ESPN'S Kirk Herbstreit is one of the more famous personalities in college football, but it's been his dog, Big Ben, stealing the show lately.
Not many broadcasters travel as much as Herbstreit does. The former Ohio State quarterback is the color analyst for Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime, a commenter on ESPN College Gameday and the top college color analyst for ESPN. That's a lot of miles in only three days. Herbstreit's family often travels with him, and his dog Big Ben usually comes along for the ride.
Well, Ben made his to the highly anticipated SEC Championship game between Georgia and Alabama along with Herbstreit, who was on the set of ESPN's College Gameday in Atlanta, on Saturday. While on the sidelines before the game, Big Ben got to meet another famous dog in Georgia's mascot, Uga.
Here?s the video of Big Ben meeting UGA pic.twitter.com/c1bd1UJuxN
— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) December 2, 2023
Big Ben, a Golden Retriever, and Uga, an English Bulldog, came face to face and sniffed each other for nearly a minute, but as they two handlers began to separate the dogs, Big Ben looked back, sad to leave his new friend.
Georgia has been using an actual bulldog mascot since 1956. This Uga, known as Uga X, is actually named "Que" and has been the mascot of Georgia since 2015. Uga X has been good luck for Georgia, as the Dawgs have won the last two national championships with Uga X as the mascot. Georgia will need some more Uga X mojo on following the SEC championship to be able to get into the College Football Playoff.
If Georgia was to comeback, the Dawgs would have the chance to win their third straight national championship, making Uga X a sure-fire legend around Georgia.
In 2022, the Uga mascot was inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame.
