Desmond Howard's Take on Kirk Herbstreit and "Miles-to-Michigan"

In a Detroit News interview with former Michigan Wolverine and ESPN college football analyst Desmond Howard, the Heisman trophy winner gave his reaction to Kirk Herbstreit breaking the "Miles to Michigan" story on the morning of the SEC Championship Game. Below is the excerpt from that interview.

Q. What was your take on the Herbstreit's report when he said Miles-to-Michigan was a done deal?

A. I was in Hawaii doing ESPN, so I had no knowledge of anything. I put the (earpiece) in my ear, and I'm hearing Herbstreit break this news, and I'm thinking, "You know, things happen overnight, maybe it did." He's a seemingly intelligent guy, so if he's going to say it, I don't think he's going to go out there and blurt it out. He must have believed what he said. Whether it was true or false, there's no doubt in my mind that Herbstreit believed what he was saying on TV.

Now, should he have dug deeper? Should ESPN have dug deeper? Of course. They have a Michigan guy on their crew and they knew how to get in contact with me, but no one ever called me.

It put Les in a bad position. That was wrong on so many levels. As a former player, unless I spoke to that coach and he told me it was cool, I would never have done that because he was still coaching a team that's about to play in a (SEC) championship game. ... His team, the first thing they saw when they woke up was that report. It was not fair to him and not fair to the players. ... And no one from this side of the story (at Michigan), as far as I know, came out and refuted it. The only one who said something was Les Miles that day.