College Football HQ

Pat McAfee surprised after learning name of college football player

Joe Cox|
Pat McAfee messed around and found out and one of college football's great names-- wide receiver Nitro Tuggle.
Pat McAfee messed around and found out and one of college football's great names-- wide receiver Nitro Tuggle. | Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

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Purdue Boilermakers

College football certainly has some unusual and even silly names. It's a veritable fact, but one that surprised ESPN analyst Pat McAfee in a fun skit on College GameDay ahead of Week 1 kickoff. ESPN host Rece Davis unveiled a list of five unusual college football names and asked his fellow GameDay participants to choose which of the five names wasn't actually real.

Faced with a list of Nitro Tuggle, Memorable Factor, Indiana Jones, Cody Stufflebean, and Turbo Richard, ESPN's personnel seemingly were all astonished that four of the names were real. Kirk Herbstreit opted for Stufflebean as the made-up name. The Kansas State defensive end is definitely a real person.

But it was time for McAfee to weigh in. "Nitro Tuggle? That sounds awesome," noted the punter-turned-personality. He also dragged Desmond Howard and Nick Saban along with him as skeptics of the epic name.

But Davis's joke was on everyone-- all five of the names were real.

"You've got a great name, bro," exclaimed McAfee, in a reference to Tuggle, amid general mirth on the set.

Nitro Tuggle's story

It's actually surprising that McAfee could lead Nick Saban to bite on Tuggle as a fake name, because the legendary Alabama boss nearly coached against him. Tuggle was a freshman at Georgia last season, where he played sparingly, catching three passes for 34 yards on the season.

Tuggle was arrested for speeding and reckless driving after his unimposing freshman season. Incident records indicated that Tuggle was driving 107 miles per hour in a 65 mile per hour zone. One can only assume that the arresting officer didn't consider the possibility that a man named Nitro Tuggle would literally have no choice but to drive very, very fast.

Tuggle's real name is NiTareon, but he kept his catchy nickname after transferring to Purdue, where he expects to see the field in 2025. Barry Odom doesn't release a depth chart, so his exact status heading into the Boilermakers' opener against Ball State is a mystery.

In any case, he drew the shock and admiration of Pat McAfee already, ahead of his first snap of 2025.

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Joe Cox
JOE COX

Joe is a journalist and writer who covers college and professional sports. He has written or co-written over a dozen sports books, including several regional best sellers. His last book, A Fine Team Man, is about Jackie Robinson and the lives he changed. Joe has been a guest on MLB Network, the Paul Finebaum show and numerous other television and radio shows. He has been inside MLB dugouts, covered bowl games and conference tournaments with Saturday Down South and still loves telling the stories of sports past and present.