Here I am thinking the Dawgs match up well in the season opener with Oklahoma State, and Kirk Herbstreit goes and spoils my vibe by telling us the only roadblock to a Cowboy win is what’s in their heads:
“My theory on Oklahoma State is that I think their offense is Top 10, but their defense is a mystery. You bring (new defensive coordinator) Bill Young, who is one of the great minds of our game, back to Oklahoma State, and I think that gives you a chance to improve. There is some leadership there — a lot of players back with experience. But for them to be this Top 10 team, especially in that conference with a lot of scoring, they’ve got to become better on that side of the football. If they want to beat Texas and they want to hang with Oklahoma and beat Oklahoma, they cannot just get into a scoring match. They’ve got to play good defense. … All this hype about Oklahoma State is justified, but it’s uncharted waters. And here comes Georgia in week one … and they come limping in and nobody is expecting anything. I think Oklahoma State has to be very careful in week one, just because of the psychological effect of being in an area that they’re just not quite used to. Oklahoma is used to it. Texas is used to it. Oklahoma State is not. They need to show some maturity, not listening to all that hype and just playing their game, and if they do that, they’ll be fine. But if they get caught up in it, Georgia will come in there and get them.”
“Limping in”?
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UPDATE: Mike Gundy’s not impressed with Herbstreit’s “limping” narrative.
Gundy on Georgia: “They lost a couple of first-round picks last year, but when we played down there last time [2007], they were talking about the difficulty in the running game and that they didn’t know who was going to carry the ball. And that was the first run-in we had with Knowshon Moreno. So we’re not really buying that Georgia is doing this rebuilding.”
Get The Picture 
WTF is he talking about. We’re not limping in anywhere.
The only limping will be OSU after we limp our cleats up their ass.
Typical ignorant rhetoric. If someone as familiar with the game as Herbstreit claims to be is the uninformed, then we will surprise in a big way.
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For a guy who played the game, there is usually very little “meat” to Herbie’s analysis of games. I’ve noticed much of it is of the sort you have exerpted above. Lots of stuff about emotion and momentum and how a team “feels” or “looks”, but very supporting fact or insight to his views. He is one of those guys who is better at how he says things than what he says. And I think he uses this “ability” to avoid doing much homework on teams.
In short, I think he’s a bit lazy. The fact that he has influence on how team’s and program’s are perceived drives me nuts.
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Amen to that! He uses the word “passion” so often that one would think he’s a Harlequin Romance novelist instead of a sports commentator. And, as you correctly point out, it is basically to cover either his general lack of supporting facts or his inability to organize whatever IS there into any kind of coherent analysis. And we all know how he has wielded his TV influence in the past, 2006 and 2007 being two of the most egregious recent examples.
Question here just for grins: All know of his “interest” (to put it charitably) for Ohio State in 2006. Anyone who saw them play Michigan in yet another overblown Big 10 “Game of the Century” that November is well aware that that game was not as close as the final score. Buckeyes maintained a 10 point lead, whenever UM closed to within 3, OSU would score to make it 10 again. Does anyone think that he REALLY felt that UM was truly the 2nd best in the Nation, “worthier” than anyone to play the Bucknuts for the NC title? Or did he basically worry at some level about OSU’s history with SEC teams and try to pimp UM to the national media and CFB audience as a known quantity type opponent as opposed to a much less familiar potential opponent in Florida? As we all know, the question thast emerged from the eventual NC matchup was, why did anyone think that Ohio State was a “worthy” contestant for the NC. One of Florida’s defensive stars said after the game, “I can think of three or four teams we played in our Conference that would have given them the same game we did.”
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Herbie is the Joe Morgan of college football… Useless…
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Jan 1, 1993. A dark day for ol’ Herbie…
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Had great seats for Herbie’s Citrus Bowl v. UGA.
Herbie wore white. UGA wore red. Herbie had a good running back, Robert Smith I think, but still managed to lose to us 21-14. UGA may even have been the start of the Ohio State losing streak to the SEC. The Ohio State players milling around the field after the game, looked shell-shocked and could not believe they lost to Georgia. Even with that though, Herbie still loves us up more than Lou or Mark May ever do, which ain’t saying much.
