Nick Saban ditches red tie on ESPN College GameDay at behest of vocal Cal crowd
ESPN’s College GameDay has once again turned into appointment viewing with its current cast of characters, headlined by the addition of Nick Saban this offseason.
On Saturday at California, a raucous crowd was enjoying its time with the marquee college football program on campus. Although there was one thing the crowd definitely didn’t like.
The fans interrupted a segment on Alabama and Georgia, following last week’s thrilling game, by chanting at the crew.
“Take it off, take it off, take it off!” the fans chanted.
They were referring to former Alabama coach Nick Saban. Saban pulled from his typical wardrobe, wearing a crimson-colored tie on the set. Nothing out of the ordinary for him.
But for the Cal crowd, the color was an outright affront. The color was eerily close to rival Stanford’s cardinal red.
So the calls for Saban to partially disrobe came in from every turn. In the middle of the segment, Pat McAfee decided he couldn’t ignore the shouts, so he pointed it out to Nick Saban.
“Have you heard what these people have been saying to you this entire time?” McAfee said. “They want that red tie off of the GOAT.”
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To McAfee’s utter surprise, Saban stood up and turned around to the crowd. He took off the tie, waving it around over his head. McAfee reached behind the desk and pulled out a navy and gold tie, handing it to Saban, who loosely tied it over his head as the crowd roared.
“I will say the knot’s going to need some work at the break,” host Rece Davis said.
Added McAfee:
“You look amazing right now, coach. They were not going to stop. Every time you opened your mouth, they hated this tie.”
It was an awesome moment for the crowd and further evidence that Nick Saban is settling in perfectly to his new role on College GameDay. The crowd ate it up.
Of course, Saban might have some answering to do back home.
“I just wonder if we had a camera on Miss Terry as this was happening, what she’s thinking right now,” said Stanford Steve, who coincidentally was also wearing a cardinal-red jacket. “She’s going to be yelling at the TV.”
Fans were too, hooting and hollering over the latest hi-jinks on College GameDay.