Kirk Herbstreit has been one of the most respected voices in college football for nearly two decades, but the longtime ESPN analyst has been catching major heat since a story broke stating he called the father of Dylan Raiola —the No. 8 overall recruit of the 2024 class — and convinced him to commit to Nebraska when he heard he was taking a last-minute trip there.
Raiola was a highly rated recruit from the 2024 cycle and initially committed to Ohio State. He then backed off that pledge and chose Georgia, but de-committed after Carson Beck announced his plans to return to the Bulldogs. That then took him to Nebraska – his dad’s alma mater – where he signed in December.
During an interview on National Signing Day, Dominic Raiola said Herbstreit was one of the people he heard from as news broke of Dylan’s interest in Nebraska. Raiola said the College GameDay analyst voiced his support for the Cornhuskers.
He was adamant Herbstreit called to urge Dylan Raiola to pick Nebraska just moments after reports began to surface that the highly-touted prospect may not stay in Athens and was visiting Lincoln one last time.
“I will bring up one guy’s name. His name’s Kirk Herbstreit,” he said. “When he saw the smoke about Dylan entertaining Nebraska, he called me and he said, ‘Dude, is this true? He’s got to do it.’
“His affinity for Nebraska, for a guy like that, to tell me and get behind me, I knew he needed to do it. But I wasn’t going to sit here and say, ‘You need to go change that place or be a part of the change of that place.’ So when Kirk told me that, I was like, man. I’ve had other coaches reach out to me and say, ‘Look the place is special. Coach Rhule’s a special leader.’”
At 4:45 ET on Wednesday, Herbstreit hadn’t denied the allegations which would be highly unprofessional for someone in his position.
His colleague and SEC analyst Paul Finebaum spoke on the controversy during his Wednesday show.
“Again, I just heard about that right before the show started,” Finebaum said. “I certainly think we need to find out what exactly happened. But if Herbstreit didn’t do that, then he’s welcome to call in and deny it. But right now, you have to believe he did it based on the fact it’s been a couple hours and we haven’t heard any denial. I know that’s not exactly logic, but it’s the way it usually works.”
Kirk Herbstreit Shares His Side Of The Dylan Raiola Recruiting Controversy
While Herbstreit has yet to issue a public statement and made it clear he did in fact call Raiola’s father talking about the opportunity Nebraska presented, there are facts about the timeline and small details that don’t make it look nearly as bad for the ESPN analyst.
“I said Kirk, what is your side of the story on this?” Andy Staples of On3 said. “And we talked about it, and he explained that he has a relationship with Dominic Raiola. They know each other, they’ve talked plenty of times before and that they were having a conversation about Dylan’s recruitment.
Now, Kirk is quick to point out that he is not someone who follows a lot of the day-to-day of recruiting. So the part I’m not so sure is quite accurate from Dom’s retelling of the story is the, Kirk finds out that Dylan is considering the flip and asked Dom to call right out of the blue to say, ‘Go to Nebraska.’ That’s not how it happened, according to Kirk.”
Staples was clear Kirk Herbstreit wasn’t following the recruiting news and didn’t purposefully call right after the news broke Dylan Raiola was visiting Nebraska one final time. He described it as a “father to father” conversation.
“Basically they were talking kind of father to father – Kirk’s had a few sons play college football, as well. … And they’re talking about the whole process. Basically, according to Kirk, Dom was asking, ‘Hey, how much should I talk about the possibility of if you go to Nebraska, you could be a program changer, you could be a difference maker, you could be a legend if the if you wind up helping bring this program back to where it wants to be?’
And Kirk – who was complimentary of Matt Rhule, the Nebraska coach, and Kirby Smart in this whole situation – says, ‘Well, yeah, that would that would be cool. Like, it would be cool if he could do that.’ And that’s pretty much where it was, which is not the same thing as, ‘Go to Nebraska.’”
