Wolverine Watch: Skene Slams Herbstreit For White Flag Comments
Kirk Herbstreit never beat Michigan as an Ohio State Buckeye. His ill-considered attempt to beat on the Wolverines last night backfired — in a big way.
Herbstreit misfired badly on comments he made during Tuesday night’s College Football Playoff rankings show. He basically accused Michigan’s football program of an underhanded and cynical attempt to dodge playing his beloved Buckeyes.
“I still think Michigan waves the white flag, and potentially avoids playing Ohio State next week. … Michigan could opt out, basically, of that game, and keep Ohio State out of six games to qualify for the Big Ten Championship,” the ESPN analyst offered.
He quickly felt the blitz coming. Or, he just realized that charging a football program of 100 players, dozens of staff and assistants, and a head coach known for playing by the rules with using COVID to duck competition is not wise.
Herbstreit said so, whether out of sincerity or to avoid the sack.
“I made some comments about Michigan, about the potential of them waving the white flag and intentionally trying to avoid playing Ohio State, saying, ‘Hey, we have too many cases and we’re going to opt out,’” Herbstreit acknowledged.
“I had no business at all saying that. I have no evidence of that. It’s completely unfair to the University of Michigan, to Jim Harbaugh, to his players and coaches, and I just wanted to apologize.”
Doug Skene is a contemporary of Herbstreit. Both played from 1988-92, a period in which the Wolverines never lost to the Buckeyes and captured five straight Big Ten titles. The former U-M All-Big Ten offensive lineman sounded less than overwhelmed by Herbie’s mea culpa.
He responded like Michigan played in those days — blunt force.
“The first thing I thought was, of course, smug-ass Kirk Herbstreit, who likes his level of drama, and self-produced drama — he likes to draw attention to himself, and this is another example of it,” Skene said.
“Of course it angered me. It called into question the desire of the entire football program that’s down there working every day. Every one of them — it basically called them quitters. Of course, I’d get upset about that.
“Not that I’m on that team, but that is my program. I think that’s crap. You don’t say that about somebody else.”
Skene remains far from a doe-eyed, unquestioning, Michigan football apologist. As an analyst for TheWolverine.com, he’s more than willing to pancake U-M’s approach and execution when it’s appropriate.
This year, it’s been appropriate more often than not.
So this isn’t about never criticizing the team, in his eyes. It’s entirely different.
“That’s what I do, right?” Skene said. “On the podcast, we’re very critical about what we’ve seen so far out of this football program this year. But talking about the failings of specific offensive schemes is an entirely different conversation than suggesting that the entire program would want to just quit, just to stick it to Ohio State. That’s a whole different level.
“Now that he’s on his apology tour, he admits he had no evidence of that. Anybody can say anything. But a guy in his position, you would think he’d be a little more measured in the things that come out of his mouth.”
Herbstreit acknowledged as much again later in his apology.
“It was completely uncalled for to say that Michigan was potentially doing that,” Herbstreit said. “I have absolutely no evidence of that.”
Skene opined that the ESPN broadcaster likely self-corrected on this one, rather than getting called on the carpet behind the scenes by Michigan officials.
“I don’t think anybody from Michigan got ahold of him,” Skene said. “If he’s any kind of professional — which I do believe he is, to a degree — after he gets done doing a segment on line, or on live television, I’m guessing he’s going to go back and critique himself and evaluate how he did. If he did that, he probably realized right away, ‘Wow, I just said some stupid things.’”
Not that Skene is ready to let Herbstreit off the hook on an apologetic dash out of the pocket. He insists it’s not the first time the ESPN analyst with the scarlet letters has crossed the line.
“I’ve got a 25-year track record of not being a guy that pokes at Michigan, even though I’m an Ohio State guy,” Herbstreit insisted. “I take a lot of pride in being fair, and I was not fair tonight — and I apologize.”
Not so fast, Skene retorted.
“Here’s irresponsibility, Exhibit A — him going on national television the night before LSU’s SEC Championship Game [in 2007] and declaring Les Miles will be the next coach at Michigan,” Skene said. “That was totally irresponsible.
“It’s been documented that Les was never officially offered the job. I thought that was way out of line, for Herbstreit to come out and say that.”
Herbstreit did not name his sources at the time.
“In theory, he cost a guy his dream job,” Skene said. “It put Les into a situation where there was no choice but to recommit to LSU, which he ended up doing, and the rest is history.
“A guy like Herbstreit, and all these guys on ESPN, they’re so eager to prop themselves up as the story, instead of just letting things play out and then reporting on it. I’ve always found that irritating, whether it’s Kirk Herbstreit or any other person at ESPN.”
Ohio State has beaten Michigan repeatedly over the past two decades. Maybe Herbstreit is still seeking a win of his own. At any rate, Skene isn’t on board with the 25 years of objectivity.
“Herbstreit is a proud Ohio State alum,” Skene noted. “I’m a proud Michigan alum. You can never take that out of your DNA. So when he says, ‘I’m Mr. Objective Guy; I’m the face of college football guy, you can do that to a degree.
“But you’ll never take the DNA strains out of his bloodstream and his body. He’s a Buckeye, and Buckeyes and Wolverines can respect each other. But deep down inside, you’re always kind of satisfied when the other guy struggles. That is a fact.”
It’s also a fact that there are Michigan fans who — out of an abundance of caution and their own mental health — wouldn’t mind seeing the season shut down.
Shove that attitude, Skene insisted.
“It’s garbage. That’s garbage. I want to see Michigan play these last two games," he said, prior to Saturday's game with Maryland getting called off. "That’s part of the process that Jim Harbaugh talks about. Playing these last two games, and the last crossover game, if we can find a way to get there in the midst of this mess, that’s important for these players.
“It’s important for the program. It’s important for college football to finish the season. If it’s not going well, we don’t get to just hit the reset button, turn the power off on the video game and just play later. And quit. That’s not how this thing called life works.
“That’s total garbage. I don’t care if the season’s not going well. Clearly it’s not. But there are a lot of young players on this team that are already looking forward to the fall of 2021. There are probably some coaches doing the same thing, looking at how we can use this time to get better, right now.
“Michigan is clearly not going to be playing in a bowl game. We’re not getting any bowl practices, so this is critical.”
He says it’s ridiculous for any Michigan fan to want to see the season shut down, just to avoid embarrassment. While on the topic of ridiculousness, Skene saved one last thought for a backpedaling Buckeye, who appeared on 97.1 The Ticket this morning with former U-M All-American Jon Jansen.
“He’s on his big apology tour,” Skene observed. “He wants credit for quickly coming out and apologizing. Dude, you don’t get a medal for doing the right thing. The true professional broadcasters I’ve ever watched in my life — and of course no one’s perfect and we all fall short — they just don’t say stupid stuff like that on television. They just don’t.”
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