The ESPN Pre-Game Show appeared on the giant screen exactly one hour before kickoff.
"Welcome back to the Week 4 college football pregame show!" Chris Fowler announced with a flawless, professional smile.
The broadcast showed ESPN's modern main studio set.
Fowler, a prominent sports commentator and host for the network, as well as the iconic presenter of this famous pregame program, occupied the center of the long desk, seated in his chair.
On both his left and right sat the rest of the legendary panel.
Right next to Fowler was Kirk Herbstreit, one of the leading personalities and analysts in college football.
Before building his successful media career, Kirk had been a quarterback and captain for the renowned Ohio State Buckeyes.
In addition to his studio role, he was extremely famous for serving as the analyst commentator for Saturday night's marquee games alongside Brent Musburger. His calls alongside Brent were quite famous.
Seated beside Kirk was the legend himself: Lee Corso.
The elderly former coach, present as the show's star analyst since its very inception, was one of the most popular figures on the program due to his highly comedic and loud personality, always bringing a fun touch to the pregame coverage.
Finally, rounding out the desk, was Desmond Howard, a former wide receiver who played eleven seasons in the NFL.
Howard carried an impressive historical background: during his college years with the Michigan Wolverines, he enjoyed an outstanding and dominant career, which led him to win the Heisman Trophy in 1991.
However, upon making the jump to the NFL, he initially failed to meet the enormous expectations the football world had for him as a traditional receiver, leading many analysts and fans to harshly criticize him and label him a disappointment.
But his career took a historic turn thanks to his impact on special teams.
Desmond completely reinvented himself and became one of the greatest kick return specialists in history.
He came to be regarded as one of the greatest returners ever on the biggest stage in the world: Super Bowl XXXI.
There, he became the first and only special teams player to win Super Bowl MVP after accumulating approximately 244 total yards and recording a historic 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against the New England Patriots.
Seeing such a panel of experts on the television screen in the bar where Howard, Leonard, Rachel, Monica, Paige, and the others were gathered caused the deafening murmur throughout the establishment to noticeably die down.
The students needed to sharpen their hearing to clearly make out the speakers.
"Setting aside last week's chaotic events, which we've already analyzed to exhaustion on previous shows, today all the attention from the Pacific Coast and the great state of Texas is focused on this matchup," Chris continued as digital graphics flashed across the studio monitor.
"The UCLA Bruins, the newly crowned number twelve team in the nation, taking on a Houston Cougars squad that enters the game unranked. Who comes out on top? What do you think, Lee?" Chris asked, turning toward his longest-tenured colleague at the desk.
The camera zoomed in on Lee Corso.
At seventy-seven years old, the legendary analyst wore his classic immaculate suit, a striking tie featuring the network's colors, and a wrinkled face that nevertheless radiated enviable vitality.
His narrow eyes gleamed with that mischievous and boisterous spark that was so characteristic of him.
Lee responded instantly, without the slightest hint of doubt in his powerful voice.
"The Bruins!"
As soon as the emphatic answer came through the bar's television, a wave of applause and approving whistles erupted among the students crowding the tables.
"That's right!" shouted a student near Howard, Leonard, and the others, raising his fist.
But Lee wasn't finished. He raised a finger theatrically, signaling for his fellow panelists not to speak just yet.
"The real question here, Chris, isn't that. The real question is: by how many points is UCLA going to win?"
At that, the college students in the bar applauded even louder, many clinking beer glasses together and nearly spilling them.
Having a television legend like Lee Corso place that much faith in their team felt pretty good.
Especially considering that just last year the Bruins had finished with a mediocre record and fired their entire coaching staff.
It had seemed as though the program was doomed to never rise again and would remain forever trapped in USC's shadow. But all of that had changed dramatically since he chose them.
Back on the ESPN set, light laughter came from the rest of the panelists. Chris smiled in disbelief as he looked at him.
"You have that little faith in Houston, Lee? Let me remind you they're playing at home, under the scorching Texas sun."
"I never want to underestimate any team, Chris. That's what the fresh Louisiana-Monroe case is for..." Lee replied with a crooked smile, bringing everyone's minds back to the historic David-versus-Goliath upset from less than three weeks ago, when Arkansas suffered an embarrassing defeat.
