The Josh Innes Show - Corso Out At ESPN

Episode Date: April 17, 2025

Lee Corso will retire from ESPN after week 1 of the College Football season. This is something that should have happened a while back, but ESPN has really had to handle this gently. I understand. They have been in a tough spot. Will they continue the headgear picks? Will they let it die? Do people even tune in to shows or games for the hosts/announcers? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spring is here and you can now get almost anything you need delivered with uber eats What do we mean by almost you can't get a well-groomed lawn delivered, but you can get chicken parmesan delivered sunshine No, some wine. Yes get almost almost anything delivered with uber eats order now alcohol and select markets. See after details Well, here's one for you. It appears that uh lee corso Is being put out to pasture by ESPN this year. He will no longer be on college game day.

He will retire after week one of the college football season. That's August 30th. And he will be done after 38 college football seasons on ESPN. Lee Corso will no longer be on ESPN. And it's weird because this should be something that you celebrate right you should celebrate that someone had such an amazing run and that someone was such a huge part of everyone's lives and I mean look everybody that likes sports that likes college football watches college game day college game day outside of inside the NBA is the best studio if you want to call it that

studio panel type show in all of them people try to do it people try to mimic it but college game day is the best it is the standard right like you know Saturday morning you turn on college game day there is no other sport that really has that, right? There is like the NFL, each network has their own thing, right? So like you might watch NFL network for their, uh, their pregame stuff, which is okay. Or at 11 o'clock you might turn on CBS or you might turn on Fox, but everybody's got their own little thing and they bounce around. I don't believe people bounce around on a Saturday morning. It's college game day and that's what you turn on and that's what people have turned on for years and years and years.

So I know that Fox has something like for their Big Ten coverage, I think, like it's Big Noon Saturday. And some people say their show is pretty good too. And if you're into whatever game is on Big Noon Saturday, which is going to be some Big Ten type game, then maybe that's what you're into whatever game is on big noon Saturday, which is going to be some, you know, big 10 type game, then maybe that's what you're into. And you watch that. But the majority of people, most people who consume college football consume game day. And Lee Corso has been on game day for as long as I've been alive. I'm 38 years old. He's been on, he's been on ESPN breaking down college football for 38 years, and he has been the face of college football for ESPN. They have had other dudes. They've had people that have come and gone. They've had people. What was the wrap-up show they used to do on Saturdays

when it was Mark May and Lou Holtz, whatever that show was called, like college football live or postgame or whatever it was. They were associated with that. But when people talk about college football live or post-game or whatever it was, like they were associated with that. But when people talk about college football, they talk about college game day. Many of the announcers stink now. Like there's not a big announcer that people really associate with college athletics.

It's not like when Keith Jackson was the voice of college football on ABC and you associated Keith Jackson with that. And it's not like Vern Lundquist when Vern Lundquist was the voice of the SEC on CBS. Now a lot of these guys are paint by numbers, replaceable schmoes, people that aren't really that interesting or really that good, people who are studio hosts who they've thrown into the role of play-by-play announcer so they don't have to pay another play-by-play announcer. You know, that's kind of where we've gone. Like Gus Johnson does college football for Fox. And people have almost forgotten that Gus Johnson exists because he's disappeared on this Fox game that no one gives a shit about.

But with all that, Lee Corso is one of those guys that you associate. So he's going to retire at the beginning of, which is kind of a strange thing. I guess they're like, listen, we can't have another season of this poor man on television. It's elderly abuse, essentially what they're doing to the guy. But let's play a few commercials and we will continue. All right, if you're ready to win some real cash during the basketball playoffs, you got to check out Pick 6 from DraftKings. When it comes to basketball payouts, DraftKings Pick 6 posterizes the competition, including

