Kirk Herbstreit reached for a tissue and got emotional when talking about the Buckeyes’ win against Notre Dame in the College Football National Championship. Yes, the Buckeyes fans might be hateful towards the now College GameDay host for the “lunatic” comment about them, but not to forget, Herbstreit has only respect for Ohio State.  

He played quarterback for the Buckeyes from 1989-93. Herbstreit was mainly a backup in the first three seasons of his career, before serving as the starter as a senior. He played behind starters Greg Frey and Kent Graham his first three seasons, before being named the starter and co-captain ahead of the 1992-93 season. However, the universe had different plans. After his playing days, he joined ESPN in 1995 as a college football analyst. But the Herbsreit family continued to stay in Columbus until 2011.

After his eligibility expired, Herbstreit remained in Columbus as a radio personality and ultimately became arguably the face of college football on ESPN. But he and his family became the subject of vitriol spewed by his own people — Buckeye fans and had to shift to Nashville in 2011. The reason? For having the utter gall and audacity to attempt to be fair and balanced when analyzing/reporting on his alma mater. While they could force Herbstreit and his family to leave Ohio State, the fans didn’t have control over the love that the ESPN analyst and his wife, Alison Butler, and his sons Chase, Zak, Tye, and Jake have for the program. On the July 2 episode of the Net Positive with John Crist podcast, Herbstreit shared, “I moved here in ’11. This is crazy. I decided we were going to move out of Columbus.” 

The former Buckeyes player continued, “I had four sons, my wife and I thought Columbus, Ohio, doing the job that I do as a former Buckeye, it’s probably best to just maybe get out of the beaten path a little bit. And so we decided, as much as we loved Ohio, we were going to its all we knew we were going to move to either Austin, Texas, or Fort Worth because on my travels I’d really loved those places. The other one was Boise, Idaho, but it’s just too far.” However, Herbstreit and his family had to sacrifice their love for Ohio State due to the toxic fringe portion of the Buckeyes fan base. 

Back in 2011, the ESPN analyst claimed, “Nobody loves Ohio State more than me,” Herbstreit said after moving from Columbus to Nashville in 2011. I still have a picture of Woody Hayes and my dad (Jim, a former OSU player) in my office, and nobody will do more than I do for the university behind the scenes. But I’ve got a job to do, and I’m going to continue to be fair and objective. To continue to have to defend myself and my family in regards to my love and devotion to Ohio State is unfair.” However, this did not stop Herbstreit from following his passion, and he won the Sports Emmy Awards three times. Everything was going good in Nashville until the Herbstreit family faced a hurdle in their personal life.

The silent battles that Kirk Herbstreit and his family fought  

At the beginning of this year, Herbstreit made an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show and revealed the recent health scares for his wife, Alison. Before that, his son Zak overcame medical issues. Things got tougher for Herbstreit as he lost his favorite companion, his golden retriever, Ben, to leukemia. He said, “It was almost like a perfect storm for me. My son had heart failure two years ago. They were talking about a heart replacement there for a while, and he had to medically retire…. There was that side of it, looking down and seeing him in his jersey after potentially facing replacing your heart to that.

He added, “I haven’t really talked about this publicly, but Ali, my wife, faced some stuff. It’s been a tough year for me behind the scenes. My wife got diagnosed with breast cancer. Ben dies. It was just a lot of emotion. And when you do what we do, you endure. You do your job.” But even amidst this, the Ohio State fans’ rage for the Herbstreit family remained intact. Back in December last year, Herbsreit’s son Chase announced his college football commitment. And that’s when the Buckeyes fans lost their cool.

The 3-star quarterback recruit of the 2025 class, Chase, was initially considered to be a possible walk-on candidate at Ohio State. But Kirk Herbstreit’s son cancelled the plan and committed to the Buckeyes’ archrival Michigan Wolverines. And BOOM! Attacks started to pour in as the fans tagged the Herbstreit family as “traitors.” Earlier, Herbstreit’s twin sons, Jake and Tye, committed to play for Clemson. Haters gonna hate, but the Herbstreits wear their Buckeye hearts on their sleeves.