BATON ROUGE, La. — Kirk Herbstreit worked the front counter at the original Raising Cane’s on Highland Road on Thursday morning, taking orders alongside owner and founder Todd Graves. ESPN’s College GameDay stages its 500th road show two days from now on the LSU campus.
The shift ran from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. CT at the restaurant Cane’s calls “The Mothership.” The building sits across Highland Road from the North Gates of LSU. Herbstreit’s golden retriever, Peter, worked it with him, as did Cane III, the yellow Labrador who serves as the brand mascot.
Graves and Herbstreit took orders at the front counter and in the drive-thru, greeted fans, and posed for selfies with LSU students. They shot football-themed advertising spots for the brand afterward.
Next to the restaurant, the two also debuted a pop-up for Peter Fan Club, a new Raising Cane’s retail line built around Herbstreit’s dog.
Thursday marked the third football season Herbstreit and Cane’s have partnered.
Two 30-Year Anniversaries In The Same Month
Both milestones landed in August. Graves opened the first Raising Cane’s on Aug. 28, 1996. The brand now runs more than 1,000 restaurants worldwide, with a first Mexico location due later this year and a first United Kingdom location in early 2027. Herbstreit made his College GameDay debut in Boulder, Colorado, in September 1996 and is marking his 30th anniversary on the show.
Dallas Sports Journal toured the 30th Birthday Pop-Up Museum when it opened. Admission is free and it runs weekdays from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. CT through Sept. 24. Inside are Graves’ original business plan, the briefcase he carried to banks, the hard hat he wore working as a boilermaker, and the blueprints for the Highland Road building. A statue of Cane III sits on display next to the disco ball Graves hung in the first restaurant to cover a skylight.
Upstairs, Cane’s has restored Apartment No. 4. Graves lived in that second-floor unit overlooking the restaurant, and the company ran its first support office out of it. The Margaret Mae sits outside. Graves worked aboard the 1979 boat fishing in Alaska to help fund the business.
Graves said he watched Herbstreit and Lee Corso on GameDay mornings while running the restaurant in its early years.
“This has been 30 years. This is ESPN GameDay’s 30th year. It’s also Raising Cane’s 30th year. We both started in August of 1996,” Graves said. “And you think about that, and when I had this place going, and we want to be part of football traditionally. We love college football. It’s my favorite sport. I love it. I love the Tigers. I love to watch all of the games that are going on. And Kirk was who I watched in the morning, with Corso and the guys. It brought in GameDay. All of us. And so immediately it was something we resonated with, Louisiana people resonated with. And that’s how it started our day, right? So we had it on and were busy game day.”
Todd Graves On Kirk Herbstreit’s Workload
Herbstreit calls a Thursday night NFL game, flies to the GameDay site, then flies again to call a game that night. Graves walked through that week.
“What I love about Kirk is he started announcing, the commentating. He’s got incredible football IQ. He’s such a hard worker,” Graves continued. “So he’ll do Thursday night football. Then he’ll fly to where he’s going to do GameDay. And he goes from GameDay and then he flies to do where he’s going to be doing competition for the game that night. And he’s the hardest working guy because what people don’t see is all the prep he does and all the time. So he’ll spend today, tomorrow, talking with players, talking with coaches to really understand where they’re at, and that’s why he’s so good at it.”
Graves’ grandfather talked about Walter Cronkite the way Graves says college football fans now talk about Herbstreit.
“For college football fans, we trust Kirk. Kirk’s going to tell us the real story. There’s no fanaticism, there’s no bells and whistles. It’s all really, really good stuff,” Graves explained. “And he’s just a warm guy. And getting to meet him, we just resonate the same thing. Dogs, family, he’s a great husband, wife’s wonderful, great father to his kids. Our kids are friends with his kids. And it’s been really fun doing road trips and seeing other football stadiums and places.”
GameDay’s 500th Road Show And The LSU-Clemson Opener
The Graves and Herbstreit families are spending the weekend together in Baton Rouge.
“It’s great having Kirk and Peter here with us for the weekend. We always have a good time together with our families and I’m excited to get football season kicked off with the Clemson game on Saturday,” Graves said. “Kirk has been a good friend of mine for years and we always look forward to spending time together. His success has always been so inspiring to me, and it’s incredible to be sharing milestones together, 30 years of Kirk on College GameDay and 30 years of Raising Cane’s, and continuing to support each other in everything we do.”
“It’s not college football without Kirk, and I can’t think of a better game to kick off the season. Geaux Tigers!” Graves added.
College GameDay opened its 40th season Saturday morning on ESPN and ESPNU from the LSU campus. The show debuted in 1987 out of ESPN’s studio in Bristol, Connecticut. It did not travel until Nov. 13, 1993, when it originated from South Bend for Florida State against Notre Dame.
It was the show’s 15th visit to Baton Rouge and its first since November 2024. LSU ranks fourth all-time in shows hosted. Ohio State leads with 26, followed by Alabama with 20 and Michigan with 16.
The full nine-member on-air team returns. Rece Davis begins his 12th season as host. Desmond Howard is in his 21st, Pat McAfee his fifth, and Nick Saban his third, with Jen Lada, Jess Sims, and Pete Thamel reporting. Corso made his final regular appearance last season.
LSU hosts Clemson at 6:30 p.m. CT tonight on ABC. Herbstreit calls the game with Chris Fowler, Holly Rowe, and Laura Rutledge.