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See terms at pick6.draftkings.com slash promos. Yeah, you're looking at like when I watch game day, like I like Pat McAfee, although I think McAfee's kind of over the top and shit. But I do think college game day is kind of where he works because he's doing a lot of crowd stuff he's doing a lot of like they're doing the kicking thing where you're giving a guy a hundred thousand dollars for making a kick the obnoxious thing kind of works like I think in that setting McAfee works

really well you know remember at one point they tried to have McAfee as a game analyst and that's where I was kind of first introduced to McAfee. And it was terrible. Like it was just awful. I remember, I don't know who it was at first. And I'm listening to this and I'm like, this is truly God awful. I want to say it was like on a Tuesday, like Mac game or a Thursday game or something. And I'm listening to McAfee as the third guy in the booth. And I'm like, this shit don't work. It's terrible. Where McAfee works is McAfee is good as a talk show host in his world. And I think he's good on game day. He's the wild card. You got a couple of straight guys. He's the wild card that hypes up the crowd. He's good for that.

They need that because otherwise you're just going to have a couple of schmoes sitting there just schmoing and we don't need that. So McAfee works. They essentially brought in McAfee to be the color on this thing, knowing that they were eventually going to have to run Corso out of there. Now, here's a question. I wonder if they continue to do the headgear thing or if they retire the headgear thing with Corso. Like, really, that should be the move, right? Because that guy was synonymous with putting on the elephant head or putting on the tiger head or dressing up as a leprechaun. And it was also endearing because he's an old guy. Like, if Pat McAfee is dressed as a leprechaun,

it just comes across as douche bro dressed as a leprechaun and it's obnoxious. These are fine lines you have to walk in doing this, right? Because when an old guy does something, it's charming, right? Like, old guys can get away with shit that young dudes can't get away with because they're old dudes. And they're legendary figures. It's why you can live with your favorite broadcaster slipping up a couple times if he's 80 years old and he's been your favorite broadcaster your whole life. I'm a Cardinals fan, right?

And Mike Shannon was my favorite. And I would make excuses for Mike Shannon being bad at his job. And at one point it was endearing because he still sounded good. He would just commit errors and, you know, had malapropism and all that kind of shit. So he'd say the wrong thing or make the wrong remark or say a guy's name wrong, but it was charming. Then after the COVID's happened, he wasn't doing too hot, right? So he sounded terrible,

yet I'd still make excuses for it. I be like man I mean he couldn't keep up with the game he could barely talk it sounded like he could barely breathe and honest to god even I was like please take him off the fucking air you're ruining this guy's legacy by this this is fucking awful please take him off the air the game was unlistenable but you'll make excuses for guys like that that are who are your heroes who are your icons you know you'll forgive older people and also when older people do stuff it makes it more charming if pat mcafee puts on the lsu head and says suck that tiger dick bitch and tries to get the chant going and shit it'll be like all right this is just bro shit and it's not as charming so it's an interesting thing i wonder

if espn like are they going to replace him or Or they obviously don't need to. They have four people up there already. Like, so they can just wheel him out of there, have four people. It'll be a little less cluttered. And I don't know that you, I don't think you do the headgear thing. I think you retire that. Like, I think that would be a nice thing. Or there are two ways to go about that. You retire the headgear thing, or you do a passing of the baton. So you say, listen, I'm giving Pat McAfee the green light to do the headgear thing I just like I don't think people want to see Pat McAfee doing that because I like Pat and I don't think Pat's a bad dude but his whole shtick is being a bro and kind of being douchey and obnoxious and drunk and tank tops and all that shit and getting the chant to the crowd a chant uh immature and inappropriate shit you know what I'm saying like I think it was at LSU that he did that where he tried to get the neck chant going at LSU and he did. And the LSU people were

like, hey, could you not do that? Because we don't really want our school represented by this, you know, unofficial chant of people saying, suck that tiger dick bitch. We don't want that to be what people see on national television. So maybe can you not lead that chant but we'll see entering his final broadcast in august corso has made 430 headgear picks all time including the ohio state buckeyes a record 45 times my family and i will forever be indebted for the opportunity to be part of espn and college game Day for nearly 40 years. I have a treasure of many friends, fond memories, and some unusual experiences to take with me into retirement. Corso added, 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 Game Day. Special thanks to Kirk Herbstreet 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. It had to have been a tough spot for ESPN as well, because they know he sounds like shit and it looks like shit on television and it's sad on television. They know that Kirk Herbstreet basically was like his scene eye dog to help him out.

