Kirk Herbstreit to return to Tallahassee amid bitterness among FSU fans
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Kirk Herbstreit and Florida State fans go together like, say, the Seminoles and Miami Hurricanes, who just happen to be the hated team that’s coming to Tallahassee on Saturday night for a primetime showdown on ABC.
The game will kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET between the 3rd-ranked Canes and 18th-ranked Noles, and guess who will be the analyst for the big Week 6 matchup? None other than Herbstreit, who will be in the booth as the color analyst with play-by-play announcer Chris Fowler while Holly Rowe takes her usual spot on the sidelines.
On Monday, ESPN announced all of its booth assignments for its family of networks for the mammoth Week 6 college football slate, and Herbstreit being on the call in Tallahassee on Saturday night should be an attraction in itself. To say there is history between the longtime college football analyst/announcer and the passionate Florida State fandom would be a massive understatement.
The most recent occurrence between Herbstreit and the Noles faithful happened just a few years ago, at the end of the 2023 regular season, when Florida State was left out of the College Football Playoff. Many Seminoles fans blamed it all on Herbstreit because of his continued rants about who should be in and who shouldn’t be.
Take a guess where Herbstreit fell in the whole Florida State debate at that time?
This should make Herbstreit’s appearance in Tallahassee in Week 6 something to watch. Call it a game within the real game that will be happening on the field at Doak Campbell Stadium between hated in-state rivals.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
