Lee Corso withdraws from ESPN “College Gameday” after week 1 of the 2025 university football season, the network announced on Thursday.
Corso, 89, will make his latest selection of headgear – which became a basic food from Saturday morning – August 30. The destination of week 1 will be announced later this spring, said ESPN.
“My family and I will forever be indebted for the opportunity to be part of the ESPN and the” Gameday college “for almost 40 years,” said Corso in a press release. “I have a treasure of many friends, good memories and unusual experiences to take away with me.”
Analyst “College Gameday” since the creation of the program in 1987, Corso leaves as the oldest member and the last original personality remaining. Corso has become an essential program alongside the host Tim Brando and analyst Beano Cook, and remained for 38 seasons, now sharing a set with Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee and Nick Saban.
“A special thank you to Kirk Herbstreit for his friendship and encouragement,” said Corso in the press release.
But it was the selections of annual headgear, in which he predicts the winner of the “Gameday” match by putting on the school’s mascot head, who rooted him and attached to fans nationally.
“Do you know someone else who earns his life by putting something else on his head?” Corso said Athletics In 2018. “I tell you, it was an incredible thing for me.”
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“ It’s like flying ”: After 25 years of Gameday on the road, Lee Corso always has time for his life
Originally, a studio show, “College Gameday” hit the road in 1993. And where the show went, Corso was not far behind.
On October 5, 1996, “Gameday” went to Columbus, Ohio – The Ohio State – Campus site – for what would be a 38-7 demolition of Penn State Buckeyes. There, for the first time, Corso did not tell viewers his prediction. He showed them.
“I like Ohio State, 24-13,” said Herbstreit, during his first appearance as an analyst “Gameday”.
“Ay, good choice. I’ll tell you one thing,” said Corso. He then reached the chief of Brutus Buckeye, the Ohio State mascot under the office and put it.
“Buckeyes!”
The crowd of Ohio State has gone mad (word game) and an cornerstone of the culture of university football was born. Since then, Corso has manipulated dogs, chickens and even reptiles in the air while trembling the trunk of the Alabama Big Al mascot, dressing under the name of Trojan USC and walking in a pond of makeshift duck while combining the duck of Oregon – all in search of the perfect selection of Saturday.
To date, Corso has chosen more than 400 games.
Monitoring the choices of Corso mascots has even become a hobby. Cole Reagan, a fan whose website includes a Headgear Picks consultable database, A Corso at 287-144 of all time, which means that he was right 66.6% of the time.
Corso remained a pillar of the show, even thanks to health problems. He had a stroke in May 2009. He has not undergone any permanent brain injury, although his speech was hit, but went up his way for the start of this football season. He continued week after week, developing great chemistry with herbs on his left and getting into the habit of ribbing the weekly guest picker to his right.
“Not so fast, my friend”, became a slogan of Corso when he did not agree with the choice before him.
The role of Corso in “College Gameday” has been reduced in recent years. He missed five games during the 2022 season for health reasons and no longer appears during the full three -hour block. He also missed several games during the 2024 season.
In the 2018 interview with AthleticsCorso thought about the end of his work – and how difficult it would be to leave.
“Let me tell you something: Thursday morning, I get up, I get on a first class plane and I steal myself in a place and I stay in a beautiful hotel and I have a lot of good meals,” he said. “First class! Then I’m going to talk about football for a few hours, I see the best game of the year and I get in the first class (first) and I go home.
“And they pay me! Why would you ever think of retiring? It’s like flying. It’s like flying. Why would you never think of retiring?
Kirk Herbstreit reacts Lee Corso puts on the LSU Tigers mascot on September 14, 2024. (Photo: Isaiah vazquez / Getty Images)
Corso arrived in ESPN with 28 years of experience in coaching – 17 as a chief coach – at college and professional levels. He resulted in Louisville from 1969 to 1972, leading the Cardinals to the 1970 Pasadena Bowl and ending the drought of the 12 -year -old team. He repeated the story to Indiana, helping the team winning its first victory in 75 years: a 38-37 victory over Byu from the time of the byu in the Holiday Bowl of 1979. Later, he spent a year in the north of Illinois and with the Orlando Renegades of the USFL.
Born in Miami, Corso played Florida State from 1953 to 1956 on both sides of the ball and led the seminoles in the interceptions in 1954, yards on the ground in 1955, and yards by passers -by and cottage feedback in 1956. He kept the FSU career interception record (14) for more than two decades The FSU list.
“I did everything. I was pretty good. Look at that,” said Corso Athletics in 2018.
The set “College Gameday” has developed in recent years, adding McAfee and, more recently, Saban, the retired coach of Alabama.
But the choice of Corso remains the centerpiece of the show and is synonymous with university football on Saturday.
(Photo: Michael Shroyer / Getty Images)
