ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit has been roasted by football fans over his “MAGA orange makeup” while covering the highly-anticipated Texas-Tennessee football matchup.
The matchup, between top-ranked Texas and No. 14-ranked Tennessee, is being played at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville with President Donald Trump in attendance.
After his College GameDay appearance on ESPN Saturday morning, Herbstreit was subsequently reporting from inside the stadium ahead of kickoff when fans noted his uneven makeup job.
“Someone tell Kirk Herbstreit make up personnel to do a better job,” one person wrote on X as another said: “Kirk HERBSTREIT looks like he has a clown face on today.”
“Kirk herbstreit needs to take his ass back to ulta and ask for a refund,” another wrote, alongside a screenshot showing the analyst’s uneven eyebrows and smattering of orange-colored makeup across his face.
Kirk herbstreit needs to take his ass back to ulta and ask for a refund pic.twitter.com/CBWiHAM9rE
— Man, Unprompted (@ManUnprompted) September 26, 2026
“Someone tell Kirk Herbstreit to fix his make up,” someone else chimed. Another wondered: “What’s going on with Kirk Herbstreit’s eyebrows?”
“Kirk herbstreit got his maga orange makeup on today,” another said. Trump received a mixed reaction from the crowd when he was announced at the game, with both boos and cheers being heard on the broadcast.
As the game kicked off, audio issues plagued the broadcast booth, drawing additional complaints from fans watching at home.
“It’s amazing how Kirk Herbstreit is broadcasting the game from outer space today,” one fan wrote on X while another said, “Every time Kirk Herbstreit talks, my TV sounds like a 1994 dial-up internet connection trying to load a low-res quality of a Super Nintendo game.”
Another begged Herbstreit to “just stop talking bruh your mic is cooked.”
Play-by-play announcer Chris Fowler was even heard telling Herbstreit to “be quiet for a minute” as the audio issues persisted.
The static came as Herbstreit and Fowler were discussing how Trump’s attendance could impact communications inside of the stadium.
Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian spoke earlier this week about how the president’s movements in and around the stadium impact players and coaches.
“They cut the headsets to coaches. They cut headsets for coach-to-player communication. So you have to have a plan for that, if and when it happens, and you get no warning. It just gets cut out,” Sarkisian told The Associated Press.
Ahead of Trump’s arrival at the stadium, fans were encouraged to show up early for Secret Service checks.
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