Kirk Herbstreit tells SEC fans to ‘claim’ Tennessee’s loss to Oregon

The Tennessee Volunteers were on the wrong end of a blowout when they traveled to Autzen Stadium last weekend to take on the No. 2-ranked Oregon Ducks. Tennessee had no answers for the speed of Oregon and they were clearly outmatched, which ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit used to take a shot at the SEC fan base.

There is no denying that the SEC fans are very proud and they are happy to see overwhelming success on the national landscape. However, according to Herbstreit, the conference’s national title  run shouldn’t be viewed as a group achievement.

During his time on ‘Herd & Herbstreit’ with Colin Cowherd, Herbstreit called for the SEC fans to own up and claim the loss to Tennessee as a group effort — much like they all rally together to show their SEC pride when a team in the conference takes home the nationals championship.

Here is some of what Herbstreit had to say, via CoachingSearch.com:

"“I don’t think they intentional ran it up, but I’ll tell you this: The SEC, it’s unique about their fan base. There are fourteen schools. When one of them wins a national championship, all fourteen carry the flag for the national championship. They all claim it. They all claim the national championship like they won it together. So when Tennessee gets ambushed by Oregon, they need to all get their flag out together and accept that loss to Oregon.“It’s funny, when you get outside of the PAC-12, people kind of poo-poo Oregon as if that Oregon speed can’t match up with the bigger schools that have big defensive linemen. I’m telling you, the fan in me wants to see Oregon get a chance in the big game against an SEC powerhouse like Alabama or LSU in the national championship. People want to say LSU already played Oregon. That was different time in a different era and a different LSU team. Oregon was very young with De’Anthony Thomas and some of their true freshmen. Oregon does not get the credit they deserve on a national level. Right now, them and Alabama are on a different playing field than everybody else after the first three weeks.”"

Ouch.

It is true that only a few teams have contributed to the SEC’s success, but all of the teams seem to be gloating. However, there is a good chance that will all come to an end this year.

You can’t deny Oregon’s talent and they have the speed to compete with anyone, so it will be interesting to see how it all plays out this year if Oregon and Alabama make it to the final game of the year.