Herb Watch

Last year I posted a series of items entitled Herbstreit's Dumbass Quote of the day. It was largely in response to his homerism for the Big 10 (11). Well Herbie we've got our eye on you again this year.

Kicking off another season of exposing Herbstreit, for the empty-headed shill he is, comes this item from the DesMoines Register in which Herbie asserts:

"The Big Ten, the last year or two, has been down from top to bottom. This year, four teams have a chance to be very, very competitive with one another."

Huh?

This from the guy that was hyperventilating about Michigan being robbed because they only lost by a field goal to the consensus number 1 team in the nation. I remember him saying that he knew this because he "watches a lot of games".

Again, he's not saying that the conference was strong at the top and weak in the middle and bottom. He's saying "top to bottom." How can the conference that contained the two teams that Herbie believed were the two best teams in the country as late as New Year's day be conference that was "down from top to bottom"?

Look, I don't have a beef with the Big 10 (11). I do have a beef with people who anoint champions. And college football is full of would-be anointers. With the platform that someone in Herbstreit's position has one would think his bosses would require some consistency and logic from him. After all he's supposed to be an analyst.

So we'll keep a close eye on Herbies prognostications and see how many of them come to fruition. In the same article he's quoted as saying:

"If I were voting, I'd have Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan and then Ohio State. With them, you're talking about four teams that have a shot to get to 10 or 11 wins.

In another article Herbstreit claims to be surprised by Big 10 (11) commissioner Jim Delany's remarks about being open to adding a 12th team. I don't know why it would surprise anyone. As powerful as Delany there's limits to even his power. Conference championship games generate revenue and add credibility to conferences but you need 12 teams to have one.

More Herbstreit predictions:

"I'll be shocked if they're not 8-0," Herbstreit said, noting the relative ease of OSU's first eight games, before it closes with Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan. "(The game) at Purdue, I think, is the only part of the early schedule that could pose a problem.

"This team will remind people more of the '02 than the '05 and '06 (teams). There won't be a lot of offensive fireworks. The defense will set up a controlled offense with a new quarterback, and in the final four games they'll find out how good they really are."

We'll see, Herbie. We'll see.