Leave Kirk Herbstreit Alone!

Kayce Smith2/12/2024 6:20 PM

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In the midst of all the ~~Taylor Swift~~ Super Bowl madness last week, there was some big time drama in the college football world involving Kirk Herbstreit and 5-star QB Dylan Raiola.

The story is all over the internet so you can read all the nitty gritty if you're so inclined, but the TLDR details that you need to know are as follows:
- Dylan Raiola - a 5-star QB and the #1 recruit in the country - flipped his commitment from Georgia to Nebraska right before early signing day in December. It was arguably the biggest splash of the recruiting news cycle.
- Dylan's father Dominic told Rivals that ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit was a big factor in the decision.

Side note: It's incredibly important to note that Dominic Raiola played for Nebraska and that his brother (Dylan's uncle) Donovan is Nebraska's current OL coach.

- Georgia fans did not take well to this news because Dylan seemed to be iron-clad committed to UGA and it looked like Kirk Herbstreit was the tipping point. It pissed them off so much that they went berserk. Naturally. A narrative popped up that Kirk should be investigated, punished and even be fired for "tampering" and using his status in college football media to influence the flip.

For example:

He and his reputation are taking an absolute beating across the board.

I've always been very outspoken about how much I like Kirk. I think he's the best in the business and he's always been very kind to me. He even made Brandon Walker's entire life when he shook BW's shaky, sweaty hand when our plane landed next to Gameday's a few seasons ago. So even before this stuff popped off, I would've had his back. But after I was very outspoken how ridiculous this backlash is on last week's Unnecessary Roughness, Kirk and I have talked about all this and I'm ready to say…

This my "Leave Britney Alone" moment.

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So hear me out loud and clear: Kirk Herbstreit did absolutely NOTHING wrong. Zero, zilch. And anybody saying he did needs a reality check.

Before I jump into it, I can absolutely see the emotional knee jerk reaction if you simply just read headlines. I get it. On paper, it looks shady. And maybe if the details were different, it actually would be shady. Let's lay out some hypotheticals!

1. If Herbstreit decided to call up Dominic Raiola - or even Dylan himself - from the clouds to influence and persuade them that Dylan needed commit to any certain school so that he himself could get some personal gain?? Yes, an issue.

2. If he said "hey listen, if he doesn't do what I say and doesn't go play for Nebraska and Matt Rhule, we will make sure we never give you any good pub on Gameday! We will slander you no matter how good you are." Yes, big problem!

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3. And the biggest issue of all would be if Kirk was involved in a crazy under-the-table Ohio State deal. If he convinced Dylan to flip from Georgia to play for his own alma-mater? No good. "Unbiased" media personalities of his caliber being first-hand involved in behind the scenes deals for their own schools would open pandora's box. Yes, that would be a big, BIG problem.

But… none of that happened. Not even close. And before I go on, truly ask yourself this. "What would Kirk Herbstreit have to gain from going out of his way to influence a kid to go to Nebraska?" I literally (and, yes, the real definition of the word) can't think of a single thing.

So buckle up (looking mostly at you, Georgia fans), here's your dose of reality.

Kirk has a personal relationship with Dominic Raiola (reminder: who played for Nebraska). They talked friend-to-friend. Man-to-man. Father-to-father. Football guy to football guy. I'm paraphrasing here, but it was basically this:

"Your son is thinking about playing for Matt Rhule at Nebraksa? That's awesome. He's a great coach. I believe he'll get things turned around. Also, how cool is it that your son (who could play anywhere in the country) wants to play for his dad's alma mater? That has to be a great feeling."

Completely innocent. Oh and by the way, Dominic asked his friend Kirk's thoughts on this first. Once again, it wasn't out of the blue.

Seems like a completely normal exchange with no malicious intent whatsoever. These are the conversations I'd want to have if my son is in the position to choose his landing spot for his future playing career one day.

To be completely honest, Dominic Raiola is the actual issue here. I would be FURIOUS if I was Kirk. Seriously, I would want to be like "hey man, what the fuck? I called you as a friend to have a personal chat about your son playing football. Then you decided to roll me right under the bus for some sort of clout? Thanks alot, my guy!" But Kirk is much classier than me. Clearly. Zero chance I would be handling this as well as he has.

And even if Dominic meant zero harm by telling the story, he had to know people wouldn't be able to separate Kirk (the person with opinions) and Kirk Herbstreit (the professional in college football media). And now we have people questioning Kirk's ethics as a journalist? Come onnnnnn.

And before you say "well, it's a conflict of interest!!", let's refer back to the hypotheticals I laid out earlier. That's not reality. Kirk is allowed to have opinions on college football. Yes, even if he covers the sport at a high level. In fact, I'd rather hear what those guys actually think instead of the way they feel like they have to tow some company line to keep an unbiased view. Why? Nobody who loves college football, let alone sports in general, is unbiased. Let it fly. It's way better entertainment.

So put down your swords, Georgia fans. This is a really dumb fight. And he ain't going anywhere.