Veteran analyst Gary Danielson to retire, but are SEC football games better without him?

USA Today

03-04-2025

Veteran analyst Gary Danielson to retire, but are SEC football games better without him?
Veteran college football commentator and longtime SEC television analyst Gary Danielson announced last week that the 2025 college football season would be his final year in the broadcast booth.
By the time he wraps his run at the end of the 2025 season, Danielson will have spent 20 seasons on CBS Sports' broadcasts of college football games, all but two of them with the network's "SEC on CBS" package. He made the announcement after one season of calling Big Ten football games for the network.
In a statement addressing his decision to step down after 2025, Danielson said:
"I have had the greatest seat in the house for 36 years and have loved every minute of it. I have discussed the timing of this moment with CBS Sports leadership over the past few years and we felt it was important I remained with the team during our transition to the Big Ten. As we enter our second full season of Big Ten football and my 20th at CBS Sports, the timing just feels right ... I have been blessed to work with incredible teammates throughout my career and I look forward to one more memorable season with Brad, Jenny, Craig Silver, Steve Milton and the crew."
The SEC moved its broadcasts off CBS following the 2023 season after reaching a 10-year rights broadcast agreement with ESPN and ABC back in December 2020. CBS announced in 2019 that it was dropping out of the running for a rights extension with the SEC, which had been on the network since 1996.
But are SEC football games better without CBS -- and Danielson?
I'm not sure how many in SEC country are likely to pour one out for Danielson. But for me, last year's games on ABC/ESPN lacked something that CBS (and Danielson) brought to the conference every fall Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
The graphic work, crowd shots, all-around presentation and big-game feel that CBS provided the SEC simply outperformed last year's conference slate on ABC/ESPN. So did the commentary.
"SEC on CBS" broadcasts felt different. Special. On ABC/ESPN last year, they at times felt like, well, just another college football broadcast -- only with the late Tom Petty's "Runnin' Down a Dream" instead of CBS' unmistakable intro and theme song.
Danielson, both fairly and unfairly an all-too-frequent target of Alabama football fans, joined "SEC on CBS" broadcasts in 2006. It was at a time when the conference, particularly Alabama, was on the eve of an unprecedented reign over the sport. Seven straight SEC national championship seasons, three of them won by Nick Saban's Crimson Tide, were soon to follow.
Danielson's recurring "Garyisms," like his unabashed love and repeated references to Florida Gators legend Tim Tebow through the years, became stale and tiresome to many. I get that.
That wasn't the only recurring theme. How many times did Alabama fans hear Danielson exclaim during a broadcast: "Gotta have a HOT quarterback if you're gonna beat Alabama! Remember, TEBOW was the first to do it! Stephen Garcia and South Carolina did it two years later. Nick Marshall did it for Auburn in 2013. Does (fill-in-the-blank) have a Stephen Garcia game in him?!"
While Danielson took a lot of heat for his perceived SEC favoritism (something he's repeatedly pushed back on), even that pales in comparison to one ESPN/ABC commentator in particular.
Did you watch last year's Clemson vs. SMU matchup in the ACC Championship Game on ABC? If so, you'll no doubt recall Sean McDonough shamelessly working overtime to pom-pom the selection committee into putting 11-2 SMU in the 12-team College Football Playoff ahead of Alabama or Ole Miss. A game the Mustangs ultimately lost.
Did SMU belong in the playoff? Yeah, inasmuch as the final participant in an expanded playoff will ever "belong." Alabama had only itself to blame for ending up in the Outback Bowl, and that was before a dreadful performance against a five-loss Michigan team.
Still, viewers didn't need McDonough sermonizing the masses for four quarters and afterwards on how poor SMU deserved a seat at the grownups table. The point is, if Danielson was going to be labeled an SEC homer, it's worth pointing out that McDonough wasn't exactly Switzerland on the eve of the final CFP rankings reveal.
Danielson had a front-row seat to the SEC's sheer dominance for the better part of 18 seasons, six of which ended with Alabama hoisting the national championship trophy. For Alabama fans, those 18 seasons included lots of highs and lows.
The highs were Alabama 21, LSU 17 -- an instant classic won by the Tide on a thrilling T.J. Yeldon run off a screen pass from A.J. McCarron with 51 seconds left on the clock inside Tiger Stadium on Nov. 3, 2012. There was "Rocky Block" (2009), "Gravedigger" (2023) and a heart-stopping escape against Georgia in the 2012 SEC Championship Game as time expired on Mark Richt's Bulldogs.
Some of the lows were the "Game of the Century" against LSU at Bryant-Denny Stadium in 2011 and "Kick Six," one of the most agonizing moments in Alabama football history at Jordan-Hare Stadium in November 2013.
But they all included Danielson and his unique, one-of-a-kind commentary that for better or worse, depending on the viewer, won't soon be duplicated.
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