Eric Zeier, Kirk Herbstreit & Will Muschamp on memories of Georgia-Ohio State Citrus Bowl
ATLANTA — Kirk Herbsteit’s whirlwind football broadcasting schedule cranks up even more this week.
The college and now NFL analyst will be in the booth for the Dallas-Tennessee game for Amazon Thursday night in Nashville and with ESPN for the Georgia-Ohio State Peach Bowl Saturday night in Atlanta and the Penn State-Utah Rose Bowl Monday in Pasadena, Calif.
So he doesn’t have much time to get into a war of words — even for fun — that came out of a question Georgia co-defensive coordinator Will Muschamp got Tuesday about the one and only time the Buckeyes and Bulldogs met.
That was in the Citrus Bowl in Orlando on Jan. 1, 1993 when Hebrstreit was a fifth-year Ohio State quarterback and Muschamp was a Bulldog sophomore safety.
“It was a good win for the Dawgs,” Muschamp said Tuesday morning. “We had a pre not game, but I guess a luncheon, and Herbstreit got up and threw a pass across the room, I knew we had a shot to win. Make sure he knows I said that.”
Herbstreit was asked later on an already scheduled media Zoom if he had a comeback for Muschamp. He said he didn’t. He was asked if he remembers Muschamp making plays that day.
“I don't even remember, man,” he said. “Was that 100 years ago? I remember when I played in the early '90s, and I would think back to my dad played, he was a captain in 1960, when I was that age, my dad would talk about playing. I felt like he was talking about 1860, and now I'm that guy. I'm that guy. So, I just remember Georgia being really good and very athletic, and I don't remember much about Will at all.”
The No. 8 Bulldogs turned back the No. 15 Buckeyes behind 163 rushing yards and two touchdown for Garrison Hearst and 242 passing yards for Eric Zeier who will also be in a broadcast booth for the Peach Bowl as Georgia’s radio analyst.
“Ohio State was good team,” Zeier said in a phone interview earlier this month. "They had a middle linebacker (Steve) Tovar that was massive. We were methodical in that football game. Ran the football well behind Garrison and were very balanced in how we threw the football. Just put together a really solid team effort to win and cap off my best year in the four years we were there."
Andre Hastings had eight catches for 113 yards in the game and a 21-yard Zeier to Shannon Mitchell play helped set up Frank Harvey’s 1-yard run for the winning score.
Georgia finished 10-2 in Ray Goff’s fourth season, its first 10-win season since 1983.
“That season was we were 5 points away from going undefeated that year,” Zeier said. “We had a remarkable team. We were talented on the offensive side of the ball. Very solid defensively as well. Lost a couple of heartbreaking games that we probably should have won — lost at Tennessee early in the year and turned it over four or five times in that football game. We got beat by Florida where we got behind early and just ran out of time.”
Robert Smith rushed for 112 yards and two touchdowns for Ohio State, but Herbstreit completed just 8 of 24 passes for 110 yards and an interception.
“I wish I would've played better,” Herbstreit said. “It was not a great game for me personally, and not that it's not a great memory. I remember back in those days, the Citrus Bowl was a New Year’s Six-kind of game. It was two highly ranked teams and teams that just came up a little bit short on their goals in the Big 10 of getting to the Rose Bowl and the SEC of getting to the Sugar Bowl. And Georgia had a great team, great individual players, Eric Zeier and Andre Hastings, and, of course, Garrison Hearst, Mitch Davis on defense, who that's the guy I probably remember the most because he was chasing me around.”
Davis had two sacks and five tackles. Muschamp, who came to Georgia as a walk-on was credited with one tackle in the game.
Muschamp spoke about how that Ohio State offense compared to this one with a sprinkle of humor.
“It was Robert Smith two back,” he said. “They were only allowed to throw the ball on third down. They are night and day different than what they were then. It was I-formation. They got tricky and got in twins. It’s totally different.”
About that luncheon throw, Herbsteit recalled it this way.
“I do remember it was one of those autographed balls, those white panel balls, and I remember throwing it and not being real happy with how far I had to throw it because I couldn't grip the ball,” he said. “So, I shot putted the ball. That's about all I remember.”
Zeier said he didn’t realize until the matchup for the Peach Bowl was announced that the two storied programs had only met that one day in Orlando.
“The whole world has changed with Georgia football as we’ve taken success to another level,” Zeier said, “but it was one of the Georgia football teams that won the East — we tied for the East. It was a great season.”
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Kirk Herbstreit's Citrus Bowl memories not as fun as Will Muschamp's
