Yo! So Lee Corso and the GameDay gang are coming to Baton Rouge on Saturday. My response: watch out.
In the short but storied history of the ESPN college football pregame morning show, no trips have been more emphatic, especially for me, than the two the crew have made to the bayou.
The year was 1996. LSU was 6-1, ranked No. 11, and the Tigers were all set to face No. 10 Alabama Crimson Tide in what was billed as “The Wild West Showdown.” The game was more like a one-sided shootout, with freshman Shaun Alexander rushing for 291 yards and the Tide rolling to a 26-0 win.
The game, forget about it. The best part about that day happened before the game ever started.
As a young 14-year-old lad, I blended in with the raucous crowd outside the PMAC, yelling at Corso, who picked Alabama to handily win the game. After the show the crowd dispersed, but I hung around in hopes of meeting the man, the myth, the legend – Corso.
Just when I thought all hope was lost – not so fast, my friend. About 30 minutes later, Corso emerged and we had a conversation about LSU. It went something like this:
“So Mr. Corso, how come you never pick LSU to win?”
“Well, kid, I just gotta call them like I see ’em.”
“Cool.”
Later that day, I got my first taste of a South Louisiana tradition – seeing my grandpa drunk. Full on several glasses of “Wild Turkey” and having to witness the LSU slaughter from our front row seats near the 10-yard line, Shelton “Hop” Kennedy couldn’t stand it. Several state troopers roaming the sidelines made the mistake of blocking our view of the action, which soundly got them an arm-flapping, finger-pointing, curse fest my family forces me to re-tell everyone at nearly every Thanksgiving dinner, and to this day is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.
After the troopers threatened to throw him out, Grandpa relented and took his seat. Five minutes later, he was at giving them the business once again, with more shenanigans and support from the fans sitting 10 rows above us that could see. By some miracle we weren’t thrown out of Tiger Stadium that night, and I gained a whole new respect for heckling.
A year later when GameDay returned, I watched Corso put on the large Gator head when No. 14 LSU upset top-ranked Florida, 28-21. It only got better when I snuck onto the field and hitched a ride on the right upright of the north endzone goal post. I even got some memorable field grass to mark the occasion.
While I won’t see Grandpa drinking or get a goal post lift this Saturday, the third installment of GameDay from Baton Rouge should still be exciting.