ESPN Gameday Coming to Temple v. Notre Dame
The ESPN College Gameday crew will be making their 2nd ever trip to the City of Brotherly love this weekend for one of the most surprising showdowns of ranked teams in recent Notre Dame football history. The Irish are traveling to Philadelphia this weekend as well to face off as the 21st ranked Temple Owls.
If anyone would have told me that by the end of October Temple would be ranked higher than Georgia Tech, Texas, and USC; I would have said they were crazy. Who wouldn’t have? None the less, the Owls are off to an undefeated 7-0 start to the 2015 season and will be hosting the 9th ranked Irish this weekend for their first ever matchup featuring two ranked teams.
Notre Dame versus Temple is also the only game featuring two ranked teams this weekend. Add all of those firsts and unpredictable scenarios and it was enough to get Reece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, and Lee Corso to hit the road for Philadelphia.
Since Temple plays its home games at Lincoln Financial Field, the home of the Philadelphia Eagles, securing a site for Gameday posed a challenge and resulted in a delayed announcement in this week’s location. Instead of setting up shop outside the “Linc”, ESPN will broadcast live from historic Independence Mall – the home of some of America’s most iconic historical landmark.s
Despite being ranked 21st, the Owls were an early 9.5 point underdog to the visiting Irish this weekend. Notre Dame fresh off a bye week and a 10 point victory over USC the weekend before, will arrive in Philadelphia rested and ready for the stretch run of the season.
ESPN has previously visiting Philadelphia once before in 2002 for the Penn – Harvard game. Temple meanwhile has never been apart of College Gameday home or away. For Notre Dame, the hosts of the first ever ESPN road show in 1993, it will be the second time this season alone they will be on the road at the site of College Gameday. Earlier this month Notre Dame lost a heartbreaker on the road to Clemson with ESPN in attendance. Obviously the Irish are hoping for a better outcome this time around.
Frank Vitovitch has been Co-Owner and Editor in Chief of UHND.com since joining forces with Kyle Flavin in 1999. Since that time, he has written over 2,000 articles covering Notre Dame football, recruiting, and basketball. He also works with all staff and external writers on all articles published on UHND.com. Frank's love for Notre Dame football started at a young age watching Rocket Ismail give opposing coaches ulcers in the late 1980's. By day Frank works in marketing and holds a degree in Digital Media from Drexel University. Frank's work has been cited by online/print editions of NBC Sports, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated and has been quoted on air by ESPN's Collin Cowherd. He's conducted interviews with Notre Dame legends Rocket Ismail, Randy Kinder, Lee Becton, Reggie Brooks, Michael Stonebreaker, and Ned Bolcar among others over his 20+ years of covering Notre Dame football. He's also been published in the print edition of USA Today Sports Weekly and the USA Today College Football Preview multiple times. Other Published Works/Citations for Frank Three Reasons Notre Dame Will Beat Alabama - USA Today Notre Dame Suspends WR Kevin Stepherson, RB C.J. Holmes Indefinitely - Bleacher Report Notre Dame / Ohio State Fiesta Bowl Preview - Eleven Warriors Brace Yourself: The Fighting Irish are Relevant Again - Sports on Earth Interviews with the Enemy: A Q&A with Frank Vitovitch of UHND - Yahoo! Sports Five Good Minutes: Notre Dame Football Preview With UHND.com - BC Interruption Vicious Electronic Questioning with UHND - MGO Blog
Split decision won by Creed (8:7, 7:8, 9:6)
I stopped watching Game Day last year. Everyone on it annoys me, Desmond Howard is a Michigan Douche, Lee Corso is in the early stages of dementia and Kurt Herbstreet is a moron. The entire scene is annoying and the signs are getting ridiculous.
I also hate watching the game on ABC because of the announcers and the fact that ESPN/ABC is so pissed they don’t have the exclusive Irish contract. However, I will say this about the ABC games, they seem to go faster than the NBC games that drone on for hours due to commercials. Half the time I tape the game, listen on the radio on Sirius Catholic Channel and rewatch it fast forwarding through the commercials. I can’t understand how you take an hour and a half long game and stretch it to 3 almost 4 hours at times.
Split Decision…
Now get your little chicken asses out a here while we’re conductin business!
The first Rocky movie was a draw…
How many times are we going to hear the “Theme From Rocky” Saturday morning? Let’s hope it turns out no worse than the first Rocky movie: A courageous Temple team puts up a good fight, wins respect, but loses in the end.
Huh. ESPN must have been hard up this week. Just because the game more than doubled Temple’s normal gate and sold out quickly. Has no bearing on ND’s so called irrelevance. Screw ESPN. But I still want ND to make the most of the exposure. Thanks.