Kirk Herbstreit apologizes to Michigan for comments about ducking Ohio State

Kirk Herbstreit issued an apology on Tuesday night shortly after his comments about Michigan went viral.

The longtime ESPN college football analyst said on the “College Football Playoff” rankings show that Michigan might try to cancel the Ohio State game to avoid embarrassment and sabotage the Buckeyes’ season. The allegation was baseless and it seemed like Herbstreit was trying to bully Michigan into playing. Keep in mind that Herbstreit was a quarterback at Ohio State.

Not long after the comments received attention, Herbstreit posted an apology video on Twitter.

Just wanted to clarify something I said earlier tonight during our CFP rankings show. Apologize to ⁦@UMichFootball⁩ for my words. pic.twitter.com/tCBGjl7GTV

— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) December 2, 2020

“Just wanted to speak for a second about some comments that I made earlier tonight,” Herbstreit began. “I made some comments about Michigan about the potential of them waving the white flag and trying to avoid Ohio State … I had no business at all saying that. I have no evidence of that. It was completely unfair to the University of Michigan, to Jim Harbaugh, to his players and coaches.

“I did not mean to insinuate … I had no evidence at all … Michigan is trying to contain the virus from spreading. I hope they can play Saturday against Maryland, hope they can play against Ohio State. I misspoke. I’m apologizing. … It was completely uncalled for to say that Michigan was potentially doing that.”

Michigan has not missed any games this season but has paused team activities and gone virtual due to COVID-19 issues. There is no word yet about their game on Saturday against Maryland. Meanwhile, Ohio State just had its game against Illinois canceled last weekend.

Any issues Michigan is having seems to be legitimate and no different than what many other programs are currently enduring, which makes Herbstreit’s remarks uncalled for, though good for fodder.

Herbstreit seemed to be echoing the same comments he heard from his sons’ coach, and it didn’t work out too well for him when saying it.