Good fun at 'GameDay' circus

PROVO — Everybody wants to be on TV these days. And, on Saturday morning, several thousand folks took advantage of the opportunity to join the traveling TV circus that is ESPN's "College GameDay."

And that's not criticism. "GameDay" is pure genius as a live TV event. Fans get to join ESPN's Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso and Desmond Howard as part of a pretty entertaining show.

Heck (as they say in Provo), the enthusiasm among the Cougar fans at the telecast exceeded what you'll see during most BYU football games.

Part of that enthusiasm was, of course, playing to the camera. It was comical to watch the camera on the overhead boom moving from one side of the crowd to the other. It was like the wave, with fans jumping up and cheering when it was pointed at them, then calming down after it passed them by.

Crowd members did their job. They came care attired in team-logo outerwear. They waved flags and home-made signs. They jumped and yelled and chanted "BYU! BYU! BYU!" They booed when Desmond Howard picked TCU to win. They cheered when Kirk Herbstreit picked BYU. And most of them seemed to be having a good time.

The crowd — estimated at 4,000-5,000 — was certainly not the biggest in "GameDay" history. (Nebraska had nearly 16,000 a few years ago.) And it was a well-behaved group; nobody even gave the bizarrely out-of-place Boise State fans much grief.

According to ESPN, they've never had a fight at a "GameDay" telecast. Which is a little bit surprising given that the Provo crowd was almost certainly the most sober in "GameDay" history.

Not that there weren't any non-BYU-approved beverages on site. ESPN brought in its own soft drinks, including — gasp! — caffeinated Coke.

The "GameDay" crew really is a bit like the riggers on an old-time circus. They come in, pitch their tent, put on a show, then pack things up and move on.

A crew of about 70 rolls into town in a caravan of semi-trailer trucks — one of them driven by "Grampa," a retired University of North Carolina anthropology professor. It's a big-time, professional production.

It isn't easy to keep a crowd's enthusiasm up for two hours, and there were obvious lulls during the telecast. But, again, it's pure genius to build toward the picks at the end of the game, when Corso puts on the head of one of the mascots to declare which team he thinks will win.

The biggest surprise on Saturday was former/legendary BYU coach LaVell Edwards, who was never exactly a dynamic TV presence. And yet here he was more animated than we'd ever seen him on TV, obviously having fun with his old pal/coaching foe, Corso.

"This week is the biggest game we've had since the '79 Holiday Bowl!" Edwards joked, mimicking Corso's over-the-top style (and referencing BYU's one-point loss to a Corso-coached Indiana team in that game.

Not everybody got the joke.

"Really? More than the 1984 national championship?" asked one guy backstage who was decked out in purple. (Duh.)

Predictably, Corso predicted a TCU win by donning the Horned Frog head. Unpredictably, the normally stoic Edwards put on Cosmo the Cougar's head.

Heck (as they say in Provo), maybe Edwards should have gone into broadcasting after he retired. He was having as much fun as everybody else during "GameDay."

e-mail: pierce@desnews.com