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Nick Saban, Kirk Herbstreit to headline ESPN’s coverage of 2025 NFL Draft
By Paul Harvey
Published:
ESPN is bringing its NFL Draft coverage back to ABC, and the network will use Nick Saban and Kirk Herbstreit alongside their “College GameDay” co-hosts to anchor the early rounds of the draft.
On Wednesday, ESPN confirmed the full GameDay crew (minus Lee Corso and Pat McAfee) of Rece Davis, Desmond Howard, Pete Thamel, Saban and Herbstreit will be leading the coverage on ABC across Thursday night and Friday night (April 24-25). Davis will host the draft coverage for the 7th time in his career.
Field Yates and Laura Rutledge will be in the green room for the first-round coverage on Thursday night, with Yates joining the GameDay crew on set on Friday night. McAfee will be occupied with “The Pat McAfee Show’s Draft Spectacular” broadcast on Thursday night.
A special broadcast of “College GameDay” will air Thursday night from 5-7 pm ET and on Friday from 5-6 pm on ESPN, leading up to the live coverage of the first 2 days of the draft. Rutledge will join the crew from the red carpet on Thursday to interview college stars as they arrive with reporter Jen Lada interviewing college coaches in attendance. Joey Galloway, Thamel and Yates will periodically join the GameDay desk on Thursday and Friday.
Last year, the NFL Draft served as Saban’s first major event in his broadcasting career after retiring as the head coach at Alabama. The legendary coach was instantly must-see TV with his spot-on analysis, setting the stage for what would be a smashing success across his first full season on the set of GameDay.
Paul Harvey lives in Atlanta and covers SEC football.
