The Lineup
EDITOR
Gene Myers
COPY EDITOR
Sherrill Amo
PICKS RESEARCH
Cole Reagan
PROOFREADER
Heather Hewitt
DESIGNER
Joey Schaffer
USA TODAY NETWORK
Richard Barak, Kirkland Crawford, Tommy Deas, Jim Henry, Jason Hoffman, Phillip Kaplan, James Kramer, Ainslie Lee, Jim Rice, Jesse Sowa, Brian White
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Gene Myers
SPECIAL THANKS
Alicia Del Gallo, Chris Thomas, Chris Fenison, Jared Sábado Hernández, Tracy Collins
About the book
“Not so fast, my friend.” For college football fans, few words encapsulate the sport’s excitement, tradition and pageantry quite like Lee Corso’s signature catchphrase. This premium collector’s edition brings you inside the electrifying world of college football from the perspective of an icon who has been at the heart of the game’s biggest moments for decades. It even includes a list of all 431 of his famous headgear picks. The words and pictures in this book come from USA TODAY Sports and dozens of sportswriters and photographers across the country in the USA TODAY Network. For the world’s best coverage of college football, go to usatoday.com/sports/ncaaf. Order a print subscription or access the eNewspaper for USA TODAY by calling 800-872-0001 or going to subscribe.usatoday.com/offers.
On the cover
Lee Corso, who turned 90 and retired in 2025, relished analyzing games and entertaining fans for 38 years on ESPN’s “College GameDay.” He was all smiles on Jan. 13, 2020, at the Superdome in New Orleans for the ultimate Battle of the Tigers — LSU versus Clemson for the national title. MATTHEW EMMONS / IMAGN IMAGES; INSERT PHOTOS USA TODAY NEWWORK AND IMAGN IMAGES
PREVIOUS PAGE: When not on the set, Corso liked to watch games from the sidelines. In 2013, he studied LSU and Georgia playing between the hedges. DANIEL SHIREY / IMAGN IMAGES
BACK COVER: Before his final broadcast in August 2025, Corso kissed an Ohio State helmet adorned with buckeye leaves. He donned Brutus Buckeye for his final headgear pick. ADAM CAIRNS / COLUMBUS DISPATCH
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright owner or the publisher.
Published by Pediment Publishing, a division of The Pediment Group, Inc. • www.pediment.com • Printed in Canada.
This book is an unofficial account of Lee Corso’s career by USA TODAY Sports and is not endorsed by Lee Corso or ESPN.
LEE CORSO
NOT SO FAST, MY FRIEND
A TRIBUTE TO THE SOUL OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL
ESPN analyst Lee Corso, on the field for the College Football Playoff national championship game on Jan. 8, 2024, predicted Michigan would beat Washington at Houston’s NRG Stadium. The Wolverines prevailed 34-13. MARK J. REBILAS / IMAGN IMAGES
FOREWORD
From roomies with Burt Reynolds in the ’50s to a college football icon
CHASE GOODBREAD THE TUSCALOOSA NEWS
I USED TO THINK BURT REYNOLDS’ acting chops must have rubbed off on Lee Corso when they were teammates, and roommates, on the Florida State football teams of the mid-1950s.
How else could Corso have so seamlessly transformed from a football coach to a beloved ESPN analyst? There had to have been some of the late, famous actor in there somewhere, exuding fun and confidence, when the red light on Corso’s camera first lit up in 1987.
But as Corso approached his final appearance on “College GameDay” — he signed off for the final time on ESPN’s renowned, roving pregame show on Aug. 30, 2025, at Ohio State — I wondered whether perhaps it wasn’t Corso who rubbed off on Reynolds.
After 38 years as a “GameDay” fixture, it was fair to say that
broadcasting was more his calling than coaching. An unvarnished assessment of his coaching career wasn’t particularly kind. He was 73-85-6 as a college coach, with a couple good years at Louisville and a lot of rough ones at Indiana. But even in those struggles, Corso was a unique personality who could be entertaining in media interactions. Perhaps it was fitting that his last year in coaching came in the failed USFL, which was largely a league of misfits just like him. He inherited a miserably bad Orlando Renegades team that went 5-13 in 1985, its only season of existence. His quarterback was Reggie Collier, a Southern Mississippi legend who, like Corso, deserved better than one of the league’s worst collections of talent.