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It’s our wimmin, he continual ranks UGA as the best babe campus in America. Having been in Athens on rush day a few times, me thinks he is a better evaluator of female talnet that football players. I know their are beauties on every campus, but it is hard to believe there is a more extensive collection in total anywhere on Earth (unless the higher SAT scores have caused a falloff in recent years!)
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Limping in? Limping in would be what you could describe any Georgia game LAST season as. This is just another example of how ESPN has completely ceased doing any actual homework before giving their “predictions,” Herbstreit included. He used to be pretty decent, but it’s obvious he’s like the rest of them now and just engaging in the group-think that now dictates everything the WWL puts out there.
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That Citrus Bowl really bite Herbie in the arse
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If Dawgs win he will say oSU is not that good.
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I believe he’s referring to our pronounced gansta’ limp. It will be justified after we pimp slap the Cowboys off their home turf…
But seriously, I love all this. The more Ok. St. predictions – the better. I want our guys going in thinking it’s us against the world.
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Agreed. It appears Gundy agrees to, based on his response.
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Oh, we’ll walk with a limp… Like an old school pimp. Run all day. Pass all night. Let’s get to blitzin’….we’re in Still-wa-ter, biiiiiitch.
Herbie says only overconfidence can beat Ok St? We’re doooooomed!
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I wish I could say that he is completely inept but he did predict UF would win it all at the beginning of last season (before they got hot). So he’s mostly inept. My problem is he seems to have gotten too big for his britches and has taken on know-it-all status. I remember when I thought Corso was an ass. Now I love the guy. At least he’s funny. But come on, we love reading stuff like this. I don’t want to see any articles saying we should win this game.
But I believe it was here I read this will all change immediately with a convincing win over OSU. That’s probably true, but let’s hope the media continues to dump on us until the final whistle has blown.
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I like the last blurb at the end of the gundy article. His son knows the ‘I’m a man I’m 40’ rant by heart.
I think my opinion of Gundy shot up a bit
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I’m a huge Gundy fan. He’s a man and he’s 42.
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You know, there’s one thing Mike Gundy will never have to worry about – whether people will remember how old he is. The dude could be 87, and *someone* is bound to say “Don’t worry – He’s a man; he’s 87.”
I can only imagine what his birthday must be like.
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Gundy is much smarter than Herbie. Remember in 2006 when he said Ohio State might be the best team to EVER play CFB? Then said only ichigan was worthy of a rematch? Boy, those Big 11 guys really know their CFB! (Isn’t numbskull Holtz and Beano from that same area? Wouldn’t drink out of that Ohio River folks.)
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I have to say, it might just be Gundy not giving us any bulletin board material, but just by some of the things I’ve read him say about us he really doesn’t seem to be overlooking us. It sounds like HE HAS done his homework. But then again, this could all just be lip service.
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Gundy more than likely remembers getting thumped by Georgia two years ago, would like to return the favor but doesn’t really think he can.
With T. Boone in the uber-luxury box pointing and staring down at him, the pressure has wound up Gundy pretty tight. Good thing he’s 42.
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I don’t have any beef with Gundy whatsoever, regardless of his rant – which I happen to think was pretty admirable given that he was simply defending his player.
There is an old saying “He may be an asshole but he’s my asshole”. That from a boss that has your back. You’ll fight for a boss like that ’cause you know he has your back.
I believe Gundy has done plenty of homework for this game and will have his team very focused and prepared. In the end, it’s about who has the depth and I think our DL and OL will prove to be the difference.
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If we beat OSU they’re not that good after all. If we lose they’re great.
The most frustrating thing for me is, how can we be the measuring stick to determine how good teams are, but we don’t get credit for being that measuring stick.
Look back at games we blew teams out that we weren’t supposed to win or they were media darlings like Boise, OK State #1, Hawaii, a couple fo LSU’s, etc.
Then look at WVU game. We put them on the map.
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I’m sorry, but I’m having trouble mustering any outrage at this.
So Herbstreit says we’re ‘limping’ into the season after falling well below expectations last year. Outrageous!
I agree that the guy’s light on the analysis end, but I thought crying about meaningless comments like this was the stock in trade of Bama, Auburn, and Cackalack fans.
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