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The Lee Corso Era Ends September 1, 2025

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The 2025-’26 college football season has launched with one of the greatest opening games in living memory.  No. 1 Texas came to Columbus, Ohio, to play No. 3 (and defending national champ) Ohio State.  Adding even more drama and poignancy to this already-historic matchup was the fact that this was legendary ESPN football commentator Lee Corso’s last appearance on the network’s College Gameday show.  In a very classy farewell gesture, Corso, 90, wore a tuxedo for his final appearance.  The Ohio State band formed the letters “CORSO” on the field right before kickoff, and he was joined by the Gameday crew at the 50 yard line of Ohio Stadium to deliver his final “headgear” stunt.  Appropriately, he donned the Brutus Buckeye head.  How could he not?  Twenty-nine years ago, his first ever big-game outcome prognostication vis-Ă -vis donning the chosen team’s mascot head was born at Ohio State, where he likewise donned Brutus’ head.  It was more than fitting that he bookended his legendary body of work at ESPN by doing the same thing, in fitting tribute to the place where the cherished tradition began.

The fact that he predicted correctly was but an ancillary benefit to the proper tribute to the spirit of the moment and to the theatre of the ritual as a whole.  But beneath the theatrics of it all, Corso was 286-for-430 over his 29 years of headgear picks, making for a 66.5 percent “winning” percentage of such colorful prognostications.  Most college coaches would kill for such a winning percentage.  Ironically, Corso himself certainly “won” more such predictions than he did winning games at the University of Louisville or Indiana University, wherein he went 73-for-164, or 44.5 percent from 1969 to 1984 (including a one-year stint at the end at Northern Illinois). 

But that coaching winning percentage aside, he became a legend at ESPN in particular and in college football commentary in general, a larger-than-life face of the game.  A painting of Corso has just been unveiled at the College Football Hall of Fame in Atlanta, to remain on permanent display.  Even though the Ohio State-Texas game itself was broadcast on FOX and not ESPN, even FOX’s Big Noon Kickoff show (their own equivalent to ESPN’s College Gameday) made their own tribute to this legend in the sunset of his 70-year career in college football.  And yes, both Gameday and Big Noon were at Ohio Stadium that day — what an experience that alone had to be for the fans in attendance!

Two generations of football fans have enjoyed his presence around ESPN college football broadcasts, joining the likes of Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit, later Rece Davis, and much later, Pat McAfee to create an enticing, tailgating atmosphere that became must-see TV for college football fans before the opening kickoff of games at noon, Eastern Time.  Corso, with his strong resemblance to filmmaker and comic genius Mel Brooks, surely lived up to the coincidental semblance by providing for the panel a juxtaposed combination of the wise old sage with animated antics.  His famous catchphrase of “[N]ot so fast, my friend!”, signaling to the audience that he was about to offer a prediction of outcome for an upcoming game that day that would be contrary to that of another member’s of the panel, was further accented with his handling of a pencil or some other writing implemenet.  In fact, that gesture was further enhanced when he began to use Ticonderoga pencils, which no doubt must have swelled that company’s bottom line and stock value upon the release of that information.

An era that has lasted more than three decades at ESPN and has influenced the college football landscape in a broad sense has now come to a close.  As lamentable as that may be, discerning fans can acknowledge that the time had come for a while.  He suffered a small stroke in 2009, but still managed to return to the Gameday panel later that year. The last two seasons or more gave fans cause for notice in terms of Corso’s decline in mental acuity and animation that made the legend he became in the first place.  Even during his last appearance on the program yesterday, his presence was inconsistent.  When he was present that day, however, it was a pleasure to see him in the tux, even with his verbal articulation in further decline. 

Now as a nonagenarian, may he enjoy his remaining years in prosperity, peace, and everything else that would equate to success in his mind.  We shall miss his presence on Gameday, but shall cherish the memories of his insights and antics – and mascot headgear-donning – as we gear up for kickoff every Fall Saturday. 

Where Joel Klatt is right and wrong about Notre Dame October 28, 2017

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Joel Klatt is a rising star in college football broadcasting, and rightfully so.  His analysis during the games he helps broadcast of FOX is very insightful.  His talent makes him the perfect up-and-coming asset that an up-and-coming network like FS1 needs right now.  Klatt’s sit-down interviews with regular TV show hosts on FS1 are just as informative, and his input always makes for great conversation.  Any engaged listener can always walk away from listening to such interviews thinking that their understanding of the college game has deepened.

On the matter of the state of highly-ranked academic powerhouse schools in the “Power Five” of college football, however, the veracity of his analysis is mixed.  It all centers around his understanding of the current state of Notre Dame football.

