ESPN College GameDay Joining The Spiders At JMU Oct. 24
HARRISONBURG, Va. – ESPN College GameDay will send its weekly college football national pregame show to Harrisonburg next weekend as the No. 13 University of Richmond Spiders look to upset No. 5 James Madison.
College GameDay, which typically attracts thousands of fans to attend the live production, will air on ESPN from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday. The show reviews major news topics in college football, previews the significant national games of the day and ends with Lee Corso’s headgear prediction to games kicking off around the country.
ESPN personalities Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmon Howard, David Pollack and Samantha Ponder join Corso on the show with regular appearances from special guest analysts and celebrities. The show’s producer, Lee Fitting, is a 1996 graduate of JMU. Todd McShay, an ESPN NFL Draft analyst who regularly appears on College GameDay, is a 1999 Richmond graduate of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies. Ponder, then Samantha Steele, has previous experience crossing paths with Richmond head coach Danny Rocco as a reporter for the Flames Sports Network at Liberty University where she graduated in 2009. Rocco was the Flames' head coach from 2006-2011.
The game will kick off at 3:30 p.m. pitting the unbeaten, 7-0, Dukes who hold a 4-0 mark in the CAA opposite the 5-1 Spiders who come into the game with a five game winning streak and a 3-0 record in the CAA for the first time since 2009. These two programs are the only unbeaten teams left in CAA play.
The Richmond offensive duo of Kyle Lauletta and Reggie Diggs each collected career-highs in passing yards (312) and receiving yards (142), respectively, in Saturday’s 37-12 win at Rhode Island while LB Omar Howard had a career day of his own on the defensive side of the ball, wrapping up 18 tackles to match his career-best. Jacobi Green was the top rusher for UR, picking up 49 yards on 13 carries with a touchdown. Seth Fisher added 21 yards and his fifth TD of the season.
Tickets for the contest start as low as $30 and are still available from JMUSports.com or by calling (540) 568-3853.
To date in 2015, College GameDay has visited Arlington, Texas for the AdvoCare Classic between Alabama and Wisconsin followed by campus venues at Michigan State, Alabama, Arizona, Clemson, Utah and Michigan.
In the history of the show, other non-FBS stops have included Amherst College at Williams College in 2007, Hampton at Florida A&M in 2008, Delaware State at North Dakota State in 2013, Incarnate Word at North Dakota State in 2014 and Yale at Harvard in 2014.