ESPN MediaZone

Kirk Herbstreit

College Football Analyst

Widely recognized as one of the best college football minds of his generation, Kirk Herbstreit has been an analyst on ESPN’s College GameDay remote college football studio show since August 1996, when he joined host Chris Fowler and co-analyst Lee Corso.  He has been a game analyst on the Saturday Night Football series on ABC, broadcast television’s first weekly prime-time college football game, since the series debut in 2006.  Herbstreit was a game analyst on the popular ESPN Thursday night college football series from 1999-2006.  Herbstreit joined ESPN in September 1995 as a college football sideline analyst.

Herbstreit’s experience as a former standout Ohio State quarterback makes him an insightful and entertaining analysis.  His talents were quickly noticed, as after just two seasons he was nominated for a 1997 Sports Emmy Award as television’s top studio analyst.  In January 2004, Sporting News magazine ranked Herbstreit and fellow GameDay personalitiesLee Corso and Chris Fowler as 2003’s “Most Powerful Media Personalities in Sports.”

Herbstreit is respected for his no-nonsense analysis and insightful perspective in his College GameDay and game analyst roles.  He is also a frequent contributor to ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine.

Herbstreit has been working as a co-host of a weekday drive-time show for The Fan SportsRadio 1460 in Columbus, Ohio, since 1993.  He served as a radio sideline reporter for the Ohio State University Football Radio Network during the 1993 and ’94 seasons.

Herbstreit earned a degree in business administration in 1993 from the Ohio State University, where he was a four-year letterman with the Buckeyes as a quarterback (1989-92).  As the starter and team captain during his senior season of 1992, he passed for nearly 2,000 yards in an option-oriented offense, guiding OSU to an 8-3-1 mark, second place in the Big Ten, a Florida Citrus Bowl appearance and a No. 18 final Associated Press ranking.  For his efforts, he was named team MVP and most motivational player.  Known for his quickness and scrambling skills, he had TD runs of 32 yards (Wisconsin) and 72 yards (Minnesota) as a junior.  He was former Ohio State coach John Cooper’s first signee.

A Centerville, Ohio, native, Herbstreit was the Ohio Player of the Year as a senior for Centerville HS (10-0 as a junior), as well as a standout baseball player.  His father, Jim, a former player and captain at Ohio State (1958-60) went on to serve as an assistant coach (1960-61 -- national champs in 1961) under the legendary Woody Hayes and also coached with Bo Schembechler at Miami (Ohio).  Jim and Kirk are one of only two father-son tandems to each serve as captain of their Ohio State teams in the history of the program.

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