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The University of Utah-produced video that left Pat McAfee vowing to never return — and referencing Charlie Kirk’s assassination — included students mildly joking about his mannerisms.
McAfee called out Monday a since-deleted video published by the university in advance of ESPN’s “College GameDay” coming to campus for Saturday’s huge 21-13 win over Houston.
The host of the video asks a fan for his best McAfee impression, and a male fan predicted the host would say a “corny line.”
“He’s going to be like, ‘Houston, we got a problem. Give the Utah Utes,” the fan said while those around him chuckled.
Another fan then appeared to joke that he would bet on McAfee ripping his shirt off during the show, before another fan chided the ESPN star for doing so.
“Pat, we love you, bro, but like, bro, keep the shirt on,” the fan said with a smile. “No one is trying to see that. We don’t care, these are college kids, bro. Keep your shirt on homie.”
Those remarks clearly got under McAfee’s skin, along with the student in the show’s kicking contest asking why she was being offered $1 million instead of the $3 million McAfee gave away the previous week at BYU.
McAfee appeared visibly annoyed at the remark, and signed off by picking Houston to win to a chorus of boos and saying “I’ll never see you again, hopefully.”
On his self-named show Monday, McAfee went scorched earth on Utah and ESPN’s potential $60 million star explicitly referenced the rather tame remarks made by the students.
He said he did not enjoy his time in Salt Lake City, even using the word hate and saying he’s never felt more uncomfortable.
McAfee repeatedly stated that he felt that video was the university taking a shot at him.
“They do an impression of Pat McAfee and one kid goes, ‘Ah, he’s corny.’ Another kid calls me creepy,” he said, although the student did not call him corny. “OK, if these kids would have done this on their own blogs, all good. I mean, everybody’s taking shots at me anyways for everything. I get it.
“The university puts that out? Like, as I’m about to go out and do an infomercial for the place, and then I’m walking in front of thousands of these people. This is how the university feels about it? It’s an uncomfortable feeling. I’m getting a lot of shrapnel from a lot of places. The university is putting this out? That’s something I just had never experienced really in my entire life.”
McAfee later tied his experience to the September 2025 assassination of Kirk, a political pundit, at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.
“I thought to myself: ‘Has anything like really scary happened at like a college gathering in the state of Utah recently?’ Like, do we think we should be amplifying reasons for why people hate my guts as a university? I don’t know,” he said. “It was a lot of mixed feelings for me going out there,” McAfee said.
— Bill (@Billgetzfroggy) October 26, 2026🚨 Pat McAfee GOES OFF on the University of Utah 😳
He says he’s never felt so uncomfortable, even bringing up what happened at UVU last year.
“I did not enjoy the University of Utah.”
HOLY SMOKES 💀 pic.twitter.com/YCXQPM3vEH
Utah has since apologized for the video and said officials have reached out to McAfee “to express appreciation and regret.”
“Our goal during the visit was to create lighthearted engagement regarding Pat being back on campus, but we missed the mark,” the school said in a release. “University staff are responsible for reviewing and posting content on official social media accounts and we take full accountability for that decision.
“We sincerely apologize for creating any perception that Pat was unsafe or unwelcome on our campus. Nothing could be further from the truth. Pat and the entire GameDay crew are always welcome at the University of Utah and we deeply appreciate the opportunity ESPN provides to showcase our university and community.”