Tag: College GameDay

Nick Saban predicts Alabama vs. Michigan, SEC bowl games, and CFP winners and losers

Check out who Nick Saban picked to win Alabama’s bowl game vs. Michigan, as well as other SEC bowl matchups and Saturday’s first-round CFP slate.

The Alabama Crimson Tide are spending the weekend before the Christmas break preparing for their bowl game matchup against the Michigan Wolverines in Tampa, Fla., on New Year’s Eve.

No, the ReliaQuest Bowl (formerly the Outback Bowl) isn’t what Alabama players, fans or coach Kalen DeBoer wanted, but the Crimson Tide (9-3 overall) still have a lot to play for.

Alabama is hoping to extends its streak of 10-win seasons to 17 straight years and can do that with a win over a Michigan program (7-5) that also had higher expectations after winning the national championship a season ago.

Players like quarterback Jalen Milroe and others could improve their NFL Draft stock, should they decide to declare.

On Saturday, former Alabama coach Nick Saban and the rest of ESPN’s “College GameDay” crew were in Columbus for that night’s first-round College Football Playoff game between the Tennessee Volunteers and Ohio State Buckeyes.

The crew of Saban, Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, Pat McAfee, Desmond Howard and celebrity guest picker A.J. Hawk weighed in with their predictions on Alabama vs. Michigan in the ReliaQuest Bowl.

“There is nobody in Tennessee rooting for Alabama, but I’ve got to go with the Crimson Tide on this one,” Saban said while acknowledging the large contingent of Vols fans in Columbus.

McAfee agreed with Saban, as did Corso and Hawk. Howard and Herbstreit picked Michigan to beat Alabama.

Kickoff for Alabama vs. Michigan is set for 11 a.m. CT on Dec. 31. The game can be seen on ESPN.

Nick Saban predicts SEC bowl game winners and losers

Saban picked the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and his former assistant Brent Key to beat Diego Pavia and the Vanderbilt Commodores in the Birmingham Bowl next Friday, as well as the Texas A&M Aggies to beat the USC Trojans in the Las Vegas Bowl.

For the Citrus Bowl, Saban took LaNorris Sellers and the South Carolina Gamecocks to beat Illinois on New Year’s Eve in Orlando.

In non-SEC bowl games like the Pop-Tarts Bowl, Saban took Cam Ward and the Miami Hurricanes to defeat Iowa State on Dec. 28. He also picked Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes to defeat the BYU Cougars in this year’s Alamo Bowl next Saturday.

“I’m not allowed to pick against Deion. Miss Terry’s orders,” Saban quipped when picking Coach Prime and the Buffs.

Saban predicts first-round CFP winners

For Saturday’s College Football Playoff games, Saban took Penn State to defeat the SMU Mustangs, the Texas Longhorns to beat the Clemson Tigers, and Ohio State to beat Tennessee.

“Ohio State had great expectations for this season,” Saban said. “Most of the teams that I had the opportunity to coach that had great expectations and had a failing (in) the season made a great comeback and played great in the next game, and I think Ohio State will do that tonight.”

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Kirk Herbstreit’s argument against Indiana making the College Football Playoff is so weak

It’s easy to make Kirk Herbstreit’s argument here with hindsight.

It’s no secret that Indiana got outworked against Notre Dame in the first round of the 2024 College Football Playoff on Friday evening in South Bend.

Since the Hoosiers got their butts kicked like they did, hindsight starts to creep in and the detractors start wondering why [Insert Marquee College Football Team Here] didn’t get Indiana’s spot instead in the 12-team field.

Hindsight is very easy when you have a result to make your case, as ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit did on College GameDay to decry Indiana’s playoff placement over what he feels are better teams with more losses.

“Indiana was outclassed in that game,” Herbstreit said. “It was not a team that should’ve been on that field when you consider other teams that could’ve been there.”

It’s easy to say this now with the Indiana result what it is, but what if the Hoosiers took the Irish to task on Friday? Nobody would be wanting Indiana sitting at home in that scenario.

That’s the problem with trying to play semantics after the final whistle; it gives you ammunition to make the point you put in your back pocket before the game even happened.

If Alabama, Ole Miss and the like wanted to make the College Football Playoff this year, they shouldn’t have lost as many games as they did. An 11-win team like Indiana shouldn’t be punished on subjective balancing on who the “better” team is. Let the record set it straight and go from there.

