Legendary college football analyst Lee Corso is set to retire following one final College GameDay show on August 30th, ESPN has announced.
Corso has spent 38 years working for ESPN, and for the last 30 years, he has been doing the most iconic tradition on College GameDay of donning a mascot head to announce his pick of the featured game of that week.
Corso has been unafraid to go against home crowds and wear the mascot head of their most hated rivals. His iconic "not so fast, my friend!" phrase has pulled the rug out from under unsuspecting fans for many years.
One of the teams Corso has picked the most over the years during College GameDay is Alabama. The Crimson Tide has been featured 57 times as the headgear selection on the show. Only six of those happened pre-Nick Saban from 1996-2006.
One of the most iconic moments of Corso donning the Big Al mascot head came in 2008, during Alabama's breakthrough second year under Saban. In the season opener in Atlanta against Clemson, Corso had incorrectly predicted the Tigers would beat the Crimson Tide. Alabama throttled Clemson 34-10.
Four weeks later, College GameDay was in Athens for a battle of undefeated Alabama and Georgia. The Bulldogs were the preseason national title favorites, and most didn't give the Tide a chance of going into Athens and beating Georgia during a "blackout" game.
Except Lee Corso.
Corso stunned the home fans by loudly proclaiming to Uga's face, "that dog is ugly!" before putting on Big Al.
Alabama went on to beat Georgia 41-30 in Sanford Stadium, stunning the Athens faithful by jumping out to a 31-0 lead. That win signaled that Alabama was fully back as a national power and was the jumping off point for the dynasty that was to come.
Alabama finished the 2008 regular season undefeated before losing to Florida in the SEC Championship Game and Utah in the Sugar Bowl. Alabama went on to go undefeated in 2009 and win the National Championship. The Tide would win three of the next four titles in a dynastic run, with Saban capturing titles again in 2015, 2017, and 2020.
Other famous Lee Corso Alabama related headgear selections
Lee Corso was 37-20 overall when picking Alabama games as headgear picks. Overall, he put the Big Al head on 38 times, the 2nd most of any program behind only Ohio State.
The first time Corso put on the Big Al head was in 1996 when he predicted the Crimson Tide to go into Baton Rouge and beat LSU. Led by a little-known redshirt freshman named Shaun Alexander, who rushed for a program-record 291 yards, Alabama dominated LSU 26-0 in Death Valley.
During Alabama's National Championship run in 2009, Corso correctly predicted Alabama to beat Florida before incorrectly picking Texas in the BCS Championship Game.
Corso correctly picked LSU to beat Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 2011's "Game of the Century." He doubled down on that pick in the rematch for the national title in New Orleans, a game Alabama dominated from start to finish on the way to a 21-0 victory.
Corso picked Notre Dame to beat Alabama in the BCS Championship Game for the 2012 season. The Crimson Tide blew out the Irish, 42-14.
Overall, Corso had a difficult time picking national championship games featuring Alabama. The Crimson Tide played in nine national title games during Saban's tenure, winning six of them. Corso's record predicting those games was just 3-6.
Corso's final headgear pick featuring an Alabama game was last November when he predicted LSU to beat Alabama in Baton Rouge in a game the Crimson Tide ultimately won 42-13. The last time he donned the Big Al head was in September of last season when he correctly picked Alabama to beat Georgia in Tuscaloosa.