Alex Smith hailed by college football fans for acing GameDay appearance
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In a market dominated by Theo Vons and Jelly Rolls, the people clamor for actual football guys like Alex Smith.
Throughout the month of October, ESPN’s College GameDay visited 3 SEC campuses and 1 Big Ten campus. The Big Ten school (Oregon) got a former athlete (Sabrina Ionescu) as the celebrity guest picker. The 3 SEC schools got 2 comedians and a country music singer as their guest pickers, and fans weren’t exactly pleased with those selections.
On Saturday, for a visit to Salt Lake City ahead of a ranked showdown between Cincinnati and Utah, ESPN called on former Ute quarterback Alex Smith to serve as the guest picker.
And Smith nailed the appearance.
Smith was making his first appearance as a guest picker on ESPN’s College GameDay. ESPN’s only other visit since Smith’s professional career ended came in 2023, and the network went with former Utah wideout Steve Smith Sr. for the guest picker that day.
“Surreal,” Smith said on GameDay of his appearance. “I never imagined growing up that I would ever even play on College GameDay, let alone be 21 years later the guest picker. So, for me, this has kind of been a ‘pinch me’ moment. I grew up watching this show every Saturday morning.”
Fans on social media praised Smith for his performance during the picks segment.
Fortunately for all the folks wishing for more Smith analysis on ESPN, he is actually signed to the network to provide NFL analysis on Sunday NFL Countdown and other ESPN NFL shows.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
