Eric Church Impressed Kirk Herbstreit With His Football Knowledge During ‘College GameDay’ Appearances: “He’s Breaking Football Down”

Chief knows ball.

Eric Church is obviously a massive UNC Tar Heels fan (I really need to know how he feels about Bill Belichick), but he’s also just a college football fan in general…and more than just your casual viewer.

Church has appeared on ESPN’s College GameDay several times as the celebrity guest picker, and unlike some of the guests who are just picking purely on vibes, Chief always shows off some pretty impressive football knowledge – and apparently it even impresses the hosts.

During a recent appearance on comedian John Crist’s podcast Net Positive, ESPN announcer and College GameDay analyst Kirk Herbstreit had some pretty high praise for Church when it comes to his knowledge of football:

“Eric Church will come on and he’ll go – he’s a college football fan. He’ll go a minute and a half on an answer. Like, ‘Who’s going to win LSU/Florida?’ And he’ll be like, ‘You know the quarterback’s down, you got the backup stepping in, they’re going to play two high safety, if the safety comes down…’

I mean, he’s breaking football down.”

You love to see it.

Church has appeared on GameDay three times as the guest picker, with his last appearance coming back on September 2019 amidst his Double Down tour. On that show, Church went a slightly disappointing 7-6 with his predictions, but overall during his 3 appearances on GameDay he’s got a pretty solid 21-13 record with his predictions, for an average of .618.

How does that stack up against other country artists who have appeared on GameDay? Well Jake Owen actually has the best record, going 9-1 during his only appearance on the Saturday morning show way back in 2013. Sam Hunt, a former college football player himself, also did pretty well during his appearance in 2011 when he went 8-1.

Tim McGraw was the guest picker in 2017 and went 7-1 with his picks, while Luke Bryan has appeared on the show twice and racked up a 16-6 record.

Meanwhile, Church is doing better than Darius Rucker, a South Carolina Gamecocks fan who’s been on GameDay twice and has a record of 13-9. Dierks Bentley and Luke Combs have each appeared only once, but they’re both sitting at .500. And Kenny Chesney, who has the same number of appearances on the show as Church, has a .500 record after going 11-11 with his picks.

Of course any college football fan (especially one who gambles on the sport) will tell you that it doesn’t matter how much you know about the sport: Picking games is tough, and anybody who’s great at it could make a hell of a lot more money betting on college football than they would even as a top country artist.

But still, apparently Church’s football knowledge was enough to impress one of the top analysts in all of college football. I guess he wasn’t lying when he said “I love college football games” way back in his 2009 single “Love Your Love The Most.”

The post Eric Church Impressed Kirk Herbstreit With His Football Knowledge During ‘College GameDay’ Appearances: “He’s Breaking Football Down” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.