Our First Gus Johnson Meltdown Of The College Football Season Came In Penn State’s Upset Of Wisconsin

One of college football’s best traditions popped up on Saturday afternoon: Gus Johnson’s first meltdown over something cool that he saw in a close game. Johnson was on the call as Penn State headed to Madison to take on Wisconsin in a battle of ranked Big Ten squads, and in one of the least aesthetically pleasing games we’ll watch this year, the Nittany Lions pulled off a 16-10 upset.

Wisconsin had a few chances late to pull ahead, perhaps none better than its 17-play, 67-yard drive while down by six. But despite getting the ball on the Nittany Lion 1 on first-and-goal, the Badgers couldn’t punch it in. The exclamation point came on the final play of the drive, when Graham Mertz was picked off by Jaquan Brisker and caused Johnson to have one of those calls that have made him beloved by college football fans.

Johnson screaming “WOW!,” declaring “WHAT A GAME!,” and then just saying the word “defense” a few times sets the bar pretty high for Gus Johnson Moments™ this season. The good news for other teams is that college football will assuredly have way crazier games than this one, so we fully expect Gus to lose his mind a few more times during the 2021 campaign.