ESPN’s “College GameDay” Saturday morning picks don’t always mean that much – they’re predictions, after all – but the Michigan game picks from Kirk Herbstreit might mean a bit more than fans realize.

Herbstreit, an Ohio State Buckeyes graduate, has a son at the University of Michigan. His son, Chase Herbstreit, is a quarterback for the Wolverines. So, Herbstreit probably knows a bit more than everyone else, at least when it comes to what’s going on within the Wolverines’ program.

And it doesn’t sound good.

On Saturday, Herbstreit was the lone member of the “College GameDay” panel to pick Minnesota to beat Michigan. It was a surprising pick, but in hindsight, maybe it means that Herbstreit knows that it’s worse than people imagine inside of the Michigan football program right now.

His son is on the team. He knows there’s issues behind the scenes https://t.co/Fmv2BkdizQ

— Brad G (@bradGoBlue85) October 3, 2026

Michigan ended up falling to Minnesota, 20-14, on Saturday.

Wolverines head coach Kyle Whittingham speaks out on the loss

Whittingham of course believes that the troubling performances could be coaching-related.

“We’ll look at everything. I don’t want to sit here and make a decision without watching this tape. But we’ve had some good individual performances so far this year, and stretches in certain games,” he said postgame.

“And looking at the positives, the defense has played well the entire season. There’s been a lot of good things going on in defense, but it gets to the point where they just can’t hold up anymore. And unfortunately that reached that point in the second half today.”

He had a troubling comment, though.

“I’m still trying to figure it out. I’ve been in this profession 40-plus years, and this is maybe the biggest challenge I’ve had. And we will get it figured out, I promise you that. I’m not sure what the timeline is, but I promise you we’ll get it figured out at some juncture,” he added.

“But right now we have a lot of answers that we’ve got to come up with, because we’ve got so many deficiencies.”

This story was originally published by The Spun on Oct 4, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Source: Yahoo Sports