GBag Nation
College Football Insider Danny Kanell joins the Nation to recap week one of College Football action
Welcome back to G back nation. Thanks for making this part of your day. Let's talk some college football with one of our favorite college football guests, Danny canal here on the fan segments brought to you by window nation go to window nation dot com slash cowboys you can buy to get too free. It's brought to you by cars for kids donate today cars for kids dot org. And this segment's brought to you by the Frankels life's unpredictable accidents happen if you're hurting an accident due to somebody's negligence called the Frankels for a free consultation two one four or eight one seven three three three three three three or jump online to Frankel firm dot com. Danny canal joining us courtesy of bed online check out bed online for updated college football playoff conference Heisman and college football week two lines and a good afternoon. Danny how the heck are you? I was doing better before the season started as a Florida state grad. You know now Oh and two has not been kind but first we get a college football was awesome across the board. So I'm doing pretty good. How about you guys? We're fantastic. And we are licking our chops for this Texas Michigan matchup this coming Saturday. I don't know for you. I mean, I've seen some Michigan fans that they're talking big. Some people are projecting Hey, Texas isn't even going to score 10 points there at the big house. What do you think about this matchup? Well, if I was a Michigan fan and I had just watched that Fresno State game, I wouldn't be talking too much smack after what they put on display in week one. Now the question is was that just an aberration where they had a little bit flat. Maybe they were looking ahead to the Texas game, which I do think is probably the what happened. But Texas going to be in for a physical ball game. That is the one thing that pops that Michigan still does have. Will Johnson one of the best defensive backs in the country? He had a pick six in that game. He's going to challenge Texas is wide receivers, but I cannot wait to watch the matchup sort of the chess match in the game of Steve Sarkeesian, the offensive mastermind going against Wink Martindale, who is Michigan's defensive coordinator, who's there for the first time. He's back in college. He was with the New York Giants. He spent some time along most of his career in the NFL. He's going to have some blitzes dialed up to try to confuse that offensive line to try to confuse Quinn, yours for some Aaron throws. That's to me is sort of the game within the game. Danny, who had a better win? USC or Notre Dame? Oh, that's a great question. I'll say USC, I'll lean USC because I do feel they answered some more questions for me. You know, USC looks so good on both sides of the football. And that was the one thing like Miller Moss. He had six touchdowns in the bowl game, but it was sort of like, well, that was just a meaningless bowl game. Like bowl games don't mean as much. And what he's showcased going toe to toe with Garrett Nussmeyer, who a lot of people think is going to be a top five taking the NFL draft going like trading jabs. Like it was a lot of fun. That game was a ton of fun to watch, but then probably more impressively was the defense for USC, which was absolutely atrocious last season. The last couple years, really, for Lincoln Riley, and they brought in this new defensive coordinator. And they didn't really bring in a lot of new personnel, but they looked physical. They looked well coached. They tackled outstanding. So I thought they were a little bit more impressive not to take away from anything that Notre Dame did, because I thought that was one of those defensive slug best. But I do want to feed their quarterback, uh, Riley Leonard, take another step forward in the past game, both those offenses, but it a little bit. And what I'm trying to figure out is it more because the defenses that were on display, which we're outstanding for is it kind of, you know, some concern potentially for both of those teams on the offensive side of the ball. So I'm going to get myself in trouble because those are two big fan bases with Texas A&M Notre Dame, but watching that game, Danny, I'm just, this is the pretender bowl. These are two teams that come in super hyped every year, but realistically are not going to be competing for anything substantial. Yeah, I would tend to agree with you. This is one of those things about the 12 team playoff, the expansion, it's going to give a lot of team and fan bases a lot of hope, right? Oh, we can make the playoffs and they're going to, but then I think there is going to be a pretty big gap in a disparity in the teams that are going against the top tier teams like Georgia, like Ohio State, some of these really complete teams that are out there. So I don't disagree with you, but I will say this. It sure does feel like Notre Dame punched their ticket. And I don't know if I would have said the same about tech, they and clearly they would have been in a much better position than losing the game, but Notre Dame's schedule is an absolute cakewalk. And I was joking about Florida State, that