The Josh Innes Show - The Corso Farewell

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

I think ESPN did a great job of sending Lee Corso off. I mean, they waited 5 years too long. But, they handled Saturday well. Also, Dave Portnoy made his Big Noon Kickoff Pregame debut and I think it feels odd and forced. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So the Lee Corso sendoff was a gigantic success. First off, Homeboy didn't miss a pick. Like every school that he coached out won and he took all these underdogs in his last, you know, picks. First of all, the headgear obviously hit with Ohio State. But then you're talking like LSU he took. He said LSU is going to win the national championship. They're going to beat Clemson. Boom, they won.

Florida State, boom. Like, guys got some sort of magical stroke powers. I don't know what it is, but he went out with a bang. Like, they needed to inject him with whatever Biden was taking during the debates because he was kind of like, I mean, look, he's slow. He's had a stroke. He's like 90 years old. Like, I get it. But the ratings were gigantic.

And it was such a big story, in fact, that the big noon kickoff on Fox actually aired Lee Corso's sendoff. Like, it was a big deal. Like, you know, I'm trying to think of people who are that impactful for a sport. And a lot of times it's kind of overstated, right? I don't know that they overstated the stuff with Corso because, you know, Corso was the face of that show for a long time in like the big boom of college football when it really started splashing again in the 90s and early 2000s. You know, like when I think of that era of ESPN, I think of Corso.

I also think of, oh, who was it? It was a, oh, another guy that was at the Notre Dame game over the weekend was Lou Holtz. Lou Holtz and Mark May, you know, they would do. the late night, you know, college football wrap-up show and yell at each other. And I remember those guys, and those are kind of guys, Corso, those are the guys that I kind of associate with that early 2000s, late 90s, college football television that kind of helped build the whole thing. And look, they left Corso on TV way too long to the point that it got sad. And that's where they did a disservice to him. And maybe a lot of people didn't care. And maybe they just accepted

that he was sick. I guess in his defense it never got to like Dick Clark counting down from 10 and missing numbers and droopy. Like you never had like the Dick Clark droopy face. Like Dick Clark being on television after a stroke

doing New Year's Eve. Like that's about as sad as you're going to see on TV. Somebody needed to be like, no bro, you're fucking out, right? And somebody should have said that to Corso years ago, but they didn't. And I don't know that it ever got to a point where it turned people off, not at least on Moss, right? Because he's such

a likable guy. And you had the story with him and Herb Street. And Herb Street would kind of help him out and kind of be like his little right hand man. But like anybody who was looking at it through an objective lens would go, yeah, listen, like I like the guy, super nice guy, likable guy, but he doesn't need to be on TV anymore. And since they let it go for as long as they did. It made the send-off a little less, I don't know, wholesome to me, I guess, in a way. I don't know what the word I'm looking for is. Wholesome is not the right word. But they let it be ruined to the point that instead of being like happy for the send-off and be like, that's great, you were kind of like, finally. Finally somebody wised up and said, listen, like, we got to take you

off TV, you know. And maybe they're just worried that he'll die. Like, he could be one of these guys that has this job and once this job is over he's like dunzo like it is over for him like a lot of like we see it with the guys that coach and shit like they'll just retire and then be bored and five minutes later be dead like I don't know what's going to happen the sendoffs were very nice um you know speaking of these kind of shit and by the way like three and a half million people watched it and that's the biggest audience they've had for game day in forever so obviously people were intrigued by this and that's good for him I'm not trying to shit on the guy. I'm not going to be a dude who shits on old stroked out guy, dude. I'm just, I'm not going to

do that. But I will tell you that for the last handful of years, it's uncomfortable watching this guy, and they left him out there too long. It happened to my guy, Mike Shannon, who was one of my heroes, right? St. Louis Cardinals, it wasn't that long ago that he still sounded great, sounded spry. He was a malaprop guy, or a malprop. So, like, he would mess up names. Like, the reason why sometimes I, like you might hear me say Kyle Swabber instead of Schwabber is because that's how he pronounced his name. He'd be like Kyle Swabbers at the plate

like he was just an old dude that would fuck up names. But it was endearing and he sounded like St. Louis and he represented the Cardinals. And up until about four or five years ago, he sounded fantastic still. Like his voice was good. He'd pay a little less attention and he'd fuck more

shit up. But he still sounded like Mike Shannon. Then he got the COVID's and shit. And his last year in the booth was so bad that they did a desert like I was pissed at the team for letting him stay in the booth because he was so bad and it angered me he was clearly not well uh he sounded like shit and it kind of ruined like first of it was impossible to listen to just like the game broadcast itself was bad you know throw aside the point that he was you know the old and and didn't sound as good you could not follow the game because he couldn't follow the game and it sounded

like shit and it pissed me off because that guy's a legend and you allowed himself to run himself into the ground and it was terrible and that's kind of what you got with corso although corso never got to the as bad as i think mike shannon's out it it's a similar situation but you know hey um i'm glad that the sendoff worked out well for him i'm glad that you know that's done look you like you like it's one of those things where you're like hey i look forward to this guy being gone and then you're like but who's like new corso it's fucking pat maccuffy um Let me play a couple of commercials, and we will continue. All right, it's game week, baby,

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This is it, the day you finally ask for that big promotion. You're in front of your mirror with your Starbucks coffee. Be confident, assertive, remember eye contact, but also, Also, remember to blink. Smile, but not too much. That's weird. What if you aren't any good at your job?

