ESPN Makes College GameDay Guest Picker Announcement for Week 7

The former ESPN analyst, laid off by the network in 2023, joins the set for the first top-10 game ever played at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

ESPN’s College GameDay before a college football game between Tennessee and Texas | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Steve Young will return to Provo as College GameDay’s guest picker Saturday, putting a Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback and BYU legend on the ESPN set for the first top-10 matchup ever played at LaVell Edwards Stadium.

College GameDay analyst Pat McAfee announced the pick Thursday on his ESPN show, two days before No. 2 Notre Dame (6-0) visits No. 8 BYU (5-0) at 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC. Former BYU coach LaVell Edwards filled the chair during GameDay’s 2009 Provo visit.

Steve Young’s BYU and NFL resume

Former ESPN Monday Night Football announcer/analyst and former quarterback Steve Young | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The Greenwich, Connecticut, native succeeded Jim McMahon as BYU’s starter and led the Cougars to an 11-1 record as a senior in 1983. He threw a nation-leading 33 touchdown passes that fall, won the Davey O’Brien Award, earned unanimous All-America honors and finished second in Heisman Trophy voting.

Twenty years later, BYU made him the first football player in program history to have his jersey retired, and his No. 8 banner went up on the press box at the stadium hosting Saturday’s game.

Young spent 13 of his 15 NFL seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, winning league MVP awards in 1992 and 1994. He threw a Super Bowl-record six touchdown passes to earn MVP honors in Super Bowl XXIX and later entered the College Football Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2005.

Why is Young’s ESPN return notable?

ESPN Monday Night Football Countdown hosts (from left) Suzy Kolber, Steve Young, Randy Moss, Louis Riddick and Adam Schefter on the set before the game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks | USA TODAY Sports

ESPN laid off Young on June 30, 2023, in a round of cuts that hit roughly 20 on-air personalities. He’d worked at the network for more than two decades, most recently as a regular on Monday Night Countdown.

McAfee’s ESPN hiring had been announced the month before those layoffs. Now McAfee is the one bringing Young back to the network’s flagship college football show, where he’ll sit alongside host Rece Davis and analysts Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and Nick Saban. Herbstreit and Howard also worked GameDay’s 2009 broadcast from Provo.

Notre Dame vs. BYU stakes in Provo

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the BYU Cougars prepare for the snap in the first quarter at Allegiant Stadium. | USA TODAY Sports

ESPN passed on Ohio State at Indiana to bring the show to Provo for the first matchup of top-10 teams ever played there. Notre Dame is also the highest-ranked opponent to visit LaVell Edwards Stadium since No. 1 USC in 2004.

That 2004 season also produced the Irish’s last trip to Provo, a 20-17 BYU win in the opener. The Cougars lost the 2009 GameDay game 38-7 to TCU.

Both programs missed last season’s 12-team Playoff field. Since the start of 2024, BYU has gone 28-4 and Notre Dame has gone 30-4.

BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier leads a team that’s unbeaten after a 24-10 win over Iowa State, while Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr directs an offense that scored 58 points in a rout of Stanford last week. GameDay airs from 9 a.m. to noon ET on ESPN from the lawn at Heritage Halls on the east side of BYU’s campus.