Some bump. Monday, the outgoing ESPN college football analyst recalled being in intensive care, unable to swallow for three days — "that was a scary thing, and I cried like crazy when I finally could" — and then unable to talk — "it's like my tongue weighed 80 pounds and I slobbered all over."

But Corso recently went to Los Angeles to shoot ESPN ads because he "set a goal when I first got sick that I'd do those. Every day, you have to have goals or you get depressed."

It's hard to imagine Corso, whose winding coaching career had more persistence than wins, getting depressed.

His next goal: appearing on College GameDay's Sept. 5 debut in Atlanta.

Now, he works out daily. And as the most prominent TV analyst with an unrelated day job — marketing Dixon Ticonderoga yellow pencils, which is why he waves them on-air — he's back to stopping by his office.

He's had to teach himself how to read and speak again, but he still can't write. "Sometimes I quiver or lose my train of thought. The brain heals itself at its own pace. You can't rush it."

When he goes to therapy, he sees stroke survivors who can't walk or talk and thinks, "Thank God that I just had a minor one." And he's thankful to everybody who cared for him in the hospital, "like the guy who helped me take a shower every day."

Corso turns 74 Friday. And the guy who once went on "panty raids" with his football teammate Burt "Buddy" Reynolds while they were playing at Florida State says he's not down for any count: "The old Corso is still standing. He may not be talking, but he's standing."