When it comes to late Saturday mornings in the fall, right before the noon kickoffs of a full slate of college football games, fans tune into ESPN College GameDay to see which panel members pick their team to win that weekend. Then, at the end of the broadcast, it’s all eyes on the TV to see who Lee Corso picked with his headgear.
Corso, who is retiring in August, would end up picking the biggest game that weekend, and where GameDay was. It either drew a huge amount of boos or cheers, depending on where the show was and if the home team was picked. Over almost four decades, Virginia Tech has had its game picked by Corso with the headgear, and it’s not the number of wins and losses that stick out, but it’s the last time that the Hokies were part of his pick that is rather troubling.
Lee Corso headgear history of picking the Virginia Tech game shows how the program has fallen
According to Cole’s GameDay Blog, Corso has picked 12 Virginia Tech games and got every pick right, whether or not he picked the Hokies. Twelve isn’t a bad number if we’re being honest, but it is the last time that he picked a Hokies’ game with headgear, that is a troubling trend for the program.
The last time that Corso picked a Hokies game was on Sept. 30, 2017, when he picked Clemson to beat Virginia Tech. He was right.
Since that fall afternoon eight years ago, the Hokies have not been a headgear pick game, which shows the decline of the program. This past year was expected to have them back on College GameDay with a visit to Blacksburg, but it never materialized. A season full hope and high expectations ended disappointingly at 6-7 and things went south in Week 1 with an overtime loss at Vanderbilt.
When Corso retires, so will his headgear picks, and he’ll have one more on Aug. 30, but the Hokies are not playing that day, instead playing Sunday against South Carolina in Atlanta. The slow decline of the Hokies program was evident since Corso felt that their game needed a headgear pick. Oh, the good old days.