College Football HQ

College GameDay announces celebrity guest picker for Penn State-Oregon

Alex Weber|
Penn State Nittany Lion mascot demands adoration from fans
Penn State Nittany Lion mascot demands adoration from fans | Matthew O'Haren-Imagn Images

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ESPN's renowned college football Saturday pregame show, College GameDay, heads to State College and Beaver Stadium this weekend, where the No. 3 ranked Penn State Nittany Lions will host the No. 6 Oregon Ducks in the first blockbuster game of the two Big Ten contenders' schedules.

As is custom, GameDay will feature the normal crew picking games at the end of the show, plus a celebrity guest picker with a tie to the area. Florida Panthers star Matthew Tkachuk hopped on set for the episode in Miami a week ago. This week, ESPN opted to hit home with a former Nittany Lion player....

After Abdul Carter etched his name among the Penn State legends in that No. 11 jersey a year ago, it's fitting to see another great linebacker who wore those digits return to join the GameDay broadcast.

Arrington's 1999 season is the stuff of Penn State legend. He won the Dick Butkus Award as the most outstanding linebacker in college football, earned consensus All-America honors, and won the Chuck Bednarik Award for Defensive Player of the Year. Roll out a gold carpet for this fella.

Since leaving Penn State, Lavar Arrington enjoyed some highs and lows. He was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2000 NFL Draft to the Washington Redskins and had great success on the field early in his career. However, a dispute over his second contract somehow wound up with the NFL Players Association suspending Arrington's agent in 2005, which Arrington himself disagreed with, before he bought himself out of the end of the disputed $68 million contract with the Redskins.

In 2006, Arrington signed a seven-year contract with the New York Giants worth $49 million but failed to last a year on the deal, rupturing his Achilles during the season, which led to him being cut in February of 2007. His luck in '07 didn't improve from there, and in June, Arrington suffered a scary motorcycle crash and confirmed his retirement by late September of '07.

Lavar Arrington currently contributes to several FOX Sports shows and podcasts.

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Alex Weber
ALEX WEBER

Born and raised in the state of Kentucky, Alex Weber has published articles for many of the largest college sports media brands in the country, including On3, Athlon Sports, FanSided, SB Nation, and others. Since 2022, he has also contributed for Kentucky Sports Radio, one of the largest team-specific college sports websites in the nation. In addition to his work in sports journalism, Alex manages content for a local magazine named ‘Goshen Living’ and coaches cross country and track.

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