"But let's be realistic: UCLA, on top of being ranked number twelve, has already faced two opponents firmly entrenched in the Top 25. They beat one in dramatic fashion and narrowly lost to the other," Lee continued, now speaking with greater seriousness and showing his analytical side. "The Bruins have already played high-intensity games, whereas today they're facing a team with a losing 0-3 record whose defense has already allowed more than one hundred points."
Lee paused for barely a second, stared directly into the studio camera, and declared with complete authority:
"And as if that weren't enough, Houston has to face the most impactful and game-changing player in all of college football today. Andrew Pritchett-Tucker is going to have an absolute feast this afternoon! Mark my words!"
"That's what I'm talking about, Lee!" shouted a student from the back of the establishment amid the cheering and raised glasses.
Leonard was applauding with a smile, caught up in the euphoric atmosphere of the place. He was already beginning to realize that experiencing a game there was going to be fun.
Beside him, Howard cupped his hands around his mouth and let out a whistle that blended into the general commotion.
Rachel, wearing Andrew's jersey and sporting perfectly painted cheeks in UCLA's blue and gold colors, was applauding with a smile as well.
Monica, meanwhile, joined in enthusiastically like any other fan, blending completely into the environment and legally passing herself off as a crazed UCLA supporter.
Sam and her group of friends were taking things a little more calmly, remaining seated, but they shared in the bar's excitement, smiling and applauding in unison.
Paige, seated across from them, wore a slight crooked expression somewhere between amused and analytical. Her mind was still recalculating the immense impact that a sport like football—and in this specific case, a single player, could have on thousands of people.
She applauded lightly and slowly while watching the giant screen.
'He really is famous...' she thought to herself.
She had watched the Bruins' previous games from her room, but mostly as background noise, only glancing at them from time to time.
Today, however, would be the first Andrew game she watched from beginning to end with her full attention. And if she was being honest with herself, she was genuinely curious and quite eager to see the phenomenon in action.
"It's hard to argue with that," Chris commented from the studio monitors as the broadcast switched to a digital graphic breaking down Andrew's numbers.
📊 STATISTICS: ANDREW PRITCHETT-TUCKER (UCLA)
Games Played: 3 (2-1 Record)
Completions / Attempts: 79 of 112
Completion Percentage: 70.5%
Passing Yards: 966 yds
Rushing Yards: 199 yds
Total Combined Yards: 1,165 yds
Total Touchdowns: 12 TDs (10 Passing / 2 Rushing)
Interceptions / Sacks Taken: 2 INTs / 4 Sacks
Desmond, the Heisman winner and Super Bowl MVP, raised a finger in subtle correction.
"The second most impactful player today, Lee," Desmond corrected with a smile, looking at his colleague while knowing a heated debate was coming. "The first is still Geno Smith. We put him at the top of the Heisman race less than a week ago, if you remember."
"Geno Smith is undoubtedly putting together an absolutely outrageous statistical season that matches, or perhaps even surpasses, what Pritchett-Tucker has done," Chris commented.
"Boooo!" shouted a UCLA girl a few tables away in the bar, giving a thumbs-down toward the giant screen just as the broadcast switched to the rival quarterback's numbers.
Geno Smith played for the West Virginia Mountaineers in the Big 12 Conference, a team currently ranked No. 8 in the AP Poll.
West Virginia entered the week with a 2-0 record because, unusually early in the schedule, they had already had their bye week.
But in those two games alone, Geno's numbers were inhumanly absurd and had become the hottest topic among analysts:
📊 STATISTICS: GENO SMITH (WEST VIRGINIA)
Games Played: 2 (Record: 2-0)
Completion Percentage: 82.9% (An absolute rarity in football)
Passing Yards: 734 yds
Rushing Yards: 98 yds
Total Yards: 832 yds
Total Touchdowns: 10 TDs (9 Passing / 1 Rushing)
Interceptions Thrown: 0 INTs
In the latest Heisman Watch rankings assembled the previous week, the national Top 2 had narrowed down exclusively to Andrew and Geno.
In the end, the voters had leaned toward placing Geno Smith at number one.
The media's arguments were purely mathematical: on one hand, his average yards per game were slightly better, his scoring average stood at five touchdowns per game compared to Andrew's four, he had kept his interception total at a perfect zero while Andrew already had two, and he held an advantage of more than ten percentage points in completion rate.
