Kirk Herbstreit expresses excitement over ESPN College GameDay going to Oklahoma
ESPN’s College GameDay is headed to Norman for a showdown between Oklahoma and Tennessee and at least one of the show’s hosts is over the moon about the choice of location and game.
Kirk Herbstreit took to Twitter on Saturday evening, after calling an early game, and expressed his excitement.
“Let’s GO!” Herbstreit tweeted simply.
It’s easy to understand why the long-time College GameDay analyst is stoked, too. This will be the first high-profile SEC showdown of the season, though there have been a few other conference matchups.
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Importantly, though, it’ll be Oklahoma‘s intro to the SEC. The No. 15 Sooners have gotten out to a 3-0 start after a pair of tough tests from non-conference foes, setting up quite the showdown with the No. 6 Volunteers.
Moreover, there’s some storyline crossover.
Current Tennessee coach Josh Heupel is a former Oklahoma player. A good one, too. He finished as the Heisman Trophy runner-up in 2000, producing excellent offense — the kind Tennessee now regularly displays — and earning the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year award.
So it’ll be a homecoming of sorts for Heupel. It should be a good one.
Early point spread, how to watch
According to FanDuel, Tennessee opened up as a 6.5-point favorite in this one. The over/under point total was set at 47.5 points.
If you want to bet the moneyline, Tennessee was listed as the -225 favorite while Oklahoma is at +184.
Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
Channel: ABC/ESPN+, Fubo TV (Streaming)
Location: Norman, OK
Tennessee is led by star second-year quarterback Nico Iamaleava, and Heupel said the Tennessee signal-caller has performed well and he’ll need to keep it up against Oklahoma.
“Well at this level you’re going to have to throw into some tight windows throughout the course of the season,” Heupel said. “We played good opponents, got good scheme and got good players. So being open at this level of play, you’ve gotta be able to place a ball accurately. That comes from your fundamentals and your eyes and the decision-making on where you’re going. And you’ve gotta be on the same page with the wide receivers. At the end of the day, he’d like to have a couple of those back, but it wasn’t just him, either.
“At the end of the day, the quarterback’s always got to make it right, but wide receiver and quarterback can be on page, one of them — protection’s gotta be a little bit better but he can also find the soft spot in it and like I said, at the end of the day, he’s got to make it right.”