There's not many analysts out there who can talk on a chalkboard with Sean McVay and Andy Reid and Lincoln Riley and Josh Hipel and Steve Sarkigian other than Gary Danielson. And he can do that because of his vast experience and he joins us on exus and Bros.
Gary.
Thanks for the time. How are you? How are you and your family?
I'm doing great, Mattison. It's been a long time. It's great to talk to you. It's kind of a cool time to be in Michigan. Sports are rolling pretty good there as.
Aren't Yeah, you're always been a big Tigers fan. This has kind of caught you a little bit, hasn't it.
Yeah? Absolutely, you know, I grew up in Michigan. I mean we used to go down to the ballpark. That's a pretty funny story. I think it's either in Madison or nineteen eighty three, eighty two something in that area, you know. And the Tigers are just starting to roll, you know, Gibbie and Trammel and the boys, Jack Morris and of course I'm playing quarterback for the Lions, and we're up and down like we were and my days. You know, Dad, everybody at school or just you know,
we got Tiger stuff. I wish you played for the Tigers, you know, like that, I said, Honey, turnout see that pool in the backyard. That's pretty good there. Yeah, it's kind of funny, but I love them all. We used to go to red Wing games, Piston games when they were downtown at Coobo, you know. So yeah, I'm a detroiter.
Yeah, And of course you did that successful show with with Gibby for so long. I enjoyed being with Gibby in my years in the booth and actually just played golf, played golf with your buddy Elisier at the other day. So you're missed, but you're absolutely missed. But we love watching your work because you're so good at what you do. And your partner is my favorite play by play guy. I can promise you. I mean that sincerely. I think he's phenomenal what he does.
He's a pros pro, you know, it's funny. He's done a lot of big things. Brad nessler As and I've been charmed, as you said, you know, I've got to work with you know, Hall of Famer Vern Lunk was Hall of Famer Bret Musburger. But but Brad is going to be a Hall of Famer as well. So in my thirty five years of broadcasting, I'm going to be working with three Hall of famers. Or that ain't bad this our fifteenth year and again so's.
Yeah, well, well it ain't bad that they're working with you either. Tell me, well your impressions of Michigan. You guys did a phenomenal job against when we called the Michigan USC game, which I think surprised a lot of people, but it was, you know, all about their ground attack. Is that sustainable for them moving forward or they're going to have to find a little bit more than just the run game.
Yes, and I think they will. I said during the broadcast that Michigan's going to be a much better team in decemmer met than they are right now. But they need to just survive right now. And that was the move that had to be made. I think all of us anticipated it. But you're right, you know, the big ten is, you know, Sleepy getting better. I mean just like kind of you know, Illinois better, Rutgers better, Penn State better than a year ago. I you know, returns
twenty one starters. You know, they can play that game. So it's not going to be easy to play continue to play just one dimensional football. But I'm sure Alex will Orgie will get better. He has to get better. I think one thing, and it surprised me about this Michigan team because we know Michigan fans and the program themselves, they measure their season's success by you know, big ten run championships or getting into the playoffs. It kind of
let that quarterback position be unprotected. Let's hope Alex Orgy is the guy, and you know, let's let's if he needs help, and for Michigan fans, maybe Davis Warren can settle down and be back up. But you know, transfer players have been really good an important part of college football, and Michigan has taken advantage it. Look at Josiah Stewart the game he's had transfer, Housman barm inside, they're left tackle, Hnton the transfer. I'm surprised they didn't understand, you know,
that position. Seems like they could have looked in the transfer portal just to protect it a little bit more. Maybe they'll be right, but there's a lot of games to be played, and sooner or later they're going to get the need to throw the ball from the pocket.
Yeah, it has to be more than Jack Tuttle transferred. And I agree with you one hundred percent. We've said that. I'm surprised it's happened that way from Michigan, but there's something that you know, they've got to deal with. Gary Danielson, CBS Sports Football Analysts since two thousand and six, ESPN from ninety through ninety six, ABC ninety seven through two thousand and five with us here on Exues and Bros. Michigan State is in an interesting spot right now. It's
almost like a grace period. I really think Jonathan Smith is the right guy. What's your impression of him as a head coach?
Yeah, hundred percent. I love what he did the similar type school, you know, Oregon State. You have to be a developmental program, and he was not just a flash and dash air raid throw the ball every down and a lot of those coaches are doing that to move up the ladder because athletic directors love the hire guys that can produce points. His team was tough, they ran the ball downhill. He's really good with coaching the quarterback.
I think he has a vision of what Michigan State could be, and I think, I really think this is going to work for Michigan State in the long run.
Here, their quarterback, Aiden Childs is only nineteen. He doesn't that what he starts under his belt. I want to know from you, as a college and a pro quarterback, how do you help fix a young man's delivery and or decision making? What's more challenging and how do you go about it?
