BARNEStorming: Opening Weekend and Other Thoughts Around the College Football World

OXFORD, Miss. — Saturday will be a glorious day as it marks the first full day of college football for the 2025 season.

It will also be a sad day for fans as it marks Lee Corso’s final appearance on ESPN’s Game Day.

Corso, 90, has been with the show since its inception in 1987. He was just an analyst in the then-studio show, but when the production began broadcasting each week on a college campus, he shot up to rock star status.

I only met the man one time. He, Kirk Herbstreit and Mike Tirico were broadcasting the Missouri-Troy game in Troy, Alabama in 2004. The Trojans won that game 24-14. I had interviewed Tirico during the week and he asked me what Troy player to watch most. I told him DeMarcus Ware. After the game, the trio of broadcasters found me and Tirico told me I was right about Ware. Corso shook my hand and said, “If I am Auburn or Alabama, there is no way I play these guys.”  Neither school has played Troy.

Oct. 5, 1996, Corso began donning a mascot’s headgear to make his pick for the game Game Day was visiting. That day, Herbstreit’s wife Allison — a former Ohio State cheerleader — convinced the school to allow Corso to wear Brutus the Buckeye’s headgear. Ohio State beat Penn State that day.

Saturday, Corso will make his final Game Day broadcast at Ohio State. The Buckeyes take on top-ranked Texas, so that is a good choice. Although I sort of wish they would do the game between Alabama and Florida State in Tallahassee. FSU is where Corso was a great player in the 1950s.

But the swansong will be in Columbus.

There is a lot of speculation as to who will be the celebrity guest picker on the show this week. Normally, the guest has a tie to the home team, this week Ohio State. Rumors have swirled about former Buckeyes Archie Griffin and A.J. Hawk. Others have mentioned former OSU coach Jim Tressel and even Herbstreit’s wife who is responsible for the beginning of the headgear tradition.

A longshot would be Peyton and Eli Manning. Their nephew is the quarterback at Texas.

I would like to throw in a wild card. Game Day is hosted by Rece Davis, but he was not the original host. Chris Fowler had the inaugural host role next to Corso. Bring him back for this one. Let the coach go out sitting next to the man who was by his side to start this fantastic ride.

Senioritis

The Senior Bowl has made a few changes this year. There is a new title sponsor, Panini, a new executive director, Drew Fabianich, the game no longer has a watch list of players who could participate in the all-star game. Instead, the game just lists the top 300 players in the country.

The SEC leads the way with 109 players listed, followed by the Big 10 (68), ACC (53) and the Big 12 (43).

Leading the way is LSU with 14 players on the list, Alabama with 13 and Ole Miss, Oklahoma and Penn State each with ten players.

For the Rebels, Suntarine Perkins, Da’Shawn Womack, Zxavian Harris, Diego Pounds, Jayden Williams, Dae’Quan Wright, Luke Hasz, De’Zhaun Stribling, Harrison Wallace, III, and Logan Diggs are on the list.

Yet also on the list is Illinois quarterback Luke Altmyer, TCU tight end Michael Trigg and FSU offensive lineman Micah Pettus.

Each of those players are former Ole Miss Rebels.

The SEC should all be Braves fans 

Atlanta catcher Drake Baldwin is having a great rookie season. He is batting .279, has 14 home runs and has driven in 60 runs in 93 games. He could be on track to be the National League’s Rookie-of-the-Year.

The SEC would like that.

Nine Boston/Atlanta Braves have won the award since 1948. In four of those years — 1950, 1978, 2011 and 2022 — an SEC team has won at least a share of the college football national championship.

In 1950, Sam Jethro won the award for the Boston Braves and Kentucky and Tennessee each won a share of the title. In 1978, Bob Horner was honored and Alabama took home the title. In 2011, Craig Kimbrel took home the trophy and Alabama won the AP championship and in 2022, both honors stayed pretty local. Michael Harris II was the rookie of the year and Georgia was national champs.

The best SEC Game of the Week 

ESPN’s College Game is going to Texas-Ohio State. But let’s go with LSU at Clemson. A battle of Tigers and Death Valleys.

LSU’s Brian Kelly needs this one to get off the season-opening slump he has had since going to Baton Rouge. Dabo Sweeney’s bunch was 0-3 against the SEC last season.

I will go with the home team in this one for selfish reasons.

The Clemson defensive coordinator is Tom Allen, a former Ole Miss assistant. The co-offensive coordinator is Matt Luke, a former Rebel head coach. And the football general manager is Woodrow McCorvey. Coach McCorvey coached at my high school and was good friends with my father.

The worst SEC game of the week 

Some would say it is Mississippi State at Southern Miss, but these two teams are pretty evenly matched. The worst game should be Marshall at Georgia.

Marshall has a new coach and essentially a brand new team after the majority of the Thundering Herd roster jumped ship before last season’s bowl game. The defections caused Marshall to cancel its trip to the Independence Bowl and bowl officials were forced to get a four-win Louisiana Tech team to fill in for the Herd.

For Georgia, Gunner Stockton will easily slide into the starting quarterback role after the departure of Carson Beck. Stockton will probably not even finish the first half before the Bulldogs empty their bench.

Excuse the pun, but this game is a dog. In fact, it is a dog with fleas.

The FCS game of the week

Tarleton State is punching above its weight class when the Texans go to West Point to play Army Friday.

In the initial FCS poll, Tarleton State was ranked eighth and opened its season last week by going to Oregon and thumping Portland State 42-0.

Victor Gabalis threw for two touchdowns and Tre Page III ran for another pair. The Texans picked up 22 first downs and outgained the Vikings 453-277.

Coaches like to say a team makes its biggest improvement between games one and two.

That could be bad news for Army.

The best Division II game of the week  

Also Friday, the D2 season kicks off with a Top 20 matchup.

No. 17 Lenoir-Rhyne heads south to battle No. 8 West Florida.

Lenoir-Rhyne, located in Hickory, N.C., was 10-3 last season and was a playoff team. UWF will try to rebound from a 7-3 season that caused the Argonauts to miss the playoffs for the first time in five years.

Both these programs have been successful in the past.

The Bears have only been a D2 school since 1992 and have played in the national championship game and have been to the semifinals.

West Florida is in only its ninth season as a program, but already has been successful. UWF won the 2019 national title.

The cool name of the week 

Troy’s quarterback is Will Crowder. But he is listed on the official roster using his nickname. The Trojans’ quarterback is Goose Crowder.

It is not common knowledge how the West Virginia transfer came upon the moniker, but it could be his parents were big Top Gun fans. Imagine how many times in the Troy huddle his teammates are thinking, “Talk to me Goose.”

His biography informs us he has two brothers. There is no mention if they are named Maverick and Ice Man.