Gary Danielson CBS sports, college football analyst, kind
enough to join us on here, gonna be on
the call with that. And, uh, Gary
, good morning. How you doing, man?
I'm doing great, you know, chance to really
looking forward to, you know, doing this big
10 championship. I've, you know, got Mike
, you, you've done broadcasting. I've, I've
done about every big game there is to do in
college football. But, uh, this is one
of the last ones I haven't done, obviously,
I've been in the SEC for a lot of years
, but now you get to do this one.
It's a lot of fun. Were you kind of
casually preparing for Oregon and Ohio State before? Kind
of the shocking Michigan upset of Ohio State? Yeah
, I would, I would think so. We
, we pretty much had, uh, flipped highlights
. I was sending them a few plays. I
wanted to feature, you know, like the week
before you always kind of work ahead a little bit
. But, uh, no, I, you
know, listen, I, you know, Mike
, I, I really think this is the best
match up for the big 10. I mean,
the Buckeyes obviously are gonna be in the playoffs and
they'll get to prove what they want to prove.
Ok. But I think for the big 10,
you know, for all those years are talking interviews
all around the country that I, that I do
. One of the criticisms of the big 10 was
. Yeah, but they're top heavy, you know
, it's Ohio State, Michigan and then there's others
, you know, Penn State half the time,
you know, once in a while, Wisconsin,
you know, Iowa a little bit. But I
think this is really good, you know, that
, you know, we're gonna see two teams,
not Michigan, not Ohio State, they've already proved
they can beat everybody in the country. But now
we get two others. I, I think this
is the best long term scenario for the big 10
. Uh, no doubt. And for Penn State
who's been always the bridesmaid, never really the bride
when it's come to some of these big games.
Uh, Gary, I've heard a lot of people
bring up this week. How much of that do
you think is potentially mental? Especially with a team
like Ohio State where they've fallen short so much.
And could that be something that maybe frees them a
little more in a game against an opponent? They've
got less familiarity with? Yeah, I think you're
right. I mean, you know, all,
all athletes, you know, we, we train
hard, you know, we compete hard, we
depend on our teammates. Uh, all of us
that have played, uh, you know, high
school football all the way to the highest level of
the NFL. Knows that a big part of the
game is mental. Look what's happened with the Lions
right now and what Dan Campbell has done with that
football team, they just believe that they're gonna find
a way to win. You know, I go
back and of, of course, there was a
big difference at quarterback. I mean, I was
the quarterback of the Detroit Lions. I was a
free agent and we always seem to be just a
bit short and then the new coach would come in
and he would change the configuration of the huddle or
the day we traveled or that we didn't, you
know, take, you know, uh, just
believe, you know, not paying attention in meetings
, get your feet on the floor. And then
I went to Cleveland and, and everybody kind of
did the same thing we were doing in Detroit,
but they believed the Browns could win. And I
think part of that is what you mentioned is mental
and that's what Penn State has to do. Now
. They caught a couple of tough breaks when they
lost to Ohio State this year. You know,
you throw a really safe fade pass on first down
to conserve the time and it gets picked off.
But the last step of being a championship football team
is believing you're gonna find a way to win the
game. So before we dive too much into this
game, just you've been doing this, this for
a long, long time seeing the transition now from
, uh, a two team, uh, national
championship. Really? You started this when they were
just voting the national championship to a four team and
now to a 12 team. What, what's your
thoughts overall as one conference starts to argue for themselves
and another conference argues for themselves of the 12 team
playoff system. So I think what's really cool about
college football is that opinion does matter? You know
, that's kind of what the, you know,
the real juice of this college football is. You
know, that after the weekend, all of the
tribal people start to get on the, you know
, the message boards and the talk shows and they
start to argue that, you know, people like
Danielson, why did he say that about our team
on Saturday? That's gonna kill us in the ranking
. Uh, you know, that's part of the
coolness of the game, the Notre Dame get just
you two guys are both Notre Dame or the Notre
Dame game. And we thought we really had a
good game against us c and, you know,
pointed out all these great things, but I mispronounced
Billy Shroud's name 123 times, called him Shrew.
That's all they wanted to talk about was that one
thing. But, but that's the coolness of it
, you know, I mean, as athletes,
you can play a great game and get driven out
of the hole one time and you're the goat of
the game at the end of the game. So
I've loved that. I love the opinion, but
I always did have the feeling like there's a little
bit too much opinion at the end for teams that
deserve a chance to prove that they're one of the
good teams and, you know, they actually,
the, the coaches kinda hate change and I remember
when they went from 100 and 35 scholarship to 85
. 0 my God. The coaches just said,
we can't just survive. We, there's no way
we can survive with this. And then they went
, we, you know, we gonna have a
championship. Oh, that'll kill college football. Then
you can't transfer everything. The coaches were slow to
go well, here this time the TV, people
actually push this playoff through and I think it's been
great for college football just there. There are a
lot of things that are still to be solved in
college football but the fact that team like Boise or
Arizona State or Clemson after a few close losses or
Indiana can say, I don't care what the talking
heads say or the so-called experts say we have a
chance to prove it on the field. I think
that's great. Uh, certainly a lot of teams
going to get that opportunity and we've seen a lot
of argument I mean, you spent so many years
in the SEC right now you've seen the three loss
teams that are arguing at the bottom there. II
, I mean, how realistic do you think that
is, do you think that these three loss teams
given the fact that they play in those big time
conferences do have a point when it comes to pointing
at the strength of schedule of a team like Miami
should teams be punished if they lose in their conference
championship game this weekend, the way that some teams
like SMU might be in the position to be like
, I, I don't have a 100% answer for
this. Um, you know, everybody has their
subjective opinion on what matters the most and all the
people on the committee, you know, they're high
character people and they're trying to do the right thing
, but it's so hard to split hairs at the
end of the season. Uh I do think it
matters that when you're playing at the highest level in
these conferences, I mean, look at the NFL
, you know, wild card teams like the New
York Giants have won the, the, the Super
Bowl and the national, you know, the,
the championship. So, uh, yes, when
you're playing great competition every week and you're playing those
tough games, you know, you're not gonna win
them all and it doesn't mean you're not a good
football team and then you try to decide, you
know, whether a two loss team and that,
that, that's tough, but at least we're doing
it between team number 1213 and 14 instead of team
number four and five. And I think that's a
big difference and while Oregon is the only undefeated team
, it, it, it's not like there aren't
a number of teams. At least I would,
I would ask you who could win this thing.
