ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit is one of the most respected and most prominent voices in college football media, but he's unlikely to find a friendly reception with Kentucky football fans after slamming the UK program while in the Commonwealth.
At Kirk Herbstreit's Parkland's luncheon in Louisville the ESPN talking head and color commentator for many of the sport's premier games spoke on the topic of UK football.
In fairness to the former Ohio State quarterback, he's been very complimentary of current Kentucky head football coach Mark Stoops in the past, so maybe the current regime will give him a pass.
Also in fairness to Herbstreit, there's no full transcript of his remarks (yet, at least).
And there will be those who agree with Herbstreit's assessment.
But, no doubt, one of the quickest ways to alienate a segment of the Kentucky fan base, particularly that portion of it which is inclined to rabid support of the football program, is to contrast passion for basketball with that of football.
Historically, Kentucky has posted top 25 (or close) attendance figures even during less-than-stellar seasons on the field.
Kentucky ranked 26th nationally in football attendance (all games played: home, road, neutral) during the 2016 season (PDF link) ahead of Missouri, Colorado, Mississippi State, West Virginia, North Carolina and many other respected names (historically or in present) in the sport. UK averaged 53,643 fans per home game in 2015, and that was with games against Tennessee, Florida, Louisville and Alabama not on the home schedule.
Herbstreit has already addressed the early blowback.
