tom Rinaldi a hard time more than he for how he tries to make stories overly emotional, but this one was absolutely fantastic, and if it can be found on Youtube or elsewhere, I highly recommend it.

Moving along, that story was followed by a piece by Gene Wojciechowski about Jadaveon Clowney from South Carolina. He went to Athens to find out how he could stop Clowney in today’s game. He polled the students on campus, and they seemed incredibly educated on football (especially the ones who said he is not a threat in this game tonight). He went around the town finding out more information about how to stop Clowney, including some possibly drunk guy tackling a cardboard cutout of Clowney. Then he interviewed some local Pop Warner players about how to stop Clowney, and they probably had the best insight of anyone interviewed. The end was pretty cute when about ten of them tackled the Clowney cutout. This segment also featured a cameo by David Pollack, who had a thing or two to say when one student said linebackers were nothing to be feared.

At this point, let’s take a moment to highlight the sign of the day. It was a slow day for signs, so the following sign is presented without comment:

There was a new segment featuring Samantha Ponder interviewing Devin Gardner including her own new snazzy animated intro. Apparently Gardner likes cartoons, Brady Hoke looks like Fred Flintstone, and they talked about some other stuff. Other notes from today’s show include David Pollack shocking the world by picking AGAINST Georgia in today’s big game against South Carolina. Somewhere the REAL David Pollack is tied up in a closet and this look-alike is soiling the good name of a noted Georgia homer. Also, Michigan still hates Rich Rodriguez judging by the boos every time Arizona was mentioned today. Michigan also hates Herbie, and loves Desmond Howard.

But now, for the real reason you came here. It came time to pick the games. Today’s special guest celebrity picker (incredibly hyped on Twitter) was Mark Harmon from NCIS. His father, Tom Harmon, is a former Michigan Heisman winner from 1940, and Mark spent some time playing at UCLA himself. This sounded like a great segment in the making, and quickly turned into the most boring celebrity guest picker in the history of College Gameday. Mark Harmon picked six games, and said six words. Indiana. Florida. Georgia. Texas. Arizona. Michigan. End segment. No analysis. No jokes. No humor. End segment. Onto the headgear pick. I predicted this year Corso would have live animals on set at least four times this year, and thought this week was going to be a loser. How on earth would be bring a live animal on set today? A wolverine would be dangerous, and a drunk Irishman doesn’t count. Corso started poking the crowd with a stick hyping up Michigan, and before you knew it, he put in a leprechaun hat and proceeded to fill the desk with live chickens (in reference to Notre Dame chickening out in this series). Herbie looked terrified as usual, and it was a really funny way to end today’s episode. Enjoy the rest of your day folks.