Here’s what happened Saturday on ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’ live from Austin prior to Georgia-Texas clash
Guest picker Scottie Scheffler picked the Longhorns while 2019 Sugar Bowl mascot clash was revisited
Texas students came early, got loud and stayed for hours Saturday morning throughout the entire broadcast of ESPN’s “College GameDay” from the UT campus.
The three-hour broadcast is typically a full-throated advertisement of the university being featured, and this was no different. In coach Steve Sarkisian parlance, GameDay was all gas, no brakes — just commercial breaks.
Was there any doubt who guest picker Scottie Scheffler would select? Of course not. The Texas Ex wore his Masters green jacket and threw up his Horns with ease.
The Longhorns are 5-4 all-time whenever GameDay is on campus. Saturday’s night game between No. 5 Georgia (5-1, 1-1 SEC) and No. 1 Texas (6-0, 2-0) is considered by some to be the biggest game in Royal-Memorial Stadium history.The Horns are five-point favorites.
GameDay also correctly pointed out that Georgia’s Carson Beck will be far and away the best quarterback Texas has faced all season. Kickoff is 6:30 p.m. on ABC.
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Here’s the final tally, as best we can tell.
Number of Georgia jerseys blown to bits by Smokey the Cannon: Two.
Number of 35-yard field goals missed by a Texas student, the second of which was worth $100,000: Two.
Number of times ESPN replayed the Bevo-Uga moment from the 2019 Sugar Bowl: Three.
ESPN’s Jen Lada also had a wonderful feature about Texas left tackle Kelvin Banks’s mother and her health struggles.
Corso returns, gets crowd hyped up
After missing two weeks, GameDay icon Lee Corso was back on the set this week and back to his normal hijinks. Corso, 89, has long been a master of getting crowds worked up.
He held up the Georgia football helmet to generate boos. Then he held up the Texas helmet to massive cheers.
Dawgs helmet. Booo!
Horns helmet. Hooray!
This goes back and forth until Corso slammed the Georgia helmet on the crowd to wild cheers.
Good to have you back, Coach.
ESPN reexamines Bevo’s clash with Uga
Of course, ESPN put a spotlight on the most memorable from the 2019 Sugar Bowl when Bevo surged out of his pen at the Georgia mascot Uga. At the time, it was played for laughs, but for those who were there, it was a rather scary few seconds inside the Superdome.
“Thought Uga did a nice job of backpedaling out of there,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said.
Sarkisian quickly followed on camera, “Bevo is nice with me.”
Texas athletic director Chris Del Conte participated in an SEC panel inside the McCombs School of Business on Friday. Del Conte joked that he was excited to see the Bulldogs on campus and to host their mascot, “which we almost castrated.”
Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks, sitting next to Del Conte, said, “God rest his soul, that was an older Uga.”
For the record, the new Uga mascot did not make the trip to Austin because of logistics, according to the Austin American-Statesman. Bevo will be in his regular spot in the stadium’s southwest corner.
Sarkisian breaks down plays with Saban
Sarkisian made a live appearance around 8:30 a.m. to talk with the crew, break down game plays and get the crowd hyped up.
“How about this crowd? How about this environment?,” Sarkisian said. “I think we’re in the right air, we’re where we’re supposed to be. It’s going to be a heck of a game tonight.”
ESPN’s hosts took turns praising the Longhorns for various aspects of the team. Then, the group broke down several plays from UT’s season thus far. That included Silas Bolden’s 55.6-yard run to chase down Quintrevion Wisner’s fumble into the end zone against Oklahoma. And Quinn Ewers’ no-look touchdown throw to Matthew Golden against Colorado State.
Nick Saban then praised Sarkisian for his offensive ability to make the defense adjust more than anyone else in college football.
“I’ve never seen hm smile so much,” Sarkisian said, joking with Saban.
Saban: “These guys text me and say, ‘Who is this guy?’”
F1 drivers don’t know their college mascots
Formula 1 drivers may know their way around the curves at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas racetrack, but they don’t know much about college mascots. ESPN, which is broadcasting the F1 race on Sunday, took time in the garage to show some college mascots to the drivers. It didn’t go well.
Shown a photo of Uga the bulldog, Lando Norris said, “That’s an actual mascot?”
Oscar Piastri looked at the photo of South Carolina’s mascot and said, “What the hell is a Gamecock?” Another driver figured their team name was the “Carolina Male Chicken.”
Stanford’s team name? “The Stanford Minions.”
Western Kentucky’s? “Toronto Telebtubbies.”
Georgia ‘not Georgia’ on defense this season
ESPN usually balances the GameDay broadcast with a full breakdown of the opponent. The production team showed how Texas has already made 45 plays of 20 yards or more while Georgia’s defense has allowed 17 this season.
This year’s Georgia defense ranks 26th in total defense, but as host Rece Davis pointed out, it’s just “not Georgia,” or at least what the Dawgs’ fans are used to. The defense is allowing 5.2 yards per play, which ranks 55th among all FBS teams, and has just 11 sacks (tied for 83rd).
Saban then did a breakdown of how Texas gets big plays without using the drop-back passing formations. Ewers relies on quick throws and strong blocking on the perimeter to spring receivers loose.
