ESPN’s Ryan McGee is known for mixing humor with his perspective on sports, but he admitted that he crossed the line when it came to commenting on BYU after their loss against Texas Tech last Saturday.
BYU entered the Top 10 clash in Lubbock undefeated on the season, but were dominated by the Red Raiders as they were shut out for most of the game in a 29-7 defeat.
For their uninspiring performance, McGee placed them in his “Bottom 10,” which is a humorous look at the things that went wrong in the week that was in college football. In putting “BY-Who” in the fifth spot, McGee invoked the name of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon faith.
His post originally stated, “Legend has it that after the angel Moroni showed Joseph Smith the golden plates upon which the Mormon Church was founded, he also warned Smith to make sure to heed the oft-forgotten inscription located on the scratched up backside of the plates: “BEWARE THE COVETED FIFTH SPOT LEST IT BITE YOU IN THE BEHIND IN LUBBOCK.”
Hey @ESPNMcGee what in the world is happening here??
How is this ok? https://t.co/nuCZAi27KW pic.twitter.com/oiuqrj1pKA
— Jonathan Tavernari (@For3JT) November 12, 2025
After being called out on social media for the insensitive write-up, Ryan McGee apologized on social media for what he called “earlier insensitivities.” He also made another joke about BYU’s no-show at Texas Tech.
New – and revised – #Bottom10 is up. Apologies for earlier insensitivities. Certainly wasn’t my intent. But BYU is still in the Coveted Fifth Spot. Ill-advised jokes can be deleted. Ill-advised gameplans cannot. https://t.co/Aai1jROQ3j
— Ryan McGee (@ESPNMcGee) November 13, 2025
The revised version now reads, “BYU lands in the Coveted Fifth Spot after hauling truckloads of gear out into the middle of West Texas seeking fortune, fame and riches, only to come up empty and get run out of town by a bunch of mysterious masked Raiders. In other words, the entire plot of that Billy Bob Thornton TV series.”
It’s probably a lot safer to joke about Billy Bob Thornton than it is Joseph Smith in any context.
Ryan McGee has slowly risen through the ranks at ESPN over the years. He started at the network all the way back in 1994 as a producer for rpm2night. (How about that for a time warp?) He’s now a regular fixture across ESPN programming as an on-air personality, including on College GameDay with essays and his weekly Saturday show with Marty Smith airs regularly on SEC Network. That’s in addition to his writing duties across ESPN.com. But much like BYU last week, McGee probably wishes he had a do-over when it came to his recent column.
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