Kirk Herbstreit didn’t need much to set college football fans off Thursday night: just a photo from Orlando, a thunderstorm, and Lee Corso refusing to accept a ride.
Herbstreit was in town for a sold-out Florida Citrus Sports event at the Country Club of Orlando when Corso asked to come by and say hello. Herbstreit offered to send a car, but the 91-year-old legend handled it his own way and drove himself through the storm.
“Needless to say I lost that battle,” Herbstreit wrote.
That post quickly took off, climbing past 600,000 views, but the replies told the bigger story. Fans leaned into the obvious Corso joke, the one that has followed him for decades.
“Let me guess…. You said, 'You're not driving, coach' and he said, 'Not so fast, my friend,'” one fan wrote.
The most liked reply wasn’t even about Corso. A sarcastic comment asked, “When did you get a dog?!” and pulled in 287 likes.
That landed because Herbstreit is almost never without one of his golden retrievers on the road. Peter is the current companion. Ben, his longtime sideline dog, died in November 2024 after a battle with cancer.
But most of the reaction had a different tone. Fans weren’t just laughing. They were saying what they felt.
“Miss the Sunshine Scooter on Saturday mornings,” one wrote, using the nickname Corso earned in the 1950s for his speed at Florida State.
Another called him college football’s cool grandpop. Others said Corso will be missed this year.
That sentiment carries some weight. Corso made his last headgear pick on Aug. 30 last year before Texas at Ohio State, choosing Brutus Buckeye - the same mascot head he picked first in 1996. A full season has passed since then, and plenty of viewers still seem to be adjusting.
Not every response was affectionate toward ESPN. One fan said Corso deserved better than the way the network let him go and hoped to see him on this season.
Corso announced his retirement himself in April 2025. ESPN put together a tribute show for him in Columbus, and Ohio State coach Ryan Day handed him a commemorative helmet on the set.
Still, the strongest wave of replies was aimed at Herbstreit, and that made sense too. Fans kept pointing to the way he’s stayed close to Corso.
“Thanks for looking out for him the way you do. Says a lot about your character and heart,” one account wrote.
Another added, “Someday, I hope you get to be the mentor to someone else that he was to you.”
That’s the relationship in a nutshell. Corso helped Herbstreit through a nervous College GameDay audition in 1996, and Herbstreit later wrote in Out of the Pocket, “Best of all, he became my mentor, my friend, my second father,”
Corso suffered a stroke in May 2009 and returned to the set that fall. For years after that, Herbstreit and the rest of the crew helped him with names and words on air.
One fan summed up the mood around the post best: “Coach! This made my day, and I'm sure did the same for many. He looks great.”
Herbstreit will be back on the College GameDay road in a few weeks in Baton Rouge for LSU’s game against Clemson. Corso, meanwhile, is still doing things his way - including driving himself wherever he wants to go.
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