Morgan Freeman Taken Aback by Nick Saban’s LSU Pick: What Happened on ESPN’s College GameDay?

Morgan Freeman didn’t mince his words when it was his turn to pick a winner on ESPN’s “College GameDay” from Oxford, Mississippi, on Sat, Sept. 19. The actor was the celebrity guest picker for the Week 3 broadcast at The Grove, and he went with Ole Miss over LSU to set up the Rebels’ home matchup against the Tigers. Desmond Howard and Pat McAfee had each picked Ole Miss before him, so Freeman, too, would have picked Ole Miss, meaning three of the four picks would have gone to the home team.

Nick Saban, the lone dissenter, then picked LSU and got booed by the Oxford crowd for it. He shrugged it off, noting that he was used to getting booed in the SEC.

Saban’s LSU Pick Wasn’t Random

Saban coached LSU from 2000 to 2004 and won a national championship with the Tigers in 2003 before later taking the Alabama job. It made his pick have more heft than your usual GameDay pick, what with Lane Kiffin now back in the fold at LSU after leaving Ole Miss for the job. Kiffin’s return to Oxford was already a huge storyline heading into the game, and it added another layer to Saban picking his old program over his former assistant-turned-rival. ESPN had tagged the game as a Top 10 SEC showdown, and the Kiffin angle was the main reason that the network had even chosen to come to Oxford in the first place.

Why Freeman Went With Ole Miss

Freeman didn’t pretend the pick was hard. “Let me just say this out loud,” he said before picking, per Sports Illustrated, noting that picking LSU would make it hard for him to show his face back home. He instead picked Ole Miss, the choice of which he’d made clear with his roots in Mississippi (he was born in Memphis but grew up there, too), which is also why ESPN picked him to be on the show’s first-ever appearance from Oxford.

Kirk Herbstreit was off the hook from picking since he was set to call the game for ABC alongside Chris Fowler. A Reuters Connect photo from the broadcast captured McAfee looking over at Freeman right after Saban picked, the desk noting that it was the moment they learned that Saban had gone it alone.

GameDay’s First Trip to Oxford

It was the first trip ever for “College GameDay” to Oxford, and it came with two undefeated teams set to face off in prime time at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium later that night. LSU had already hosted the show once this season for its Week 1 game against Clemson. For Freeman, Saturday was his first turn as a guest picker on the show. And for Saban, it meant standing alone on a set where everyone else (including the guest picker with Mississippi roots) had picked the other way.