Oregon had a one point win against Ohio State.
They were down 13 to 6 going in the fourth
quarter to Wisconsin before they pulled out that win 16
to 13. So it doesn't seem like they're,
while they're undefeated that there is this runaway dominant team
in, in, in college football. I mean
, that's the story of sports and why we love
it so much, right? You know what I
mean? I, I can just go back so
many times. You know, my time with the
Browns were, you know, Bobby, your brother
was on that team. You know, we,
we had the Broncos 98 yards to go and,
you know, Elway drives him the whole way.
II, I played in games where, you know
, one play made the difference in the Lions making
it. It was a Hail Mary by the Vikings
kept us out of the playoffs with the Lions.
I mean, it's kind of sports. We just
did it with Notre Dame last week. I mean
, Christian Gray is getting picked on, he's having
a tough game all of a sudden they throw a
back shoulder fade. The receiver kind of trips.
Gray catches it with one hand, a tight game
, turns around for a win for the Irish.
I love that stuff. I mean, you know
, you can say what you want, but you're
right. Um, Dylan Gabriel, 1/4 down pass
against Wisconsin or they might lose that game, you
know, that Wisconsin had them going, um,
Penn State against us. C uh Drew Aller 2/4
down plays in the last drive or they don't get
the overtime, you know, so these teams that
are right on the edge, it could go the
other way. But, you know, that's why
we work all off season and that's why, you
know, after the game you sit there and all
that stuff will go on and then the reporter will
stick a mic into your face and go what happened
on that play, Gary when you threw that interception
, you know, so you gotta be ready to
answer that question afterwards. All right. Well,
if we're talking about the questions that will be asked
afterwards, let's get to the game and figure out
what's gonna happen before. No shortage of storylines in
this one. Gary Oregon in their first year in
the big 10 finds their way to the conference championship
. Dylan Gabriel, the conference player of the year
, but you've got Abdul Carter on the other side
, Drew Aller has been great at times. This
year. What are you most intrigued by in this
matchup that you think can swing the balance of the
game? Yeah. So, so number one,
I think is, um, who, who can
take advantage of their pressure point? It always comes
down to this, in my opinion, in these
games, there's one guy that the other team has
to kind of corral and it can break down your
defense if you can't slow them down. Obviously,
Penn State will create the pressure point with two guys
, you know, uh Tyler Warren at tight end
and Abdul Carter on defense and how the offense or
the defense has to adjust to those guys will create
opportunities on the field for other players. So that's
where I would start for Oregon. I think it's
their speed, their overall speed is something that Penn
State's gonna have to match. Now, Penn State
doesn't have a lot of, you know, you
know, guys that can't play high-level football, this
is a really good deep football team, but they're
gonna have to match a veteran quarterback that started what
, 62 football games and elite talent all around them
. So they're gonna have to match that speed on
the edges and if they do a good job.
And then after that, I think it comes down
to that offensive line, you know, I was
thinking about this, that we always measure the effect
on a quarterback. And I think, you know
, Belichick and Saban kind of started this, that
there's two ways to rush the passer, there's a
affecting the quarterback and then they're sacking the quarterback.
I think there's a big difference. I think the
sack produces a lot of, you know, the
team really gets down, the defense gets motivated.
I think it produces a lot of difference in the
game. I read somewhere that if you have a
sack on a drive, there's less than a 7%
chance that you will score on that drive during the
game. So I think it's more than just affecting
the quarterback. I think who, whichever team and
both of them are good at can get 34 or
five facts. And that's the game. That's those
offensive linemen, that's that center not sliding the right
way. That's a blitz that Tom Allen or,
you know, Tosh Lapo will invent that the other
team can adjust and throw those quarterbacks off balance.
I think that'll be the story of the game,
which team can really affect the quarterback and knock him
down in this game. Uh It's certainly gonna be
a big time one. You mentioned the offensive lines
, Oregon, one of the three finalists for the
Joe Moore award that goes to the best offensive line
unit in college football and they certainly gonna have their
hands full with Abdul Carter here. All that get
, if that doesn't get you fired up to watch
football. I, I don't know what will,
uh, Gary we appreciate the time today. We're
really excited to watch you guys on the call for
this one. Congratulations on another great season and we're
looking forward to watching you guys coming up Saturday night
. You know, I admire both of you.
Uh, you know, Bobby first as a teammate
, Mike, all the work you've done, Mike
Junior, you know, growing up and then,
and, and, and doing what you guys do
every day. Thanks for having me on. I've
been doing this for 35 years. I love it
. We're gonna have a big game this Saturday.
Thanks, Gary. I appreciate it. I really
appreciate that, Gary. Thank you.