Nevertheless, Lisan al-Gaib will be at home for the gigantic duel between the Texas Longhorns and the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The 28-year-old movie star was hired by ESPN as College GameDay’s special guest picker for the championship, a game with implications for both programs’ entry into the 12-team College Football Playoff field.

Traditionally, the guest selector of a particular College GameDay broadcast is a distinguished alumnus of the host school – a mainstay of the university who has achieved national fame in his or her field. You may be wondering why Chalamet – an NYU dropout and short-term Columbia participant with no apparent connection to either program – will sit next to Lee Corso and explain why the Dawgs can’t allow Arch Manning to play on Saturday red zone slips.

You wouldn’t be the only one thinking about this:

“This man has never seen a college football game in his life,” one X user wrote of Chalamet’s GameDay picks.

“Does this guy even watch sports? Looks more like a Minecrafter,” a third user wisely remarked.

Now it should be noted: Chalamet “watches sports.” He’s sat on the sidelines for many Knicks games over the last six years (that counts!) and has a “surprisingly good” jumper, according to at least one player who played against him and Adam Sandler as a showoff in 2023.

That being said, Chalamet’s presence at Saturday’s game likely has less to do with his love of down-home SEC football and more with the national debut of his upcoming project: A complete unknowna biopic about Bob Dylan in which the actor himself plays the role of Mr. Subterranean Homesick Blues. Go to the cinema on Christmas Day A complete unknown is distributed by Searchlight Pictures, a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, owned by The Walt Disney Company. ESPN is also largely owned by the Walt Disney Company. At this point, you might know why young Timothée’s beaming face is beamed into Wingstop-scented living rooms across the country on Saturday afternoons.

In Chalamet’s defense, I will say that this performance probably wasn’t his idea. It’s hard to imagine all 112 pounds of Nouveau Wonka walking into a Disney marketing meeting and saying, “Get me Matchday.“I can also imagine Chalamet frantically preparing for his ESPN appearance, rattling off Jaydon Blue’s situational carry stats and making predictions about Quinn Ewers’ potential prospects in the transfer portal. At least we’ll all have fun taking a screenshot of this homemade one dune Posters that will inevitably appear in the GameDay audience on Saturday.

All I’m saying is: Football fans, don’t let Chalamet get you down. The Longhorns need to secure a CFP first-round bye this weekend, and the presence of a well-meaning waif on ESPN’s pregame show shouldn’t worry you any more than the nonsense spouted by Pat McAfee –unless Chalamet takes out a guitar. When he says “Mr. Tambourine Man” plays, we riot.