What started out as a fun idea of taking a unique type of road trip across America turned into the surprise of a lifetime for a married couple from Buckeye.
Cliff and Jenifer Vellucci are diehard sports fans with a special affinity for college football and particularly ESPN’s College GameDay show. For years, they’ve toyed with the notion of hopping in their car and following the broadcast, week to week, from city to city, for a full football season.
“I wondered if anyone’s ever done that — like, they followed GameDay, they woke up on Sunday morning, didn’t know where they were going the next week, and when the word came out, they built a logistical plan and moved,” Cliff Vellucci said.
“We always talked about doing it and last year the stars aligned
and Jen said, ‘Let’s do it.’ ”
The Velluccis began their self-described “Cliff and Jen’s Excellent Adventure” on August 23, 2025, and didn’t get back to Buckeye until Dec. 7. They drove 24,000 miles in their 2025 BMW, which they were leasing through their company, Varcomm, that provides telephone and internet service to parts of rural California. They were gone for 107 straight nights – 73 spent at various hotels and 34 at the homes of family or friends.
It didn’t take the GameDay crew long to begin noticing the Velluccis, especially with Cliff, a retired Marine and former elementary school teacher, always bringing his trusty American/Marine Corps flag on a telescopic pole to every location.
Once ESPN learned the couple planned to follow the show everywhere, the network began featuring them on their telecasts here and there. Then, while attending the SEC Championship game in Atlanta between Georgia and Alabama, ESPN gifted the Velluccis a pair of tickets to the College Football Playoff national title game.
As nice a gesture as it was, that wasn’t the really big surprise.
Standing backstage after accepting their tickets, the Velluccis milled around and began mingling with GameDay personalities Nick Saban, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard and Pat McAfee.
“Pat had his hand on my right shoulder, and he whispered in my ear and said, ‘Cliff, I wanna get you a Dodge Ram,’ ” Cliff said. “It was just out of nowhere, and I didn’t think a lot of it at the time. I just said, ‘Not necessary, Pat. I appreciate the thought. This was just a great thing for me and my wife. So many positives have come out of this, so not necessary, but thank you.’ ”
That was it. Cliff never thought about it again. Oh, he and Jen had told some friends what McAfee had said, but they brushed it off and never expected to hear back from McAfee.
It took some time, but earlier this month McAfee worked behind the scenes and arranged for a Buckeye Dodge dealership to present the Velluccis with a free 2026 Dodge Ram 2500 turbo diesel pickup truck. Sticker price: $100,000. McAfee paid for everything, including taxes.
McAfee FaceTimed the couple while Cliff test-drove the truck.
“It never left his mind and to me that is so much a part of the story,” Cliff said. “A guy of his stature … he never forgot about it. He never forgot about Cliff and Jen Vellucci, which is shocking. To this day it says a lot about the guy. It makes the truck seem somewhat irrelevant to me and my wife.”
Jenifer feels the same way.
“It’s still hard to wrap my head around to have someone that generous give us something like that,” she said. “It seems so unwarranted because all we did was follow our passion for GameDay and see a bunch of really great football games and see the country at the same time.
“We didn’t do anything harrowing. We didn’t save anyone’s life. We just really had an incredible road trip and met incredible people, and he wanted to give us a truck. So, it’s kind of humbling and it still is.”
McAfee, unfortunately, wasn’t available for comment, according to ESPN.
As for the road trip itself, the Velluccis pulled it off without a hitch. They never encountered any bad weather, they never became ill and they never had to swerve to avoid hitting a single deer. They did have a fight once in Utah, Jen recalled, adding, “I could have left him that night, but it was stupid.
“That was it. Everything else was incredibly smooth. We didn’t even get any (traffic) tickets.”
There are only two small problems for Cliff and Jenifer Velluci. The new truck runs on diesel, which has soared in price at the pump. “Yeah, there’s that, right?” Cliff said. And the other ordeal?
“The truck doesn’t fit in the garage,” Jen said.
Reach McManaman at bob.mcmanaman@arizonarepublic .Follow him on X, formerly Twitter: @azbobbymac and listen to him live every Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. on Roc and Manuch with Jimmy B on ESPN 620 (KTAR-AM) and every Thursday on the Doug Franz Unplugged podcast via Apple or Spotify.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Pat McAfee gifts Arizona couple new Dodge truck
