Herbie Formally Backs MGoBlog Orthodoxy
Kirk Herbstreit took to the Site Formerly Known as Twitter on Tuesday to endorse Brian and Seth's proposal that the Rose Bowl host all future college football championship finals. I'm not sure if Herbie's support make the idea more or less appetizing to the rest of the MGoBoard-dwellers, but I am glad the idea has picked up some traction.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:07 PM ^
I don't get the Herbie hate. He's fine. Pretty fair on balance.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:09 PM ^
He tends to toe the ESPN/Disney company line pretty hard, which is annoying as hell. Other than that, yeah he's alright.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:18 PM ^
I'd do worse things for $6MM per year.
January 4th, 2024 at 2:12 PM ^
Makes way more than that and seems like a great guy. Also got himself back in shape
January 4th, 2024 at 2:13 PM ^
And people would justifiably despise you for it. That's part of what you're getting paid that money for.
January 4th, 2024 at 1:08 PM ^
Herbie is one of the very few OSU alums I am alright with
January 4th, 2024 at 1:23 PM ^
What about Jessie Owens? He is my favorite followed by Chris Spielman.
January 4th, 2024 at 1:40 PM ^
Mr. Owens is part of the very few. Loved that he was in the Olympics in Germany. When I was a kid, that was very inspiring to learn that he raced in front of Nazi Germany with Hitler in the stands.
January 4th, 2024 at 10:03 PM ^
is that Jesse's sister
January 4th, 2024 at 11:05 PM ^
You can add Gary Moeller to the list as well.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:11 PM ^
I find it amusing that OSU fans seem to hate him more than UM fans. And now FSU fans hate him more than anyone.
January 4th, 2024 at 1:10 PM ^
I don't know what he said on signgate, but barring that I think only FSU fans have a good reason.
And boy do they have a good reason.
January 4th, 2024 at 3:06 PM ^
Florida State reacted to the CFP situation with all the poise and self-awareness of a hyperactive 5 year old child.
It sucks that Travis got hurt, it really sucks, but he did, and that’s life. They were not a Playoff caliber team without him and were rightfully not selected for it.
Their teams and their fans stomped on the ground really hard, kicked a hole in the wall and yelled really loudly into a pillow for a month. Calling this meeting, that meeting, writing Very Strongly Worded Letters to everyone.
Then their entire team opted out of a bowl game against the 2 time defending national champion (who was pumped for the game) in what should have been a great bowl game and they lost by 60 points in their home state.
I have zero sympathy or respect for Florida State. Amateur hour down there. Embarrassing.
January 4th, 2024 at 4:29 PM ^
Their fans acted like { fill in the blank} fans would have acted if the same had happened to their fav team.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:14 PM ^
I'd bet a dollar that if he could do it over again he'd have gone to Michigan, that is, if we had offered.
January 4th, 2024 at 2:05 PM ^
We offered. He has a great story about keeping his recruitment open just so he could get an in-home with Bo, because he loved him so much. Knowing, the whole time, that there was no way his dad was going to let him go anywhere other than Ohio State.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:17 PM ^
Our fans "hate" Herbie for the same reasons OSU fans "hate" Desmond.
Although to be fair, I think Desmond is WAY more partisan towards Michigan than Herbie is towards OSU.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:24 PM ^
Herbie is pretty subtle about it, but you'll be watching some random game and he'll start talking about OSU.
January 4th, 2024 at 1:11 PM ^
It just seems wrong to say anything positive about OSU but they are one of the premier programs in college football with a very high level of success that we Michigan fans have only started achieving recently. If OSU were average our victories the last Saturday in November would not be as sweet.
It seems every announcer says things periodically that I feel is biased or simply wrong, and that includes Klatt and Herbstreit. Regardless, I find their commentary to be much more positive than negative. I particularly like Klatt's blog posts.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:49 PM ^
Some reasons for that may include the fact that OSU went off against us on a nearly 20-year run of success. That's gonna get under your skin, even as a broadcaster, when all you hear during that time is how Michigan consistently fails vs OSU.
January 4th, 2024 at 1:07 PM ^
Yes, but it's clear that is who Desmond is. I think Herbie is good, but my issue with him is that he pretends to be neutral.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:18 PM ^
He wasn’t always. I remember the days when he was a hardcore Ohio State shill. There was noticeable improvement one season: I bet he got a talking-to.
These days he basically toes the party line; if ESPN has an official position, he will line up behind it without hesitation. So sometimes you see some blatant narrative entering his commentary. There’s entire games he’ll shoehorn into the Official Company Position. These days that means “SEC uber alles”
When he’s allowed to do his own thing re: color commentary, he’s decent. Not good. Decent. He gets less hate than a lot of other commentators, which I think is a positive reflection on him: you’re allowed to criticize a team as long as it’s fair criticism.
OSU hates him BECAUSE of his balance and fairness. They expect absolute loyalty to the cause, and if you have a platform you’re expected to use it. Witness Urban Meyer, who I’d bet $10 still shadow-coaches Ohio State and DEFINITELY still consults with Day (meaning that Meyer’s Michigan game broadcasts all break the “no advance scouting” rules…)
January 4th, 2024 at 1:14 PM ^
He was a total osu homer.... and then one year, one game (i don't recall the specifics of which) he picked against osu. their rabid fanbase turned on him and were vicious.... rumor was his kids were getting bullied in school and house was even vandalized.... initiating his move to TN.
