A villain to Husker fans, ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit has no problem with NU
A long time ago, back when Kirk Herbstreit was young enough to be wearing shoulder pads instead of a suit, his critics tagged him with a nickname.
Little Red.
It was 1996 and the Huskers were in the midst of their epic five-year run. Herbstreit, 27, was new on the “College GameDay” set, just four years removed from playing quarterback for Ohio State.
“Every game, I was Nebraska, Nebraska, Nebraska,” Herbstreit said Wednesday morning in an interview. “I used to get accused of being a Nebraska homer.”
Oh, how times have changed. As the Huskers slipped off the national radar the past 15 years, Herbstreit slowly became a broadcasting villain in the heartland. Nebraska, he said, has the most sensitive fan base in college football, at least according to his feedback — Baylor fans are the only ones close.
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“It was one of those made-for-TV argumentative shows,” Herbstreit said. “And the show was kind of real flat. There wasn’t a whole lot of disagreement. So the producer got in my ear, it’s the only time in my career he got in my ear, and he said, ‘Can you help me out out there? You’ve got to liven the discussion up a little bit.’
“At the time, we were talking about ’95 Nebraska and ’01 Miami. Truthfully, I couldn’t care less who was the better team. After he said that to me, I just started trying to make a strong argument for why Miami ’01 was the better team. From that point on, that segment lived in infamy and I became a Nebraska hater.