Kirk Herbstreit, Trae Young pick against Illinois on College GameDay

The Illinois football program is on right after College GameDay on Saturday, and there was a split among the picks.

In the first episode of ESPN’s College GameDay without their mascot Lee Corso, the first game they ended up picking was the Illini game.

The first three picks went in favor of Illinois. Desmond Howard led things off with his pick of the Illini. Nick Saban then picked the Orange and Blue with some nice words to say about Luke Altmyer and his experience as a quarterback.

Pat McAfee then took the mic and agreed with the first two. He picked Illinois as well. It then got to the guest picker.

Since College GameDay was in Oklahoma for the Sooners vs. Michigan game, the guest picker on College GameDay was former Oklahoma legend and NBA player Trae Young. He admittedly didn’t know anything about Illinois or Duke, so Young picked the Blue Devils.

The shocking pick was the final picker of the day, Kirk Herbstreit. Instead of going with the favorite, Herbstreit agreed with Young and went with Duke.

Illinois might be a favorite, but going on the road against Duke is never easy

I can’t blame anyone who picks either team for the game on Saturday. Duke has a good team, so who knows which program will win?

Illinois has to contain Duke quarterback Darian Mensah. He has a chance to have a big day. As long as Altmyer can keep up with the Blue Devils offensively, we should be fine.