Timothée Chalamet has the internet’s approval to add “football analyst” to his résumé now.
The Oscar-nominated actor served as a guest picker on ESPN‘s College GameDay on Saturday ahead of the SEC championship game in Atlanta, where he came prepared and fully researched to speak. He held his own among host Rece Davis and analysts Lee Corso, Kirk Herbstreit, Nick Saban, Desmond Howard and Pat McAfee.
The A Complete Unknown star picked his guesses for winners during his appearance, starting with Jackson State University competing against Southern University for the Southwestern Athletic Conference championship. “Eight wins in a row, 11 all-conference players,” Chalamet said of Jackson State, which ended up winning. “This should be a comfortable, easy win for them.”
Up next, he correctly predicted the Ohio University Bobcats would beat the Miami University Redhawks, also from Ohio, and that Arizona State would beat Iowa State. He’s also guessing that on Saturday night, Southern Methodist will win the ACC title over Clemson University; the University of Oregon will beat Penn State; and the University of Texas will claim victory over the University of Georgia.
With his final guess for the SEC champ between Texas and Georgia, Chalamet noted he has to go with his “movie dad,” Matthew McConaughey, who’s a big fan of the Texas Longhorns. “I’m sorry to everybody here,” the Dune star joked to the crowd in Georgia. (McConaughey portrayed Chalamet’s father in Interstellar.)
The internet was abuzz with the actor’s football knowledge, with numerous fans taking to social media to share their reactions to his guest picker gig.
“Timothee Chalamet, I owe you an apology — I wasn’t familiar with your game,” one user posted on X (formerly Twitter).
Another one wrote, “Timothee Chalamet being a real deal college football fan, being a SMU fan, and knowing about all these teams was so crazy to me. I thought just invited cause famous, but he was a legit great guest picker on College Gameday.”
“Did NOT have Timothee Chalamet breaking down college football in depth on my 2024 bingo card,” a third user said. “Best Gameday guest picker this season.”
Another user wrote, “So basically, Timothée Chalamet has done more college football research for this one episode of “College Gameday” than Pat McAfee has done his entire time on the show.”