An unfortunate trend that has developed across college football this season has been fans throwing debris onto the field after a call goes against the home team. When it happened in Saturday night’s game between Alabama and LSU, Kirk Herbstreit made it clear that he’s seen enough of it.
Trailing 21-6 in the third quarter, it looked like LSU forced a punt with a sack of Crimson Tide quarterback Jalen Milroe. But the elation at Tiger Stadium was short-lived. LSU was penalized for a facemask penalty, negating the sack and giving Alabama a fresh set of downs. Not long after, debris began getting thrown onto the field by frustrated Tigers fans. Seeing that, Herbstreit, calling the game on ABC, immediately began to criticize not only those LSU fans but fans throughout the country who have made this almost an expected part of games.
“Why has that become a thing this year? Some idiots do this in Texas and now all of a sudden we see it popping up in college football. Enough’s enough, clowns. What are you doing?”
“This is just stupid,” Herbstreit added.
“Why has that become a thing this year? Some idiots do this in Texas and now all of a sudden we see it popping up in college football. Enough’s enough, clowns. What are you doing?”
Kirk Herbstreit has had enough of CFB fans throwing things onto the field. pic.twitter.com/xllkYKAerB
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 10, 2024
The cameras then panned onto the field, showing LSU cheerleaders using signs to cover their heads from incoming debris.
“That’s great,” Herbstreit said. “That’s your home cheerleader.”
“And guess what? They’re not going to review that and take the facemask off the board,” Herbstreit’s broadcast partner, play-by-play man Chris Fowler said.
Fowler’s comments, while generally accurate, have been proven wrong on one notable occasion this year. During October’s game between Texas and Georgia (a game Fowler and Herbstreit called), frustrated Texas fans began to throw debris on the field when a pass interference penalty appeared to negate an interception. As that was happening, the officials were conferencing and eventually decided to pick up the flag, allowing the interception to stand.
Saturday’s game at LSU wasn’t even the first time it happened on Saturday. Earlier in the day, Texas Tech fans were throwing things on the field, eventually leading to Red Raiders coach Joey McGuire grabbing a microphone and telling them to stop. A week before it happened at LSU, debris was thrown onto the field at Clemson when a call went against the Tigers.
Of course, that’s not to say that what the fans did in Texas directly led to that call being overturned. But it certainly didn’t dissuade the officials. And it’s not a huge leap for other fans to see it and think it might happen again — especially when there’s no significant backlash to the fans.
Again this was predictable and why the Texas overturned call set a horrible precedent. Also, officiating has been inconsistent to awful this season, amplifying the issue. https://t.co/HB1Ep3rDf2
— Troy Renck (@TroyRenck) November 10, 2024
That said, Herbstreit was on the money with his comments. He was also spot on when he said, “Just embarrassing to LSU, embarrassing to college football. Just around the country. Enough’s enough.”
Regardless of how it started, he’s right. It’s a trend that can’t stop soon enough.
[Photo Credit: ABC]