That story as been disputed, so who knows if its true, but it seems to me it was around the same time that his take was much less ohio homer, leaning more toward unbiased if not more muted ohio homer.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:22 PM ^
I don't get the hate either. Dude knows his stuff. He's a good in game analyst in my opinion
January 4th, 2024 at 12:23 PM ^
Herbie digs in on some bad takes but overall he's good. I also have a 10 year old golden retriever so he's hitting a soft spot by taking Ben to all the games and posting about him all the time.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:31 PM ^
I don't "hate" him, but I still blame him for the RR era due to his reporting that Miles was coming to Michigan. Fucked that whole deal up.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:33 PM ^
Lloyd Carr and Bill Martin deserve far more blame for that than he does. Especially considering their respective jobs/roles
January 4th, 2024 at 1:19 PM ^
I agree. However, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. So much had to happen to bring us to where we are now. If we win on Monday and get ourselves a national title, will it not have all been worth it? Would we have ever even sniffed a title without having to wander through the wilderness for 7 years under RR and Hoke? Do we ever have occasion to hire Harbaugh at EXACTLY the right time?
January 4th, 2024 at 2:26 PM ^
Hard to say. It will seem worth it, but those were a LONG 20 years losing to OSU all the damn time. We might all have a couple more years of life expectancy if the dark age never happened.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:38 PM ^
I like Herbie. Though he did go pretty out there with his CFP take justifying FSU's snub.
To be clear, I don't think the opinion itself was terrible, but the digging in felt kind of uncharacteristic for him. Also, I think he kind of ignores the counterargument that selecting the "best" is all well and good, but it seemed pretty inconsistent on the committee to say FSU gets excluded for not being the "best" irrespective of record when Georgia got excluding despite clearly being one of the four best, irrespective of record.
January 4th, 2024 at 1:19 PM ^
Exactly. He went out of his way to lobby for Alabama over FSU as one of the four best teams. You can't make "best" your principal argument......and then not include UGA.
I thought that it was "homerism" for him to pick OSU over Michigan on College Game Day. Nobody who watched both teams all season could reasonably think that OSU was the better team and was going to win in Ann Arbor. Michigan is better at just about every position group except for WR. This was particularly evident on OL, DL, and QB. Plus they were the home team. Of course OSU could have won the game.....but no pre-game signs were pointing in that direction.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:40 PM ^
I mostly dislike him because he's a mediocre color guy who's now stretched too thin to do even one game well.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:52 PM ^
Fair, maybe. However, his in-game takes on players are essentially reading information off the notecards that someone else prepared for him. He also needs to realize that it's OK to have quiet space in a broadcast to let the game breathe.
Also, he knows it all and is sure to let you know it.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:56 PM ^
everyone is just bitchy because of his thoughts on FSU being left out, guy's just been posting dog pics on his social media and getting so much flak. Social media sucks
January 4th, 2024 at 1:22 PM ^
I hate him. Mainly when he said that Michigan was "waving the white flag" when the university decided not to play against OSU during the COVID year.
January 4th, 2024 at 1:45 PM ^
To find deep Herbie hate, Google him on ElevenWarriors. Maybe try "Herbstreit" "refuse to listen" or some such thing.
January 4th, 2024 at 1:49 PM ^
Herbie coincidentally got inducted into the Rose Bowl hall of fame during the game on Monday. The entire Michigan fanbase in attendance collectively booed. It was hilarious.
January 4th, 2024 at 2:03 PM ^
Herbie is a good in-game analyst (although not as good as Klaat) but is a lousy talking head during the rest of the week. If I never had to hear from or about him except during a televised game, I'd like him much better than I do currently.
January 4th, 2024 at 2:06 PM ^
I follow him mostly for the Ben content.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:10 PM ^
Noted dweeb Chris Vanini also wrote about it in the athletic today.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:13 PM ^
Klatt has said this as well. He was on with Cowherd and wanted the 12 team playoff to resume after the CCGs and culminate with the NC at the Rose Bowl on Jan 1. that's the best idea I've heard
January 4th, 2024 at 1:18 PM ^
The only thing I'd quibble with is that we need CCGs. I disagree with Brian that we can't have co-champs - likely all the co-champs are in from the power 4, definitely from the super 2, and if they're not there'll be a good reason. The CCG loser is at a major disadvantage compared to the conference's #3 team. Start the playoff during CCG weekend, and culminate with the Rose on NYD. There will always be 11-17 days between the SF and the NC. If you keep CCGs, they will have to be on Thanksgiving weekend to keep the Rose on NYD.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:14 PM ^
Herbie has always been an OSU / SEC mouthpiece. I was surprised by how balanced he was on the playoff game.
January 4th, 2024 at 2:03 PM ^
Coming off as openly biased on the most-watched CFB game of the year would not have been a great career move. Herbie's no fool.
January 4th, 2024 at 12:22 PM ^
FWIW Rich Eisen also advocated for this
January 4th, 2024 at 12:24 PM ^
and Klatt
January 4th, 2024 at 12:23 PM ^
Among the other things that make the Rose Bowl special, as both an event and stadium, is that it doesn't have an NFL team as the primary occupant (distinctions that the Cotton and Orange Bowls both had but gave up), and until UCLA moved in, it didn't even have regular major conference football (sorry Caltech).
The bowl game isn't just another event they host to get some extra use, it's the raison d'etre. That's important, and why it deserves the CFP championship, not just another one of the rotating quarters and semifinals sites.
January 4th, 2024 at 1:17 PM ^
Citrus Bowl too. Harbaugh’s first bowl beating Florida with Rudddock.