Keep Corso Away From the Gator Head!

This week, the ESPN Gameday crew will be broadcasting live from the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, FL for the LSU Tigers versus Florida Gators showdown. It's a great opportunity for students and fans to showoff creative and sometimes vulgar signs, and hurl humorous and sometimes meanspirited insults at Fowler, Herbstreit and Corso(well, mostly Corso).

However, there's much more at stake than being the jackass on TV talking on your cellphone, pointing at the camera and saying "you see me? I'm on ESPN! I'm pointing at you right NOW!"

You see, since 2001 Lee Corso's picks have not been kind to the Gators. Before '01 Corso did pretty well at picking the victor of most Florida games. It became that if you were a Gator fan you wanted Corso to pick them, because if he didn't then they were likely to lose.

Corso did well with his first Florida pick of the '01 season. He chose Florida to beat South Carolina in Columbia, SC. The Gators went on to defeat the Gamecocks 54-17. All seemed well in Gatorland until Tennessee showed up in early December.

Normally, the Gators and Vols play early in the season, oftentimes it's the SEC opener for both teams. However, due to the terrorist attacks on Spetember 11th the game was rescheduled for December 1st. Corso picked the Gators to win at home.

Florida lost 34-32.

Perhaps the scheduling change had thrown Corso off. Surely he would regain his form in 2002. The Gator faithful would have to wait until September 7th, when the #1 ranked Miami Hurricanes came to town, to see how Corso would fare.

Corso picked Florida to win. Gator fans collectively held their breath, and watched Florida get blasted 41-16. Florida fans started to realize that Corso's pick was a curse on them, and that belief was reinforced when the Gators played Georgia in that year's "World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party"(eff your couch Michael Adams!) Corso chose the #5 ranked 'Dawgs(probably to the delight of many Florida fans), and the #22 ranked Gators ended up prevailing, 20-13. Gator fans everywhere started hoping that Corso would never say "Not so fast my friend! I'm going with the Gators!" again.

In 2003, Florida fans got to test the Corso pick theory again as the #9 ranked Gators welcomed the #11 ranked Seminoles to Gainesville. Once again, Corso put the hex on Florida by picking the Gators to win. They lost to FSU, 38-14.

Fortunately for the Gators, Corso and the Gameday crew never made an appearance at any Florida games in 2004.

However, in 2005 Corso had another shot at dooming the Gators. Once again, ESPN Gameday appeared at the Florida-Georgia game in Jacksonville. This time the #4 ranked 'Dawgs faced off against the #16 ranked Gators. Corso picked Georgia, and there was much rejoicing, as Florida won 14-10.

Now it's 2006, and Gator fans everywhere are faced with a dilema. Is Corso's LSU-Florida pick the one where he gets back on-track, goes with the Gators, watches them win and picks the Gators(and wins) everytime Gameday is involved in a Florida game? Or does Corso pick the Gators over the Tigers, and doom Florida's as-of-now perfect season? Personally, I think all Florida fans know what they must do. It's more important than any "Corso Has A Baby Arm" sign, or "Kirk Herbstreit wants to make manlove to Nick Lachey" insult.

We must keep the Gator head from ever sliding over the Sunshine Scooter's oddly shaped cranium at all costs! As Under Armor would say, "WE MUST PROTECT THIS REPTILE DOME!"