Kirk Herbstreit mentions Michigan, Ohio State in Week 1 takeaways for drastically different reasons

Week 1 of B1G football is in the books, and ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit took time to list his five biggest takeaways from around the country.

In Week 1, Michigan hit the road to take on the Fighting Irish at Notre Dame. The matchup went down to the wire with a final score of 24-17, but that alone does not tell the full story.

The Wolverines struggled to run the ball against the Irish defense due to inconsistent offensive line play. As a result, the offense bogged down and was ineffective for much of the evening.

In an appearance on ESPN’s SportsCenter Monday morning, Herbstreit indicated Michigan will need to go back to the drawing board moving forward. Brad Crawford with 247 Sports shared Herbstreit’s comments:

“I’m going to start with Michigan,” Herbstreit said on Monday’s SportsCenter. “This is a team that myself and others had high expectations for and what they could do with Shea Patterson at quarterback. They struggled in a big way…They’re going to have to make some changes.”

For the Buckeyes, Herbstreit had nothing but positive things to say following a 77-point outburst against Oregon State. He was impressed with how the team weathered the absence of Urban Meyer, and he believes the Buckeyes were one of the best looking teams in Week 1:

“With all the drama and all the talk off the field about how Ohio State won’t survive without Urban Meyer, they go 77 points and over 700 yards of offense,” Herbstreit said. “Dwayne Haksins, offensive firepower (was there). You could say with Ohio State, Alabama, Oklahoma — those teams looked as good as anybody in the country.”

Now comes the challenge of maintaining momentum or getting back on track, depending on which team you root for.

Paul Harvey

Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.