Texas Football: Kirk Herbstreit’s prediction is shocking but premature

ESPN college football personality Kirk Herbstreit gave a take that most should feel is premature and has a bad impact on the Texas football program.

Imagine a world on the Forty Acres without a season of Texas football. That conversation is really starting to happen in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic. College football is being threatened as are the rest of college and professional sports. The NFL is also reportedly concerned about its season starting on time.

ESPN college football media personality and former Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Kirk Herbstreit shocked the world with his “shocked” reaction this week (dialoguefrom NBC Sports College Football Talk on March 27). This is a broad take and one that is obviously going to catch the attention of a ton of college football fans (original radio interview from TMZ Sports).

In this set of quotes that Herbstreit gave, he gave his take on the start of the NFL and college football seasons this fall.

Here’s more on what Herbstreit had to say in this piece with TMZ.

"“Just because from what I understand, people that I listen to, you’re 12 to 18 months from a [coronavirus] vaccine. I don’t know how you let these guys go into locker rooms and let stadiums be filled up and how you can play ball. I just don’t know how you can do it with the optics of it.”"

Former head coach of the Texas Longhorns football program Mack Brown also gave his take earlier this week on the possibility of the season starting up late this fall.

"“There is a fear of ‘would we have a season?’ ‘Would we have a partial season?’ ‘What does a partial season mean,’” North Carolina head coach said. “There is a great concern because of the remedy that comes in with football.“The biggest problem is you’re not sure when it ends, and we can’t get those answers at this point.”"

There’s certainly a point to the concerns that Herbstreit and Brown have at this point in time. COVID-19 is an outbreak that is causing changes in people’s everyday lives that hasn’t really been seen before in the United States. And the impact has stemmed all the way to college basketball cancelling the NCAA Tournament, the NBA and NHL placing their seasons on hiatus, and the MLB delaying Opening Day by a couple months at least.

However, all those sports were currently taking care of their seasons, while college football is still six months away from kicking off. We don’t know what will happen by the fall, and just assuming that this is still going to be a rampant issue we there are still so many unknowns is a bit of a premature take from Herbstreit.

He’s not a doctor, and not a medical researcher. This is a decision that is going to have to be left to the experts, administration at the schools, and the various conferences around the college football landscape. But the progression that we see out of the NBA and NHL from here on out could certainly be telling as to how college football could play out.

There are various discussions about the NBA playing games in front of no crowds, and that’s something that the Big 12 reportedly discussed too, in a teleconference on March 26 with commissioner Bob Bowlsby.

If college football is going to have to cram dozens of thousands, and sometimes hundreds of thousands, of people into stadiums this fall while COVID-19 is running rampant, it’s hard to imagine that there won’t be severe precautions put into place. But what those precautions will be, let alone assuming that the season won’t happen is a premature take on Herbstreit’s part.

Bleacher report NFL writer Mike Freeman also believes that “it will be nearly impossible for the season to start on time”, (referring to the NFL). This would be a more reasonable take at this point in time for any legitimate decision maker in this process.

The NFL could also serve as a point of reference for college football. Both seasons start around the same time and are played in front of a similar capacity in their games (at least among the Power Five programs in college).