Rece Davis is the new host of ESPN’s College Gameday. Davis previously served ESPN in a variety of capacities including calling Thursday night college football games and hosting College Football Final to end each Saturday. Davis replaces longtime host Chris Fowler and offers a slightly different personality to the show. Gameday fans hope Rece can build the kind of chemistry with the rest of the crew that Fowler had in his many years as host.
Get to know the new Gameday host with these interesting facts:
1. Rece Davis Is the New ESPN College Gameday Host
The big news of ESPN’s College Gameday, college football’s premier pregame show, is the passing of the torch from Chris Fowler to Rece Davis. Fowler had been a long time host of the show but decided it was time to move on after the 2014 season. Fowler covers ABC’s Game of the Week every Saturday night as well as tennis which made for interesting logistical challenges.
Rece Davis joins Desmond Howard, Kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso as the four premier analysts of the shows in addition to a number of different contributors. The new contract Davis signed with ESPN outlined his new position as Gameday host.
2. CBS Was Courting Rece Davis
Davis was recruited by other networks. (Getty)
It is not clear specifically what CBS was offering Davis to sign with the network once his ESPN contract expired but multiple reports confirm CBS was heavily courting Davis. Popular thought suggests Davis would have been one of the lead announcers for SEC’s Game of the Week on CBS among other things.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Davis spoke about the negotiations:
That would probably be something that I’d rather keep private. I don’t know that it serves me what level of interest there was on the outside. I would hope that my work has been good enough that people would find me an attractive candidate. But my first choice from the beginning was to find a prominent role at ESPN and I’m glad it has worked out that way.”
3. Rece Met His Wife, Leigh, by Pretending to Send a Fax
SB Nation’s Jason Kirk recently did a phenomenal piece about Rece Davis. The article details how Rece met his wife Leigh Langley.
Leigh worked in the ad department at the same Georgia media outlet that Rece did. One day Davis pretended to not know how to send a fax in order to make conversation with her. They hit it off and would later get married. Leigh is an Auburn grad compared to Rece’s crimson roots. Their son Christopher recently enrolled at Princeton where he will play baseball.
4. Davis Has Been the Host of College Basketball’s Gameday Show
ESPN also has a College Gameday show devoted to college basketball. While not as popular as the college football version, Davis’ experience as host of the show should prove to be valuable. Lee Fitting, producer of college football’s Gameday, spoke to Sports Illustrated about this experience:
I used to produce the College GameDay basketball show and Rece has a lot of similar characteristics to Chris in terms of how they operate on air. Both are smooth, overly prepared, professional, and they want to serve the sports fan. It’s not to serve the company or our partners first, but to serve the college football fan first. You know very quickly when you work with someone whether it will work or not and I am 110 percent convinced that this will work with Rece Davis.”
5. Rece Went to the University of Alabama
According to AL.com, Davis grew up an Alabama fan and had dreams of becoming Alabama football’s play-by-play announcer. Rece would end up attending the University of Alabama. While at Alabama, he earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in Broadcast News and Public Affairs. He does a great job hiding his Crimson colors as an objective analyst on ESPN. You can find photos like the one above by following Rece Davis on Instagram.
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