So it sucked. And it was not good television. And it's one thing to have bad television. It's another thing to have depressing television. And you see this guy who's like this, was this vibrant character, like a fun, spunky old guy. And then he has this stroke and it's depressing. And if you're ESPN, like, you know that people aren't going to turn your show off if Lee Corso's not on there anymore, but you also don't want to deal with the PR nightmare of being the guys that took him off

the air. And then, cause that, you know, people will, there could be a backlash and it becomes a public thing. I know you dumped him because he's an old guy and he's got a stroke so it's it's obviously something you have to um navigate would be a good word is what I would say let's see if this press release says anything about whether or not they're going to continue the headgear or if that's going to be a surprise. But that would be the two options I think you would have. By the way, I really dislike Desmond Howard on that show too. I don't think he adds anything. I saw a story the other day that Reese Davis turned down an offer from Fox to stay at ESPN and he gets paid like $7 million. And ESPN was like, we got to have Reese Davis. And this is

nothing against Reese Davis, but if you took Reese Davis off college game day and put somebody else in there would anybody really know or give a shit and I know they use Reese for play-by-play as well he's not even particularly good or interesting at that he's just there like that to me is the worst thing that's happened to college play by or just play-by- play broadcasts in general but you see it more with ESPN stuff and particularly with college they've taken these guys who are fine studio hosts or fine interviewers or whatever like uh what's his name who does the game with Kirk Herbstreit the main Chris Fowler Chris Fowler is not a very good play by play guy and when I hear him I don't feel like oh this is a huge game it's just he's there he's fine

but they double duty with him and have him doing other jobs because it's cheaper to do it that way it's cheaper to have a guy doing three or four jobs that's kind of the way of the media world now and like Rhys Davis is not a particularly good play-by-play guy but there's was it Rhys Davis or it was Rhys Davis that I saw that story about the other day but I think Carl Ravitch was also in a situation like that because they now use Carl Ravitch. Well, they were. I don't know what they're going to do now that baseball is not part of ESPN anymore. But that was another one where you're like, what the fuck are we doing? Ravitch is a fine SportsCenter guy.

He's a fine Baseball Tonight guy. But when Sunday Night Baseball used to be John freaking Miller pipes from God just this like like like that's the part that I think is missing and maybe kids today and young people don't give a shit and that's fine but when I was a kid and you didn't have every option to watch every game imaginable Sunday night baseball was a really big deal and when Sunday night baseball would come on and you'd hear John Miller and Joe Morgan you were like shit this is big time this is like this is where it's at and now you don't get that like I couldn't even tell you who does Sunday night baseball perhaps that's why ESPN is getting out

of the baseball business because I couldn't you could give me a million chances and I would imagine it's Carl Ravitch that does Sunday night baseball does the gal still do color work what's her name Mendoza does she still do it and probably is it Eduardo Perez does Eduardo Perez do Sunday night baseball like my favorite team was on Sunday night baseball like two weeks ago and I couldn't tell you who does Sunday night baseball like I don't know but I could tell you when it was Joe Morgan and I could't tell you who does Sunday night baseball. Like, I don't know, but I could tell you when it was Joe Morgan and I could tell you when it was, uh, John Miller, honestly, I couldn't, and when it wasn't those, I couldn't tell you who followed those guys either. Like,

