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Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sport
Zach Koons

ESPN’s Lee Corso Disappeared From ‘College GameDay’ Set, and Fans Were Distressed

It’s difficult to imagine College GameDay without Lee Corso, but for a few minutes during Saturday morning’s show in Durham, N.C., football fans got an uncomfortable glimpse at what that reality might look like.

As the ESPN crew began to make its picks for the day’s slate, Corso was bizarrely absent from the set, and his chair remained empty for several minutes. Although guest picker and Duke alum Ken Jeong joked about the former coach going missing and Kirk Herbstreit filled in the gaps by reading off Corso’s selections, real concern started to emerge among viewers on social media.

Thankfully, all is well. 

After Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee and Jeong all selected Duke to upset Notre Dame in Saturday’s prime-time matchup, the camera cut over to Corso, who was marching up the steps of the GameDay set wearing a full leprechaun costume. That made his pick for the featured game crystal clear, but he also decided to dance an Irish jig on set in front of Jeong and the Blue Devils crowd just to rub things in.

Although the bit proved to be clever, and rather effective, observers on social media grew extremely concerned for a few minutes when Corso was nowhere to be found. Given the 88-year-old’s various health battles in recent years, the concern was understandable.

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