What Gary Danielson said is different with Georgia football in 2023 & SEC on CBS last year
Gary Danielson will be in the CBS broadcast booth for Saturday’s Georgia football game against South Carolina.
This is the final lap for Danielson in the SEC. CBS won’t broadcast their games after this season with the conference tied in with ESPN/Disney in its next TV deal. Danielson has called SEC games since 2006.
The ‘Big Ten on CBS’ package already began as Danielson and broadcast partner Brad Nessler called the Ohio State-Indiana game week 1 and UNLV-Michigan last week.
More: Rams don't offer specifics why former Georgia football star Stetson Bennett is sidelined
More: Kirby Smart leans in on question about Georgia football fans. 'Tonka called them out'
Danielson, a former Purdue and NFL quarterback, spoke with reporters Wednesday. Here are excerpts:
Calling Big Ten games again after years working the SEC
"I love doing football. You guys know me. I think you do. I’ve never pretended to be an SEC guy. I’ve never pretended to be a Big Ten guy. I try to do Xs and Os the way I see it and let the chips fall where they may. I really enjoy doing college football. I like putting a puzzle together like this game is. … Football is football to me. In the big picture of it, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity in my career — I know there are some NFL jobs that pay a lot of money — I get it. I know there are some high-profile jobs like Kirk (Herbstreit) and Joel (Klatt) have that their the lead for their network and those are great jobs, too. But I don’t think anybody has had a better job than I’ve had it in the last 17 and now my 18th year here at CBS."
Georgia football stacking up with Ohio State and Michigan
“I think Georgia has lost a lot. It’s an interesting combination that we’re going to talk about. There’s no doubt that they play like their coach coaches. They take on that personality. They always have. I don’t know how many times you do one-on-one interviews with Kirby (Smart). Kirby’s tough on anybody. You walk into his room, you better be ready, you better be prepared. He doesn’t small talk. I like it, but you have better have your facts together, you better be able to produce around him. … They are different. They may end up being NFL ready players, but I thought the last couple of years I thought they had NFL players that were playing college football. … This year I think that there’s a lot of talent here that will eventually be that type of player but I don’t think a lot of them are that way right now.”
On key pieces he sees gone from Georgia
“They lost I feel three key parts of their offense. When you lose your offensive coordinator (Todd) Monken, you lose your quarterback (Stetson Bennett) and you lose Darnell Washington. We’re going to talk about him on the broadcast. … He’s unique in a way like the old style tight ends used to play in the NFL in my mind. Without changing or substituting, he’s a sixth offensive lineman on the field that can go out for a pass and it was a very tough matchup. I know how good Brock Bowers is, but I thought what made them unique was a veteran quarterback who had the trust of his NFL type play-calling offensive coordinator and a tight end that made their offense a mismatch. So I think they’re different this year. You’ve got an inexperienced quarterback instead of a fifth- or sixth-year player at quarterback. I’m anxious to see how the offense evolves. Carson (Beck) has tremendous ability, but there was a part of Stetson that the team believed in it and enjoyed rallying around I believe his personality. … There’s no Jalen Carter out there. They’re good, but I bet when you guys write this or however you put it out there, Kirby will put it up on the locker room, but that’s just the way I see it.”
On being sensitive to shilling for SEC teams through the years
“It kind of goes with the job. My first interview back at Big Ten Media Days was with the Big Ten writers beat writer I’ve known a long time, Angelique Chengelis (of the Detroit News), and we were both from Michigan. I’ve known her for 40 years. Her first question was you do know that you’re coming back to this league as a villain, right? I went, ‘I think I could find a couple of million people in the SEC who don’t consider me an SEC guy that might be able to take your call here.' Everybody kind of likes to be respected and loved but I think the way the SEC has had success in the last 17 years, it’s made the SEC the villain of everybody."
SEC down after losses by LSU, Alabama and Texas A&M?
“I think it remains to be seen. It’s the first time they have been able to talk about it in a while. They’ve been winning all of these early games and they’ve been carried by the SEC West, the bell cow side of the conference. The emergence of Georgia now has given the conference strength, but it used to be that they’ve been able to hang their hat on those early September wins. These three losses are big. Three bell cow programs in this conference. Had Georgia been able to play Oklahoma, maybe there would be a little different conversation here going, but right now, you can’t argue… Those automatic tiebreakers that used to go to the SEC at the end of the year and that argument for No. 4 will be a little harder for the SEC to say we’ve got this in the bag."
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Gary Danielson sees loss of Darnell Washington big for Georgia football
