Kirk Herbstreit says Lee Corso’s mind is still as sharp as ever, even as the longtime “College GameDay” analyst deals with physical setbacks in retirement.
With College GameDay set to open its 40th season in Austin on Saturday for No. 1 Ohio State at No. 4 Texas, Herbstreit shared a recent update on Corso, who made his final headgear pick in Columbus on Aug. 30, 2025, and stepped away at age 90.
Herbstreit said the two reconnected a few weeks before the 2026 season began when he was scheduled for an appearance in Orlando, where Corso had worked for 25 years and lives nearby.
"I was doing an appearance down in Orlando maybe two or three weeks ago, and he used to do this appearance for 25 years," Herbstreit said. "It's down right in his neck of the woods. He found out I was going to be down there and he asked if we could connect."
Corso didn’t wait around for the meeting. Instead, he drove through a thunderstorm to meet Herbstreit at the airport.
"By the time I landed, there he is," Herbstreit said. "We hugged, embraced.
He was emotional because we haven't seen each other in a while. When he cried, it made me cry.
Because he's my guy. We were able to hang out for probably 20 or 30 minutes and just kind of get caught up."
Herbstreit said Corso, who turned 91 on Aug. 7, is dealing with "a lot of physical ailments that he's been dealing with, but his mind is incredible."
"We'd all be lucky to have such cognitive thinking at 91," Herbstreit said. "His eyes are sharp.
He's dialed in. He's just going through some stuff that makes it tough on him."
Even now, Corso is still following teams and players closely.
"But he knows about teams. He knows about players.
He's got opinions. I just sat there and listened and loved hearing him talk about that.
He's great. I told him that everybody loves him, everybody misses him.
He feels that love, so it's always good to see him," Herbstreit said.
Corso’s health has been a storyline before. A stroke in May 2009 left him partially paralyzed and unable to speak for a month, but he returned to the set that September and went on to work 16 more seasons.
His final appearance in Columbus was a record-setting farewell. Corso picked Ohio State over Texas, put on the Brutus Buckeye head for the 431st and final time, and finished his headgear career at 287-144. That show averaged 3.5 million viewers across ESPN and ESPNU, making it the most-watched College GameDay ever, and it peaked at 5.1 million in the final quarter-hour.
Corso has made only a handful of public appearances since then. On Oct. 4, 2025, he returned to Tallahassee for Miami’s visit to Florida State, where the Seminoles honored him at Doak Campbell Stadium. That stop also brought together Nugent's Boys, the players who played for Tom Nugent in the 1950s.
He also stayed home in January, when Indiana played Miami for the national championship at Hard Rock Stadium. Corso coached Indiana from 1973 to 1982 and guided the program to its first bowl win in the 1979 Holiday Bowl, but he watched the title game from his Florida home with his wife.
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