Kirk Herbstreit reveals he was told to ‘go after’ Lee Corso

Lee Corso retired at the beginning of the 2025 college football season, leaving the show in the hands of Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, Nick Saban and Pat McAfee. One of the most beloved figures in college football media, Corso had been with the show since its inception in 1987.

Herbstreit joined the show as a sideline analyst in 1995 and replaced Craig James on the desk the next season. Three decades later, it’s clear ESPN made the right choice, but early in Herbstreit’s run with the show someone at the network apparently didn’t think it was working as well as it could.

Herbstreit shared the story on The Press Box podcast (via Awful Announcing):

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“Coach”

“I remember about the middle of the year, a guy came up to me at ESPN who worked on GameDay [and said], ‘You’ll never last if you don’t figure out how to aggressively go after Corso,’ because that’s what Craig had done,” Herbstreit said. “I just didn’t think that I could do that.”

“I was calling him Coach and Craig was calling him Lee,” Herbstreit continued. “If I would disagree with him, I would disagree with him in a very respectful manner. Craig would be like, ‘You’re crazy, old man!’ in a fun kind of way. I could never do that. I remember them telling me, ‘You’ll never work if you don’t start getting aggressive with Corso.’ I was like, ‘Well, then it’s not going to work, because I’m not going to go that route.'”

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Instead, Herbstreit continued to call Corso, “Coach.”

I’m not sure what is the more laughable take on that advice. On the one hand you have be be meaner to Lee Corso. On the other hand you have be more like Craig James.

Sure, we have the advantage of hindsight here, but this was monumentally bad advice. One of the best sports studio shows in history was better for 30 years because Herbstreit ignored it.

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