College football is back...or, at least, week 0 is here, and fans can get their first taste of the sport while waiting on a much better slate next weekend. South Carolina football fans still have a week to wait before they can watch the Gamecocks, but one player on the roster got an interesting shoutout on Saturday morning's opening College GameDay.
For reasons that aren't quite known, ESPN elected to have Ryan McGee perform a parody of Billy Joel's classic song "We Didn't Start the Fire." The song, obviously, was college football-related and saw the ESPN personality insert a bunch of references to some of the biggest personalities in the sport, including, "Kai Kroeger, Gamecock punter."
You can check out the entire song below as McGee teased out the video last night.
Someone call the @sportsemmys…and the @RecordingAcad. Because @billyjoel let me borrow his tune to get y’all ready for college football. pic.twitter.com/qU3SNrJ7vv
— Ryan McGee (@ESPNMcGee) August 23, 2024
In what was both terrible and wonderful at the same time (probably what ESPN was going for, right?), McGee sang for over two minutes over the iconic Joel song, and the video also included a blink-and-you'll-miss-it Williams-Brice Stadium clip. Naturally, the Kai Kroeger mention came complete with a video of the All-American sticking a punt down inside the 5-yard line in his iconic performance against the rival Clemson Tigers in 2022.
McGee, who is one of ESPN's most underrated writers and personalities, has a daughter who attends the University of South Carolina, and he has lived in the Carolinas for a lot of his life, so him sneaking a Gamecock shoutout into the song isn't a surprise.
South Carolina football fans can have a stress-free college football viewing experience on Saturday, but this time next week, things get real for the Gamecocks as they host the Old Dominion Monarchs at Williams-Brice Stadium in their season opener. The game is slated for a 4:15 kick and will be broadcast on the SEC Network and streamed on the ESPN app.