In the 2000s and 2010s, if you wanted the best college football analysis television had to offer, you’d flip on College GameDay in the morning. ESPN’s classic quartet of anchor Chris Fowler, ex-coach Lee Corso, ex-Michigan wide receiver Desmond Howard, and ex-Ohio State quarterback Kirk Herbstreit were at the top of their game in a particularly engrossing era for an always engrossing sport.
If you wanted an altogether different experience, you’d stay up late and watch College Football Final.
Where GameDay had the excited energy of a dorm with a day of revelry ahead of it, College Football Final took on the bleary, delirious vibe of a pub about to close. The appeal of the latter show, a touchstone for legions of millennial and Gen-Z college football fans across the country, centered around its two larger-than-life personalities—former Pitt offensive guard Mark May and legendary coach Lou Holtz.
Holtz died Wednesday at the age of 89, but thanks to the magic of YouTube—in its infancy during his and May’s heyday—the coach’s personality will live on forever.
The two men were, in a sense, contemporaries—Holtz’s tenure coaching Arkansas overlapped with May’s playing for the Panthers. That did not keep the two Hall of Famers from sniping at each other with comic constancy. Rising star Rece Davis—still several years away from a promotion to Fowler’s GameDay seat—was often left to play bewildered referee.
“I’ve spoken to Mark May this afternoon,” Davis said on SportsCenter Wednesday via Tobias Bass of The Athletic. “Those [College Football Final debates] were some of the best times of my career and my life. I’m really grateful for that friendship.”
Here’s an example of the group’s “chemistry,” if you want to call it that, from 2011. May picks on Ohio State (a favorite target) for not building a bigger lead on Akron in its opener, to which Holtz says, “Jesus loves Mark May but everyone in Ohio thinks he’s an idiot,” (Davis’s reply, ‘That’s not nice,’ is equally priceless).
In another video, May assails LSU for flip-flopping its quarterbacks in 2010, which devolves into yet another argument.
“I only played O-line for 20 years!” May tells Holtz.
“I only coached for 33!” he responds, and the segment ends with all three cracking up.
The beating heart of College Football Final, however, was “Final Verdict.” The segment was high-concept in theory: Davis would put on judge’s robes, and Holtz and May would each take a side in a debate on one of the day’s biggest topics. As you can imagine, it regularly flew off the rails.
In this 2011 episode, for instance, Holtz and May are tasked with debating between Baylor quarterback Robert Griffin III and Alabama running back Trent Richardson as the Heisman Trophy favorite (They’d finish first and third, respectively). Holtz responds by attempting to introduce Wisconsin’s Russell Wilson into the race (he’d finish ninth), name-checking ex-Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan, and discussing NFL statistics. Somehow, he wins, enraging May; none of the three principals are at a podium when the show goes to commercial.
The party didn’t last forever: Davis received his big promotion in 2015, Holtz left ESPN the same year, and the network laid off May in 2017.
From GameDay’s embrace of McAfee-flavored spectacle on down to the cult appeal of the Sickos Committee, however, it’s not hard to spot the show’s influence.
More College Football on Sports Illustrated
- Everybody Wants to Save College Sports. But From What, Exactly?
- Lou Holtz, One of College Football’s Great Architects, Dies at 89
- Kentucky Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart Announces Retirement After 25 Years
- Colorado to Honor Late QB Dominiq Ponder With Special Jersey Tribute
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Remembering Lou Holtz's Madcap ESPN Rivalry With Mark May.
