Lee Corso Sans Merkin

Last night, I had the opportunity to hear Lee Corso speak, and now I'm here to share some of what he bestowed upon the audience. In case you have no idea what the title means, check out Lee Corso's Merkin.

One of the earlier jewels was that whichever team lost their quarterback next would be out of the national title picture. He gave the examples of Dennis Dixon, Sam Bradford and Nate Longshore.

Corso said that Mizzou was going to beat Kansas this Saturday because Mizzou has looked good against good teams, while the Jayhawks have looked good against "creampuffs"(a step below cupcakes). He said to look for him sporting "the head" on Saturday night.

When asked about what happened with South Florida he seemed to think that better teams in front of them lost, which elevated them to an overvalued position. He now thinks that they're the "second best team in Hillsborough County". Apparently, there's an elementary school team somewhere in the County that's better(Lee's joking words, not mine).

Lee also had some advice for Les Miles regarding the Michigan job. He said that Miles should not take it because when you go back to a school where you used to play/coach it's not the same. When you achieve success at a school the first time around it's hard to ever equal that again. He listed a few examples; Spurrier, Bryant, Jackson, Beamer(and one more that escapes me right now); and said that because the list isn't longer that it's a great sign of that fact. Corso said that in 1970, right before he was slated to coach Louisville in the Pasadena Bowl, that he was approached to become the coach for Florida State. He thought it was the perfect job, but that his wife told him how hard it would be for him to go back there and be successful. It's obviously something that he's carried with him to this day.

He also said that coaching at Michigan is much more difficult than Les's "perfect situation" at LSU because at Michigan the players have to "read and write", whereas at LSU they only have to "read or write". And who did he believe the Wolverines should hire? He said Brian Kelly(coach at Cincy) has to be on the list, but that Steve Mariucci should be the guy that Michigan hires.

Corso applauded Lloyd Carr for setting up his assistants with 2-year contract extensions(the first time he could recall a team doing that) because he knew that there was a chance that he would be done at the end of the season.

With respect to Notre Dame, Corso stated that Charlie Weiss isn't going anywhere because of the contract extension he recently signed. He said that coaches should never attempt to move from the NFL to college without a good amount of prior college coaching experience, and that Weiss performed well in the NFL because of Belichik and he did well in his first and second years because of Willingham's players.

He said that the biggest problem at both Texas A&M and Clemson was a fanbase with "unrealistic expectations". He said that A&M will never beat Texas and Oklahoma, and that Clemson won't win another national title unless each respective school cheats.

When asked about the situation at Miami, Corso said that he feels that Randy Shannon is in over his head because the UM coaching gig isn't one that you can "learn on the job". He said that the Hurricanes should have hired Barry Alvarez, then moved him into the AD position when Paul Dee retired which he's slated to do in June of '08.

He said that Tebow should become the first sophomore to win the Heisman, and that he's got just about the most heart out of any player he's seen this season.

Corso said that this year the Pac-10 is the best conference because of its quarterbacks, receivers and DB's. He said that the SEC is second.

And his picks for the '08 season? Ohio State(best O-line), Florida(their young defense will be a year better), USC, West Virginia(if Slaton & White come back) and Oklahoma(said that DeMarco Murray is better than Adrian Peterson was).

So there ya go. That's about what I can remember from Lee Corso's speaking engagement. Honestly, I thought he was good, and came across as genuine, even if some of the stuff he said were sort of "no-brainers".