ESPN deserves credit for "giving all of us college football fans a reason to feel good every Saturday by enabling" Lee Corso to still be part of "College GameDay" during the COVID crisis, according to Mike Bianchi of the ORLANDO SENTINEL. ESPN sends a production crew to Corso's Florida home every week to film his "GameDay" segments, and Bianchi writes, "Thank God we still have Lee Corso." It would have been "very easy for the cable giant to phase out the 85-year-old Corso at a time when he cannot travel because of the pandemic, but ESPN has gone above and beyond to make him -- and us -- happy." Bianchi: "Obviously, ESPN knows how much Corso means to GameDay and how much fans identify him with the show." As "knowledgeable and insightful" as Kirk Herbstreit, Rece Davis, Desmond Howard and David Pollack "may be, when you think of GameDay, you still think of Corso" (ORLANDO SENTINEL, 10/24).
Peyton Manning is one of several high-profile names seen as a possible future replacement for CorsoGETTY IMAGES
POTENTIAL REPLACEMENTS: THE ATHLETIC's Andy Staples writes Peyton Manning "would be brilliant" as a future replacement for Corso once he retires from "College GameDay," as Manning seems "like the type of person comfortable enough in his own skin to do anything for a laugh." Staples: "I'm loving Corso's segments from his house ... but at some point in the next few years, he is going to hang up his No. 2 pencil and mascot heads." Some other "potential candidates" besides Manning include former UCLA football coach Rick Neuheisel, Alabama football coach Nick Saban, Fox college football analyst Urban Meyer and ACC Network's Mark Richt. Other possibilities: former NFLer Pat McAfee and ESPN's Marcus Spears (THEATHLETIC.com, 10/22).
