Jan 1, 2025; Pasadena, California, USA; Kirk Herbstreit on the ESPN Gameday set at Rose Bowl Stadium. Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
College FootballESPNTwitterBy Matt Yoder on

Between his college football takes and battles with fans, Kirk Herbstreit has dealt with enough criticism over the last month to last a lifetime.

But there’s just one more thing about the longtime ESPN analyst that doesn’t add up that can’t be ignored any longer – his use of X (formerly Twitter) and social media.

Herbstreit has battled with fans on social media for the better part of a year – from his feuding with Florida State fans after they were excluded from the College Football Playoff after the 2023 season to the backlash that came his way during the 2024 debate around the expanded playoff field. That last one even got hit with a community note as he called one person in his mentions a “clown.”

But then something very weird happened.

Earlier this week, Kirk Herbstreit went on a podcast with Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman at On3 and claimed that he deleted social media a long time ago because of how ridiculous it is.

Given how many headlines Kirk Herbstreit has drawn for his social media use, this is a pretty astonishing admission. If it isn’t Herbstreit fighting with fans, tweeting his travel schedule every week, or posting the numerous pictures of his beautiful dogs… then who is doing the tweeting under his name?

According to Herbstreit, one of his sons is posting things under his name.

Okay…

A major media personality having someone else tweet for them is not abnormal. But you’re telling us someone who has been under an intense microscope over his opinions on “lunatic fringe” fanbases and undeserving playoff participants isn’t the one doing his own tweeting? And he isn’t the one engaging with fans regularly, which then creates news cycles about him?

For someone who seems so plugged in to what the internet and social media says about him to do a 180 and say he doesn’t see any of it is an exceedingly abrupt turn.

But then here’s what’s even more bizarre. After the public admission that Herbstreit deleted his social media, his account is still tweeting like normal, interacting with fans, and posting candid photos and videos that theoretically could only come from Herbstreit himself.

The account even made sure to make clear it wasn’t him who had the weird thoughts about Notre Dame scoring too quickly in the final seconds of their CFP semifinal against Penn State.

Following the admission, Herbstreit’s replies are an inexplicable mixture of normal people replying to who they legitimately think is Kirk Herbstreit and very online people who are thanking Kirk Herbstreit’s son for the updates.

Whether or not Kirk Herbstreit is actually the one tweeting from his account isn’t exactly worth a Pulitzer Prize-level inquiry. But this whole thing is just weird, right?

There are really only two reasonable explanations. Either Herbstreit still has possession of his X account despite what he said or he is sending videos to his son or a social media editor to post… while also pretending to be Kirk when sparring with fans and offering opinions, opening up a whole different can of worms.

The underlying issue is that it’s all completely unnecessary. Kirk Herbstreit is a fantastic game analyst. He doesn’t have to be on X. He could take a step back and just call games like Troy Aikman or Tony Romo and probably be a lot happier. If anything, what Herbstreit has posted on social media in recent years has been one of the leading factors in some of the criticism he has received, so it’s only made things way more complicated for him.

But Herbstreit doesn’t have to engage with the trolls. He doesn’t have to engage with the outside noise. He doesn’t have to try to fight every battle in college football like he’s done the past year. And he doesn’t have to try to make some kind of 4D chess play with a social media account that may or may not actually be him.

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