But the most important factor was that West Virginia remained undefeated, while UCLA already carried one loss.
Even so, it sparked fierce debates. Old-school experts like Lee preferred to place Andrew at number one.
Lee's argument was that Andrew was accomplishing all of this while operating in a more NFL-style system, while also delivering the most spectacular highlights of the season, including deep passes of over fifty yards with perfect spirals, memorable escapes from pressure, and the now legendary run of more than ninety yards.
"Guys," Chris interjected, raising both hands to stop a discussion whose tension was already becoming obvious, "not again, please. We've already had this debate and managed to put together the Heisman Top 10 properly. Let's focus on today's game."
Lee and Desmond smiled faintly and dropped the subject, crossing their arms and accepting through a simple gesture that they would never agree on that particular point.
"I agree with Lee," Kirk said, speaking for the first time during the segment.
Everyone in the studio turned toward him.
Desmond raised an eyebrow, fixing his gaze on his colleague.
"I seem to remember you voted to put Geno Smith at the top of the Heisman race, Kirk," he pointed out in an amused tone.
"I know, I know, but Lee's exact words were: the most impactful and influential player of the season so far. He didn't say who's leading the Heisman race," Kirk replied without backing down from his position.
He took a breath for barely a second before continuing.
"Pritchett-Tucker has been the key piece in all three of his team's victories. He opened his college career under enormous media pressure, even if Rice was theoretically the weaker FBS opponent on paper, and immediately afterward he had to go head-to-head against two programs ranked in the Top 25. Meanwhile, Geno already had a bye week, and the only two games he's played have come against extremely weak opponents. In fact, one of them belongs to the FCS."
Kirk's technical observation had merit.
West Virginia had faced the James Madison Dukes, an FCS team, the second subdivision of college football, a noticeably lower level of competition.
That meant they were a significantly weaker opponent than the Rice Owls of the FBS, the team UCLA had demolished in its season opener.
Desmond grimaced and nodded slightly, as if accepting that he couldn't deny that simple fact. The schedule the Bruins had faced so far had been far more demanding on multiple levels.
Furthermore, Andrew's individual impact on the team's success was unquestionable.
No one at the desk dared deny Geno Smith's talent, but under West Virginia's ultra-offensive Spread system, the university could have plugged in another talented quarterback and the results of those two games likely would not have changed much in terms of winning them.
With Andrew at UCLA, the story was completely different: he was the soul of the offense.
"His tremendous impact can be measured precisely by the number of weekly awards he's already taken home: two Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week awards, two national Davey O'Brien awards, and one Walter Camp honor," Kirk concluded, tapping the desk with his notes.
"And you're forgetting his two Pac-12 Freshman of the Week awards," Chris added with a smile.
"I know," Kirk nodded. "I just think it's completely unfair that all the other freshmen, both true freshmen and redshirts, have to compete against him. They're simply not playing in the same league."
Desmond let out a laugh, "It's true, it's unfair."
"The other day I read an article saying Andrew is the new king of the city," Kirk continued, settling back into his chair.
"But I wouldn't call him a king. I'd call him an alien. I believe he's having the greatest start by any player in modern football. He has two Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Week awards in just three weeks. To put that into perspective, Matt Barkley, in his best season, which was last year, managed four of those awards in twelve weeks."
"I remember that. That's the conference record," Chris said with a nod.
Barkley held the record for the most Offensive Player of the Week awards in a single season with four.
A record he shared with Carson Palmer, another former Trojan from 2002 and a Heisman winner.
"And there's more," Kirk added. "Barkley never won two Davey O'Brien awards, even in his best season, and he only has one Walter Camp honor across his three years at USC. This season, he hasn't won a single weekly award."
Desmond crossed his arms thoughtfully.
"It's an absurd pace. The Walter Camp and Davey O'Brien committees are extremely traditional organizations. There are hundreds of players competing across the country; they usually spread the awards around and hate repeating names. How did this kid manage to break through that barrier?"
"The first week is easy to understand," Lee commented.
Kirk nodded toward him.
"It was the most anticipated debut in college football. The television ratings were massive, and the Rose Bowl was packed with celebrities like Kobe Bryant and Justin Bieber. Under all that pressure, Pritchett didn't make a single mistake. He completed over 75% of his passes, threw perfect deep balls, and accounted for five total touchdowns. The Walter Camp and O'Brien awards were completely deserved."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"But what about this third week?" Desmond insisted, leaning forward. "The fact that the Davey O'Brien committee repeated a player this early in the schedule is what doesn't make sense."
Everyone knew that even legends and Heisman winners had often won that award only twice during an entire regular season spanning twelve to fourteen weeks, players like Cam Newton and Tim Tebow.
"I think that, beyond the statistics, where he once again posted more than four hundred total yards, it comes down to the narrative," Kirk began. "He was facing a direct Top 25 rival, and most importantly, he was coming off the first football loss of his career against Nebraska."
"Everyone loves that. The pressure of seeing how the wonder kid would respond after tasting defeat," Chris commented.
"Exactly," Kirk concluded. "That redemption narrative, combined with the spectacular comeback at the end, forced the traditionalist committee in Texas to give him the award again. They had no alternative. There simply wasn't another quarterback in the nation who played that week with greater impact and importance than he did."
Kirk paused briefly before finishing his point, "That said, regarding this week's Walter Camp award, I do agree that Stepfan Taylor deserved it. They beat the number two team in the country, and he had a tremendous game both on the ground and through the air."
The Walter Camp Award does not specifically honor quarterbacks; it evaluates all offensive players in the country equally, and defeating USC with those total-yard numbers created an even bigger narrative.
Finally, the television segment came to an end and the game began.
This time, the broadcast team was not made up of Brent Musburger and Kirk Herbstreit. Even so, it remained a top-tier national television crew.
The play-by-play announcer was Sean McDonough, his trademark clear voice ready to erupt during the game's biggest moments.
Beside him was Matt Millen, handling the tactical analysis. A former NFL player, Millen carried the enormous prestige of having won four Super Bowl rings as a linebacker with the Raiders, 49ers, and Redskins.
By 2012, Millen had established himself as ESPN's premier analyst for marquee afternoon games.
The energy inside the bar surged dramatically the moment the ball was put into play.
The stadium in Texas appeared packed to the last seat with thirty-two thousand people, an extremely rare occurrence for the Houston Cougars, who almost never managed to fill Robertson Stadium.
But to the surprise of many who expected a hostile Texas atmosphere, the reality in the stands was completely different.
Those who assumed that simply playing in Texas meant facing an ultra-loyal, loud, football-crazed fanbase didn't understand the context surrounding the Houston Cougars.
The university had never possessed a truly passionate following or a deep football tradition like the state's major programs. Their games were more of a casual event, their stadium was rarely full, and visiting teams almost never suffered under the pressure of the home crowd.
This time, all thirty-two thousand seats at Robertson Stadium had sold out for one reason alone: people had filled the stands simply to see Andrew play in person.
The broadcast kept cutting to local fans holding signs dedicated to him, and even to people wearing the red Mater Dei jerseys from his high school playing days.
And just as Lee Corso had predicted barely an hour earlier, Andrew was having an absolute feast.
In the first quarter, he accounted for three touchdowns and guided the offense to a field goal, building a crushing 24-0 lead for UCLA.
To the coaching staff's relief, the Bruins' defense also remained solid and airtight.
The defense had been the primary target of media criticism. While they were far from a complete sieve and had endured an extremely difficult schedule under the pressure of being the most talked-about team in the country, they still carried the troubling statistic of having allowed more than eighty points in just three games.
Today, however, they were playing their best football of the season.
As they waited for the second quarter to begin, the atmosphere inside the bar transformed into a full-blown party.
"GO BRUINS!" several students shouted in unison.
Howard, swept up in the collective euphoria, was yelling nonstop as well.
Legally, he couldn't buy alcohol, but amid the loud sea of college students aged twenty-one and older who kept handing him drinks, it was practically impossible for the bar owner to control the situation.
With his cheeks slightly flushed from the beer, Howard blinked for a second and nudged Leonard with his elbow, pointing off to one side.
Leonard looked where Howard was pointing and raised an eyebrow.
There was a guy dressed as the team's mascot, complete with the costume head and everything.
'When did he show up?' Leonard wondered, confused. He hadn't noticed him before.
As exaggerated as the celebration might have seemed, they were, after all, college students, some of them already a few drinks past sober.
And secondly, the reality was that UCLA hadn't won a game this comfortably and decisively in years.
The season opener had ended with a respectable twenty-six-point margin, but this was another level of domination.
