Gary Danielson on Alabama's ongoing struggles: 'I'm stumped on this one'
Gary Danielson regularly has a lot to say about Alabama as the “SEC on CBS” analyst usually calls several Crimson Tide games each season. This year, he’s nearly speechless.
Danielson, like many fans and media, acknowledged that Alabama largely struggling to run the ball against South Florida, and already playing 3 quarterbacks this early in the season is highly unusual. He doesn’t have an answer to explain the ongoing struggles. And Danielson won’t even be on the call this week for Ole Miss-Alabama.
“I’m stumped on this one, I gotta say,” Danielson said on the Miller and Moulton Podcast. “Everybody’s just talking about the quarterback position, and rightly so. That’s modern football, you’ve got to have a guy. But they’ve got quarterbacks they recruited; I don’t know if it’s the pressure of the modern-day social media that has these guys tied in knots. They all look nervous out there. They all look like they’re afraid to make a mistake.”
Danielson recalled previous Alabama quarterbacks, such as Greg McElroy or AJ McCarron, and noted, “You don’t really need a superstar when you play for Alabama. They’ve got plenty of talent.”
And while the Crimson Tide has had a run of super-star quarterbacks, and Danielson noted that the offense became more finesse in recent seasons, it looks to him that Alabama would like to go back and be more like the way Georgia plays now.
“He’s having a tough time right now making that transition,” he said. “To be the way Alabama used to be when they were the most balanced team in the SEC. They just can’t get there right now. I’m stumped as to why. Their offensive line play for the last 2, 3 years has not been physical, and as they’ve tried to become physical again, it’s really, really been a problem for them.”