Somebody get that group a hot chocolate.

There were times around 8-10 a.m. Saturday the ESPN GameDay crew looked awfully cold -- Desmond Howard in a sweater, Lee Corso sporting gloves -- but it looked like a really flattering production from the west-side parking lot of LaVell Edwards Stadium.

It had to warm some Cougar hearts.

The tone was really good toward BYU. It was appropriate to also have a Utah flag and a couple of Boise State flags in the crowd.

Whether the army of BYU folks like it or not, BYU, Utah, TCU and WAC member Boise State are in this thing together. Especially the Mountain West Conference teams, which the two-hour broadcast highlighted in a fair amount.

"Sometimes it can be hard to find the games (on TV) in this conference," keystone commentator Chris Fowler offered to open the show. "This one's going to be worth the effort."

Thank you, Versus, DirecTV, Dish Network, etc. for the help, right? Good thing ESPN stepped in to help pump up BYU-TCU.

The BYU crowd looked really geared up for the first hour. Emotion appeared more contrived as the show wore on. So much early-morning time spent in a parking lot -- and possibly in tents overnight -- will eventually sap a person.

BYU came off looking really good. There was an early cameo from Sen. Orrin Hatch, who it turns out met his wife in a BYU astronomy course (I guess we'd say the stars were aligned.)

There was also reference to Mitt Romney, Danny Ainge, "Jeopardy!" phenom Ken Jennings and some guy who played some movie character named Napoleon Dynamite.

Of course, you couldn't do a college football show without mentioning guys like NFL coach Andy Reid and Texas Tech offensive mastermind Mike Leach.

The tone of the show came off really nice, not just in a few national story lines (discussing the tragedy with the UConn football player dying this week; a feature on traditions for many teams as they take the field) but also in how BYU was portrayed.

There was a really fun four-minute feature on linebacker Coleby Clawson. He's famous in college football for his opening-week knockout of Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford. But Clawson also has a wife and a child, and BYU gave him some fame for that.

Funny to see the little girl bawling when she was being put to bed. Apparently, according to Coleby's wife, the big bad linebacker is a total pushover when it comes to putting his little darlin' to bed.

Hopefully he doesn't let TCU have its way tonight.

It helped accentuate the Cougars that the hosts all were wearing blue. Kirk Herbstreit had on his blue shirt, Desmond Howard was looking the most stylish in a baby blue tie and sweater plus handkerchief. Lee Corso also had a blue shirt.

Of course when push came to shove, when hype met his pick, Corso couldn't resist going purple. Maybe that was another bodily reaction to the cold.

He wound up donning the Horned Frog head during his famous final-minute pick in the show. He first looked like he would put on the Cougar head, then tossed Cosmo's top to his right.

Special guest LaVell Edwards (charming as always) was happy to put it on and wave to the crowd.

A good start to the day. Kickoff just seven hours away...