Chase Daniel credits Kirk Herbstreit for helping him navigate ESPN analyst role

Chase Daniel spent 14 years in the NFL as a backup quarterback. He made eight career starts, threw for 1,694 yards, and earned roughly $40 million. Not a bad run for someone who was never really the guy.

Now, he’s calling college football games for ESPN. He’s been working with play-by-play announcer Clay Matvick for about a month, treating game prep like he’s still playing quarterback, just studying both sides of the ball instead of one. The preparation feels familiar. The execution is harder.

The person helping him figure it out is Kirk Herbstreit.

“I remember when I got my first game interview or mock game for ESPN two years ago,” Daniel said during a recent appearance on the Awful Announcing Podcast. “I went down to Charlotte and I called a half of Georgia and Missouri. And I’ll tell you what, I was about as bad as you could possibly be because I’d never done it. It’s like a skill.”

That’s where Herbstreit came in. Daniel spent two weeks on the phone with him before that mock game, asking about everything from eye discipline to word choice to how Herbstreit processes what he’s watching in real time. The questions didn’t stop after one call. Herbstreit kept reaching out.

Before Daniel’s broadcast of the Texas-UTEP game, Herbstreit called again, asking what Daniel was seeing from Manning. He brought up a Tua Tagovailoa interception he’d broken down with Kurt Warner and wanted Daniel’s take on it.

“I’m like, why are you asking me for advice?” Daniel said. “I don’t. You’re the guy.”

The relationship goes back to Daniel’s playing days at Missouri when Herbstreit called his games. But what Daniel respects most about Herbstreit now isn’t the history. It’s that Herbstreit is still trying to get better after nearly three decades in the business.

“That’s something I really like about Kirk is that he is constantly trying to perfect the craft, and that’s something I’m going to do,” Daniel explained. “He probably doesn’t know when he first started getting in the NFL as much as he did now about the NFL because he’s been in college. He would call me and be like, ‘Let’s watch tape together, man. Like, what are you seeing? What are these new concepts? I’m just trying to stay up on concepts.’ And I just think him and I are wired the right way.”

When Herbstreit started doing NFL games, he reached out to Daniel to help him understand offensive schemes and terminology he hadn’t needed to know as deeply in college. Herbstreit’s not treating this like mentorship. He’s asking Daniel for help with NFL concepts while Daniel learns how to call college games without destroying teenagers on national TV.

Daniel’s picked up advice from Dan Orlovsky and Joel Klatt, too. Klatt told him to break down plays from an offensive coordinator’s perspective instead of a quarterback’s, which changed how Daniel approaches broadcasts. All of them played the position.

The college football part has taken adjustment. Daniel’s candid about the quality gap between what he watched every week in the NFL and what he’s seeing now on Saturdays. He’s also careful about how he criticizes players who are still teenagers.

“In general, college football, just the pageantry of it. I think it’s definitely a step down, though, in actual play, compared to the NFL in what I’ve been trying to see,” Daniel said. “Also, these are young people. They’re 18-22, so you don’t ever really want to criticize them, and that’s something I’m never going to do. I think you can criticize the play on the field, but I think there’s a little bit of a different feel versus NFL guys, who are 30 years old, and I think that’s something I’ve seen Kirk Herbstreit do really well.”

There’s a way to point out when something isn’t working without making it personal. Daniel’s trying to figure out that balance in real time.

“There’s a way to do and call out maybe stuff that isn’t working, rather than just going right at the guy,” Daniel said. “And something that I’m trying to perfect right now.”

Herbstreit’s been the voice of college football for three decades. He could show up, say his lines, and collect his check. Instead, he’s calling former quarterbacks to watch tape and discuss schemes he doesn’t fully understand yet.

Daniel spent 14 years as a backup. He knew his role, prepared like he’d play every week, and capitalized when the chances came. He’s approaching broadcasting the same way. He’s not pretending he’s figured it out after a month.