Herbstreit: Rose Bowl not a consolation prize
Cover photo: ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit during College GameDay in Columbus for Ohio State's game against Michigan in 2016. Photo by Sam Fahmi/Columbus Wired.
Kirk Herbstreit doesn’t believe Ohio State should consider playing in the Rose Bowl as a consolation.
The ESPN and ABC college football analyst fielded questions from the media Monday afternoon on a Zoom teleconference about the two games he will be calling for the network on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, which will respectively be the Orange Bowl between Michigan and Georgia as well as the Buckeyes’ game against Utah.
When asked by Columbus Wired his insight as to whether or not the Scarlet and Gray does, or should, look at playing in the Granddaddy of Them All as a letdown considering their expectations of making it to a third-straight college football playoff, Herbstreit didn’t mince words.
“Your team is playing an effing game, like, it matters,” he said. “You go play and you go compete your ass off. That’s what you do, that’s your job.”
The 28-year ESPN College GameDay host said he understands why folks may feel forlorn when their team doesn’t make the playoff but sometimes that has to be pushed aside and realize what an honor it is to play in a prestigious game like the Rose Bowl.
“I get being disappointed but you got to shake it off and move on to the next game and get the bad taste out of your mouth.”
Herbstreit said he also doesn’t understand where some feel that certain games are meaningless, especially in the playoff era where every game played counts and even one loss could make a huge difference at the end of the season.
“Is the Akron game a meaningless game in September? You know, are we just going to pick and choose where a game has meaning? I don’t get meaningless, I never will.”
When the sixth-ranked Buckeyes (10-2, 8-1 Big Ten) kickoff against the No. 11 Utes (10-3, 8-1 Pac-12) for the 108th rendition of the Rose Bowl, it will be the 16th time OSU has appeared in the game. It will be Utah’s first. They will represent as the Pac-12 champions, which is their first title in the conference.
Typically, the game features both the Big Ten and Pac-12 champions unless the game is a part of the playoff, which this year it isn’t. However, if one of the conference champions make the playoff then the next-best ranked team becomes the representative for the conference. That scenario became the case when Michigan made the playoff as the second-ranked team in the country and the Buckeyes finished at No. 6 making them the next-highest rated B1G school.
But the fact that Ohio State didn’t win the conference (which went to the Wolverines) and missed out on an opportunity to play for a national title, it has some in Buckeye Nation feeling scorned and disappointed that their beloved Buckeyes are merely playing in the Rose Bowl.
According to Herbie, that just shouldn’t be the case and doesn’t agree with the current rhetoric that just because a team doesn’t make the college football playoff, that they haven’t had a great season or achieved some goals.
“It’s not like because we have a playoff, that teams before (the inception of the) playoff didn’t achieve their goals. I don’t get it, I never will.”
Herbstreit talked about when guys like former Ohio State head coach Woody Hayes and former Michigan head coach Bo Schembechler strictly played their season for the chance to get into the Rose Bowl, which in those days, was the premium prize for the Big Ten champion. But if they didn’t make the Rose Bowl, he said they were still happy just for the opportunity to play in the postseason.
“I just don’t buy into this narrative of meaningless bowl games. These high-profile teams have always had goals to get to the championship or to get to a certain bowl and it doesn’t happen all that often. But you don’t throw in the towel and say, ‘well we didn’t accomplish our goals so we’re not real happy about going to this bowl but we’re gonna go.’”
The former OSU quarterback recalled the 1990 season when a Buckeye team he was a part of lost to Michigan and their consolation prize was the Liberty Bowl in Memphis. And he doesn’t want the same fate to befall this year’s Buckeyes.
“I was on a team that did that. We lost to Michigan … and back in those days, you fell way down. And we had players on our team that were basically bad mouthing the city of Memphis and the Liberty Bowl, publicly to the media, and we go down to Memphis and they hated us. And I don’t blame them (the players) for the things that were said after that Michigan loss. To me, I get being upset. I get, ‘hey, we didn’t accomplish our goal, we didn’t beat our rival, we didn’t go to the Big Ten championship, we didn’t go to the playoff. But hey man, we’re going to the Rose Bowl.’ Like, it’s the Rose Bowl,” he said, emphasizing the importance of getting a chance to play in the game.
“We used to have to deal with a consolation prize of the Citrus Bowl. But this is the Rose Bowl.”
Herbstreit said, though, that the players could realize how special playing in Pasadena is once they get in the stadium and on the field.
“Maybe these players who are struggling to understand it, maybe when they get out there and they get onto that field, maybe it’ll dawn on them, like, why this bowl is different or why it’s unique. And I hope they do.”
Although, some of OSU’s players apparently don’t feel the same way and are not taking the chance to experience what the Rose Bowl has to offer. It was announced Monday evening that defensive lineman Haskell Garrett, offensive lineman Nicholas Petit-Frere and wide receivers Garrett Wilson and Chris Olave have all opted out of playing.
All four were AP second-team All-Americans and are projected within the first few rounds of the 2022 NFL draft.
He said he hopes that players opting out and considering their season a failure just because they didn’t make a playoff doesn’t become a common perception amongst college teams and fans.
“I hope this doesn’t become the new norm. I hope it’s just an era that we’ll somehow get out of.”
However, some of the players may not be the only ones feeling that the Rose Bowl is a consolation prize. Fans in Buckeye Nation could be feeling the same way because it was announced late last week that the school gave back 7,000 tickets out of their 20,000 allotment.
Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. EST on Jan. 1 and will air on ESPN.