Pat McAfee praises BYU, Latter-day Saints ahead of ‘College GameDay’ visit to Provo

ESPN Monday Night Football commentator Pat McAfee works before an NFL football game between the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons in New Orleans, Monday, Oct. 5, 2026. | Tyler Kaufman In Pat McAfee’s eyes, football players from BYU tend to be cut from the same impressive cloth.“Super mature, already has a family, wildly athletic and handsome. That is seemingly a trait that (BYU players) have,” McAfee said Thursday on his eponymous ESPN show.McAfee will head to Provo this weekend as one of the analysts for ESPN’s “College GameDay,” which will broadcast live from BYU’s campus Saturday morning ahead of the Cougars’ high-stakes clash with No. 2 Notre Dame.Among the regular guests on McAfee’s show are prominent BYU booster Ryan Smith, along with former Cougars great Kyle Van Noy. The sports media superstar has also welcomed Ryder Lyons onto his show to announce the latter’s commitment to BYU, and on Thursday McAfee shared that Steve Young will be the “GameDay” guest picker in Provo.“There’s a lot of different Mormons that I’ve encountered who I have a lot of respect for,” McAfee said. “... (There are) a lot of great football contributions coming from BYU and from the Mormon religion as a whole.”During his playing career with the Indianapolis Colts, McAfee was teammates with former Cougars standout Austin Collie, who shared some background information about the faith as well as full-time missions.“I actually learned about their entire religion during a spring conditioning session. Not all of it, because there’s a lot of history there ... Austin broke it down and answered every question I had, and I did a little bit of research to have enough questions,” McAfee said. “But what I learned about him in the mission was so fascinating. He comes in (to BYU) as a freshman, breaks all their wide receiver records, and he gets called to go on a mission. I think he goes to Venezuela or Argentina, one of the (South) America countries. “Two years, no football, no weights, no nothing. You only write to your family once a week on Sunday, and you’re just basically dropped into these countries ... this is not an easy mission trip that they get called to go on. “We’re in the same draft class, and he was like a 50-year-old man versus me; I was 21 years old getting drafted there. It was just interesting to learn about it, and they’re all seemingly the same way.”McAfee and the “College GameDay” crew will begin their broadcast at 7 a.m. MDT Saturday at BYU’s Heritage Halls. University of Utah student Jonah Knubel, right, speaks with Pat McAfee before Pat McAfee’s kicking contest during ESPN’s “College GameDay” in the Presidents Circle at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News