Not surprisingly, Corso was loved by his players, but the camera loved him, too.
And just two years after he put coaching behind him for good, he began loving it back on ESPN. A natural
conversationalist, Corso’s banter with “GameDay” colleagues, primarily Kirk Herbstreit, entertained a few generations of fans on fall Saturdays from the biggest venues in the sport. Donning mascot heads to close out the show, indicating his pick for the top game of the week, Corso made a fun sport more fun.
The first time he put a mascot head on was in 1996 at Ohio State, right where he called it a career.
It was time.
He turned 90 on Aug. 7, and his role
CHASE GOODBREAD,
AN Alabama graduate and a sports journalist for more than 30 years, is a columnist at The Tuscaloosa News. In his first stint with the T-News, he shared in the staff’s Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of a devastating EF4 tornado in 2011.
OPPOSITE: In November 2019, on Beale Street in Memphis, Lee Corso wore an Elvis costume and traded barbs with wrestler Jerry Lawler. Corso grabbed the head of the Tigers’ mascot before switching to SMU’s mustang. Memphis, though, won 54-48. MAX GERSH / IMAGN IMAGES
as the former coach on the program had been placed in the best of hands. After just one season on the show, Nick Saban had proven to be, like Corso, a coachto-TV natural. Saban will do it his way, injecting humor with a little more hard analysis than his predecessor and a little less clowning. Saban’s bottomless stash of knowledge was a needed addition and his delivery of it deepened the show’s standing as appointment television for college football fans.
And at the same time, the show won’t be the same without Corso.
Nor, I think, was Reynolds.
ABOVE LEFT: Future acting superstar Burt Reynolds played running back for Florida State in the 1955 Sun Bowl, the first bowl in school history. His teammate Lee Corso, called a “shifty, elusive” scatback by the El Paso Times, returned a punt 25 yards and then dashed 48 yards to set up the game’s first touchdown. Texas Western (now UTEP) scored the next 41 points en route to a 47-20 victory. Corso was carried off the field after a second-quarter collision and could not return. Reynolds rushed seven times for 35 yards. EL PASO TIMES
ABOVE RIGHT: Former coaches Nick Saban and Lee Corso analyzed the 2025 Orange Bowl pitting Notre Dame and Penn State. The Irish won 27-24. NATHAN RAY SEEBECK / IMAGN IMAGES
OPPOSITE: Florida State players from the 1950s posed like players did in the 1950s (from the left): Lee Corso, Burt Reynolds, Billy Weaver and Vic Prinzi. COURTESY PETE PRINZI
INTRODUCTION
After a middling coaching career, Corso finds his true calling on ESPN’s ‘College GameDay’
STEVE GARDNER AND GENE MYERS USA TODAY NETWORK
FORMER COLLEGE FOOTBALL
coach Lee Corso had what could best be described as a moderately successful career in his chosen profession.
Over 15 seasons as a college head coach and one in the pros with the short-lived USFL, Corso’s teams compiled a record of 78 victories, 98 losses and six ties.
With such an undistinguished resume and out of a job at age 50, Corso might have been told that it was time to get out of the football business. But …
“Not so fast, my friend!”
Corso found fame — and a cult following — in broadcasting after he was hired in 1987 to be a college football analyst and landed a contributing role on ESPN’s new “College GameDay” preview show.
He announced on April 17, 2025,
after nearly 40 years with the network and four months before his 90th birthday, that he would retire after a final “GameDay” appearance on Saturday, Aug. 30, in the show’s season premiere.
For two months, speculation swirled where “GameDay” would visit for Corso’s finale. The logical choices were Columbus, Ohio, and Tallahassee, Florida, locales that played pivotal roles in Corso’s 70-plus years in college football.