Indiana face-planting in the first round doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have been there. It just means it didn’t take advantage of what it had. That’s football for you; the ball just doesn’t bounce your way sometimes. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have bounced in the first place.

Herbstreit is going to make this argument because it’s how that class of analysts will always view college football, but it doesn’t make him right.

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‘College GameDay’ makes predictions for Clemson vs. Texas CFP matchup

The GameDay crew makes their picks.

Can Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers pull off the biggest upset of the first round of the College Football Playoffs when they take on Steve Sarkisian’s Texas Longhorns?

We’ll find out in a few hours when the teams kick off at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium (‘DKR’) in Austin. The game is scheduled for a 4 p.m. ET kick and will be televised on TNT.

In the meantime, ESPN’s “College GameDay” was live outside Ohio Stadium ahead of tonight’s playoff game between the No. 9 seed Tennessee Volunteers and the No. 8 seed Ohio State Buckeyes.

When it came to Clemson vs. Texas, the crew of Lee Corso, Nick Saban, Pat McAfee, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and celebrity guest picker A.J. Hawk all picked the Longhorns to win.

Saban said:

“I’ve got a lot of faith in Sark fixing his issues in the red zone. I’m Texas all the way.”

Corso went as far as to pick Texas to win the national championship outright while Herbstreit said:

“Clemson, they rely on big plays. They happen to be going up against one of the best defenses in the country that prevents those big plays. I just don’t see Clemson sustaining drives. I think Texas not only wins; I think they cover.”

As Swinney said after Clemson stunned SMU in the ACC Championship Game: “We’ve got a chance and I think Lloyd Christmas said it best: ‘So you’re saying there’s a chance?!”

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Follow us @Clemson_Wire on X, and like our page on Facebook for ongoing coverage of Clemson news and notes, plus opinions. 

Desmond Howard thinks Ohio State put too much pressure on Ryan Day, which is objectively hilarious

It’s pretty tough to tell if Des was trolling here or not.

There is perhaps no better way to sum up the current state of the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry than ESPN’s Desmond Howard going on live television to express both pity and sympathy for Buckeyes head coach Ryan Day.

Howard, the 1991 Heisman winner at Michigan and Wolverines icon, went on an impassioned rant about Day’s critics during College GameDay before Friday night’s College Football Playoff game between Notre Dame and Indiana. Whether this was an elaborate troll is certainly up for debate.

What is clear however is just how funny the whole thing was, intentional or not.

With a straight face, Howard explained that Ohio State’s athletic department put too much pressure on Day by giving him the type of resources the vast majority of programs would sell their souls to obtain.

Take a look:

Here’s the transcript, per Awful Announcing: 

“During the offseason, when they spent $20 million to go handpick some players in the portal to bring them to Columbus, the primary reason was to beat Michigan,And I thought they put him in a bad situation. Not only that but then they went out and got Chip Kelly, who was the head coach of UCLA and became his offensive coordinator. In my opinion, that was like the athletic director and the powers that be saying, ‘We’re pushing all of our chips in the middle of the table, Ryan, this is the year you have to get it done.’ And I thought that was too much pressure on him — I really do. I put out an Instagram message once I saw that, and I said, ‘Man, this is unfair.”

Desmond Howard thinks Ohio State spending $20 million dollars to handpick players from the transfer portal and getting Day’s old buddy Chip Kelly to leave his head coaching gig at UCLA to become Ohio State’s offensive was somehow unfair to Day. He probably feels bad about Goliath having all that pressure to defeat David.

Alabama crying poor has been dethroned as the most obtuse comment of the season in less than 72 hours.

Look, there are a lot of things unfair in the world of college football. Ohio State’s losing streak against Michigan is not one of them. Especially considering the Buckeyes are in the College Football Playoff!

As for Day, he’s paid quite handsomely to handle the pressure of coaching at Ohio State. No one needs to weep for the man earning $10 million per year because he lost a football game. Not when the standards for success in Columbus have remain unchanged since the Woody Hayes era.

If Howard is trolling here, it’s absolutely masterful. Michigan went 7-5 this season and was more or less a huge disappointment. Yet beating Ohio State allows Wolverines fans to hold the high ground and offer some unwanted words of advice for their rival.

If Howard isn’t trolling, he’s completely lost the plot. Either way, college fans should enjoy a good, hearty laugh at his comments.

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Nick Saban did not appreciate Shane Gillis accusing him of ‘cheating’ on College GameDay

Nick Saban sternly explained that Alabama “cheated” by developing its players.

