It is truly the end of an era for ESPN. Long-time College GameDay analyst Lee Corso will be stepping down and retiring after one final broadcast this upcoming college football season. Corso has been working for ESPN for nearly four decades since he hung up the headset as a long-time head coach. His ability to connect with fans and people from all walks of life are why he is so universally beloved.
ESPN sent out a press memo on Thursday morning to announce that Corso will be retiring this fall.
“My family and I will be forever indebted for the opportunity to be part of ESPN and College GameDay for nearly 40 years,” said Corso. “I have a treasure of many friends, fond memories and some unusual experiences to take with me into retirement.”
Corso continued by saying how gracious and accommodating ESPN has been to his family of late.
"ESPN has been exceptionally generous to me, especially these past few years. They accommodated me and supported me, as did my colleagues in the early days of College GameDay. Special thanks to Kirk Herbstreit for his friendship and encouragement. And lest I forget, the fans…truly a blessing to share this with them. ESPN gave me this wonderful opportunity and provided me the support to ensure success. I am genuinely grateful.”
While it remains to be seen where Corso will be doing his final College GameDay broadcast, two games immediately jump to mind. He could stay in his native Florida and go back to his alma mater of Florida State one final time for the Seminoles' huge Week 1 home game vs. Alabama. The GameDay crew could go to Columbus for Texas at Ohio State, the site where he made his first headgear pick.
Few people have done more for college football than Corso, so let's learn a little more about him now.
How long has Lee Corso been on ESPN's College GameDay?
Corso has been on ESPN's College GameDay since the very beginning way back in 1993. He had been hired by ESPN as an analyst a few years prior in 1987, but it has been the on-site locations associated with GameDay that has been Corso' calling card. While he has not been able to make it to every GameDay location in recent years, he has always been a point of conversation in every show.
ESPN's decision to take College GameDay on the road, dating back to the Game of the Century in 1993 between No. 1 Florida State at No. 2 Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. It was a huge success, resulting in almost half of the 1994 shows being on the road before ditching the studio setup altogether in 1995. ESPN was never going to be able to do this without Corso's on-air personality.
But before Corso became the iconic pre-game college football analyst for ESPN, he was a coach.
Lee Corso's college football coaching history
Corso first got into coaching after his playing career at Florida State ended in 1957. He initially served as a graduate assistant in Tallahassee before becoming the quarterbacks coach at Maryland in 1959. He served in that roll until 1965 before going to Navy to be their defensive backs coach. After the 1968 college football season, Corso got his first opportunity to be a college head coach.
As a head coach, Corso is best known for leading the Louisville Cardinals from 1968 to 1972 and his decade-long run at Indiana from 1973 to 1982. He spent one year leading the 1984 Northern Illinois Huskies and the 1985 season leading the Orlando Renegades in the USFL. He amassed a 73-85-6 record as a college football head coach and went 5-13 in the USFL. He was 1-0-1 in bowl games.
Corso also won a pair of Missouri Valley Championships while leading Louisville in 1970 and in 1972.
Lee Corso's broadcasting career at ESPN
As stated above, Corso first begane his broadcasting career for ESPN way back in 1987. What you have to remember is ESPN was still very new as a network. It was much easier for them to acquire rights to games in the college sports realm than in the professional one. It is why college basketball and college football remain lifebloods of this network in the changing era of television broadcasting.
Corso was part of College GameDay from the beginning in 1993, helping transition from one group of broadcasters to others, often being the comedic foil to them trying to keep it on the tracks. The other venture that this allowed Corso to be a part of was being part of EA Sports' NCAA Football franchise prior to NIL ending that for a decade. If you needed help picking a play, you could simply Ask Corso.
Above all else, the thing that Corso is the most famous for is his headgear selections to end a show.
Lee Corso's famous headgear picks
To date, Corso has made 430 mascot headgear picks all time. His first came on Oct. 5 when he donned Brutus the Buckeye's head in 1996. To date, he has an all-time record of 286-144 when picking headgear. This gives him an impressive .665 winning percentage, which should get him into the College Football Hall of Fame on its own, if you ask me. He has worn 69 different teams' heads.
His most popular headgear picks are Ohio State (45), Alabama (38), LSU (25), Florida (22) and Oregon (21). Other notable facts is he has never picked against Navy when doing the Army-Navy game. He is undefeated picking the USC Trojans (17-0), the Virginia Tech Hokies (4-0) and the North Dakota State Bison (3-0). Back in 1999, Corso went a perfect 11-0 when doing his headgear picks. What a legend!
The last bit you need to know about Corso besides rooming with Burt Reynolds are his catch phrases.
Famous Lee Corso College GameDay catch phrases
When we think of Corso on ESPN's College GameDay, four catch phrases come to mind. The most obvious is "Not so fast!", which stems from him questioning a guest picker's choice in picking a team. If he agrees with the guest picker, he will often say "Great pick!" When it is time to make a headgear selection, Corso will often demand "Gimme that head!", all the while calling everyone a "sweetheart."
To best encapsulate what Corso has meant to me in how I cover and follow along to college football, he always brought the energy. He made it a point to let us know that college football is fun, and it is for everyone. He was everyone's favorite uncle or grandpa, but he also knows his stuff. Nobody did a better job of making an event feel bigger than Corso. He is why we tuned in every Saturday for years.
Heroes get remembered, but legends never die. Few did more for college football than the lifer Corso.