Pat McAfee‘s latest appearance on ESPN’s College GameDay left a bad taste in his mouth after a student-made video made him feel unwelcome and concerned for his safety.
The former NFL punter-turned-TV personality was in Salt Lake City this past weekend for the program’s broadcast ahead of Utah’s matchup against Houston. Matters took a sour turn after the University of Utah shared a video on social media inviting students to impersonate McAfee, with some poking fun at his notoriously theatrical on-air persona. One student described him as “corny,” while another took issue with his habit of removing his shirt in front of college crowds. The 39-year-old broadcaster, however, took issue with the university’s decision to post the video on its official account.
During an episode of The Pat McAfee Showtwo days later, he explained that the criticism itself wasn’t the problem. Rather, it was the fact that the school had effectively endorsed the mockery just as he was preparing to promote its football program to a national audience.
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“The university puts that out? Like as I’m about to go out and do an infomercial for the place?” he asked, adding that walking into a crowd of thousands after seeing the clip made him deeply uncomfortable.
He then took the discussion in a considerably darker direction, alluding to the September 2025 assassination of Charlie Kirk.
“I thought to myself, has anything, like, really scary happened at a college gathering in the state of Utah recently?” he said. “Do we think we should be amplifying reasons for why people hate my guts, as a university?”
Front Office Sports has reported that the retired athlete regularly receives threatening messages, including death threats. An unnamed source also told the outlet that the FBI advised him to wear a bulletproof vest the week after Kirk’s assassination.
His frustration was apparent during Saturday’s telecast. Despite initially playing along with the crowd’s chants for him to remove his shirt, he grew visibly irritated during his recurring field-goal challenge when a participating student questioned why the potential prize was $1 million as opposed to the $3 million offered at Brigham Young University the week prior.
By the end of the broadcast, McAfee had picked Houston to defeat Utah and even told the crowd he hoped to never see them again. However, the Utes ultimately won 21-13.
“I hate this place,” he recalled thinking during the visit. “I’ve never been more uncomfortable, honestly, in my life, walking in front of a group of people after watching their university put out a post basically dogging me just moments before.”
He added, “I’ll hopefully never go to that place. I think I’ll have COVID or something whenever GameDay goes back … I did not enjoy the morning there.”
The university has since removed the video and issued a formal apology, acknowledging that its attempt at playful engagement backfired. Officials also accepted responsibility for approving the post and confirmed that they had contacted McAfee to express their regret.
“Our goal during the visit was to create lighthearted engagement regarding Pat being back on campus, but we missed the mark,” the school said in a statement shared with Deseret News earlier this week. “We sincerely apologize for creating any perception that Pat was unsafe or unwelcome on our campus. Nothing could be further from the truth. Pat and the entire GameDay crew are always welcome at the University of Utah and we deeply appreciate the opportunity ESPN provides to showcase our university and community.”
Meanwhile, ESPN stood firmly behind its host and said it takes the safety of its on-air personalities seriously.
“The safety and security of our on-air team, crew and fans is paramount at College GameDay,” a spokesperson for the company told Front Office Sports. “We are committed to ensuring a safe environment, and given the very real threats that members of our team face, we take issues involving their safety seriously. We support Pat and recognize the very real and valid concerns he has around safety and security.”
🚨 Pat McAfee GOES OFF on the University of Utah 😳
He says he’s never felt so uncomfortable, even bringing up what happened at UVU last year.
“I did not enjoy the University of Utah.”
HOLY SMOKES 💀 pic.twitter.com/YCXQPM3vEH
— Bill (@Billgetzfroggy) October 26, 2026