Skip to main content
Join Now

Lee Corso retirement: Pat McAfee gives lengthy admiration of ESPN College GameDay icon

On3 imageby:Sam Gillenwater•04/17/25•

samdg_33

Pat McAfee, Lee Corso
Kirby Lee | Imagn Images

The announced retirement of Lee Corso has led to reactions all across college football, especially those who have worked with him at ESPN. That now includes one of his more recent colleagues in Pat McAfee.

During the second hour of ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ on Thursday, McAfee, along with the rest of the show, spoke on the news about Corso. They paid their respects to him and his career with the impact he has left over almost four decades of work covering college football.

“Let’s talk about a G.O.A.T. announcing that he has one more show of electrifying college football fans around the entire globe,” McAfee said. “I’ve had the opportunity, obviously, to work alongside him the last few years but, obviously, have had the opportunity to watch him do his thing on television for the better part of the last, like, 40 years or whatever the case is, however – I think it’s 40 years, is how long they’re saying he’s been with ESPN.”

Corso is iconic for his role on ‘College GameDay’ with him being the only remaining member of the original cast from its start in the last of the 1980s. Still, despite turning 90 this fall after 37 years on-air, McAfee applauded him for still having it as an all-time personality.

“I’ve said this numerous times. Whenever you watch him, at either the production meetings on Friday or on these campuses moving about, he’s still got it, you know, is still quick, refuses assistance whenever you’re talking about steps and everything like that,” McAfee said. “Obviously, on-camera, it’s been a little bit different for Coach Corso than it was maybe 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 15 years ago, you name it. But he was an energy, just had an aura around him at all times that was just like, hey, how you doing, keep it moving. And he was a big proponent of, it’s just entertainment, sweetheart, you know, and he very much understood that.

“You’re talking about a guy who was viewed as a G.O.A.T., a guy who was talked about as a G.O.A.T., a guy who acted like a G.O.A.T., I think, for a long time and a man that’ll be missed on television,” McAfee continued. “Changed the sport, changed the business, changed the trajectory, changed everybody’s life that he’s around. So I think that’d be a job well done if you were to kind of speak about a human and his existence and his profession on television, speaking into a microphone.”

McAfee is just the latest to reflect and react to the retirement of Corso. That includes several on GameDay as well as at ESPN who have done the same so far today like Kirk Herbstreit, Rece Davis, Chris Fowler, and Stephen A. Smith.

College football will collectively be able to celebrate Corso from now going into the kickoff of that final appearance on GameDay on August 30th. For now, though, McAfee is the next to salute him today for all he has done going into his final broadcast come the fall.

“Trailblazer. Dog. Honored to call him a peer for a couple years here and the sports world will definitely miss him every single week but he does have one show left. Can’t wait to see what he does,” McAfee said. “Congrats to Lee. Changing the game changing the game forever. Changing college football forever.”