At the Horseshoe, Ohio State and Texas would meet in a likely top-5 showdown. At Doak Campbell Stadium, Florida State, coming off a shocking 2-10 season, would face Alabama, a lock to be highly ranked.
At the Shoe, on Oct. 5, 1996, Corso donned the headgear of mascot Brutus Buckeye as his way to predict an Ohio State victory over Penn State. Not only did the Buckeyes win 38-7, but a pregame ritual that captivated fans for three decades had begun.
At the Doak, which opened in 1950, Corso played quarterback and defensive back for the Seminoles from 1953-56. He started immediately as a hotshot recruit out of Miami with the nickname of “Sunshine Scooter” and helped build the program into a regional power. Twelve members of his family, including children and grandchildren, also attended Florida State.
On June 10, ESPN announced the site would be Columbus. It offered no explanation.
How Corso came to be a Saturday morning staple
Corso became an institution in college football over the 38 seasons “College GameDay” had been on the air. He was the remaining original cast member on a show that won 10 Emmy Awards for outstanding weekly sports studio program.
For its first seven years, “GameDay” originated from an ESPN studio at its
headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. Tim Brando hosted the show and Beano Cook provided the analysis. Corso was a contributor for the first two years and joined as a full-time analyst in 1989.
At first with the network, Corso worked as a color analyst on lesser college telecasts and Arena Football League games. His humor and insights drew a degree of attention and praise.
On arena ball, he once said: “This sport looks like outdoor football on an NHL rink with some of the best NBA rules. Players have to play man-toman defense and play both offense and defense.”
On stopping an aerial attack, he once said: “The best pass defense is to put the quarterback on his butt.”
In a 2005 interview with USA TODAY, Corso said that when ESPN wanted him to work exclusively in the studio on “GameDay,” he asked whether he could continue broadcasting games instead.
OPPOSITE: In 1992, despite an increasingly successful new career as a broadcaster, Lee Corso became director of business development for Dixon Ticonderoga. He constantly brandished the company’s No. 2 pencil during his repartee with analysts and guests on ESPN’s “College Game Day.” ROBERT DEUTSCH / USA TODAY
final quarter-hour peaked at 5.1 million. When Miami beat Notre Dame a few hours later, Corso hit on all six of his Saturday predictions.
Castellanos, the new FSU quarterback who dissed Alabama before the openingweekend upset, started selling “NICK CAN’T SAVE THEM” tees through his NIL management operation.
The USA TODAY Network asked ESPN whether headgear picks would continue after Corso’s retirement. Matthew Garrett, vice president of sports production and “GameDay,” said in a statement: “While Coach’s fingerprints will forever leave a lasting mark on ‘GameDay,’ one thing that we all believe should remain as Lee’s tradition alone is his headgear pick. It’s a moment that is uniquely Lee’s and it will retire along with the man who made it famous.”
— Bryan Kalbrosky, Kevin Skiver, Craig Meyer, Austin Cutright and John Leuzzi contributed.
RIGHT: Yes, it would be Lee Corso’s last rodeo on Aug. 30, 2025, at Columbus. Before Ohio State-Texas for the top of the polls that afternoon, Corso had picked the Buckeyes 45 times on “GameDay,” and Brutus and the Boys had delivered 31 times. ADAM CAIRNS / COLUMBUS DISPATCH
OPPOSITE: After Corso put Brutus Buckeye’s head on his noggin in Ohio Stadium, the Ohio State mascot approached him with a large cardboard box. Corso opened the box and joy spread across his face when he discovered it contained a Brutus Buckeye head, a keepsake of the magic moment 29 seasons after he first wore Brutus on his head.
SAMANTHA MADAR / COLUMBUS DISPATCH
“I was supposed to wave to the crowd, but have you ever been on an elephant? They walk blump-blump, like a tossing ship, tilting forward. And those sharp hairs get right through your clothes.
“I was so scared I’ve got scars on my fingers because I held onto the strap so hard. There I was for 45 minutes, bleeding all over the elephant. Kids would come by and honk the horns on their bicycles, and I would yell at them to stop it.”
