Not so fast, my friend

No so fast: Lee Corso dishes on new UH coach and how mascot tradition got started

ESPN broadcaster and sports analyst Lee Corso.

Courtesy photo

Popular ESPN broadcaster and sports analyst Lee Corso touched down in Houston Thursday, but it wasn’t for a trip to UH's football field. This time, Corso’s visit was personal.

The 81-year-old College GameDay co-host made the trek from his home in Orlando to the Bayou City to serve as guest speaker at Houston Aphasia Recovery Center’s (HARC) annual “Let’s Talk” charity luncheon.

HARC is a non-profit therapeutic wellness center for persons with aphasia, the loss of the ability to understand or express speech caused by brain damage. It’s a cause Corso is all too familiar with, having suffered a stroke in 2009. With it, he temporarily lost the ability to speak as well as partial use of his right arm and leg.

With hard work and determination, Corso successfully returned to his post at ESPN within four months. He’s been a fixture on College GameDay since 1987 and remains one of college football's most entertaining, knowledgeable, and opinionated analysts.

We caught up with the warm and friendly Corso, who sipped hot tea to keep his words from getting stuck (a lingering effect of the stroke), for a quick conversation about GameDayand college football.

CultureMap: ESPN’s College GameDay is such a phenomenon. Why do you think that is?

Lee Corso: One of the things that helped us the most is that we went on the road. In 1993, Florida State played Notre Dame in South Bend. We took the show out of the studio to the site and it exploded after that. We could feel the crowd’s enthusiasm and it made the show 10 times as good. Now it’s grown into an event. It’s like a rock concert. We go places and people stay up all night to get there, and they’re having parties all around us. It’s really unbelievable.

CM: How did the tradition of choosing who you think will win the game at College GameDay’s site by donning the headpiece of the school's mascot begin?

LC: I was in Columbus and picking Ohio State to win. I saw “Brutus Buckeye” (the school’s mascot) walk behind me, so I said to Kirk Herbstreit (Corso's GameDay counterpart), who went to school there, “Do you think you can get me that Brutus head to put on? They (the audience) will know I picked Ohio State to win and I won’t have to say anything.”

They got the Brutus headgear for me so I put on, and the crowd went crazy! I said, “Oh boy, I’ve got a shtick here, I think I’ll keep doing it.” And I’ve put on about 275 heads since then.

CM: Is conference realignment in college football done?

LS: No, there’s still some changes to come. I think the one place that’s got to be careful is the Big 12 conference. If the Big 12 doesn’t do something, I wouldn’t be surprised if Texas and Oklahoma leave 4-5 years from now and go someplace else just like Texas A&M did.

CM: The University of Houston's campaign to join the Big 12 Conference was rejected. Will the school be able to eventually get into one of the Power Five conferences?

LS: No and the reason is, there’s a limit to how many teams they can take because they split the money television-wise and don't want anyone else to go in. But the University of Houston is in good shape where they are now in the American Athletic (Conference).

CM: What are your thoughts on the new head coaches both at the University of Houston (Major Applewhite) and at the University of Texas (Tom Herman)?

LS: Texas is one of the five best coaching jobs in America and Herman is going to be terrific. He’s proven it here in Houston. With Applewhite, Houston was smart. They got stability and there’s no question that’s going to help them.

Both of these guys will be successful. I don’t think Houston will be quite as good without (quarterback Greg) Ward. Man, he was something. But (Kyle) Allen from Texas A&M should be a good player and (defensive tackle Ed) Oliver is one of the best defensive players in America. There’s no question about it.

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Movie review

Nerdy teen comedies make a comeback with new movie Summer of 69

Photo courtesy of Hulu

Sam Morelos and Chloe Fineman in Summer of 69.

There was a trend in the late 2010s/early 2020s of bawdy comedies featuring teenage female protagonists, including Blockers, Booksmart, and Yes, God, Yes. Those types of films seemed to go by the wayside in recent years, but they’re making a comeback with the new film Summer of 69.

Abby (Sam Morelos) is a high school senior and video game streamer who has had a crush on her classmate Max (Matt Cornett) for her entire childhood. When she learns that Max has recently broken up with his longtime girlfriend, she’s determined to make her move. With advice from a confidant that Max likes a certain sexual position, Abby sets out to learn as much as she can about it, including hiring a stripper, Santa Monica (Chloe Fineman), to help her.

Coincidentally, Santa Monica is facing a situation where the club at which she works, Diamond Dolls, will be closed if the owner doesn’t come up with $20,000 in a week. Abby, who comes from a well-to-do family, seems to offer the perfect solution, and so the two agree to a week of lessons for that amount. Naturally, all sorts of complications arise, as well as the two women forming an unexpected bond.

Written and directed by Jillian Bell, with help from co-writers Jules Byrne and Liz Nico, the film is both suggestive and innocent at the same time. For all of the talk about sex and innuendo, having the nerdy and inexperienced Abby at the center of the film ensures that the story remains relatively chaste throughout. That includes scenes at the strip club, where Bell makes the choice to show almost no nudity.

Most of the humor of the film stems from Abby’s lack of experience, highlighted by her having “sexual” fantasies about Max that never actually get to the sex part. The juxtaposition between Abby and Santa Monica is also used for laughs, although Bell and her co-writers make sure to include a side story for the dancer that makes her into a three-dimensional person.

What ultimately makes the movie succeed is the way it keeps its characters relatable. Many high school films feel the need to play into a bunch of stereotypes, but those are kept to a minimum here. Instead, Bell upends expectations by delivering honest - sometimes to a fault for the characters - dialogue that acknowledges the spectrum of sexual realities for high schoolers, a version that differs from insatiable horniness of some other teen comedies.

Morelos, one of the stars of Netflix’s That ‘90s Show, makes for a charming lead, someone who can convincingly take her character from awkward to confident over the course of the story. Fineman, best known for her current stint as a cast member on Saturday Night Live, complements her well, showing her comedic prowess in a number of physical scenes. A supporting cast that includes Nicole Byer, Paula Pell, Alex Moffat, and Natalie Morales keeps the energy level high.

Despite its titillating title, Summer of 69 is much more sweet than naughty. Like most coming-of-age movies, it’s about a girl who’s trying to figure out where she fits in the world. The answers she finds aren’t always the ones she was expecting, but in the best possible way.

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Summer of 69 starts streaming on Hulu on May 9.

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