Kirk Herbstreit reflected on a poignant meeting with his former College GameDay co-host Lee Corso before the start of the college football season.
“I was doing an appearance down in Orlando maybe two or three weeks ago and he used to do this appearance for 25 years,” Herbstreit, 57, exclusively told Us on Tuesday, September 8, via College GameDay’s partnership with CELSIUS. “It’s down right in his neck of the woods. He found out I was going to be down there and he asked if we could connect.”
Corso, 91, retired from ESPN’s College GameDay in August 2025, appearing on all 38 seasons of the show before his exit. Herbstreit joined the broadcast in 1996.
Herbstreit described the pair’s recent reunion as “a very typical Lee Corso story.” Instead of meeting at the event, Corso insisted he drive to meet Herbstreit at the airport.
“I said, ‘How far is the airport?,’ He said ‘I don’t know, 30 minutes or so,’” Herbstreit explained. “I said, ‘You’re not driving.’ He said, ‘I am driving.’ You’re not going to win that battle. He drives over in the middle of a thunderstorm, because in Orlando those pop up at any moment. He’s 91 years old.”
He continued, “By the time I landed, there he is. We hugged, embraced. He was emotional because we haven’t seen each other in a while. When he cried, it made me cry. Because he’s my guy. We were able to hang out for probably 20 or 30 minutes and just kind of get caught up.”
Herbstreit noted that Corso has “a lot of physical ailments that he’s been dealing with, but his mind is incredible.”
“We’d all be lucky to have such cognitive thinking at 91,” Herbstreit marveled. “His eyes are sharp. He’s dialed in. He’s just going through some stuff that makes it tough on him.”
He added, “But he knows about teams. He knows about players. He’s got opinions. I just sat there and listened and loved hearing him talk about that. He’s great. I told him that everybody loves him, everybody misses him. He feels that love, so it’s always good to see him.”
This season, College GameDay has partnered with energy drink CELSIUS on a season-long sponsorship, which includes the CELSIUS Energy Stage, CELSIUS Fan Cam and traveling CELSIUS Combine.
“I’ve never been a big coffee drinker and really never an energy drinker until maybe about two or three years ago,” Herbstreit said. “With all the travel I do, I don’t like the taste of coffee. But I do love the taste of CELSIUS. My favorite is the grape.”
He continued “They’re traveling every week with us, so I think the whole thing is really cool. Hopefully they’re just scratching the surface of where this partnership can go.”
College GameDay airs Saturdays at 9 a.m. ET on ESPN.
