College GameDay Celebrates 500 Episodes As Lafayette Family Lands In Spotlight

College football is officially back, and South Louisiana wasted absolutely no time reminding the rest of the country how seriously we take Saturdays in the fall.

With the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns opening their home schedule against Lamar in Lafayette and LSU hosting Clemson in Baton Rouge, Saturday already had plenty of reasons for local fans to be excited.

Then College GameDay showed up at LSU.

The popular college football pregame show celebrated its 500th episode Saturday morning in Baton Rouge, and before most people had finished their first cup of coffee, the LSU crowd was already providing some viral moments.

Pat McAfee Gets The LSU Crowd Going Early

Nobody should be surprised that Pat McAfee found a way to get an LSU crowd fired up before 8 a.m.

McAfee helped spark LSU’s famous and very much NSFW chant associated with “Neck,” quickly responding with a perfectly timed “whoa, whoa, whoa” as thousands of Tigers fans took over from there.

At that point, there was no stopping them.

The moment was another reminder that an early College GameDay start does not necessarily mean an early-morning atmosphere when the show comes to Baton Rouge.

Lafayette Father And Son Get Featured By College GameDay

Among the sea of signs in the LSU crowd, one with a Lafayette connection managed to get some national attention.

Lafayette father-son duo Jeremy and Grover Morrow brought a sign celebrating College GameDay reaching 500 episodes, while also working in a tribute to former LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels.

Their creativity paid off.

The sign was featured front and center on College GameDay's social media, giving the Lafayette duo a pretty memorable way to start the college football season.

Get our free mobile app

College Football Is Back In South Louisiana

Saturday's LSU-Clemson matchup has generated plenty of attention following a wild week surrounding the Tigers and new head coach Lane Kiffin.

Much of the conversation leading into the game centered around questions involving players who had received a taste of professional football before returning to the college game. Despite all of the discussion and legal back-and-forth, no former NFL players will be taking the field for LSU against Clemson.

Still, the drama only added another layer to what was already shaping up to be an electric Saturday night in Death Valley.

And LSU isn't the only Louisiana team giving local fans a reason to celebrate.

The Cajuns are back under the lights in Lafayette, hosting Lamar to begin their home schedule and giving Acadiana its own Saturday night college football party.

There will almost certainly be more viral moments before the weekend is over.

But whether you're wearing vermilion and white in Lafayette or purple and gold in Baton Rouge, there's one thing we can probably all agree on.

Football is officially back in Louisiana.