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Kirk Herbstreit on B1G Championship: ‘It depends which Ohio State team shows up’
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Which Ohio State team will show up in Saturday’s B1G Championship Game against Northwestern? For ESPN college football analyst Kirk Herbstreit, that’s the biggest factor this weekend.
On Tuesday, Herbstreit made an appearance on ESPN’s Get Up! to preview the B1G Championship Game between the Buckeyes and Wildcats. Headed into Saturday’s matchup, Northwestern is tabbed as a two-touchdown underdog, but Herbie believes that’s something that head coach Pat Fitzgerald relishes.
“First of all, you have two coaches who would get into a fistfight over who gets to be the underdog in this game,” Herbstreit said. “They both relish the role.”
Herbstreit then dove into the matchup between the two programs. While Ohio State looks like the clear favorite on paper, the ESPN analyst believes it boils down to mentality.
If the Buckeyes show up with a purpose, much like they did last Saturday against Michigan, it’ll be an easy victory. If Ohio State looks the way it did for most of the last month, we could be in for a back-and-forth fight.
“You can say whatever you want about Northwestern…this team was facing a lot of adversity, they had a quarterback that was trying to overcome a knee injury, they lost some games, things did not look good after the Michigan game and since then they’ve not looked back,” Herbstreit said. “There’s a real belief inside the walls of that locker room…to be candid, I think it depends on which Ohio State team shows up Saturday. I think the team that really fears and respects Northwestern, plays the way they did last Saturday, the game is over. If they show up thinking ‘Oh, it’s Northwestern, no problem. This will be an easy win,’ then you’re going to have a 60-minute war on your hands.”
Though Northwestern finished the year 8-4, it went 8-1 in B1G games with the lone loss a 20-17 defeat to Michigan. The Wildcats held a 17-0 lead early in the contest.
Ohio State has won 30 of the last 31 games against Northwestern. The last Wildcats victory was 2004.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB