Miami Student Botches a Chance to Win $500,000 From Pat McAfee on Live TV Before Hurricanes Matchup

Pat McAfee is all about bringing fun to the proceedings. Whether he’s on his own show on ESPN, which he does on a daily basis, or he’s on ESPN’s flagship college football show, College Gameday, he’s going to make sure things are unique and entertaining. And he stayed true to that on Saturday.

On College Gameday‘s first broadcast of the season in Ohio, McAfee had an Ohio State fan kick a 33-yard field goal (the length of an extra point) for a whopping $250k. The kid made it. And it was amazing.

This week, McAfee brought the contest back with the Gameday crew in Miami for the Hurricanes vs. Gators matchup. They even found a home team fan, named Gio. Who, interestingly enough, seemed to be from Maine, and McAfee offered him the chance to win twice as much as the Ohio fan a few weeks ago: $500k.

As always, McAfee was jacked up as he commented on the attempt, with Kirk Herbstreit putting in another workmanlike performance as Gio’s holder. Unfortunately, the first attempt went way too far to the left, nearly hitting the cheering fans. But a chant of “one more kick” ringing out convinced McAfee to give Gio one more shot.

“I wanna let you know I didn’t know you were gonna try to bank that thing off the wall. If you hit a palm tree and it goes through, it’s good. If you hit the building and it goes through, it’s good. Everywhere else is a miss, and you go back to Maine with zero dollars,” the former punter explained what’s at stake.

While the second kick was slightly better than the first—at least it went straight—it never got the lift needed to get over the bar for a good field goal. It really makes you appreciate how good that kid was in Ohio to nail it perfectly on the first attempt.

The fan himself, Giovanni Guerrette, commented on the show’s Instagram post: “Sorry boys.”

One fan felt sympathy for Gio: “kickin a field goal is harder than ppl think lol don’t hate on this guy.” However, some others were not so impressed.

“Yikesssss that could have been a lambo,” penned one. “The 49ers are ready to sign him,” joked another, referring to the San Francisco 49ers’ issues at kicker, having recently cut starter Jake Moody.

 

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No doubt McAfee will bring this contest back again this season, so fans planning to attend a College Gameday broadcast on a Saturday morning better come ready with their kicking boots.