That's because, besides his huge mental lapse deciding to go to OSU, Herbstreit seems to actually usually be a pretty smart guy.

Good, sir.

that Les Miles was leaving LSU on the morning of the SEC Championship game.

I prefer to get my College Football news from other sources.

I've always liked Herbie.  If anything, he's biased in favor of the Big 10.  Some Michigan fans like to believe that he's anti-UM and subscribe to the conspiracy theory that he demonstrated this by "sabotaging" UM's hiring of The Hat.  (Even if Herbstreit did, Les Miles is not a good hire.  Less adjustment needed, great recruiter, but he's kind of an idiot.)

He usually comes up with a right answer.  A lot of those guys step off the deep end of opinions given without knowing the facts, from time to time.  Some make a career out of it, but Herbstreit isn't one of them.

Agree with the national forum caveat, though.

I realize I'm the 20th person on the board to say it, but it's true.  He screwed up on the Miles thing, but I'm guessing he probably had his sources and went out on a limb that he shouldn't have.  The thing with him is that he typically doesn't do that.  Other guys at ESPN (Mark May, Lou, etc.) love to make outlandish comments to generate buzz or whatever you want to call it.  They seem to subscribe to the entertainment part of it more than analysis and what-have-you.  Herbie is usually pretty fair and gives pretty decent analysis for the time he is allotted.  Personally, I would like him to have more allotted time because I would like to see him go into deeper analysis about some things because I think he could be successful doing that, and I think the fact that ESPN has strayed from that sort of thing the past few years (or longer) is one of the biggest problems many have with the network.  They employ a lot of people that could provide much greater insight but they always dumb it down and say a lot of things for entertainment reasons rather than for the actual sporting aspect.

...Rittenberg has linked to the Decimated Defense series at his ESPN Big Ten Blog.  I'm sure Herbie's a busy man and doesn't follow that blog religiously, but it's certainly possible that he's aware of the work done by Misopogon to illuminate this issue.

Herbstreit is a self serving asshole

I see a few comments about Herbie being a homer when he's on in Columbus.  That hasn't been the case at all in my experience.  Herbie and Spielman have both been pretty supportive of RichRod from day one and they have always both been pretty fair in their assessment of our program post-Lloyd.  In fact, many Buckeye fans have told me that they don't like Herbie because he is not homer-y enough on air.

Hey, somebody used my converter hack. Nifty!

Herbstreit subscribes to the notion that water is wet

After listening to Herbie on the NCAA games, I just can't take anything he says seriously. 

Putting aside whether or not we like Herbie, whether he is pro or anti Michigan or whether he screwed up the Les Miles hiring, I do like the CONTENT of what he said.

RR has gotten slammed in the press for Michigan's crappy performance over the past two years, but nobody (in the MSM) discusses that in year 1 he started Sheridan at QB with an almost entirely underclassman O-line, and during his second year, he started perhaps the worst secondary in recent B10 history (no offense to the players, but there was just a real lack of talent).  It is nice to see somebody in the ESPN world acknowledge this fact.  Well done, Herbie.  I look forward to you covering us in the Rose Bowl this year.

 First, the headline:

This headline could easily have been;  "Herbstreit:  Last two seasons likely no different under Carr."  Right?  For the cognoscenti, that was the news.  Herbstriet's "absolution" as to RR, vis-a-vis Carr.  Meanwhile, the same old hash about "Rodriguez needs to win" is yesterday's fish wrapping.

Then, there's this:

BY MARK SNYDER
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

Oh, never mind.

So let's get into the first couple of paragraphs.

CHICAGO -- Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez remains a hot topic.

Naturally.  Because Mark Snyder's only purpose in this life is to write ledes like, "Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez remains a hot topic."  Because if Mark doesn't publish it, Rodriguez might slip from "hot topic" status.

ABC analyst Kirk Herbstreit said Monday at Big Ten media days that expectations are high after the two losing seasons, putting Rodriguez under close watch.

"It seems like they have to get to like a Jan. 1 bowl game," Herbstreit said. "That's not me saying that. That's the feedback I get from a lot of Michigan people.

So, Herbie is just being a reporter.  Sports journalist that he is.  No mention of who, exactly, are the "Michigan people", who have placed this requirement on Coach Rodriguez.  Did anyone in any position of authority say that to Herbstreit?  The people I know of in authority have said the exact opposite.  Does it sound as though this is some sort of investigative story that Herbstreit has even thought much about?  It sounds to me like a very highfalutin' way to say, "Rumor has it that..."

You could add to Herbstreit's comments, "I dunno, I may be talking out of my asshole here, but the nice thing is that with crap like this, nobody will ever remember, in December, what I said in early August."

I can sleep better at night, knowing that Kirk Herbstreit is out there on the job, getting "the feedback" that I need.  As reported by Mark Snyder.

He said this periodically last year when this discussion came up

Are these former players? Senior UM administrators? Influential boosters? Recruits? The guy wearing a Michigan hat taking a leak in the urinal next to Herbie?

I actually like Herbstreit, and I think he's generally fair to Michigan and has been to RR. Here, he's simply repeating what he's hearing from other media people, and these other media people are simply repeating what they hear from Cowherd, and Cowherd is simply repeating what he's heard from Herbie. It's a closed loop, a self-referential circle-jerk that doesn't mean anything of importance.

The only "Michigan people" who are decision-makers in this are David Brandon and Mary Sue Coleman, and they're sure as hell not talking to Kirk Herbstreit, or anybody else at ESPN.

The article has seven paragraphs.

Four were one sentence long.

Three were devoted to quotes.

Beat writers might not be paid too much, but I just wrote four paragraphs with the same amount of content for free.

I think this bothers me even more hearing him admit this (although, yes, it's nice to hear that he's a relatively unbiased observer when he wants to be).  My problem with it is this: these guys/ladies (all of them) are supposed to be professionals who have professional staffs working on their materials.  There is NO EXCUSE for all of the commentators on the networks and the network broadcast teams not to know the situation at Michigan with regard to scholarships and player talent/depth over the last couple of years.  Sure, it's great that Herbstreit acknowledges this, but they should all be acknowledging this and they should have all been acknowledging this two years ago.  It's just pathetic, in my opinion.