ESPN’s College GameDay To Feature Vanderbilt Football Saturday Before Nationwide Audience 10/24/02

Vanderbilt will not host ESPN’s College GameDay this Saturday, but the Commodores will be prominently featured on the popular college football preview show.

A segment on Commodore Head Coach Bobby Johnson’s non-cursing policy will be College GameDay’s first look at Vanderbilt football since it started in 1993. Curry Kirkpatrick, the popular writer for ESPN The Magazine and a frequent contributor for College GameDay, will report the story.

College GameDay, hosted by Chris Fowler, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit, will air Saturday from Tallahassee, Fla., site of the #6 Notre Dame-#13 Florida State game.

Kirkpatrick and an ESPN film crew spent much of Tuesday on campus talking to Vanderbilt coaches and several student-athletes, including seniors Jamie Byrum, M.J. Garrett, Mike Martin and Jim May, junior Benji Walker and freshman Herdley Harrison. The segment is one of seven scheduled this Saturday.

Coach Johnson initiated the cursing ban last spring during his first spring practice at Vanderbilt, believing that parents bringing their children to the practices shouldn’t be subjected to profanity by players or coaches. Previously, he maintained the policy as head coach at Furman, and was brought up with the ban as a prep and collegiate player, and later, as an assistant coach at Furman.

While other college teams, such as Stanford and Notre Dame, have initiated a similar ban, the Vanderbilt policy became public after a Nashville newspaper article. The story, later picked up by the Associated Press, has been featured in many of the nation’s top dailies, including The New York Times, USA Today and Los Angeles Times.

The Commodores, 1-6 overall and 0-4 in the SEC, will host the University of Connecticut for homecoming this Saturday. Kickoff at Vanderbilt Stadium is 1:00 p.m.