After 38 years, Lee Corso’s iconic run on ESPN’s College GameDay concluded on Aug. 30, 2025. Corso’s famed headgear picks retired with him. Rece Davis made it vehemently clear that nobody else would dare try to replicate Corso’s tradition. Not even Pat McAfee.
As college football season nears, some people are having trouble accepting that fact, and they’ve turned to spreading misinformation and stirring the pot to cope.
On Monday, Twitter users named Mike Bales and Shane Tuttle posted that McAfee planned to take over Corso’s headgear picks on College GameDay. Tuttle’s is a known satire account, and Bales’ post was debunked in a community note. Still, some people believed it and started harassing McAfee.
“How dare you take Lee Corso’s head gear tradition,” a user named The Great Gamblino wrote. “That’s his and not yours. Have some respect, my man. Just a damn shame you are taking his legacy as your own.”
“With all due respect with Mr Gamblino.. I have no idea what you’re talking about,” McAfee replied, including a GIF of Corso. “Coach Corso’s Head Gear was retired after week 1 last year (Coach Corso went perfect on that day as well).
“I have come to a fun chapter where folks just make stuff up to make me look like a bigger a**hole. I know you wouldn’t believe blatantly fake stuff, Mr Gamblino, but this might be one of those cases.”
While McAfee did not inherit Corso’s headgear picks, he did get the ultimate vote of confidence. “I wanted to let you know that I passed this torch onto a great guy,” Corso said, in part, in a phone call with McAfee that McAfee posted last September.
College GameDay is entering its 40th season on air. This season will begin with its 500th show in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for Clemson-LSU on Sept. 5. If Kirk Herbstreit has any say, McAfee will perform his newly released The Diary of a Polarizing Figure album on GameDay at some point this season.
About Megan Armstrong
Since first getting published as a student by the Kansas City Star in 2013, Megan Armstrong has gone wherever curiosity and stories have taken her, specializing in sports, media, music, and culture coverage. She also has an extensive background in interviewing and profiling public figures. Her work has appeared in Billboard, Boardroom, Bleacher Report, Esquire, GQ, GRAMMY.com, NYLON, Newsweek, Teen Vogue, The Hollywood Reporter, UPROXX, and elsewhere.