Pat McAfee Donates $600K To Hurricane Helene Relief After Cal Student Drills $100K Field Goal

Talk about a double dose of positive vibes to kick off the new football weekend. Pat McAfee gives students a chance to change their lives during every College GameDay show on ESPN. They get to attempt a field goal, and if they make it, they get life-altering scholarship money. A young man named Daniel stepped up and booted the ball through the uprights on Saturday on his second attempt, scoring a cool $100,000 in the process. But what came next was even better, as McAfee revealed he'd donate $600,000 to help with Hurricane Helene. https://twitter.com/CollegeGameDay/status/1842578728196387025 Augusta National Golf Club announced a $5 million donation this week to the Hurricane Helene Community Crisis Fund. It's awesome to see so many public figures pitching in to help the cause, from NASCAR drivers to Dolly Parton and countless others, it's been great to see. Sports are often a great outlet for escapism and forgetting about the problems in the world, if only for several hours. That said, I'm glad College GameDay and McAfee made the decision to be so charitable in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and remind viewers that a lot of people are still in dire need. Anyway, the student who drilled the kick, Daniel, was rocking those checkered Vans shoes, which I can't imagine would be easy to kick in. Although he was wide right on his first attempt for $75,000, he totally redeemed himself by freaking drilling the next one. McAfee and the rest of the crew were stunned even after the first miss because of the sheer power Daniel generated. It's pretty wild that McAfee used the Hurricane Helene talk as motivation prior to Daniel's second kick, saying that it was bigger than him. No pressure, kid! But did he ever deliver the goods. If courage is grace under pressure as Hemingway said, Daniel has the heart of a lion. Or a bear, I guess, since he goes to Cal. Cal head coach Jeff Wilcox was half thinking about switching the footwear for his kicker after Daniel's megabucks field goal. https://twitter.com/CollegeGameDay/status/1842581537302122798 McAfee had that West Coast crowd fired up bright and early this morning well before this, too. I thought today's show was going to be especially noteworthy due to Marshawn Lynch being the guest picker. Just goes to show that McAfee can continue to deliver the goods almost on his own. https://twitter.com/CollegeGameDay/status/1842557510210691511