Pencil-pushing Corso gets his wood on for Stanford's tree in latest 'GameDay' prediction

Maybe it has something to do with the fact he works for the Dixon Ticonderoga Company, makers of the famous yellow No. 2 pencil. He's the director of business development, waiving a pencil as he makes his point on the ESNP "GameDay" set.

Or maybe he really thinks that Stanford, almost a nine-point favorite at USC, will really win.

That Lee Corso left the set and came back before the end wearing the complete Stanford tree get-up -- a money tree, at that, with dollar bills taped to it -- should make watching tonight's Cardinal-Trojan game an afterthought.

Corso, as we pointed out in Friday's media column (linked here and linked here), is 8-for-8 in mascot head-gear picks when "GameDay" has come to L.A. The last two visits -- counting a year ago when Oregon played USC -- he has gone against the Trojans.

Corso keeps his perfect 15-0 streak in tact when picking USC to win -- avoiding the Trojans this time. He was also 1-0 when picking against Stanford.

His record, however, is also 3-0 when picking against USC. He's 6-2 this season and 137-63 in the previous 200 picks.

And for the record, plenty of Dan Patrick show-related signs did appear in the background during the three hours that the show aired on ESPNU (6-7 a.m.) and ESPN (7-9 a.m.) One referred to the Rick Neuheisel "passion bucket." Another, to Patrick's recently wearing a plaid shirt. A "Where's Waldo DP" sign got some airtime. Surely, others were on that we didn't quite catch but we'll find at DanPatrick.com come Monday.

We did, however, notice one that surely ESPN can't be too pleased about. Just as Kirk Herbstreit was about to talk about the USC-Stanford matchup near the end of the telecast, a sign came out of nowhere that effectively used the letters "ESPN" to incorporate into the stacked spelling of the word "penis" four times -- with pictures of Lou Holtz's face.

You're tackling rowdy kids with any DP references, but this "penis" work of art slips in. Nice work, weiner security.