Saturday marks an especially emotional homecoming for Corso, whose 1979 Holiday Bowl team — the first in IU history to win a bowl game — is already in town for a planned reunion. GameDay is planning some special moments honoring Corso and his team on Saturday.

“We’re at Penn State. As you probably know, they always pass the Lions to the top of Beaver Stadium. We were out on Old Main and I said, “What if we brought the lion back through the crowd?” And I think it was Herbstreit who said, “What if we got LC to do it?” That was probably 2016. So I go up to him and say, “Yeah, we'll do that.” Well, as Friday afternoon went on, I was getting more and more nervous about the idea of ​​getting Lee back through this huge crowd, so I talked to security a little bit. They said, “We'll keep an eye on him.” I'm not sure that's a good idea, I'm not sure we should do that.” I said, “OK, let's see how it goes in the morning is.”

“Saturday morning is coming. We are about to do it. The security forces panic. 'We don't know if we can get him back on set in time for the show. We don't know if they'll make it.' “We will have him put down. We don't know what's going to happen.” So I tell our then-director Rodney Perez, “Open up to LC, I'll tell him.” I said, “LC, hey man, security isn't worried about it, Lee. ” Lee said, “Damn, darling!” It was one of the great openings with this great audience, and I think that was one of my many, many great memories that made me nervous. It was because of the logistics of the show, and he said : “No, people are going to like this, remember, we’re doing it.” And it was great.

“He was the one who back then really embraced and embodied the idea that he always reminds us of to this day: It's entertainment, honey,” Rece Davis said of Corso. “Football is our vehicle.” That’s what he always says. He recognized this early on and is why he is one of the most, if not the most, important figure in the history of college football television. He changed the way pregame shows were broadcast. It wasn't just, “Well, we'll see if we can block” and all that pretense. That's great, it's important, but it wasn't just that. He was one of the first to say exactly what he thought and not worry about it. 'Forget it', the whole thing. I think it really changed the way people approached the game and covered college football.”