McAfee Blasts Utah Instagram Post, Invokes Kirk Shooting Before GameDay Broadcast

Shortly before he went on the air in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Pat McAfee looked at the University of Utah's Instagram account and saw a video that, by his telling, ruined his morning. The post invited students to do impressions of him. It also included comments from students calling him "corny" and "creepy."

On Monday, on "The Pat McAfee Show," the ESPN personality and former NFL punter said he would not have objected if students had made those remarks on their own. His complaint was that the university itself put them out, just as he was about to walk in front of thousands of fans for "College GameDay." He described the broadcast as an infomercial for the school and said the post told him how the university felt about him. "It's an uncomfortable feeling," he said, adding that the video "set me off a little bit" and left him feeling "a little weird."

Then he pointed to Utah's recent history. In September 2025, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was killed during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City. McAfee did not name Kirk directly in the quoted remarks, but he appeared to refer to the shooting. "Has anything like really scary happened at like a college gathering in the state of Utah recently?" he asked. "Do we think we should be amplifying reasons for why people hate my guts as a university?" Later he returned to "what happened 40 miles south of Salt Lake City a little over a year ago," saying the post added to the hostility he faces just before he went on air to promote the school. "I was very, very uncomfortable," he said. "I think it made me not have the greatest morning."

He acknowledged that some people might not find the students' comments especially harsh. But he kept returning to who published them. "It was the university putting that out. It's not like a blog," he said. "It's the actual place that we're at."

The video has since been removed from the university's social accounts. Utah apologized in a statement on its official Instagram account. It said the aim had been "lighthearted engagement" around McAfee's return to campus, but that the post "missed the mark." The statement said university staff are responsible for reviewing and posting content on official accounts and that the school takes "full accountability." It said officials had contacted McAfee to express their appreciation and regret, and it apologized for "any perception that Pat was unsafe or unwelcome on our campus," adding, "Nothing could be further from the truth." The school also said McAfee and the full GameDay crew are always welcome, noting that the pregame show has visited campus seven times and that it has had a positive relationship with the crew.

The post was not the only thing that irritated him. McAfee also objected to a student who took part in his weekly "Kicking Is Easy" contest, in which a contestant gets a chance to kick a field goal for $1 million. According to McAfee, the student asked why the prize was "only $1 million," after the potential prize reached $3 million the previous week for the Notre Dame-BYU game. "It's my money!" he said, and he added that he hated the place. He said he hopes never to return and joked that he might have COVID if GameDay is scheduled to come back.

Still, he praised Utah's football team and called its student section "incredible," and he thanked the fans who turned out. "It was a phenomenal GameDay," he said. On the field, Utah beat Houston 21-13 on Saturday.

The apology and the deleted video leave one open question: whether the university will change how its social media content is reviewed before it goes up.