No more mascot heads for Lee Corso, who will finally be retiring after 38 long years on the College Gameday desk.
The TV show became church for many, and Corso was always there. For me, literally, always there. He did Gameday before I was born, and I’d be lying if I said that Corso’s long-lasting presence didn’t have an affect on me. For as buttoned-up as the sports news industry and sports newsdesk wannabes became through the 90’s and 2000’s, the old, former ball coach-turned-TV star was actually fun and honestly a breathe of fresh air, even for kids like me at the time trying to get into the sport, because there he was every Saturday morning making me wonder two things. One, which team in which game should I be considering to pull a field goal-deciding upset? (In other words, when’s he going to say ‘Ha! Not so fast, my friend!’?)
And two, which mascot head is he going to wear for his pick of the big game?
As years went, Corso got less young. So much so that he was, and I really want to say this as respectfully as politely as possible, just not the same as he used to be. He lost his youth, he lost his energy, he lost what it took to co-host the sport’s biggest early-morning television tailgate for hours at a time, then he lost the energy to do it for even an hour. Corso’s obvious loss in stamina for television was impossible to hide, and watchers of the show have made their notes on social media dating back to pre-Covid days. It’s been going on long enough for not only for millions of viewers to notice, but long enough for viewers to simply feel sad for Corso to even keep going out there and even trying to give us his quick-witted picks at the end of each show while Kirk Herbstreit tried to play liaison for Corso’s thoughts.
If we, as Americans, failed Corso, it’s that we didn’t Futurama him sooner. Maybe there’s still time to make it happen, I don’t 100% know the science behind it all, but I think Corso’s one of those celebrities whose head should be preserved in a jar, that way he can be used for all future iterations of Gameday. There’s a chance this sport never dies, and neither should Corso.
From The Athletic:
“Do you know anybody else that makes a living putting something else on his head?” Corso told The Athletic in 2018. “I’m telling you, that has been an unbelievable thing for me.”
Originally an in-studio show, “College GameDay” hit the road in 1993. And where the show went, Corso wasn’t far behind.
On Oct. 5, 1996, “GameDay” traveled to Columbus, Ohio — the site of Ohio State’s campus — for what would be a 38-7 Buckeyes’ demolition of Penn State. There, for the first time, Corso didn’t tell viewers his prediction. He showed them.
“I like Ohio State, 24-13,” said Herbstreit, in his first appearance as a “GameDay” analyst.
“Ay, good pick. I’ll tell you one thing,” Corso said. He then reached for the head of Brutus Buckeye, the Ohio State mascot, under the desk and put it on.
“Buckeyes!”
…
To date, Corso has picked more than 400 games.
Tracking Corso’s mascot picks even became a hobby. Cole Reagan, a fan whose website includes a searchable database of headgear picks, has Corso at 287-144 all time, meaning he’s been right 66.6 percent of the time.
Corso has remained a mainstay on the show even through health issues. He had a stroke in May 2009. He sustained no permanent brain damage, though his speech was impacted, but worked his way back for the beginning of that football season. He continued week after week, developing great chemistry with Herbstreit to his left and making a habit of ribbing the weekly guest picker to his right.
“Not so fast, my friend,” became a Corso catchphrase when he disagreed with the pick before him.
Corso’s role on “College GameDay” has been reduced in recent years. He missed five games during the 2022 season for health reasons and is no longer featured during the full, three-hour show block. He also missed multiple games during the 2024 season.
In the 2018 interview with The Athletic, Corso reflected on how much fun his job was — and how hard it would be to leave.
“Let me tell you something: On Thursday morning I get up, I get on a first-class plane and fly to a place and stay in a nice hotel and get a lot of great meals,” he said. “First class! Then I go and talk football for a couple hours, I see the best game of the year and I get on a plane (in) first class and I go home.
“And they pay me! Why the hell would you ever think about retiring? It’s like stealing. It’s like stealing. Why would you ever think about retiring? I’m gonna be like that vaudeville act — the guy’s out there talking and talking and they get a hook and they try to hook him and bring him off the stage.”
The Purple Album 