His charisma and sense of humor extended to the field.
In Corso’s first season, Louisville was losing to Memphis State by 44 points late in a November game when Corso walked onto the field and started waving a white towel. A referee told Corso that if he didn’t stop, he was going to be called for a penalty.
“Sir, the score is 63-19,” Corso said. “How is 15 yards going to hurt us?"
That lopsided loss to Memphis State wasn’t indicative of his tenure. He turned Louisville into a winner and injected some much-needed life into the program.
The year before Corso was hired, the Cardinals averaged just 6,500 fans a game. In what would be his final season five years later, their average attendance was up to 20,000. In four seasons at Louisville, his teams won at least a share of the Missouri Valley Conference championship twice and posted a 28-11-3 record (.702).
In 1970, his Cardinals finished 8-3-1 with a 24-24 tie against Long Beach State in the Pasadena Bowl.
A disappointing decade in the Hoosier State
Corso’s success earned him the Indiana job in 1972. He brought his flair for the dramatic with him across the Ohio River.
In his first game with the Hoosiers, against Illinois at Bloomington, Indiana wasn’t on the field 15 minutes before kickoff. Then, one minute before the scheduled start, a honking red double-decker bus rolled down the hill toward the north end zone of Memorial Stadium. It came onto the field and screeched to a halt, with the entire Indiana team piling out, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
The Hoosiers lost 28-14 to begin what would be a 2-9 season, but it was clear a new regime with a distinct personality was in charge.
He had to do something. In 1967, after starting out 2-8 and 1-8-1, coach John Pont led Indiana to the Rose Bowl, the first in school history, although a 14-3 loss to Southern Cal. Pont’s tenure ended after a 19-33 record over the next five seasons.
In the days leading up to a game against Minnesota, Corso carried around a comically large red hammer that he dubbed the Gopher Stomper. While preparing to play West Virginia, a top-20 team, in 1973, Corso put flyswatters in each of his
RIGHT: Speedy Lee Corso arrived at Florida State as a hotshot recruit from Miami with the nickname of Sunshine Scooter. He had 14 career interceptions. FSU ARCHIVES
OPPOSITE: Corso enjoyed his greatest success at Louisville. COURIER JOURNAL
player’s lockers to get them ready to try to contain All-America wideout Danny (Lightning) Buggs.
“How do you stop a bug? With a flyswatter!” Corso said. “We stopped him, too. He was hurt and didn’t play.”
With his team riding a six-game losing streak in 1975, Corso found a coffin at the television studio where his coach’s show was filmed and rose out of it to proclaim, “We ain’t dead yet!” The Hoosiers tied Wisconsin 9-9 and ended a 2-8-1 season with 9-7 loss to Purdue for the Old Oaken Bucket.
Corso called a time-out during a 1976 game against Ohio State after the Hoosiers had taken an early 7-6 lead over the heavily favored Buckeyes and had his players gather for a picture in front of the scoreboard. Ohio State scored the next 41 points for a 47-7 victory.
Corso’s Hoosiers finished last or tied for last in the Big Ten his first three seasons. His conference record was 2-21-1.
Eventually, Indiana became competitive and hovered around .500 in the mighty Big Ten.
In 1979, the Hoosiers went 7-4 in the regular season and faced undefeated and ninth-ranked Brigham Young in the Holiday Bowl. With Indiana clinging to a 38-37 lead with seven seconds remaining and BYU lining up for a 27-yard field goal, Corso called a time-out. He walked over to the team’s chaplain and told him, “Father Higgins, it’s you against eight million Mormons.”
The kick was blocked. Corso shouted out, “Thank you, God!” and Higgins replied, “You’re welcome.” It was the first bowl victory in IU history.
