ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit Calls Out The Network During Ohio State Broadcast For Trying To 'Fire' Ryan Day

It's not often we see ESPN on ESPN crime, but Kirk Herbstreit unloaded some friendly fire during Ohio State's routing of Tennessee on Saturday night while on the call for the network.

The eye-opening moment came late in the fourth quarter with the Buckeyes leading the Vols 42-10. Herbstreit, an Ohio State alum, began talking about the "lunatic fringe" of fans who may still want head coach Ryan Day fired despite their impressive performance in round one of the College Football Playoff.

"I'm sure they'll be happy tonight, fired up about what Ohio State did, but God forbid they lose to Oregon, they'll want to fire him again," Herbstreit said. 

This then led to co-anchor Chris Fowler to explain that it isn't "reality" and it was actually him who was the first to call out ESPN, the same network they were on the call for.

"When you hear pundits on this network and other places talk about that with certainty, it's nonsense, frankly," Fowler said.

Herbstreit then took things further and called out ESPN's ‘First Take’ by name.

"'First Take' tried to fire him," Herbstreit said, referring to Day. "They thought he was done, so I'm excited to see what they'll talk about on Monday."

You have to appreciate Herbstreit's subtlety. When you hear him call out ‘First Take,’ you know that he had that comment waiting in his back pocket. He undoubtedly had a small grin on his face as he stated it on the air.

While it's surprising to hear both Fowler and Herbstreit call out the network on air like that, neither of them is wrong. Plenty, if not the majority of Ohio State fans, wanted Day fired after the Buckeyes lost to Michigan to close out the regular season in what was the Buckeyes' fourth straight loss to their rival. 

The talk was, and still is in plenty of circles, that unless Day delivers a national championship to Columbus next month he could be looking for a different job.