was supposed to be one of their harder games, who they do play in South Bend. All of a sudden, they might be a two touchdown favorite in that game. And then the team, we were just talking about USC. That's the finale. They know Notre Dame's probably undefeated at that point. They're going to be favored in every game this season. They might be favored in that one. We'll see how it unfolds. But even if they lose that, I do think an 11 one Notre Dame team is in the playoffs, you know, no matter any way you look at it. And he did Nebraska figure out their quarterback situation. Well, it sure feels like it. He looked pretty good. You know, in a blowout, that's always you kind of have to take that with a grain of salt. We'll find out about him because it is a big stage. You know, there's going to be a lot of eyeballs watching that game because they're going against Colorado. We know what Colorado brings to the table. A lot of brash, confident, bold, you know, statement, bold declarations from them and outstanding offense. The thing that I think is going to be really interesting is Bill and Ryall is their freshman quarterback who looked great so far. He's going to have an opportunity against a defense. It got sliced and diced all last year. And then it continued against an FCS opponent where their quarterback looked awesome. So there are going to be some opportunities for Dylan Riola to look really good. But on this stage, you're always kind of wonder, how's he going to respond? Is he going to the lights too big? It doesn't feel like that anyway, whatsoever. So I feel pretty good about him. But there's always that little bit of man. He's still a really young player. How's it going to look when he's out there with, you know, on that type of stage? What about Miami? Are they, are they the real deal? You think I mean, they should be able to win that conference pretty easily. Yes, they should. And they're clearly the front runner right now with the way Clemson looked and then Florida State fallen off the map. But I felt like this season coming in, I was pretty bullish on the canes. They have the best roster that they've had here since joining the ACC. We're talking almost two decades that they've been in the ACC. And they've had talented teams, but this is by far the most talent they've had across the board. And it really does start with Cam Ward, who I thought was the most attractive quarterback in the transfer, a transfer portal market this off season. You saw it on display in Gainesville. He's dynamic. He's cool, calm, collected. He never panics. He did have one ill advised pass that was kind of like, he does remind you of today's quarterback, which is sort of that Patrick Mahone, Kaille Williams style, where it's a little bit more gun flinger type, where you're just kind of going out there. Sometimes there's nothing there. You sit back, you buy some time and you go for that big play. He got burdened on one of those early in the game had an interception, but like most great quarterbacks didn't phase him one bit. He, you know, followed it up. And I would say the only caveat with that conversation is, you know, Florida, how good are they? But I tell you, going into the swamp week, you know, week one opener, you know, it was going to be loud. It was a hostile environment and they embarrassed the Gators on their home field. So I do think Miami is the real deal. Talking about this conference in the ACC, SMU at two and oh, first year in the conference, are they a sneaky team that could maybe even make that conference championship game? Absolutely. They definitely could. That's the interesting thing about the ACC now is there were really three teams coming in that everybody kind of was like, oh, yeah, it's going to be some mixture of these three teams. And it was Miami. It was Florida State and it's Clemson. Well, we saw Clemson, you know, look to struggle mightily against Georgia. Now I do give them a pass because Georgia embarrasses a lot of teams. So we'll have to see Florida State though, and two, and it's like dire times there. So they're out of the race. And then it's like, okay, well, who's going to step up? Georgia Tech looks pretty good. You know, and oh, by the way, Virginia Tech, who was a trendy team to be that pick, they lost a Vanderbilt on the road. So why wouldn't it be SMU at this point? And I got to tell you, a game on the beginning of the season that I wasn't that nervous about all of a sudden that first ACC game with Florida State coming to town. I think they have to feel pretty good about their chances. So yeah, I think Rhett Lashley's team has to feel as good as anybody right now in the ACC. Danny, when you looked at Alabama, Kalen DeBore, as it's usually Alabama will schedule one or two games where they kind of get their, you know, get their bearings and stuff. But how would you assess the Alabama's coaches debut? Oh, it was as solid as you could get. I mean, I do think like if you were really nitpicking, there's some concern that you do have. You know, a couple of big plays were there that Western Kentucky's quarterback missed. But I mean, talk to Oregon who barely beat Idaho and F.C.F. squad, you know, talk to North Carolina State