As Colin Cowherd of FS1 has noted for years, Notre Dame flourished at a time when it was one of the very few programs that was reliably put on national TV every week of the season.  All that changed when sports networks decided to start broadcasting more teams consistently in the 1990s.  With that, Notre Dame’s monopoly on national attention soon evaporated.  Soon, ND had to compete with schools whose campuses offered warmer winters and prettier coeds, institutions such as Texas, Florida, USC, LSU, Florida State, Georgia, and the like.  None of these schools had the same level of academic requirements as ND, either, meaning it is much easier to admit recruits there as well.

None of this is to say that cold-weather schools cannot do well at the highest level, and Klatt quickly points this out.  On the contrary, in the 2014-2015 playoffs, Urban Meyer’s Ohio State team beat out a tough Alabama squad to play for the national title.  Indeed, the Buckeyes handily defeated Oregon to win it.  Moreover, Michigan has been considerably on the rebound since they hired Jim Harbaugh, and Penn State has returned to national power status under recruiting wizard James Franklin.

Even ND hired a highly-capable coach in Brian Kelly in December of 2009.  By the 2012 season, he took Notre Dame to a national title game.  To be sure, they got crushed my Alabama, 42-14, and in highsight, much of ND’s high ranking was a product of wishful thinking.  This season (2017) they are currently top-ten in the rankings (No. 9 as of Oct. 27), but they have reached their ceiling with a senior-dominated team, and even they lost at home to an even better team in Georgia.

Moreover, other academically-rigid schools have been winning games (e.g., Stanford), and in some cases, have started to win more than they have in a long time (e.g., Duke).  So clearly schools with high academic standards can win some games.  So why is Notre Dame still limited in this day at age?

It turns out that a school with cold weather and high academic standards does not automatically mean that the football team will be a conference/Power Five doormat, provided that you have the right coach.  Northwestern seems to have that, for example, in Pat Fitzgerald.  In the Wildcats’ case, it helps that the campus in is the vibrant, urban setting of Evanston, Ill., right on the edge of Chicago proper and a half-hour commuter train ride into downtown and all the scads of action that huge city has to offer.

In the case of Duke, they are in Durham, N.C., part of the “Research Triangle”, an area with much growth and dynamism as of late.  Plus, the winters are much milder there than they are in the Rustbelt.  It also helps that Duke found a capable coach in David Cutcliffe.

In the case of Stanford, which is even more academically stringent than Notre Dame, it enjoys the advantage of the idyllic beauty of Silicon Valley.  Temperatures in December can sometimes peak in the lower 70s.  Stanford University is one of the most architecturally amazing college campuses in the world.  Even with the extra recruiting hurdle of having to admit each player to the school as a student before they can sing a letter of intent to join the team, David Shaw still manages to make them competitive in the Pac-12 north division, sometimes winning the division outright.

In addition to Notre Dame’s cold weather setting and academic rigidity, two other factors hinder the program today.  One is the religious overtones (a turn-off to recruits who have far more options today, both in the Big Ten and also the warm-weather schools).  The other is that its relatively isolated.  It takes almost two hours to drive to the heart of Chicago.  The next-closest spot of major population is Fort Wayne, Ind., followed by Toledo, Ohio.  Neither Northwestern, Duke, Stanford, or even Vanderbilt have to contend with those two recruiting hindrances.

These factors, all combined, have hurt Notre Dame’s brand in the eyes of many coveted recruits today.  Joel Klatt acknowledges the earlier-mentioned factors (cold weather and academics), but has ignored these latter items, which combine to make a considerable difference.

To be sure, there are schools even more isolated than ND.  Nebraska is geographically worse off, as is Penn State.  The latter is back in contention, again, thanks to the recruiting prowess of James Franklin (it helps that PSU is arguably the most amazing campus in the B1G, and Beaver Stadium is the second-largest stadium in the country by capacity).

Is Klatt correct in that Notre Dame is still a strong brand?  Yes, but only for legacy/tradition reasons.  Because of their past success, they are still a legitimate “traditional power”, but that legacy has increasingly less cache to marquee recruits who might look askance at Michiana’s dreary winters, the school’s religious overtones, etc.

The real take-away from this discussion is how insane ND fans are who call for Brian Kelly’s ouster.  Without him, the team would be lucky to go 7-5 this season, as opposed to the top-ten rankings the team currently enjoys.  Just to observe, the Irish will be lucky to win two of their next four games.  But that aside, the fan base’s insanity is a function of unrealistic expectations that need to be tempered in a day and age where the Rustbelt is no longer the heart of the American economy and talented football players have far more options of where to play than they did during the days of Ara Parseghian.

In conclusion, can Notre Dame still win games?  Absolutely.  As Fitzerald, Shaw, Cutcliffe, Harbaugh, and Franklin have demonstrated, the right coach at the right place proves that winning football games in a prestigious academic setting is indeed possible.  Brian Kelly is surely the optimal coach for Notre Dame, and his accomplishments are nearly miraculous in the context of his strategic difficulties.  Given the aforementioned problems hindering Notre Dame, the program is at best an eight-win program.  To win any more than eight ought to exceed expectations if those, too, are properly tempered in the context of the current age.