You know, that's really interesting question, and I think of so many things when you ask that question, Matt. You know, when I went to Purdue, I was seventeen my freshman year, so I played as you know, there was no red shirting. Then, you know, eighteen, I started as a sophomore. Then nineteen,
I was a junior already. And it was really one of the big regrets in my life that I wasn't the type of focused athlete that I became as a pro, where I was totally dedicated year round at helping my team be as good as I could be to help him. So how do you do that with a seventeen, eighteen, nineteen year old I wasn't mature enough at that point. But it's a little bit of everything. You know, I
played with Bernie Kozar. He didn't have the greatest delivery, but Howard Snellenberger didn't change it and it worked for him. I look at Alex Orgy, there's no really problem with his delivery your stuff. He just kind of learn that the different you know, the different parts of being a quarterback, how to lay it off, how to move in the pocket comfortably, and how to use his gifts more naturally. The guy at Alabama, Jalen Millroll, has learned to do that and Kalen Divor is doing a good job to
continue that. So you know, Jonathan played quarterback, he has to tweak it, which I don't think he can overhaul a guy where he becomes uncomfortable. But you're right. You know, we covered Oregon State and we knew that Aiden's going to be a tremendous athlete. How does he learn how to do it? Just give another example. I covered Jayden Daniels at Arizona State, and you know he showed potential, but it wasn't until he was refined five years later
at LSU and look what he did last night. So it's a journey, but you have to be careful not to try to do too much with the throwing motion. In my opite you know.
It's it's so it's always been this way. I suppose it's really your position is the only position. You go to Pro Football Reference and you see it's the only position where you get wins and losses connected to it. Yeah, and it's way too often where we're read into that. But I've talked with NFL general managers like you have, and they have told me, if you don't have the trigger, you spend your entire career looking for them.
Right.
Has it gotten out of control at the NFL level where you're paying guys like Jordan Love, who I like, don't get me wrong, but doesn't have He's nine and ten in his career, He's got nineteen career starts and he makes He's one of the highest paid players in NFL history. How do you reel that in if at all?
I guess it's just the marketplace of what it does. You know. I had a really good buddy that I ruined with with the Lions with Tom Skud and I think he was on a Frank Beckman show to tell you that sheuth one day ball all the way back and some caller called in because I think Tom was holding out, and said, you know, I'm sick of you athletes all this money. He goes, you know, he goes, I'd like to play baseball, and Tom goes, you know, I'd like to play football, and Tom goes, yeah, I know,
but if you could, you'd do it. There's just not a lot of guys. And that's how the story goes. Why should a Major League baseball play a second baseman five million dollars and he's only hitting two twenty And I always say, because if they could find somebody to twenty one, you'd be unemployed. So that kind of goes with that situation, you know. So yeah, it is what
it is. But it does make the fans more frustrated when you see somebody, you know, you go to a concert and you pay all that money and that that performer isn't you know, you don't have Taylor Swift competing against Adele and pick a winner. You know, this time, every time you play, there's a winner. But you know,
that goes with the quarterback position. One more thing about that position that I tell young quarterbacks when I go to camp, it's the only position in sports where you're at to perform at the highest level and also orchestrate the whole you know, orchestra at the same time. You're the conductor and one of the musicians at the same time,
and that just goes with the territory. And then on top of that, after the game, you have to walk up to that microphone, protect your teammates, say the right things even though you're dying, about the mistakes you made and things that were made, and make sure that that fifth quarter doesn't upset that locker room going into the next game.
I'm so glad you brought up the entertainer because my argument to people when they say this all the time, as I say, how come you never complain that Samuel Jackson makes twenty million dollars in movie? Yeah, how come you never complain that Barbara streisand charges, you know, fifteen hundred dollars for a ticket. Go watch her in concert, and she may have a scratchy throat and may not sound at the top of her game. I paid money to go watch David Lee Roth and Van Hanlin. David
Lee Roth was drunk on stage. Okay, so it's funny. It happens strictly with athletes, and especially with quarterbacks, you get Wisconsin, USC.
I believe this weekend, right you and Brad on CBS Sports, Do you like that the four teams from the PAC twelve are now part of the Big Ten?
And if so, why.
So? One of the things we talked about during the game was, you know, like this thing seems to be working pretty good, even though there's no real commissioner driving you know, all the decisions, and it kind of reminds me of our great country we live in, you know.
I mean, there's the invisible hand of capitalism at work here, and somehow the TV networks and the commissioners and people involved in the game, the fourteen playoff and some of these contests, and the sophisticated fans going you know, I don't really want to tune in and watch USC play Arizona. I mean, I want to watch the best play against the best, and somehow, you know, I think it's working. Nobody's in charge. Maybe nobody needs to be in charge.