The Hoosiers had reached their zenith
03 His Legacy
IN THE TRAVELING CIRCUS OF ‘COLLEGE GAMEDAY,’ CORSO ALWAYS SHINED AS THE STAR ATTRACTION
OPPOSITE: In his first speech since a stroke 15 months earlier, Lee Corso said in 2010 that he hoped to be on the air three more years, and he signed autographs at St. Anthony Hospital’s Stroke of Courage event in Oklahoma City. NATE BILLINGS / THE OKLAHOMAN
OPPOSITE TOP LEFT: On the field at Michigan Stadium on Sept. 7, 2024, the lineup for ESPN’s “College GameDay” included a Heisman Trophy winner for the Wolverines — wide receiver and returner Desmond Howard, who beat Florida State quarterback Casey Weldon in 1991. JUNFU HAN / DETROIT FREE PRESS
OPPOSITE TOP RIGHT: College football fans tried to get their signs on the “College GameDay” broadcast in Michigan Stadium. For the record, Alex Orji was a quarterback for the Wolverines. JUNFU HAN / DETROIT FREE PRESS
LEFT: Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” also came to the Big House for the Michigan-Texas game. Fox’s show included Hall of Fame shortstop Derek Jeter, a five-time world champion with the New York Yankees who grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan. RICK OSENTOSKI / IMAGN IMAGES
BELOW LEFT: Fox’s pregame show also included Longhorns superfan Matthew McConaughey, who dubbed himself his alma mater’s Minister of Culture and acted in notable movies such as “Dallas Buyers Club,” “A Time to Kill” and “Magic Mike.” JUNFU HAN / DETROIT FREE PRESS
OPPOSITE BOTTOM RIGHT: The lineup for Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff” included a Heisman Trophy winner for the Wolverines — cornerback and wide receiver Charles Woodson, who beat Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning in 1997. JUNFU HAN / DETROIT FREE PRESS
OPPOSITE BOTTOM LEFT: At Ferry Field, “GameDay’s” first broadcast position for the Michigan-Texas game, an Auburn fan paid homage to former Alabama coach Nick Saban, now an analyst on the show. In his final game, the Wolverines beat the Crimson Tide 27-20 in overtime at the Rose Bowl. JUNFU HAN / DETROIT FREE PRESS
ABOVE: When an undisclosed illness kept Lee Corso from traveling to Eugene for an Oregon-Ohio State showdown on Oct. 12, 2024, his old pal the Duck sent him a simple message: “MISS YOU BUDDY!” Corso and the Duck would meet again at the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1, 2025, for an UO-OSU rematch in the College Football Playoff. But that day, Corso picked Brutus Buckeye over the Duck. BEN LONERGAN / THE REGISTER-GUARD
ABOVE RIGHT: During the early part of the 2024 season, Lee Corso missed a twoweek West Coast swing for undisclosed health reasons. The first game was Oct. 5 at Berkeley, California, where No. 8 Miami (Florida) beat California 39-38 in possibly the season’s most exciting game to that point. Corso also missed Oct. 12 at Eugene, Oregon, where No. 3 Oregon beat No. 2 Ohio State 32-31 in a game just as thrilling and with more on the line. Host Rece Davis told viewers that Corso, now 89, was “a little bit under the weather.” When Oregon fans stormed the field after their victory, its Duck, one of Corso’s favorite mascots, was carried around the stands and the field. BEN LONERGAN / THE REGISTER-GUARD
RIGHT: During happier and healthier times, Lee Corso frolicked with Oregon’s Duck during “GameDay’s” visit to Eugene. In October 2011, Corso donned the appropriate headgear, grabbed a pair of cymbals and with the marching band played a rendition of the “Mighty Oregon,” the school’s fight song. Among the lyrics: “Sing the story, Oregon / On to victory urge the heroes / Of our Mighty Oregon!” IVAR VONG / THE REGISTER-GUARD
In November 2007, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit signed off from Eugene, Oregon. “GameDay” first traveled to Eugene in 2000; it didn’t return until Sept. 29, 2007. But the gang returned again five weeks later when No. 4 Oregon hosted No. 6 Arizona State. As he did 21 times with a headgear pick, going 14-7, Corso sided with the Ducks, 7½-point favorites. They won 35-23 as Dennis Dixon threw four TD passes. ASU’s Rudy Carpenter threw for 379 yards and two TDs but was sacked nine times. KEVIN CLARK / THE REGISTER-GUARD
ABOVE: At Stillwater for the Bedlam rivalry in November 2010, Lee Corso needed assistance to wear the giant head of Oklahoma State’s Pistol Pete. He picked the ninth-ranked Cowboys, but No. 13 Oklahoma won a 47-41 thriller as OU’s Landry Jones threw for 468 yards. Late in the game, in a span of 29 seconds, Jones threw an 86-yard TD pass to Cameron Kenney, OSU’s Justin Gilbert returned the kickoff 89 yards for a TD, and after a first-down run, Jones hit James Hanna for a 76-yard TD. PAUL HELLSTERN / THE OKLAHOMAN
State (13-6), Clemson (11-3), Notre Dame (11-5), Oklahoma (11-7), Michigan (10-5), Texas (10-9) and Georgia (9-5).