Thanks to the advent of name, image, and likeness, college athletes are now permitted to make money under NCAA rules. But even when that wasn’t the case, players getting paid was a fact of life.

While quite a few programs were caught doing exactly that, many more did so discreetly based on extensive reporting into the “bagman” phenomenon. But none of that was happening at Alabama. At least, not according to coach Nick Saban.

During College GameDay ahead of the first-round College Football Playoff matchup between Indiana and Notre Dame in South Bend, Saban did not seem to appreciate comedian and guest picker Shane Gillis jokingly accusing him of “cheating.”

“I’m joking,” Gillis said when Pat McAfee referenced his cheating comments. “Is this not a fun show? Is this a serious show? Alabama Jones is very serious. Get the whip, Indy.”

Saban clarified that he believes in integrity and that Alabama cheated by developing players.

“I do believe in integrity,” Saban said. “I always tried to run the program that way, so players had a better chance to be successful in life. We made more money in the NFL than any other school, 61 players in the league. That was how we cheated, we developed players.”

Gillis responded with a laughing apology, but the seven-time national champion may not be the comedian’s biggest fan right now.

College football fans loved Nick Saban’s Indiana Jones-esque hat on GameDay at Notre Dame

Everyone had plenty of “Alabama Jones” jokes for Nick Saban’s hat.

Since retiring from coaching college football, Nick Saban has been a delightful addition to ESPN’s College GameDay, and he’s showing off a side of his personality most people rarely got to see before.

He swears on air regularly, he roasted himself after Miss Terry beat his weekly picks, he’s honest about the College Football Playoff, he dressed up in the Nittany Lions mascot costume and he’s overall engaging to watch. And, of course, he still has plenty of critical thoughts for Alabama football.

For the first round of the College Football Playoff, GameDay is in two places: South Bend on Friday for the Indiana-Notre Dame game and then Columbus on Saturday ahead of the Tennessee-Ohio State game.

It was freezing, literally, at Notre Dame on Friday, so it’s no surprise that the GameDay crew was bundled up, which included Saban wearing an Indiana Jones-esque hat.

The GameDay crew and college football fans both at the ESPN set and online loved Saban’s look for the most part, and a few had some pretty solid jokes about what the former Alabama coach looked like, beyond Indiana Jones.

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Bill Belichick says he is ‘copying’ things Nick Saban did at Alabama

Bill Belichick wants to copy some things that Nick Saban did while at Alabama.

North Carolina Tar Heels football coach Bill Belichick said Friday that he was attempting to copy some things his friend and former assistant coach Nick Saban had done while at Alabama.

Appearing on Friday’s edition of ESPN’s “College GameDay” ahead of the College Football Playoff matchup between No. 10 seed Indiana and No. 7 Notre Dame in South Bend, Belichick joined Saban, Rece Davis, Pat McAfee and others via video call.

The conversation included some mutually flattering words between Saban and Belichick. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has followed the career paths of both men. Saban was Belichick’s defensive coordinator with the Cleveland Browns from 1991-94.

“I learned more from you about evaluating players than anybody in my career because you had a great way of defining the criteria for what you were looking for,” Saban told Belichick. “You went out and did it. You’ve always identified it, and I think that’s been a key to your success. I know you’ll do that — even though you’ve got to recruit them, you can’t draft them — in college as well.”

As for how Belichick is trying to copy what Saban did at Alabama, Belichick explained it to McAfee this way:

“I appreciate Coach Saban’s comments about the evaluations that we did in Cleveland. I think I learned a lot more from him than he did from me. He’s a great evaluator. And then I watched him at Alabama put together essentially his scouting and evaluation staff. So now I’m copying a lot of things that I watched him do there and learned from the system he installed there.”

Belichick added:

“We’ll get players ready for the NFL, no matter what position they play. We’ll get them ready for their lives and their careers just by the accountability that comes with the program very much like Nick did at Alabama. We’ll see what kind of success that is, but very much like that model.”

Saban joked that that it had been easy for Belichick to copy his model at Alabama since it was Belichick’s model in the NFL.

Belichick told Saban:

“I remember when you went back to Michigan State and then to Alabama, you and I had conversations about how much you enjoyed developing the young players and having more of an impact on them. Even though I haven’t done it and just saw it when I was at Navy, I can really see where you’re coming from on that. It’s been very exciting, even in the short time that I’ve been here.”