We should just trust the people going out there and make capitalistic decisions. And I think this is really going to work. I hated the fourteen playoffs. I was laughed at by saying four would be worse than two, and it was because it exposed conferences needlessly that they weren't involved. I think it was the downfall of the PAC twelve, but I think it was natural that this is going to kind of gravitate. It's almost like your kids, you know, when some kids play double a hockey, some kids play
a hockey, and then there's triple a hockey. I think it's great the way it's going. I like the transfer rules. I like the idea that a kid coming out of high school maybe doesn't get the scholarship from Michigan or Notre Dame, but he goes and plays at Toledo or Western Michigan and then he finds out he's better or good enough, and then he transfers up. I think we're
on the right path. They're going to fix this nil stuff, But overall, I think this big tent expansion thing is going to work perfectly.
Yeah, I agree with you, but I do think it's really important that the mid major programs get the opportunity to make those paydays that really last them and their entire athletic programs the entire season.
Yeah, that's a good point. I think that will still happen because these major blue bloods need some wins. They can't have their team play an NFL schedule every week. They just don't have enough players on their team so or at least that play at that level. But I think the twelve team playoff is great, you know, I really did. You know. So it's going to go to fourteen the end. You know, Michigan's going to have going to have a shot at this. We're going to have
to improve obviously a quarterback. But this is going to be a fun run through this fall watching this Michigan football team.
Final thing for you. You and Brad Nessler and you and Verne Lunkaz were the staples of SEC football. Right, You've got Alabama Georgia. I don't know how much you miss that on a regular basis. You're doing games every Saturday. It doesn't get a whole lot better than that. But you do have Alabama Georgia this weekend. How excited should people be for that matchup? And what do you like most about it?
Yeah? We did a few of those, you know, SEC championship games, and yeah, they're quite a thrill, you know. I mean, we did the Game of the Century Alabama LSU nine to six, and then we did the Joe Burrow to a game LSU Alabama, And this is just like these things. I mean, there's a lot of good
football players in a conference. And when I talked to the commissioner, to Tony Pettiti, who was at CBS when they when they hired me, Isaac commission CC is not backing up in style of football or excellence of football. You got to improve, and I think they are. It'll be a great matchup. But for me personally, as you mentioned, I'm just thrilled to be able to do a game. I mean, I've been thirty five years of doing top
play games. The first game I ever did Matt was Miami at BUYU and ty Deetmer one the Heisman that day at the first game of this thing. So it's been a great run. And sooner or later I'm gonna run out of things to.
Say, but so far, I don't think so. I look, you're doing it because you're the best at doing it. I don't say that just because you're with us. Lastly, you had mentioned during the broadcast you said you don't think there are better play callers than Lincoln Riley, Josh Heipel Steve Sarkushian, and I found that to be really interesting. Who are the best defensive coordinators? Who are the best guys?
Oh wow, challenge that. Well, Kirby was one of them, you know, he grew up under Nick's and they were good at it. I mean, Michigan has been very interesting. The path they've taken, going the Ravens, the Harbaugh connection here has really changed their look of their team. They let me back up just a little bit. After I was playing NFL football for sixteen years, I never watched one college game in sixteen years. I was busy trying
to survive in that league. Okay, so when I got my first job, I turn on the tape and I go, oh, they crap. These teams are terrible. To watch the NFL tape. Well, the game is morphed a little bit now, the sophistication of college. Even the pros are copying college offenses. Martin dal walks right into this Michigan defense and using these same type. Now they don't do it as well, but the styles have kind of morphed now. So yes, there's a lot of good ones around. I mean, I'm off
the top of my head. I can't give them to you. But you know, Dan Lynn, it was under that same tree over there at UCLA and now at USC, so they're all over you know, Bobby, they do it a different way. The Parkers over at Iowa. They do it with that Tony Dungee soft cover too. Look, you know I shouldn't put soft and that into They kind of lull you into thinking it's soft. But it is fun to watch those teams. And I'll tell you another one, the whole D'Antonio tree for Michigan State. The way they
played it and did it. Michigan State is in that conversation of great defenses. So that's what's fun about doing college football. I'll load up here now I've gotten familiar with USC, but I'll start at Wisconsin. I'll bet you know as many names right now as I got the general Luke Fickle feel of it and Paul long Ago and how they're changing. But you start at ground zero and build your game plan.
So good and so enjoyable. Thanks for the insight, I really enjoy it. All the best to you and your family. I'll make sure I say hi to Eliaaah, Rob Rubik and all your friend's back here. Keep up the great work man.
All right, thank you very much, Matt, appreciate it.
You bet. Gary Danielson with us here on X's and Bros. What a treat man, incredible knowledge,