Lee Corso's impact felt far beyond 'College GameDay' audience - ESPN

«Appreciate you, young man.»

With all due respect to «Not so fast, my friend,» those aren't the words that first come to my mind when I think of Lee Corso, who will be making his final «College GameDay» appearance Saturday at Ohio State. Instead, it's that first sentence. Because those are the first words I ever heard from Coach. Well, the first I heard in person.

By the time he said that to me, on Saturday, Oct. 1, 1994, I had already heard him say so many words, but always through a television speaker. I had been watching him on ESPN for seven years. When «College GameDay» debuted Sept. 5, 1987, I was a high school student living in a college-football-crazed house in Greenville, South Carolina. My father was an ACC football official, and my role at the house was to get up Saturday mornings and make sure the VCR was rolling on Dad's game that day so he could break down the film when we got home from church on Sunday.

Then, what to my wondering eyes did appear but a new ESPN studio show, previewing all of the day's college football games, including wherever Pops might be with his whistle. It was called «College GameDay,» and that night in the same studio, the crew was back with highlights of all those games. It was hosted by Tim Brando, whom we knew from «SportsCenter,» with analysis provided by human college football computer Beano Cook and… wait… was that the guy who used to coach at Indiana? The last time we saw him, wasn't he coaching the Orlando Renegades to a 5-13 record during the dying days of the USFL?

Brando tells the story of Corso's ESPN audition, how the then-52-year-old looked at his would-be broadcast partner and said, «Sweetheart, I'm here for the duration. This show is going to be the trigger for your