Matt Rhule recognizes Lee Corso after news of retirement

Matt Rhule recognized ESPN’s Lee Corso upon the announcement of the latter’s impending retirement. Corso will retire after Week 1 this upcoming season, marking the end of his near-four decade tenure with the network.

Count Rhule among those who grew up with Corso on College GameDay. It has regularly been a highlight of the show, even in Corso’s latter years where he battled health issues and appeared in a reduced role.

Rhule just wished he was able to get GameDay back to Nebraska one more time before Corso retired. But, Corso will get a proper send off when it’s all said and done.

“Lee Corso, I know he’s announced he’s retiring,” Rhule said. “I love college football. I’ve grown up around him, you know, just watching him, and I want to thank him for his contributions to the game. He’s meant a lot to everybody. and I know he’s gonna do one game. I expect we’ll have them here this year at some point, and I will miss him when he gets here.”

In addition to the traditional airing of the show, ESPN notes that it will also present special programming celebrating Corso in the days leading up to his final show. Corso turns 90 in August, making his run all the more impressive.

“My family and I will be forever indebted for the opportunity to be part of ESPN and College GameDay for nearly 40 years,” Corso said in a press release. “I have a treasure of many friends, fond memories and some unusual experiences to take with me into retirement.”

ESPN has already provided some moving tributes to Corso over the years. During the 2023 season, Corso donned his 400th headgear. He has made a weekly tradition of putting on headgear for whatever team he picks to win the marquee game of the day.

It delights fans. And when he did it for the 400th time, he brought out the waterworks from the rest of the crew on the set.

“Just like Charles Barkley is to the TNT show, Lee has been that for us,” analyst Kirk Herbstreit said. “I feel like to do good, quality studio television, not everybody can be the same. You need people who bring something a little bit different to the show. Lee was kind of that guy like Charles is to that show. As time has gone on, Lee’s getting older. I’ve always thought about, ‘what are we gonna do without Lee? How is our show gonna be a show without Lee?’”