Having such a massive lead in the first quarter could only mean one thing: Robertson Stadium was witnessing an outright massacre.
"He's the Jesus Christ of football, now playing in college!" exclaimed a guy near their tables.
On the giant screen, a slow-motion replay of the latest scoring play began to roll.
The footage clearly showed Andrew executing a perfect play-action fake that completely froze Houston's safeties before unleashing a bomb of more than forty yards straight into Shaq's hands, allowing him to stroll into the end zone.
'Jesus Christ of football... what kind of nickname is that?' Paige thought, a faint smile forming on her lips after hearing the shout.
As a Texan, even though she concealed her natural accent to blend in better in California, Paige understood football perfectly. It was embedded in her cultural DNA.
And after processing everything the television analysts had said during the pregame show, her conclusion was that what Andrew was accomplishing in college football was a historical anomaly.
Involuntarily, Paige began drawing a parallel in her mind.
He was similar to her.
Both were unique geniuses, biological anomalies who existed far outside normal parameters.
She possessed a devastating intellectual and academic brilliance, a mind that made her a one-in-a-million specimen, or perhaps even rarer.
Andrew possessed genius in the world of sports.
'As an elite athlete, just how damn rare is he?' Paige wondered.
Maybe even rarer than she and that idiot Sheldon, or was she exaggerating?
The second quarter began, and Andrew and the Bruins' offense never took their foot off the gas.
It seemed as though they had something personal against Houston, whose defenders were simply incapable of keeping up with them.
Their offensive drives were finished in incredibly short amounts of time thanks to a perfect mix of intermediate passes and deep bombs.
By the end of the second quarter and the official start of halftime, Andrew had added two more touchdowns, one of them on a rushing score of his own, and the Bruins had also converted two field goals.
The scoreboard was absolutely brutal for the home team.
UCLA Bruins 47 - Houston Cougars 0
The statistics appeared on screen.
The festive noise inside the bar suddenly died down. The place fell momentarily silent as every student fixed their eyes on the overwhelming stat sheet.
Andrew Pritchett-Tucker Stats vs. Houston (Q1 & Q2):
Completed / Attempted Passes: 14 of 17
Completion Percentage: 82.3%
Passing Yards: 285 yards
Passing Touchdowns: 4 TDs
Rushing: 2 carries for 42 yards and 1 TD
Interceptions / Sacks: 0 INTs / 0 Sacks
Total for one half: 327 total yards and 5 combined TDs.
"What the hell?" muttered a short guy while staring at the stats, his beer mug frozen halfway to his mouth.
He wasn't the only one.
They knew UCLA was dominating, but actually seeing those numbers was even more shocking.
Through the bar's speakers, announcer McDonough's electrifying voice shattered the collective amazement.
"A game that was just three misplaced passes away from absolute perfection in the history books, Matt! And yet it still feels perfect. Those three incompletions led to no mistakes, no interceptions, and not a single sack allowed. Nothing."
McDonough paused dramatically for a moment as the cameras showed Andrew casually walking toward the Texas locker rooms.
"Tell me something, Millen. How difficult is it to accomplish this?"
"To be honest with you, Sean, I'm not even entirely sure how to quantify it," Millen replied in a serious tone. "But the ease with which he makes everything happen... that's almost as frightening as the statistics themselves. This kid steps onto the field and makes it look like he's playing in his backyard with a couple of friends."
"Ridiculous," he concluded.
A moment later, the ABC broadcast officially cut to commercial break.
Fortunately for Houston, Andrew never stepped back onto the field in the third quarter.
He didn't play a single minute of the second half.
It wasn't unusual for coaches to send their stars to the bench in order to give backup players game time once a contest had already been completely decided on the scoreboard.
Why risk an unnecessary injury?
The next two quarters were placed under Brett Hundley's command.
It was at that point that the fans inside the bar and the millions of viewers watching on national television realized an alarming detail:
UCLA had an incredibly good backup quarterback.
Hundley, a quarterback with imposing physical tools and a lethal ability to run with the football, took full advantage of the opposing defense's fatigue.
Without mercy, he delivered the final blow.
He tore through the defensive front with his own rushing attacks, scoring two touchdowns while also moving the chains and setting up two field goals.
And so the game came to an end.
UCLA Bruins 67 - Houston Cougars 3.