Belichick was introduced as North Carolina’s new coach on Dec. 12. His first game will be against TCU on Aug. 30 next year in Chapel Hill.

Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on X, and like our page on Facebook for ongoing coverage of Alabama news and notes, plus opinions. 

‘College GameDay’ announces first-round CFP locations: Here’s where Nick Saban will be

Nick Saban will stay busy this weekend as College GameDay heads to not one but two locations.

Former Alabama Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban has stayed busy in his first year of retirement.

Saban has been in numerous TV commercials, including some with Colorado Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders. He’s also made guest appearances on various media platforms, and he still attends Alabama home games from his suite inside Bryant-Denny Stadium, the college football palace which now bears Saban’s name.

Since joining ESPN’s “College GameDay,” he has traveled from coast to coast and even made a stop in Dublin, Ireland, for this year’s “Week 0” game between Florida State and Georgia Tech.

Where will Saban be this week as the first 12-team College Football Playoff gets underway? GameDay announced that it would set up shop at two first-round CFP locations, starting in South Bend for Friday’s game between No. 10 seed Indiana and No. 7 Notre Dame.

GameDay will begin its Friday broadcast at 2:30 p.m. CT. The Fighting Irish and Hoosiers will kick off at 7 p.m. on ABC and ESPN.

The following day, GameDay heads to Columbus for the SEC/Big Ten showdown between No. 9 Tennessee and No. 8 Ohio State. Kickoff for that game is at 7 p.m. CT Saturday on ABC/ESPN. GameDay will begin broadcasting in its normal 8 a.m. time slot that morning.

As we wrote last week, it’s a unique twist with GameDay visiting two locations in one week, let alone on back-to-back days. But these are unique times in college football, with the rollout of a new playoff format that is more likely than not to expand to include even more teams going forward.

Alabama continues bowl game prep for Michigan

As for the Crimson Tide (9-3), coach Kalen DeBoer and Alabama players are busy preparing for its matchup against the Michigan Wolverines (7-5) in the 2024 ReliaQuest Bowl (formerly the Outback Bowl) at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla.

Kickoff for Alabama vs. Michigan is set for 11 a.m. CT on New Year’s Eve. The game will be televised on ESPN.

Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on X, and like our page on Facebook for ongoing coverage of Alabama news and notes, plus opinions. 

‘College GameDay’ announces locations for first-round of CFP

ESPN’s “College GameDay” will attend two different campuses for the first round of the College Football Playoff

ESPN’s “College GameDay” will be attending two first-round games of the College Football Playoff. GameDay plans to attend the Indiana Hoosiers at Notre Dame Fighting Irish game on Friday, Dec. 20 at 3:30 p.m. ET. The crew will be another show from the Tennessee Volunteers at Ohio State Buckeyes game on Saturday, Dec. 21 at 9 a.m. ET.

This weekend will be a treat for college football games. Friday and Saturday have four first-round playoff games that will all be hosted from college campuses.

The first of the four first-round games is Notre Dame versus Indiana at 8:00 p.m. ET on Friday, Dec. 20. Next will be a trio of games of on Saturday starting with SMU at Penn State at noon, then Clemson at Texas at 4:00 p.m. ET and finally Tennessee at Ohio State at 8:00 p.m. ET.

Oregon, Georgia, Boise State and Arizona State all have byes in the first round of the playoff after winning their respective conferences.

GameDay most recently attended the SEC championship between Georgia and Texas in Atlanta, Georgia. Georgia won in the SEC championship’s first ever overtime game with a walk-off touchdown. 

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GameDay will begin coverage from South Bend, Indiana, at 3:30 p.m. ET on Friday and at 9 a.m. ET on Saturday from Columbus, Ohio (ESPN). Nick Saban, Kirk Herbstreit, Rece Davis, Lee Corso, Desmond Howard and Pat McAfee all serve as college football analysts for GameDay.

Why College GameDay is skipping Army-Navy in 2024

Sorry. No College GameDay for Army-Navy this year.

It used to be that ESPN would bring College GameDay to Army-Navy for years, and that included in 2023 (remember Bill Belichick making a headgear pick?).

But that’s not the case this year, in 2024. The next time you see GameDay will be on Friday, December 20 from Notre Dame for the game against Indiana in the College Football Playoff first round.

What’s the reason? We don’t know why. But maybe the Worldwide Leader would rather focus on the college football postseason this year.

That’s it! Enjoy the annual rivalry game between the service academies with their amazing custom uniforms for the contest!

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