Copyright Salt Lake City Deseret News
Former Utah quarterback Alex Smith will make his debut on the “College GameDay” set this Saturday as the week’s celebrity guest picker as the ESPN pregame show broadcasts live from Salt Lake City. “College GameDay” returns to the University of Utah for the sixth time ahead of Saturday night’s matchup between No. 24 Utah and No. 17 Cincinnati. Smith will close the show by selecting the winners of the day’s matchups alongside Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee and Nick Saban. Smith led one of the greatest Utah teams in school history to a perfect 12-0 record in 2004. Smith and the Utes defeated BYU 52-21 in “GameDay’s” first trip to Salt Lake City to punch their ticket to the 2005 Fiesta Bowl — the first time that a school from a non-automatic qualifying conference had reached a BCS bowl. The Utes capped off an undefeated season with a 35-7 win over Pittsburgh. In 2004, Smith threw for 2,952 yards and 32 touchdowns and rushed for 631 rushing yards and 10 scores. He was a Heisman finalist and was named the Mountain West Conference Offensive Player of the Year and Sports Illustrated’s National Player of the Year. He still holds the school record for single-season touchdown passes (32) and total touchdowns in a season (42). Smith became Utah’ first-ever No. 1 overall selection in the NFL draft when he was selected with the top pick by the San Francisco 49ers. He played eight seasons in San Francisco and led the 49ers to the NFC championship game in 2011. He was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs in 2013, where he helped engineer a franchise turnaround after the Chiefs went 2-14 in 2012. The former Ute led the Chiefs to their first playoff win since 1993 and earned three Pro Bowl appearances. Smith finished out his 16-year NFL career with Washington, where he overcame a gruesome leg injury that nearly claimed his life after a subsequent infection and helped Washington claim the NFC East in 2020. He finished his 16-year NFL career with 35,650 passing yards, 199 passing touchdowns, 2,604 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns. Smith now works at ESPN as an NFL analyst and appears on the network’s “Sunday NFL Countdown” pregame show.