Who never lost when Corso picked them more than once? Southern Cal (17-0), Virginia Tech (4-0) and North Dakota State (3-0).
Who never won when Corso picked them? Baylor (0-2), Alcorn State (0-1), Arizona (0-1), Brigham Young (0-1), Iowa State (0-1), Minnesota (0-1), North Carolina State (0-1), Purdue (0-1), Southern Methodist (0-1) and Yale (0-1).
Who were the Power Four schools never picked? Arizona State, California, Duke, Georgia Tech, Kansas, Maryland, Northwestern, Rutgers, Syracuse, Virginia, Wake Forest and West Virginia.
Who else was never picked? Army. Nine times Corso chose the U.S. Naval Academy, where he was an assistant coach in the 1960s, over the U.S. Military Academy. The Midshipmen went 4-5 in those games. He also picked (correctly) Air Force over Army in 2009 and 2001.
Who were lower-profile schools picked? Appalachian State (1-0), Bowling Green (1-0), Alcorn State (0-1), Florida A&M (1-0), Grambling (1-0), James Madison (1-2), Montana State (1-0), North Dakota State (3-0), Pennsylvania (1-0), Western Michigan (1-0), Williams (1-0) and Yale (0-1).
Although Corso’s donning of Brutus Buckeye’s head in October 1996 had been considered his first headgear selection, Cole’s GameDay Blog pointed out that Corso made what Reagan called “proto-headgear picks” on a handful of previous occasions. A couple of examples:
• Nov. 13, 1993, at South Bend, Indiana: Corso put on a baseball cap with
SEMINOLES as he picked No. 1 Florida State to beat No. 2 Notre Dame 31-30 and did the tomahawk chop. When boos rained down, Corso threw on an ND cap and said “I’ll take Notre Dame 31-30” while still doing the chop. That was the first time “College GameDay” left its Bristol, Connecticut, studio for a road show, which was staged in Heritage Hall in the Joyce Athletic and Convocation Center. The crew consisted of Chris Fowler, Craig James and Corso. Corso nailed the 31 points — the Fighting Irish won 31-24.
• Sept. 10, 1994, at South Bend: He put on a green top hat while picking No. 4 Notre Dame to beat No. 6 Michigan. The Wolverines prevailed 26-24.
• Oct. 28, 1995, at Boulder: Corso put on a red wig to choose No. 2 Nebraska over No. 7 Colorado. The Cornhuskers won 44-21.
• Sept. 28, 1996, at South Bend: He put on a hard-hat contraption as he picked No. 4 Ohio State over No. 5 Notre Dame. The Buckeyes were victorious 29-16. The following Saturday, Corso made his first “official” headgear pick at Columbus. For perspective on Corso’s long broadcasting career — which at 38 years exceeded his days on the sidelines by a decade — he started at ESPN in 1987 when Ronald Reagan was president. George H.W. Bush followed in 1993. Corso’s headgear picks started in 1996 when Bill Clinton was in the White House. He was followed by George W. Bush (in 2001), Barack Obama (in 2009), Donald Trump (in 2017), Joe Biden (in 2021) and Trump again (in 2025).
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