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Live updates from wild Bloomington

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It's game day in Bloomington. Literally.

ESPN's College GameDay returns to the IU campus for the first time Saturday as the Hoosiers take on Washington, 7-0, today (noon).

IU fans camped out Friday night and lined up bright early Saturday morning as Indiana took center stage in the national spotlight…for football.

“This will be special.” What IU fans can expect from ESPN College GameDay

More GameDay: Lee Corso, 1979 Holiday Bowl reunion “means the world” to IU’s first bowl winners

The best college football pregame show with Rece Davis, Nick Saban, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee and Lee Corso. Notably, Corso coached Indiana during his career and Cignetti worked under Saban at Alabama as a wide receivers coach from 2007 to 2010.

The countdown to GameDay will be broadcast live from Memorial Stadium's south lawn and begin at 8:30 a.m. The entire show starts 30 minutes later.

We'll keep you updated on all the fun. PRESS UPDATE.

Jerram Salles, an IU freshman from Chicago, was the kicker today for $100,000 of Pat McAfee's money. Salles was a substitute kicker because the original participant was injured during warm-ups. Kicking is not easy.

His 33-yard kick left no benefit.

He got a second chance. This time for $150,000… and off we went again.

“You’ll continue to do great things, but you’ll be bad at kicking, and that’s a beautiful thing,” McAfee said.

Bloomington Mayor Kerry Thompson announces Saturday as Lee Corso Day as members of the 1979 Holiday Bowl-winning team flanked him on the set of ESPN College GameDay after a segment about the team's reunion was shown this weekend.

Tayven Jackson will be the starting quarterback for IU while Kurtis Rourke is out with an injury. The former Center Grove star's father, Ray Jackson, played defensive back for Washington State (1993-94, 96-97). Tayven will face Dad's hated rivals, the Washington Huskies.

As he spoke to ESPN and waved GameDay's traditional Wazzou flag, Ray didn't need another reason to cheer on the Hoosiers: “U-Dub is just trash.”

Curt Cignetti spoke up, now the first-year IU coach is putting the matter into action. “I win, Google me” has become his calling card, and he’s not wrong. The Hoosiers are 7-0 and ranked 13th in the country and have realistic hopes of a spot in the College Football Playoff. What!?!

The bombastic coach joined the GameDay team before Saturday's game against Washington.

“Look, these people were hungry for success,” Cignetti said. “And they got a little taste of it, and they want more and more and more, and that's what it's become. But you know what? We have to do our part today.”

▶ Read more about Cignetti's GameDay appearance here.

Anthony Leal, Luke Goode and Trey Galloway appeared on the GameDay set. Leal and Galloway played with Trayce Jackson-Davis as Hoosiers. Jackson-Davis' younger brother, Tayven, will start for IU today in place of the injured Kurtis Rourke.

Former Colts punter Pat McAfee continues to be one of the best hype men in sports. He thrilled the crowd as they bragged about “the great state of INDIANA!” Chants of “Hoo-Hoo-Hoo-Hoosiers!” follow.

Saturday marks an especially emotional homecoming for Corso, whose 1979 Holiday Bowl team — the first in IU history to win a bowl game — is already in town for a planned reunion. GameDay is planning some special moments honoring Corso and his team on Saturday.

“We’re at Penn State. As you probably know, they always pass the Lions to the top of Beaver Stadium. We were out on Old Main and I said, “What if we brought the lion back through the crowd?” And I think it was Herbstreit who said, “What if we got LC to do it?” That was probably 2016. So I go up to him and say, “Yeah, we'll do that.” Well, as Friday afternoon went on, I was getting more and more nervous about the idea of ​​getting Lee back through this huge crowd, so I talked to security a little bit. They said, “We'll keep an eye on him.” I'm not sure that's a good idea, I'm not sure we should do that.” I said, “OK, let's see how it goes in the morning is.”

“Saturday morning is coming. We are about to do it. The security forces panic. 'We don't know if we can get him back on set in time for the show. We don't know if they'll make it.' “We will have him put down. We don't know what's going to happen.” So I tell our then-director Rodney Perez, “Open up to LC, I'll tell him.” I said, “LC, hey man, security isn't worried about it, Lee. ” Lee said, “Damn, darling!” It was one of the great openings with this great audience, and I think that was one of my many, many great memories that made me nervous. It was because of the logistics of the show, and he said : “No, people are going to like this, remember, we’re doing it.” And it was great.

“He was the one who back then really embraced and embodied the idea that he always reminds us of to this day: It's entertainment, honey,” Rece Davis said of Corso. “Football is our vehicle.” That’s what he always says. He recognized this early on and is why he is one of the most, if not the most, important figure in the history of college football television. He changed the way pregame shows were broadcast. It wasn't just, “Well, we'll see if we can block” and all that pretense. That's great, it's important, but it wasn't just that. He was one of the first to say exactly what he thought and not worry about it. 'Forget it', the whole thing. I think it really changed the way people approached the game and covered college football.”

Kyle Schwarber, an All-American during his IU baseball career and World Series champion with the Cubs in 2016, will serve as a guest selector.

College GameDay previously came to IU in 2017 for a special Thursday evening edition before the game between IU and Ohio State. This is the first full GameDay experience on Saturday in Bloomington.

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