On Thursday, the college football world learned that our Saturday mornings will forever change this fall as legendary ESPN College GameDay analyst Lee Corso will retire after one final show on August 30, 2025. Of course, Texas Tech football fans have a special memory of Corso from 2008 when the GameDay crew broadcast from Lubbock.
Each week, GameDay concludes with the panelists making their picks for the day's biggest games. The highlight comes when Corso closes the show by donning the headgear of the mascot of the team that he thinks will win the game that is taking place at the school from which the ESPN crew is broadcasting.
Naturally, when Corso puts on the headgear of the home team, the crowd erupts with approval. However, he hasn't been afraid to pick the road team either, and when he does, he loves to ham it up and revel in the jeers from the thousands in attendance.
ESPN's GameDay has been in Lubbock only once. Back in November of 2008, when the No. 7 Red Raiders hosted No. 1 Texas, Corso and the gang broadcast live from the engineering key on campus in front of thousands of passionate Red Raiders.
That day, anticipation grew as it came time for the experts to make their picks. What's more, the atmosphere was enhanced when former Texas Tech basketball head coach Bob Knight joined the broadcast live on stage as the weekly guest picker.
Having two icons with personalities as big as Knight's and Corso's made for fantastic television. Knight started off the antics as only he could.
"Hey, there are a lot of people at Texas I like," he said, "but this isn't the time for that. I mean, I deeply hope we beat their ass today."
Then, it was soon time for Corso to make his headgear prediction. Much to the delight of the Lubbock crowd, he put on the Raider Red top, sending the crowd into hysterics.
Corso had one more surprise, though. Taking the two shotguns that Raider Red carries on the field, he pulled the trigger on both and sent two blasts across the stage that nearly caused his partner, Kirk Herbstreit, to duck under the broadcast desk. That is a moment that Texas Tech fans won't soon forget.
So many iconic headgear moments. Corso left his mark on GameDay forever ❤️ pic.twitter.com/qj7LEaUJa1
— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) April 17, 2025
Corso has been on GameDay for 38 years. During that time, he's become as much a part of the college football experience as tailgaiting, marching bands, and spirit squads.
According to the ESPN PR department, he's made 430 headgear picks with a winning percentage of 66.5%. What's more, in 1999, he had a perfect season as it pertained to his headgear selections.
Corso's first headgear pick happened at Ohio State on October 5, 1996. Since then, it has become tradition for the former coach to signify the start of each Saturday's action in the way only he can. Now, he will make one last pick to kick off week one of the 2025 season before he puts an end to an unforgettable career. Thankfully, that career included a glorious Saturday on the South Plains in 2008 when he correctly forecasted Texas Tech's upset of the top-ranked Longhorns.