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Kirk Herbstreit apologizes to Tennessee DB Rashaan Gaulden for 'unfair' criticism

Sam Cooper
College football writer
Kirk Herbstreit was much more forgiving to Baker Mayfield than Tennessee’s Rashaan Gaulden. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
Kirk Herbstreit was much more forgiving to Baker Mayfield than Tennessee’s Rashaan Gaulden. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)

Kirk Herbstreit caught some serious flak over the weekend.

After Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield won the Heisman Trophy, Herbstreit, the longtime ESPN analyst, tweeted that Mayfield, who has been involved in a handful of controversies in the last year, is “very misunderstood.”

That caught the attention of Tennessee defensive back Rashaan Gaulden, who Herbstreit was not so forgiving to after he flipped his middle fingers toward fans during UT’s game at Alabama on Oct. 21.

To his credit, Herbstreit took Gaulden’s response to heart and admitted he was being unfair in an apology posted Sunday.

Mayfield grabbed his crotch and shouted expletives toward the Kansas bench during the Sooners’ trip to Lawrence in November. To Herbstreit, that was Mayfield letting his “competitive spirit” get “the best of him.”

But when Gaulden pointed his middle fingers at the crowd in Tuscaloosa, that was, to Herbstreit, grounds for dismissal from the program.

“You’re thinking, ‘With everything that’s been going on at Tennessee, that guy probably will never play again,’” Herbstreit said on College Gameday. “Next series the defense is on the field, No. 7 is back in the lineup playing. And you wonder why Tennessee has issues. They don’t have any discipline.

“(Butch Jones) should have taken his uniform off, sent him upstairs and said, ‘Go get a popcorn. You’re no longer on the football team’ and sent a message to the whole team.”

Gaulden obviously did not forget those comments and was right to point out Herbstreit’s inconsistent sentiments, especially when comparing him to Mayfield. In addition to his actions against Kansas, Mayfield was arrested for public intoxication during the offseason, controversially planted the OU flag at midfield after beating Ohio State in Columbus and got into a pregame shouting match with Baylor players.

If Mayfield can get the benefit of the doubt after all of that, Herbstreit shouldn’t have been as harsh toward Gaulden. And after Sunday’s apology, Herbstreit certainly seems to agree with that perspective.

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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!