Kirk Herbstreit addresses son's commitment to Michigan, pushback from Ohio State fans

Kirk Herbstreit’s son Chase Herbstreit made waves when he committed to Michigan. His father played quarterback at Ohio State and Chase grew up a big Buckeye fan.

So it’s certainly a change for the family, but it’s one of the long time ESPN analyst is excited for. Chase Herbstreit is a three-star prospect and a Top 100 player in the state of Ohio.

“Yeah, I’ve kind of stayed out of that world a little bit,” Herbstreit said on Pardon My Take. “I haven’t seen a whole lot of reaction intentionally, just because I know people are thrilled, 20% are going to be jackasses. So I just decided, it’s one thing to take shots at me, but if you take a shot at my kid and you want to get in a fight, it’s not hard for me to want to do that. So I just, I just try to ignore that stuff the best that I can, and just kind of stay focused on the positive.” 

Still, Herbstreit can’t wait to see how Chase develops at the college level and play for Sherrone Moore in Ann Arbor. Despite growing up a massive Ohio State fan, his son wasn’t really pursued by the Buckeyes.

“What an opportunity for him,” Kirk Herbstreit said. “You know that this is a kid that grew up a lifelong Ohio State fan, of all my kids, like he’s the guy that cried when they lose games, like he’s the Ohio State junkie. Ohio State did not really pursue him to the point of offering him a scholarship, and they were close to they’re like, ‘Listen, man, we’re in this new world.’ That’s a big thing with this new world that you talked about right now, you can have 85 on scholarship, but 125 are in the program. Well, the new world that you’re referring to, this red share football, is going to be affected, but it’s going to go down to 105, so you can only have 105 guys on your team.” 

Chase Herbstreit ready to embrace Michigan

Chase Herbstreit is on the backend of the scholarship players and near the preferred walk-on territory, which ultimately led him to Michigan.

“Now you could put 105 on scholarship, but a lot of these guys are not, they’re just kind of in a wait and see approach,” Kirk Herbstreit said. “So guys like my son, Chase, who was kind of like (one of those guys) fighting for those last couple spots, for a scholarship, or potentially a PWO, which would be a preferred walk on, he’s kind of in that area where he’s fighting most of those guys, big schools like Michigan, Ohio State, Notre Dame, the schools that he was looking at the most. They’re almost like ‘Hey, why don’t you go to the MAC? We’re going to bring in this portal guy who we know a little bit more about.’ 

“And they’re really not into developing young players and investing and hoping that they become a great player. So he got a huge opportunity to do this from Sherrone Moore and his staff. I think they’ve seen his competitive spirit, his fire and what he did on the field this year to give him this opportunity.”