and maybe that's why they just don't care about putting big money into play by play guys anymore. Cause like nobody, like there aren't too many guys in the world that you tune in and go, Oh boy guy's calling the game so it's a big deal like that's why I found it to be absurd that they were so obsessed with paying Joe Buck all this money to do Monday Night Football people are going to watch football whether Joe Buck is calling the game or not right like I found what's his name that was doing it for a little bit Tessitore Tessitore is like the pits I despise Tessitore he's obnoxious I like he's fine on the wacky golf show with Rob Riggle outside of that I just don't get it I don't like him he doesn't want to let a moment breathe he's obnoxious I just don't like Tessitore even with him doing Monday Night Football I'm like well it's Monday Night Football I'm gonna fucking watch it like

when I saw that they paid Joe Buck all this money to come over from Fox to help kind of reestablish the Monday Night Football brand, I'm like, it doesn't fucking matter. I've spent this podcast bitching about how they have losers doing play-by-play and there's no more Keith Jacksons and Vern Lundquist and guys like that. Guess what? I'm still going to watch the SEC game of the week on ABC. I'm still going to watch the primetime game on ABC. I'm still going to watch all these football

games. It doesn't matter who's calling them. When we talk about how much money is being lost in broadcasting and how people are losing jobs, here's an idea. It doesn't fucking matter who calls play-by-play on these games. I'm a Cardinals fan. I hate Chip Carey. Guess what? If I want to watch the Cardinals, I got to watch Chip Carey, whether it's Chip Carey or a talking mouse, it doesn't matter. Like, and I'm not trying to undermine what people do and say like, oh my God, like I'm not trying to cut your balls off, but it truly does not matter. And they've essentially established that by putting reese davis as a main play-by-play guy and chris fowler as a main play-by-play guy because they don't want to go

out and pay more people to do it they know people are going to watch it there's no analyst or play-by-play guy who when that guy is calling the game you're like i'm in i know people tried to convince you for five minutes that tony romo was one of the reasons why people would tune into games until you realize that romo is all just noises and bullshit. You're like, okay, I've had enough of this. There's nothing special after the initial wave of, oh, he's going to predict the play ended. It was just, okay, it's Tony Romo and whatever. No one tunes in because Jim Nance is there. Now they can spin it and say, look at all that audience that the Jim Nance game gets. Well, Jim Nance is calling the main game of the week on the afternoon game on CBS. Of course, people are watching it because it's probably Tom Brady versus Peyton Manning or something.

So it's a huge game anyway. And it's the NFL. Everyone watches it. I hate Kenny Albert. Kenny Albert and that dipshit Vilma, they call most of the Saints games because the Saints stink now. But I can't just not watch the Saints because Jonathan Vilma's on the game. So again, play-by-play guys do not matter. That's why a guy like Corso was an important part of building that show. And that's why you're in a spot where you kind of have to tread lightly. That's why you

couldn't just dump the guy after he stroked out, you know? And the worst was I think during COVID and they would have him live from his house and it was delayed anyway and he couldn't hear anybody and it was just sad. So I'm gonna give ESPN some credit. Really, they could have cut Corso out years ago and they probably should have

because they let him Dick Clark himself here. Although I'll give him credit to Dick Clark was, I mean, just dreadful. Like man could barely speak and they kept putting them on television. Corso was struggling, but like he was OK. It was tolerable. It was acceptable. But Dick Clark was like, whoa. But, you know, could they have cut the court early

or should they have? Probably. But at least they're letting it happen this way. And I think people have seen enough of Corso fading out the way he's faded out to not be upset about the fact that they're forcing him out of here. So again, the biggest question that comes out of this

is do you continue doing the headgear? And does he pass the baton, or do you just let it die? I would let it die, and you try to organically create the new thing. I don't know what that would be. But you try to organically create that new thing. Or the guest picker who's always going to be from the school you're at let Tim McGraw put on the LSU Mike the Tiger head if he wants you know what I'm saying like but don't try to force things that would be my advice there anyway more to come