who was losing in the fourth quarter. Bama was in control of the game from start to finish. They looked apart. And that's kind of what I believed all the time. I know people like Georgia, people like Texas. I do too, but do not count out Alabama. They will be in this race come November towards the back end of the season. They'll be a factor. I don't know if they're good enough to be that national championship contender just yet, but absolutely think they're in that conversation. It's one of the 12 teams that, you know, are getting that invite at the end of the season. Danny is Clemson. We were talking about ACC and it just kind of clicked with me about Clemson. As you mentioned, is Davos sweetie getting punished for not playing in the transfer portal game? Yes, I there's so I love Davo and I love its philosophy. I used to have that philosophy probably 10 years ago that, you know, I didn't really like transfer guys. I viewed him as quitters. I saw him as guys that didn't want to be into the long haul. And you know, kind of the old school mentality of, yeah, I want guys that are homegrown, that are guys that came in together and you keep a class together for four years and five years. That is all changed. I've adapted. I've adopted myself. I've changed my philosophy. I've adapted today's game just in the perception of the way I view teams. Most every coach in the country, I don't think there's anyone that has just ignored it. It really is the equivalent of an NFL franchise saying, you know what? We don't want to tackle a free agency. We'll just win through the draft. And it's like trying to win a fight with one arm tied behind your back. I do hope because I kind of root for him in this kind of bucking the trend and doing it more old school. I think they can rebound because their talent is there. They do have a ton of foreign five stars across their roster. But I thought you saw the depth get exposed because for a half, they were right there with Georgia, right? It was just an ugly game, low scoring. And then they get out score in the second half with some of the depth starts to come to the forefront. So yes, I do think Davo is being way too stubborn. And it's not like he has to turn into beyond Sanders and bring in 50 new players. He could just pick and choose five or six guys, bring him in at positions of need. No one will get upset. It won't disrupt the chemistry in the locker room. And they can hopefully get back to where their fan base wants to be. And that's being one of the national title contenders. See, the thing is this is where it gets tricky. Clemson can be good. I just don't think they can be great until he adapts his mindset. Danny, which is the season wears on? Which games are you excited about? And I'm not asking specifically the games, but are you more like the these big 10 teams traveling to like the old Pac 12 teams? Are you know, we got like Michigan going to Seattle to play? Are you more excited about that? Or what's going on? Maybe in the SEC with Texas and Oklahoma? Or even what's going on in the big 12 with some of these now cross the country matchups? Give me all of it. All of it. The one thing that I would like to see change, and we saw a lot of them on display this weekend, and it kind of hurts those smaller schools. I'm kind of done with the, you know, let's see, Ohio State play Akron is a 49 point favor. We saw multiple SEC teams put up 60 and 70 points versus FCS schools. I just what I really would look forward to is when there's power four, which is what you know, power four now is what we're calling it, where there's 10 power four games, you know, that's what you have on your schedule. And then you get two games where you can take a break. There are too many right now. The SEC still only plays eight. The ACC only plays eight conference games, and then a lot of them schedule lighter opponents to kind of pad your records. But the reason, you know, and I'm more old school. I didn't love seeing the Pac 12 dying. I don't like seeing losing some rivalry games, although we are getting back an incredible one in A and M in Texas. But I am a fan of the match ups. Like you could just go down the list and look at Penn State traveling to USC. Like that game is going to be phenomenal. Ohio State going to Oregon, you know, in October. There's match ups across the board. Bama, excuse me, Georgia going to Texas, Georgia going to Alabama, which has already been there, but there's just so many games that are really key match ups. I just want more of them. I'm a little bit selfish, because I'm like, let's get rid of some of these blow outs. Give me more of those match ups that are so compelling with some of those big brands going head to head. Well, we want more of a Danny canal talking college football. We'll take it whenever we can, Danny. Thank you so much. Enjoy the games, buddy. Oh, you guys are awesome, man. Great catching up. We'll talk to you soon. Enjoy the game this weekend. Salute Danny canal brought you by bed online. Time now for Krusty's corner, brought you by reliant air conditioning, gimmick free, AC repair and replacement brought us where you taking it? Yeah, I'm going to talk to you about this Cleveland Brown offense. We'll