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, can't, uh, 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, man, I think you're right. I mean, you know, all, 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 seemed 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 Sr'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 him going, um, Penn State against the 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? 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 him 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 whoever, 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.