Kirk Herbstreit has long been the face of ESPN’s college football coverage. He has offered insightful analysis for decades on College GameDay, but learned the hard way that breaking news is not his forte.

Herbstreit recalled his infamous “Les Miles to Michigan” report during a recent appearance on Kevin Clark’s This Is Football podcast. Herbstreit said he will never attempt to break news again after the backlash to the report.

On Dec. 1, 2007, conference championship Saturday, Herbstreit said on GameDay that Miles would be leaving his post as LSU’s head coach to become Michigan’s next head coach. Miles would address the media in Atlanta before the SEC Championship Game, calling Herbstreit’s report inaccurate.

So what went wrong? Herbstreit says he was told the news by the man who was set to be Miles’ defensive coordinator in Ann Arbor.

“This guy called me, and it was late in the year, and he said, ‘Hey, I can’t believe this, I’m heading to Michigan, and I’m going to be their new defensive coordinator,'” Herbstreit recalled to Clark. “And I knew him from just relationships, and I said, ‘What? You’re going to Michigan?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I’m going to be Les Miles’ defensive coordinator at Michigan.'”

Herbstreit told Clark that he was unsure of how to proceed with his big scoop, but the source had given him permission to report the information. Herbstreit consulted with his GameDay executive producer, who told him to break the story on air.

Speaking to Clark, Herbstreit said he qualified the bombshell by adding “unless there are unforeseen circumstances.” In a YouTube clip from GameDay, however, Herbstreit does not make any mention of “unforeseen circumstances” when reporting Miles to Michigan. Watching said clip also reveals that the defensive coordinator in question, Herbstreit’s source, was Jon Tenuta, a Columbus, Ohio native who was a Buckeye assistant from 1996-2000. Tenuta was on staff at Georgia Tech in 2007.

Whether he had planned to mention “unforeseen circumstances” and forgot, or simply wishes he had included that qualifier in retrospect, it’s safe to say Herbstreit won’t be putting himself in that position again.

“I would never do that again,” Herbstreit told Clark. “I don’t break stories; I’m not interested in stories. I get told so much stuff I never talk about. I like to stay in that lane… And I learned a very valuable lesson that if someone calls me and says something, I maybe give it to a Pete Thamel or some reporter… I’m not saying s–t anything ever again when it comes to breaking stories. I didn’t even look for that story. It came to me. But I made the mistake of talking about it publicly.”

Nearly 17 years later, “Miles to Michigan” remains one of the most fascinating what if’s in recent college football history.