Before you start hyperventilating, just know that nothing is changing when it comes to College GameDay’s Lee Corso and his headgear.
As for the rest of ESPN’s affable pre-game show, it’ll have a bit of a different look this fall, thanks to new faces and even fresher technology.
College GameDay has come a long way since Gene Shalit was a member of the program’s reboot in the late 1980s. (It’s OK if you need a moment to google Gene Shalit.) The program eventually wed with Home Depot to create a cultural phenomenon that is now going on its 28th year.
To stay current, however, you need more than just wacky hats and mascot heads.
The biggest change this season is the addition of Rece Davis, who replaces Chris Fowler as host. Fowler was an institution on GameDay, starting back in 1990. In the course of the next 24 years he oversaw the meteoric rise of the program.
Changes have happened before. In recent years they’ve added an extra hour of programming, limited the number of commercials and have employed a revolving door of analysts, celebs and whatever you want to consider the legendary Beano Cook to be.
Fowler’s departure will change the dynamic. He’s been a part of the GameDay crew for longer than just about every single current college football player has been alive.
Fowler leaves at a time when ratings are sky high to concentrate on calling play-by-play. Up through last year, Fowler (and Kirk Herbstreit) would film GameDay, followed by a game later in the day.
The hiring of Davis is no shocker like Trevor Noah taking over for Jon Stewart at The Daily Show. Davis is an ESPN veteran of 20 years who has hosted shows such as SportsCenter and RPM 2Day. He recently served as host of ESPN College Football Thursday Primetime.
“People continue to bring up Chris and Rece, Chris and Rece,” senior coordinating producer Lee Fitting said, according to Sports Illustrated. “If it were anyone else but Rece sitting in that chair, we’d be having a serious conversation. But it’s Joe Montana and Steve Young. It’s two Hall-of-Famers. I worked with Rece for a long time on College GameDay basketball, and he is awesome.”
While Fowler will be missed, don’t expect a severe drop-off in the quality of the show. Not as long as Corso’s health allows him to be among the best reasons to tune in. The ex-Louisville and Indiana head coach, and only original cast member still on the air, recently shared with Examiner.com that he’s worn 257 different mascot hats during his tenure at College GameDay.
The former Florida State cornerback turned 80 this year and has been slowed a bit of late after suffering a stroke in 2009. That said, Corso still brings his iconic fire to the set every Saturday.
“I’m going to do this as long as I physically can add something to the broadcast,” said Corso via SI. “And I want to do it with passion.”
The other changes to the GameDay brand will be subtle, but they improve the look of the show. GameDay will keep pace with technology with the implementation of three new facets this season.
The first is an improved virtual reality graphics. Since 2010, ESPN and Full Sail University have teamed up to create a virtual reality department as part of the school’s SportsLab.
Other additions will give us a few more angles at which to view Corso’s accoutrements. One new feature will be a tower camera. The periscope-style camera will be highly mobile and rotate 360 degrees.
ESPN will also infuse aerial coverage of College Gameday starting this fall.
That means we’ll be able to see what a giant Alabama elephant head looks like from 2,500 feet in the air.
Chris Wuensch is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers South Carolina and Tennessee.
