DUBLIN — For the first time in its nearly 40 years of existence, ESPN’s College GameDay will broadcast live from outside the United States. The college football pregame show airing on ESPN landed in Dublin this week and has set up shop at Merrion Square where it will breakdown Saturday’s contest between Georgia Tech and Florida State.
Saturday’s show airs from 9 a.m. to noon leading into kickoff of the season-opener for the Yellow Jackets and Seminoles.
“We feel the responsibility every week because this show, throughout its entire history, has become such a part of the fabric of college football,” GameDay host Rece Davis said Friday at the Alex Hotel in Dublin. “It’s important to the fans and we bear a responsibility for that. Bringing it to Ireland, bringing it to another country for the first time, we want to inform, but you want to entertain and engage and give them a show that is worthy of them and that is worthy of the standard that the show has set. We’re fired up about it.”
Davis has been with the show since 2015 and is part of a cast of 10 men and women who discuss the biggest news of the sport, the day’s key matchups and the intriguing stories of its participants. The newest member of that 10-person cast is Nick Saban, the former national-tile winning coach at Alabama.
Saban was at Tech’s practice on Thursday and FSU’s practice Friday, both at Aviva Stadium. He was also Tech coach Brent Key’s boss from 2016-18 when Key was the offensive line coach for the Crimson Tide.
“He has sort of attacked it the way he sort of attacked coaching,” Davis said of Saban. “His preparation has been off the charts. His willingness and eagerness to learn how things work and to offer ideas and to bounce ideas off of us and to offer various suggestions has been great. It’s going to bring a dimension to College GameDay that maybe it’s never had before.
“I was just talking to Key and (Key) said, ‘I think I spent more time cracking jokes with him here then I did the whole time I worked for him.’ I think there’s another side of his personality that’s always been there, but the general public hasn’t had a chance to see.”
Speaking of Key, GameDay analyst Desmond Howard spoke Friday about how impressed he has been with the second-year Tech coach. He cited the Tech-Miami game in October when the Jackets pulled off a miracle, last-second win over the Hurricanes.
Howard said that win doesn’t happen if the players aren’t fully behind their head coach.
“I think what (Key) has done, is he has made these kids believe. That’s half the battle when you’re in your first or second year is just getting them to believe,” Howard added. “You don’t do that unless you believe. They could have been walking around with their head’s down, body language speaks of defeat and they’re done. They kept hope and they believed. I think that’s a testament to what (Key) and his staff has been able to do. That’s something they can build off, too.”
GameDay’s shtick usually includes analyst and former college coach Lee Corso ending the show with making a prediction as to who will win that day’s game by putting on the headgear of the winning school’s mascot in the show’s final moments. But Corso did not make the trip to Ireland, so Saturday’s version of GameDay will have a bit of a different feel.
The show, which has been visiting campuses and sites of games since 1993, will also begin its broadcast Saturday at 2 p.m. local time, differing from the normal morning on-air time stateside, and include wrestler Sheamus as the guest picker.
Davis said he’s hopeful not just fans of Tech and FSU show up, but a large contingency of locals drop by to see what all the fuss is about.
“We’re really excited about it and hope they come out and have a really good time,” he said.
