WVU Football: Corso and Kendrick Wrong and Mean, Respectively

What do ESPN football “analyst” Lee Corso and Arizona Diamondbacks executive (and moneyed WVU booster) Ken Kendrick Jr. have in common?

Neither of them has any idea what he's talking about. Worse, Corso is paid to know what he’s talking about, I would assume.

Let's start with Corso.

I know Corso’s role on ESPN’s College GameDay is buffoon to Kirk Herbstreit’s cool analytics and Chris Fowler’s anchor-with-detachment. But the ESPN brass needs to rein Corso in before he completely embarrasses and discredits himself and the network.

I used to think of Terry Bradshaw as the hard-to-watch NFL buffoon on Fox, but eventually I realized it’s all an act—Bradshaw is a savvy football analyst and he’s just good TV.

Corso, I think, is trying to do Bradshaw, but he’s only got the buffoon part down now.

It would be easy to say that I’m pointing this out now because, prior to the Fiesta Bowl, Corso ranted about how Oklahoma would beat WVU by three touchdowns.

"Three touchdowns!," he yelled.

And you would be partly right. It feels good to point this out now.

But this is only the most recent of his many public humiliations. There’s the mascot heads, the shameless pandering to the crowd on GameDay broadcasts, and all his other hijinks, including his silly sound effects.

But with his sheer wrongness in trying to talk about college football—I don’t know how he remains employed by ESPN.

One of my friends points out that it seems to be Corso’s job, if Herbstreit says so-and-so team will win by two touchdowns, Corso yells, "Three touchdowns!”

I thought Lou Holtz was the embarrassment of ESPN college football broadcasts, what with his pep talks and his oversized hats and his naked Notre Dame boosterism (and East Carolina boosterism, where his son coaches).

But at least Holtz knows his football. The same cannot be said of Corso.

Corso's college coaching record (Louisville, Indiana, Northern Illinois) is 73-85-6. At least Holtz was 249-132-7.

As for Kendrick—the man’s mean-spirited comment about new WVU coach Bill Stewart after his hiring was the worst kind of slur: an ad hominem attack that served no purpose.

Kendrick, a Rodriguez loyalist, said the former WVU coach was the “architect” of the WVU football program, and Stewart was a mere house painter. Kendrick was evidently drunk on the power of his newly forming metaphor and didn’t know when to stop.

This was only a day after WVU boy-president Mike Garrison not only made nice with Kendrick, who bad-mouthed the WVU program for, in his estimation, foolishly letting Rodriguez go, but also coerced a $1 million gift out of him.

Turns out, this was a bad idea.

It seems that Kendrick believed his check gave him another opportunity to take a shot at the program he professes to love. Maybe WVU doesn’t need that kind of money.

I don’t know Kendrick and I don’t know the dynamic, but from the news reports, it appears that he was tight with Rodriguez and Rodriguez felt he, not WVU AD Ed Pastilong, ran the WVU athletic department.

Which doubtless gave Kendrick access and bragging rights.

With his bodyguard gone to Michigan, Kendrick loses his clout at WVU, which stings. So he attempts to buy it back with his cool mil, which he then believes gives him the right to say nasty things about Stewart.

Kendrick may have legitimate concerns with the quick, emotional hiring of Stewart. Stewart may not be the best man for the job. And Kendrick could have said that when the reporter asked him, even though it was after the fact and would not lead to Stewart’s  un-hiring.

But he should have said it a classier way. He shouldn't have dumped all over the man who took a program in shambles and delivered the most significant victory in WVU football history.

As it was, Kendrick came across like a petulant, spoiled child used to getting his way who suddenly does not, and lashes out to hurt anyone he can.