What’s going on in the Big 12 and beyond? I expand and explain every Sunday in Postscripts at Heartland College Sports, your home for independent Big 12 coverage.
This week, it’s back to football on Lee Corso and jersey retirements.
CORSO’S RETIREMENT
ESPN announced Lee Corso’s retirement from College GameDay earlier this week, and it led me to think of a story that I collected from one of my many travels to college football games.
One of my former projects was the College Football America Yearbook, a publication that a couple of friends of mine and I put together every year for 12 years. It was a labor of love. It combined our enjoyment of travel and our love of college football. We managed to combine that with our journalistic skills and become full-time writers and part-time photographers chronicling our trips and visiting stadiums around the country.
After the pandemic subsided and fans started going back to games, I made it a point to go to a game that I had always wanted to go to. On Thanksgiving weekend of 2021, I went to Ann Arbor, Mich., and shot the Michigan-Ohio State game.
You might remember that game. Along with the fact that it was the first time then-Wolverines coach Jim Harbaugh beat Ohio State, it was the game where it snowed for most of the contest. I stood on the sidelines shooting the action in below-freezing temperatures.
Because it was a huge game, both ESPN and Fox were there (Fox broadcast the game but brought its Big Noon Kickoff crew, too). Both brought their shows inside the Big House for the final hour.
From my vantage point I was on the sideline with the ESPN crew. It was a small set and they were crowded around it. I did GameDay at a Georgia-LSU game and that set is huge. But, inside the stadium it all seemed as if they were huddled for warmth.
Except for Corso. He was in his element. It didn’t matter to him how cold it was. He just did his thing, including the headgear pick.
When the game started, I got to work shooting the game. Having covered other games in which the GameDay crew is there, I can tell you that some of them stick around and watch the game from the sideline. On a day like that Saturday, I figured they would all head for a warmer spot.
At one point in the first quarter I peeked down the sideline and I saw Corso. Standing in dress shoes, his suit from the pregame show and an overcoat, he watched the game intently. He wasn’t shivering like I was. His eyes were focused on the action, likely breaking down everything in his head at a moment’s notice like he used to as a coach.
It was something just watch him watch the game that he had basically given his entire life too. That always sticks with me. It also sticks with me Corso was handling the weather better than I was.
I know Corso’s speech and cognitive abilities have declined since his stroke in 2009. Anyone who watches GameDay knows that. I know some folks out there have been asking for Corso’s retirement for the last several years. Some of you are saying, “Well it’s about time.”
But let’s be honest. If you could sit on the set of a television show and talk about college football for three hours and then stand on the sideline and watch a game from wherever you wanted to on a crisp fall afternoon week after week for nearly 40 years, would you leave? Of course you wouldn’t.
Corso is going out on his terms. You may think it’s overdue and you’re entitled to your opinion. But I’m always going to remember the guy standing on the sideline at the Michigan-Ohio State game who was much warmer than I was and doing what he loved to do his entire life.
Happy retirement Lee. May it be a long one.
SPEAKING OF RETIREMENT
On Saturday the Colorado Buffaloes held their spring football game. Amid the controlled scrimmage and the thousands of fans that showed up at Folsom field, the Buffs decided to retire two jersey numbers, those belonging to Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter.
The decision certainly elicited some controversy earlier in the week among Colorado fans, who pointed out that other program legends, such as Kordell Stewart, don’t have their numbers retired.
Before Sanders and Hunter, four Buffs had their numbers retired — quarterback Bobby Anderson, running back Rashaan Salaam, halfback Byron “Whizzer” White and guard Joe Romig.
They all have something in common — each is in the College Football Hall of Fame. Salaam won a Heisman Trophy. White became a U.S. Supreme Court justice.
I’m not the number retirement police. I’ve always believed that a team’s decision to retire a jersey number is personal to that team. For instance, people made a huge deal out of the fact that Oklahoma City retired Nick Collison’s number a couple of years ago. Is he a Hall of Famer? Of course not. But in the context of that franchise, he’s an extremely important part of its history.
Was it too soon? By most standards, yes. But, then again, Iowa retired Caitlin Clark’s jersey one year after she left the Hawkeyes. With portable talent thanks to the transfer portal, we’re going to have to get used to this conversation being a little different.
For instance, should TCU guard Hailey Van Lith have her No. 10 retired, even though she only played there one year? I mean, in the construct of her one year, she may have had the best single season of any TCU player, male or female.
But you want my opinion, so here it is. Hunter’s number should absolutely be retired. He won a Heisman Trophy, and I believe, one day, he’ll be in the College Football Hall of Fame. By those standards his number should be retired. Just, you know, not on Saturday.
As for Sanders, he threw for more than 14,000 yards in his four-year collegiate career. That’s something special. But I wouldn’t have retired his number — at least not yet.
I wouldn’t have retired either number on Saturday. I would have done the more traditional thing and waiting. But when does coach Deion Sanders do anything traditional?
Meanwhile, Colorado is going to build a statue to legendary coach Bill McCartney. Talk about long overdue?
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.
