LSU seemed destined to wind up at the top of the college football world early on in the 2019 season, so the Tigers should have had plenty of time to prepare for how they might carry themselves if they captured a national title. As far as Kirk Herbstreit is concerned, they did not handle it well.
Herbstreit was critical of LSU during his podcast this week, saying he could not help but feel like many Tigers players acted like 2019 was the “finish line” and they are not concerned about the future of the program.
“I will say this: as much as we’re celebrating this team, I wasn’t a real fan of the postgame stuff, the OBJ stuff with the money,” Herbstreit said, as transcribed by Clint Buckley of 247Sports.com. “The way they handled themselves at times. If it’s just about 2019, great. But this is about staying power, right? This isn’t the finish line of their program. Don’t they wanna win in 2020, don’t they wanna win in 2021? I almost feel like it’s all the chips in, we made it, that’s it and forget everything else.”
Herbstreit said he believes that attitude is what separates LSU’s 2019 team from programs like Clemson and Alabama, who are at or near the top of the college football ranks every year. The ESPN analyst and former Ohio State quarterback also took issue with Joe Burrow confirming that Odell Beckham Jr. was handing out real money. Burrow’s message was essentially that he is heading to the NFL and no longer needs NCAA eligibility, so he is not concerned about potential infractions.
“Burrow’s comment about, ‘I’m not a student-athlete anymore, yeah it was real money.’ If you care about the program, do you really say that?” Herbstreit asked.
Personally, I didn’t feel that there were a lot of differences between the way LSU celebrated and the way past champions have celebrated. The majority of the negative attention was brought on by Beckham handing out money and getting in trouble with police for his locker room antics, so that shouldn’t be pinned on LSU players. The 2019 season will make LSU more appealing to top recruits, and we highly doubt those recruits will focus on the way Tigers players handled themselves after dominating Clemson.
