Kirk Herbstreit finds theme for why college football is wide open this season
By Keith Farner
Published:
Kirk Herbstreit understands college football is wide open this season, and knows the debate over the top team and College Football Playoff contenders is only escalating.
Herbstreit during an interview with former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops said, “we don’t know how good Georgia is yet. They looked like this last year, but then they kind of took off near the end. But they had a quarterback that you kind of knew who he was. We’re still learning. All these teams.”
One theme is at quarterback, where Alabama, Georgia, Clemson and Ohio State all face questions about the level of play at that position as there’s a new face trying to gain confidence of his coaching staff and fan base. Herbstreit admits that the transfer portal has something to do with the wide-open nature of the sport. He noted the “behemoths” have lost critical pieces in recent years, and that’s created a “perfect storm.”
“That’s why it’s created this wide-open discussion about who’s the best team,” Herbstreit said. “… So that’s why OU-Texas this week, for the team that wins, they’re in a really, really good place, and become teams that we’re going to be taking an even closer look at in coming weeks. Texas, because of the win against Alabama in Tuscaloosa, they became a team that’s like, ‘What’s going on with Texas?’ Florida State, because of the way they beat Clemson and they beat LSU, that got everybody excited about them. So yeah, there’s like, Washington out west, Oregon, USC. I mean, it’s a wide open discussion, as we get to almost the halfway point.”
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.