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Is every fabulous item I see from winners? Like that woman over there with the designer jeans. Are those from winners? Ooh, are those beautiful gold earrings? Did she pay full price? Or that leather tote? Or that cashmere sweater? Or those knee-high boots?

That dress, that jacket, those shoes. Is anyone paying full price for anything? Stop wondering. Start winning. Winners, find fabulous for less. Speaking of new Pat McAfee or New Corso, so the Big Ten pre-game show on Fox uses Dave Portnoy now.

and he just does little brief things, right? And I don't dislike him, and I like the pizza reviews, and the shit he was doing for people for the small business during COVID. That's not to be ignored. That's good shit, right? People like to just focus on the dumb shit you say or whatever, and they don't focus on the shit you do. Portnoy was great for small businesses,

and he deserves all the credit for that. The fact that he built barstool, phenomenal, like to go from handing out free newspapers, barstool sports, you know, on the fucking train to becoming this behemoth that is a star by the way. Pat McAfee is a star because of barstool sports. Call Her Daddy is a star because of barstool sports. And they get the big name people. They get people. They make them stars. And then sometimes those people leave. And he is a star maker. 100% of star maker. Bussing with the boys. Like he makes stars. And he deserves credit for that. The guy's legendary for that.

That said, the role they have him playing on this Big Ten pregame show is such a Pat McAfee light troll. Like the part I saw he goes out and starts talking shit to the Ohio State fans, cuts a wrestling promo, then just retreats and disappears. Like, it feels forced. And you might say, well, Josh, everything Pat McAfee does feels forced. And you wouldn't be wrong. Like some of it feels kind of hokey and disingenuous. Like, you can at least watch him and like he looks like he's having a good time. And most of the shit that Pat McAfee's doing is to play to the home crowd, get them going.

He doesn't show up and just start talking shit to the fan. Like, I don't know. It felt like a Timu, you know, like a cheap knockoff, a Sam's Choice Pat McAfee bit. Whereas Pat McAfee kind of plays to the home crowd and gets him hyped and, you know, is the good guy. this dude comes out and just starts shit-talking the fans and then disappears. I don't like it. Like it doesn't feel authentic. It doesn't feel, it feels out of place.

It feels desperate. And by that, I mean, it's like Fox is sitting back going, all right, we need to find our Pat McAfee. We need our thing that goes viral. None of our shit on our pre-game show gets us any viral coverage. You know, our pre-game show's fine. But it doesn't get, you know, the kid making a kick for $100,000. The dog taking a shit before the kid makes the kick for $100,000. and it doesn't get the guy putting on the fucking head gear.

Like our pregame show doesn't get any of this. We need something that's going to go viral. That's what we need. And then they're like, well, here's what we'll do. We'll team up with Barstool, which is smart because they've got a giant audience. Good move. And then we're like, well, what do we do with Dave Portnoy? Oh, I know.

Let's just have him go out and talk shit to Ohio State fans for two minutes and then go backstage. Like, I don't know. It felt forced and sort of out of place. And I don't know. I didn't look, I think Portnoy can offer some. stuff. At the end of the day, Portnoy can do things that are interesting, but what's the most interesting about Portnoy is the world he's created of Barstool and the people he hires at Barstool.

I don't know that I find Dave Portnoy on his own to be super interesting. I like him. Like, I don't dislike the guy. I just don't find him to be super interesting. Then again, there's a lot of guys on Barstool. I don't. Just not really my job. Although my man Teabobbob is there now who I love very much but I don't know like there's this one guy on Barstool the dude the Brandon Walker I fucking hate this guy and I don't fucking know why

they're just dudes I fucking hate and he is one of these dudes I might be his voice I don't know there I don't know I just fucking hate him I don't know why there's a lot of guys I like there but I don't know the Portnoy thing felt forced and just it felt contrived I think was my biggest

knock on Portnoy and I don't know I'm gonna guess they're just not gonna have him go to every school and talk shit. Like, at least Ohio State makes sense because he's a Michigan guy and he's got an angle and you still can't beat Michigan, even though you won the championship. Like, I guess it works. I don't know what the week in, week out is. If they're doing a show, for example, at Indiana, like what shit talking is my man going to go out there and do about Indiana? It's like kicking the little guy. Like, I don't know. But good for ESPN for getting the big numbers on Corso. It was nice. But, you know, the time.

has come for that to end. But, you know, once you lose a guy like that, you wonder what it does to the show. Like, game day is not at the top of the zeitgeist like it was 15 years ago. You know, like, I think it's had its moment. It's still the college football show. And it's still shit. It's Saturday morning. I got to wake up and turn game day is the first thing you turn on. I don't know. I do know. It's just to me, not as impactful as it was 15 years ago. It's still a cool show and still nice. They do too many emotional fucking stories. he's on a Saturday. I don't need to hear about how the kids got fucking cancer. And I don't need to hear about how both the kids' parents died in a car accident. So he lives with the guy that

plays the mascot. Like, I don't need to hear any of that shit. Like, those are nice stories. But I don't wake up in the morning and get prepared to go watch some fucking football. I'm not, I don't want to hear about some kid that was diddled. I don't want to hear about how moms got cancer. I don't want to hear about how dad lost a leg. I like, I don't want to call. I don't want to Basically, I don't want to fucking cry at 10 in the morning on a Saturday when I'm two hours away from watching football and getting belligerently drunk and betting on shit. I don't want to see sad shit. Please spare me the sad shit. I beg of you.

All right. Anyway, more to come.