Ryan Leaf called out Kirk Herbstreit from departing "College GameDay,' which saw him travel in a convertible on a highway, "embarrassing." Credit: ESPN’s “College GameDay”
By Sam Neumann on

There’s not a lot of love lost between Ryan Leaf and Kirk Herbstreit — and Pat McAfee.

If you need a sports media feud refresher course, we’ve got you covered.

It all started with Leaf misunderstanding a Lee Corso one-liner over Washington State and Oregon State being teams that no one wanted in conference realignment. Leaf took both to X (where he got called out by Herbstreit) and an NFL Network appearance on Good Morning Football, saying that College GameDay turned the harsh realities of conference realignment into a joke, especially for the programs left on the outside looking in.

McAfee then responded by calling out Leaf on GameDay, where he dropped the hammer on the Cougars program, leading to backlash after many thought he went too far. After his public criticism of GameDay and eventually arguing with two of its biggest stars, Leaf says he got a call from a coordinating producer saying he would be taken off of ESPN games for the rest of the season.

Caught up?

In essence, Leaf believes that his ESPN exit is directly tied to his College GameDay criticism, which has only furthered in recent weeks. He accused McAfee of being high nearly 80 percent of the time back in August, but that was seemingly the last time he made headlines for bashing any of McAfee, Herbstreit, or CGD, for that matter.

Well, he returned to bashing both Herbstreit (and GameDay) over the weekend responding to a video of Herbstreit in a convertible during Week 7’s CGD with “This is embarrassing.”

Whatever you think about Herbstreit leaving Saturday’s GameDay early to make Texas-Oklahoma in time barely — and we know how Leaf feels — ESPN pulled out all the stops from a production standpoint. Though GameDay will be in Austin for Georgia-Texas for Week 8, ESPN showed its preference between relevance and corporate synergy, opting for Ohio State-Oregon instead.

They could’ve made Herbstreit’s commute easier by setting up a shot in Dallas for the first iteration of the Red River Rivalry in the SEC, but GameDay opted to take the road less traveled. Because of that, Herbstreit left around 7:45 a.m. local time to catch a flight to Dallas—and ESPN did its best to keep him involved and incorporated in the final hour of the show despite the obstacles.

Herbstreit had never left the GameDay set early before, but with 2,000 miles ahead of him and a 3:30 p.m. ET kickoff in Dallas — he had to get going. The 45-second clip that Leaf called “embarrassing” features Herbstreit flanked by multiple vehicles (and cameras) as he finished Saturday’s episode live from a convertible on an Oregon highway.

It’s clear Leaf hasn’t let go of his grudge, but it’s seemingly a one-sided feud.

Herbstreit hasn’t responded to any of Leaf’s jabs in a calendar year, perhaps because he’s too focused on College GameDay’s best start in show history — even if that means broadcasting from a convertible in the middle of an Oregon highway.

While Leaf’s frustration with ESPN may be justified in his mind, his ongoing criticisms seem to fall on deaf ears.

[Ryan Leaf]

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann