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Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Danielson breaks down Georgia, the SEC, Spurrier
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former Purdue and NFL quarterback Gary Danielson is set to begin his third season as the analyst on the SEC game of the week on CBS with Verne Lundquist. Their first assignment of the 2008 season will be Saturday’s showdown between Georgia and South Carolina in Columbia.
First on a CBS conference call and later in a private conversation, I had a chance to visit with Danielson on Tuesday to discuss Georgia and the rest of the SEC. Here are a few highlights:
1. On the importance of the Georgia game to South Carolina and the future of coach Steve Spurrier:
“This may be THE game of Steve Spurrier’s coaching era at South Carolina. If you look at Spurrier’s history, he is not one to stress or go back to fundamentals for a big game. He tends to search for something to pull out of his hat. The Florida people will tell you about the 1997 game with (No. 1) Florida State when he rotated quarterbacks on every play. I think South Carolina is an extremely talented team. These guys don’t lack talent. They just aren’t getting it done. But I also think South Carolina will be more comfortable playing Georgia. South Carolina has already played N.C. State and Vanderbilt and I don’t think Georgia’s opponents-Georgia Southern and Central Michigan-compare.
2. On Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford, who appears poised for a big year:
“When I watch quarterbacks work our I rarely say “wow.” But with Matt it’s kind of like the other players on the PGA Tour who watch Tiger hit tee shots. It gets their attention because they see something they can’t do. When I watch Matt I realize he has something that I didn’t have. He also has more weapons around him now. He has also grown up. He has become a man in all parts of his life.”
3. On the injuries at Georgia to OT Trinton Sturdivant, DT Jeff Owens, and FB Brannon Southerland:
“When I look at a team I try to rank their top players 1 through 22 in terms of importance. And if you were ranking Georgia’s players obviously Stafford and Knowshon Moreno would be the top two. But somewhere in the top six you would probably have Sturdivant, Owens, and Southerland. When you lose three of your top six players it has to have an impact.”
4. On whether or not the SEC will play for the national championship for the third straight season:
“I think there are five teams—Southern Cal, Georgia, Oklahoma, Florida, and Ohio State—that are basically going to separate themselves from everybody else. And over the course of the season things are going to shake out. The strength of the conference will be the tiebreaker at the end. Two years ago Florida got the nod over Michigan because of the strength of the SEC. Given the fact that the SEC has won the last two national championships, you have to believe that if it comes down to several teams with only one loss, the SEC is going to win that tie-breaker. Under that scenario, I can’t imagine the SEC champion getting left out of the game.”
“The only addition I would make to that list of five might be LSU. Their top 21 players can line up with any team in the country. And if they get something out of the quarterback position, they are going to be very, very good.”
5. The impact of the spread offense in the SEC:
“I’ve been on record, and I’ve kind of been out there on a lonely limb by myself, but I think the spread offense has peaked. I think teams are now going to go the opposite way. I think Michigan will be the last team to go to the spread. When your quarterback gets hit as many times as a quarterback does in the spread, you just can’t afford it. When your quarterback gets hurt, you not only lose your running game, you lose your passing game. Look at what happened to (Florida’s Tim) Tebow at the end of last season.”
Bonus point, No. 1: The question was about the fact that Spurrier, in his fourth year at South Carolina, has yet to develop a better than average quarterback:
“Steve Spurrier without a quarterback? I’ve heard a lot of good analogies. It’s like Barbra Streisand with a sore throat.”
Bonus Point, No. 2: Former Georgia All-America David Pollack, who now works for the CBS College Sports Network and 790 The Zone in Atlanta, was on that conference call yesterday. He was asked which play was the more athletic: His now famous takeaway/touchdown against South Carolina in 2002 or Knowshon Moreno’s leap over a Central Michigan last Saturday?
Pollack has a sense of humor, which is why people like him. Pollack’s NFL career was cut short by a serious neck injury and he used the question to poke fun at himself:
“From an athletic standpoint Moreno’s play was the best, hands down. My play impacted the game more. If I had done that (Moreno’s play) I would have broken my neck sooner.”
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