Is Michigan trying to dodge its matchup with Ohio State? | Yahoo Sports College Podcast
Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel, and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde discuss ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit’s comments about Michigan dodging its game against Ohio State to keep the Buckeyes out of the Big Ten Championship Game.
Video Transcript
DAN WETZEL: University of Michigan will not play this weekend against Maryland. There is an outbreak on the Wolverines. There is already much discussion about whether Michigan and Ohio State will play as scheduled on December 12.
The big firework came from Ohio State alum and ESPN Chief College Football Analyst, Kirk Herbstreit. He basically said Michigan waves the white flag and potentially avoids playing Ohio State next week. That would keep Ohio State out of the Big Ten Title. It'd be one way for Michigan to deny Ohio State a Big Ten Title, I guess. Herbstreit later apologized for this.
Obviously, it's easy for many fans to sit there and say, I don't want to watch what would likely be a woodshed beatdown. But it's a whole other thing to say that about the players and the coaches who dedicate their life to this Ohio State game. As one Ohio State guy-- or Michigan guy said, why would-- of course you want to play. It's the only thing that could save the season. It's like-- but anyway, I'll get to my points later. Pat, your thoughts on the l'affair de Herbstreit?
PETE THAMEL: [LAUGHS]
PAT FORDE: [LAUGHS] L'affair de Herbe.
DAN WETZEL: I don't know if that was proper French. I spent a--
PAT FORDE: It's good enough.
DAN WETZEL: --good six weeks in France last summer, and I still can't--
PAT FORDE: That was a loose cannon comment from a guy who's not really much of a loose cannon. You may suspect that, but if you're the lead analyst in the sport and you go and you throw that dagger directly at the University of Michigan, as an Ohio State alumni who tries to cover everyone fairly, you have just asked for it. And he got it. And that's why he walked it back and apologized as quickly as he did.
Now, are there people who are tanking? Probably so. And avoiding games. And is that talk out there? Yeah.
I guarantee Kirk's hearing it. I'm hearing it. Pete's hearing it. Dan, you're hearing it. I mean, we're all hearing that talk. There's no doubt about it.
People are figuring out, OK, so do they really want to play? Do they have a COVID issue, or are they just faking it? And that's-- this is part and parcel. If you're going to have this season-- as we've been saying all along, if you sign up for the circus, man, you're going to step on a lot of peanut shells. That's what we're doing right now, is--
DAN WETZEL: [LAUGHS]
PETE THAMEL: [LAUGHS]
PAT FORDE: --we are walking through a circus of a last few weeks here.
PETE THAMEL: I do believe that there-- and I know conference offices have been battling with programs. You need to play. Like, the Big 12 stuff is-- even if you have walk-ons at positions that count, others are scholarship-- there have been bare-knuckle fights between schools and league offices this year whether to play or not to play.
And if your game is going to be against "fill in the blank" bottom feeder verse "fill in the blank" top 10 team, your motivation is going to dictate how you can game the numbers. And people are gaming the numbers. And people thought it was outrageous that Herbstreit insinuated that the circumstances of COVID have allowed for that. So I had no problems with Kirk Herbstreit saying that.
DAN WETZEL: My issue, though, was this. Jim Harbaugh-- you can say anything you pretty much want about Jim Harbaugh. He's doing a horrible job. The team sucks. They are 2 and 4.
He has not-good-enough players. He hasn't developed the ones that he has. I am not here to apologize for Jim Harbaugh. But the one thing that you cannot say about Jim Harbaugh, based on nearly 40 years in the public eye of football, when he became a player at Michigan, at least 35 years, 14-year NFL career, multiple college stops and an end with the Niners, he is a competitor, if nothing else. That's it.
PAT FORDE: Yep, yep.
DAN WETZEL: That's all he does, is compete. This is Jim. He's not scared of Ohio State. He may get destroyed, but you can't say that about Jim Harbaugh.
And that's my problem with Herbstreit. He should have known better from the start. You can call Harbaugh the worst coach in college football right now. Fine, I'm not going to argue with that. But don't say he's a coward.
PETE THAMEL: Yeah.
DAN WETZEL: We know he isn't that. And that-- that's my only problem, is Harbaugh is a terrible coach right now. But he is-- he will walk out on that field thinking he's going to win.
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