Curt Cignetti And Lee Corso Have Crossed Paths Before

Curt Cignetti recalled his interactions with the College GameDay legend and former Indiana football coach. College GameDay and Corso will be in Bloomington on Saturday.

Analysts Kirk Herbstreit, left, and Lee Corso get ready to begin ESPN College Game Day, filmed at the University of Texas on the South Mall, ahead of the Longhorns' game against the Georgia Bulldogs in Austin, Oct. 19, 2024. / Sara Diggins/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Curt Cignetti has been around the college football world for his entire life. He also coaches Indiana, so it would have been a surprise if Cignetti had never had an interaction with former Indiana football coach Lee Corso.

Cignetti was asked about whether he’d had any interactions with Corso over the course of his coaching career.

“GameDay came to JMU last season. My wife and I made sure we spent about 10 minutes with Coach Corso beforehand,” Cignetti said.

ESPN’s College GameDay show will come to Bloomington for the second time in the show’s history on Saturday as Indiana hosts Washington at Noon ET.

Details of the visit have not yet been announced, but it will be a big day for Indiana fans and the football program, which is off to a 7-0 start for the first time since 1967.

Corso coached Indiana from 1973-82 and left Bloomington with a 41-68-2 record. His best season came in 1979 when the 8-4 Hoosiers won the Holiday Bowl against BYU.

Overall, Corso has a 73-85-6 career record as a coach. He is also revered at Louisville, where he led the Cardinals to their first national success as a major school with a 28-11-3 record from 1969-72.

Corso has been on College GameDay from its inception in 1987. He’s become far more famous for his out-going personality on the program than he is for his football coaching career. Corso’s “no so fast!” declarations and his predictions done by putting the mascot of the school he chooses on his head have become part of college football lore.

Corso, 89, has not been able to be on College GameDay every week this season. He missed shows at California and Oregon due to illness and because of the travel time involved to get to the West Coast from his Florida home.

Corso was at College GameDay during its appearance in Austin for the Georgia-Texas game last Saturday. He is expected to be in Bloomington this weekend.

“I called him on his birthday a month or two ago. He called back. We had a nice conversation,” Cignetti said.

Curt Cignetti’s coaching career had barely started by the time Corso finished his final season as a FBS coach in 1984 at Northern Illinois.

However, Corso’s Indiana team faced Curt Cignetti’s dad, Frank Cignetti Sr., when the elder Cignetti was an assistant at West Virginia in 1974. The Mountaineers prevailed 24-0 at Memorial Stadium in Corson’s second season with the Hoosiers.

Curt Cignetti recalled another time Corso and his father crossed paths.

“I can think all the way back to when we were at West Virginia. There were only nine bowls back then, right? Final bowl spot, the Peach Bowl, I think it was '72, came down to West Virginia and a 9-1 Louisville team coached by Lee Corso,” said Cignetti, whose father was on Bobby Bowden’s West Virginia staff at the time.

“West Virginia waxed Syracuse pretty good (43-12) and got the bid. That was probably the first time I was aware of who he was, yeah,” Curt Cignetti said.

At the time, Corso was less than thrilled with West Virginia’s successful Peach Bowl bid.

“I can’t believe it. West Virginia! Hell, that team has beaten three teams with a combined won-lost records of 3-29. And they lost to Temple! Temple!” Corso told the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal in its Nov. 20, 1972 edition.

Corso would leave Louisville for Indiana after the conclusion of that 1972 season.

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