Laura Rutledge has become a do-it-all personality for ESPN. In addition to her hosting duties on “NFL Live” and “SEC Nation,” Rutledge is a full-time sideline reporter for “Monday Night Football” and prime-time college football games.

At Thursday’s CFP quarterfinal between Georgia and Ole Miss, Rutledge pulled off quite the feat. Just after the clock struck zero in the second quarter, Rutledge interviewed Georgia coach Kirby Smart on the sidelines. Then she ran across the field to the set of ESPN’s halftime show, where, moments later, she served as host.

In just 60 seconds at the Sugar Bowl, Laura Rutledge finished her sideline interviews, ran across the entire field, and got ready to host the CFP halftime show.pic.twitter.com/fv7pIJ20GX

— Front Office Sports (@FOS) January 2, 2026

“There is probably two minutes to get to the set,” Rutledge said in a phone call with The Athletic. “It’s super fast. The point of getting there as quickly as possible is not only just because we’re going to be live on TV, but it’s also because I have to figure out exactly what we’re doing.”

One can only prepare so much before the game to host a halftime show. Rutledge did all she could, practicing an important advertisement read multiple times. Still, with much of the content based around the action in the first half, she had to mostly operate on the fly.

“The producer is in Bristol, so we had been texting throughout the day about the nuts and bolts of what we would do most of the time,” Rutledge said. “You come right out with some sort of highlight from the first half and go into a quick discussion. But until you know exactly what happens, you can’t necessarily do that.”

The unpredictability of live television made Rutledge’s quick transition even tougher, thanks to a delay in getting the interview with Smart.

“Our plan was for me to get Kirby Smart first just to make it go a little faster,” Rutledge said. “But we actually didn’t have a camera. Kirby was talking to another player. He was doing something, so he wouldn’t have been ready for the interview. We always try to stand back and let them have their time, and then try to get them quickly because we have to hit our marks and go off air, right? So then Molly McGrath got [Ole Miss coach] Pete Golding, and then they tossed to me with Kirby. But it actually added probably 45 seconds of time. I then had to go even faster to get to the other side of the field.”

While her feet stopped after the cross-field run to the set, the sprint was still on. As she sat down at the desk to host the halftime show, Rutledge changed mics and began looking at the show rundown on an iPad, prepared for her by an ESPN researcher. While doing so, she was in communication with ESPN producers back in Bristol, Conn., who informed her of what the first segment would look like.