OSU Alum Kirk Herbstreit Gets Emotional on Full-Circle Moment 20 Years After Calling Ohio State-Texas Classic
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Kirk Herbstreit has called the biggest games in college football history. He has sat in the booth for national championships, bitter rivalries, and playoff thrillers. Yet, certain games stay locked in his heart forever. Returning to Austin to call Ohio State against Texas is not just another assignment for him. It is a deeply personal walk down memory lane.
More than twenty years after Kirk Herbstreit called the 2005 Ohio State-Texas classic with Brent Musburger, he is walking back into Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium Saturday night to call the same matchup again. This time, Chris Fowler will be beside him. The OSU alum shared a clip from that 2005 broadcast on Instagram, and you could hear the memories coming through the caption.
“21 years ago almost to the day, #1 Ohio State @ #2 Texas met in week two of Saturday Night Football on ABC’s debut season. Brent Musburger and I called the game and 21 years later… I’m calling the same matchup with @chrisfowler tomorrow night! Enjoy this flash from the past… Excited to see this matchup again soon!”
In 2005, Kirk Herbstreit was still building his broadcasting career. Ohio State arrived in Austin ranked No. 1, Texas was No. 2, and Vince Young was becoming one of the most dangerous players in the country. Troy Smith was running the Buckeyes’ offense. Texas eventually won 25-22, finishing the night with a late touchdown that turned an already enormous game into a classic.
Kirk Herbstreit got another crack at the matchup a year later. Ohio State won that one 24-7 in Columbus. But maybe it’s not the scoreboard that he remembers the most. Before that 2006 meeting, he was stunned by the number of Ohio State fans expected to make the trip to Texas.
Estimates reached 30,000 to 40,000 Buckeye fans, an absurd traveling crowd for a regular-season nonconference game at the time. Kirk Herbstreit also had a soft spot for those fans who packed their bags and followed Ohio State across the country.
“My favorite fans of Ohio State are those that go on the road,” he said.
Two decades later, that traveling Buckeye army remains part of the show. And the game itself has somehow gotten even bigger. No. 1 Ohio State and No. 4 Texas meet Saturday night with both teams sitting at 1-0. This is the big one in the Big Ten-SEC showdown, with the two programs meeting again after two Buckeye wins.
That 2005 broadcast was the launchpad that turned Herbstreit from a promising young analyst into the undisputed voice of college football. Returning to the exact same press box two decades later carries immense personal weight, but the stakes on the field are just as massive.
With top-five rankings on the line and early College Football Playoff positioning hanging in the balance, this top-tier Big Ten SEC battle gives him the ultimate stage to celebrate how far both his career and this iconic national rivalry have come.
Ohio State took the last two, winning 28-14 in the CFP semifinal in the Cotton Bowl after the 2024 season. Then again, they beat Texas 14-7 in Columbus to start last season. Now Texas gets another shot, this time in Austin. The details are enough to make this one of the season’s biggest games. Will Muschamp is taking over the Longhorns’ defense, while Arthur Smith enters his first season directing the Buckeyes’ offense.
There is no shortage of star power. Julian Sayin and Arch Manning headline the QB matchup. Jeremiah Smith remains the obvious problem for the Longhorns, although Texas has managed to handle him in the last two meetings. The Buckeye WR caught one pass for three yards in the playoff and six for 43 yards last season.
For Kirk Herbstreit, though, there is another layer. He was there when Ohio State-Texas first became appointment television. He watched thousands of Buckeye fans flood Austin. He has spent the years since becoming one of the most familiar voices in college football. Now he gets to call the matchup again inside the same stadium with the same two powerhouses. And that is what makes his full-circle moment feel a little bigger than just another Saturday night.
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