There is no bigger fan of Pat McAfee than Kirk Herbstreit.
The two media personalities may seem like polar opposites. Kirk Herbstreit is a stoic veteran of the college football world who has now been at ESPN for almost three decades. Over the years he has slowly grown from being an analyst on College GameDay to now also calling ESPN’s top game of the week in the broadcast booth with Chris Fowler. Recently, he became an NFL analyst working Thursday Night Football with Al Michaels. And even though he has voiced strong opinions on social media, he keeps about as cool of a demeanor on air as possible.
Pat McAfee is the opposite. He’s bold, brash, and you never quite know what you’re going to expect. Whether it’s on his daily ESPN syndicated show, College GameDay , or Monday Night Raw , McAfee is capable of any kind of audacious, viral moment. And while his big personality has been polarizing, it’s clear he has big fans in important places. (Especially now that he won a public power struggle with longtime ESPN executive Norby Williamson .) Herbstreit is at the front of that line in what amounts to a modern day college football version of The Odd Couple .
Herbstreit has praised McAfee for the energy and spark that he’s brought College GameDay many times before, even telling McAfee as a guest on his show that he was leaving GameDay if the former Colts punter didn’t return. But Herbie took that up another level this week while as a guest on the SI Media Podcast with Jimmy Traina . In the course of the interview, Herbstreit not only said that McAfee was all about the celebration of sports, but that his presence has caused the former Ohio State quarterback to take a second look at his entire career in the media.
“I just realized there’s so much more to him than wearing a tank top and standing on top of a chair and yelling. At the end of the day, Pat McAfee is about celebrating sports. That’s really what he’s about. I know there’s been some controversial moments with Aaron Rodgers and all that stuff… Pat walks into a room and provides energy to the room. And I’m talking undefeated. I’ve never seen him walk into a room quiet, have a tough day at home. We all do that, I do that. He doesn’t do that. The GameDay people feed off of his energy. He’s completely made me re-evaluate 29 years of my career.”
What’s even more compelling is that Herbstreit admitted he was having serious doubts about continuing to do College GameDay after such a long time period with the program. But McAfee’s presence has helped him re-commit to the show and now he has no intentions to leave because of how good he feels about it.
“Everyone I started with on the show except Lee Corso is gone – behind the scenes, on the camera, behind the camera. Other than Lee, a lot of people are gone. So when I was at Year 25, Year 26, doing now Amazon, doing the Saturday night game, I love GameDay but do I really want to keep doing it? I love Rece and Dez and Coach. I love everybody, but it’s tiring. And then Pat’s energy has really changed my view on that. Then you bring Saban in, you couldn’t pull me off College GameDay right now. A lot of that has to do with the overall vibe of that show.”
Given the energy McAfee provides and his interaction with the live crowd, it’s easy to see that he could be the spiritual successor to Lee Corso and a long-term fit for the pregame show that has been a college football institution for decades.
But after his first year, fans were split in how they received McAfee. And that visibly affected McAfee in his decision to return and continues to do so . With his biggest fan on set right next to him, it will be fascinating to see how their relationship may help college football fans see McAfee’s presence in a positive light for College GameDay as much as Herbstreit does.
[ SI Media Podcast with Jimmy Traina ]
The post Kirk Herbstreit credits Pat McAfee for re-commitment to ‘College GameDay’ appeared first on Awful Announcing .
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