Danny Kanell, CBS Sports HQ Football Analyst

I believe we have Danny Connell right now on the line. Excited to talk to the former college and pro quarterback. And he joins us today via our friends at BetOnline. And make sure you check them out for updated college football playoff conference, Heisman, and college football week 8 lines. Danny Connell, always great to have you on.

Appreciate the time. How you been? I'm great.

I don't know if you can tell this right here behind me. Let's see if I get that is Ohio stadium. I am in Columbus and very rainy, chilly, like it just actually rains significantly. And then it just flew through, but I'm here doing some stuff with CBS sports HQ as well. Here for the game.

Cannot wait. There's already that electricity kind of pregame vibes here on a Friday, but it's great to be with you, man. Well, I appreciate it. So all year long, I've been saying Michigan's the best team in the Big Ten. Then I put Penn State over Ohio State. But heading into this week, I kind of woke up and I go, I'm confident Ohio State and I don't trust James Franklin to win a big game. Where's your confidence level at on Penn State, maybe walking into the shoe this weekend and getting the job done? Well, you must be a believer of history, right?

That it does. It does have a tendency to repeat itself. James Franklin has not had success in games like this, whether it's road games versus top 25 teams, road games versus top 10 teams or anywhere versus top five teams.

He has not had much success historically. So I totally understand why you'd go back saying, you know what, Ohio State, they've kind of owned this game. James Franklin's won an eight straight up in these since he's been the head coach of the Nittany Lions. So yes, the other thing, both of these teams, I feel like I don't know too much about either one of them.

Like this will be a very revealing game for both of them. But I do feel like I've seen Ohio State tested more. They got on the road against South Bend against Notre Dame. They did get the win. Kyle McCord needed that big drive late in the game. He completed that third 19. That was a huge career defining moment for him. And he completed that pass against Maryland.

They were tied up in half. He had to come out through three touchdowns in the second half. So I feel like I know more about Ohio State, what they're going to do when they face some adversity. Penn State has been so good. They're blowing out their opponents, but they really haven't been tested in an environment like this. And Drew Allard, first year starter, he's been solid 20 total touchdowns, zero turnovers. But he hasn't been in an environment like this.

So I don't know exactly what I'm going to get. This whole sign stealing scandal that's going on, your interpretation of it is what with the Michigan Wolverines? Doesn't it feel a lot like the baseball scandal?

I mean, it really does, because there's some similarities. For one, both sports have always been trying to steal signals, right? This, you know, stealing signals has always been a thing in college football. You know, opposing coaches will try to do it on game day.

They'll try to go watch the TV copy, even the broadcast copy of games to try to take notes. But then all of a sudden you cross this line that sort of, it is a rule, but it also is an unwritten rule. Like you just don't send scouts out on the road and possibly with video cameras and try to take it to this level. And it feels like the Houston Astros. Always in baseball, we've always seen that sort of, you know, the game within the game.

If you're not cheating, you're not trying. If you have a runner on second, you're trying to see those signs from the catcher, but you don't use electronics. You don't use the broadcast during a game and bang on a trash can. It feels very similar where Michigan just took it to a level that you're not supposed to.

What is fascinating is we haven't seen this before. We haven't seen anybody got caught doing this before. So what does the NCAA do? Like, what is the punishment for this?

How serious could it be? We truly don't know. And I'm sure you're aware of this, Zach, because the NCAA never moves quickly on anything. Does it impact anything? Yeah. Does it impact anything this year?

I have no idea because we don't know. I mean, there's now I'm starting to see there's pictures out there of this analyst who is actually, you know, on the sidelines. They have picture of opposing stadiums, but I really am curious to see what type of evidence comes forward and how significant a penalty could be for the Wolverines when I think they are the best team in college football. We're here at Ohio State. I do think Michigan is the best team in college football right now. You better be careful in the environment you're in when you say those things, Danny. I don't need to see you get beat up on this show with nothing that I could do.

Just being here with you on Zoom. So the Michigan thing to me, it's impossible to not just look at what happened this offseason with the recruiting violations and say, is this the NCAA making this a you-know-what swinging contest and trying to be petty here once again, where the NCAA usually ignores a lot of things. And if this wasn't Harbaugh and this was another coach, maybe they would have just swept this under the rug and not made this that big of a deal. Your thoughts on that?

So I initially that was my hunch, too. Like, man, you know, Jim Harbaugh has been very combative with the NCAA, very critical. He's called him out. I think he thought the entire investigation was a joke. You know that, oh, I have to go get a hamburger, you know, cheeseburger with a player and I got to worry about that. And there were some other more serious allegations. Charlie Baker was quick to point that out, that it all wasn't over a cheeseburger. But there is a contentious relationship. So it felt like, really, you want to try us?

Well, we'll show you. And Charlie Baker, the new president in NCAA, he has an opportunity to really kind of put his foot down and so that we're not going to get pushed around. But the more that I've heard about this, I do think, again, another similarity with an NFL scandal, similar to the Flakgate, when the Colts told on the Patriots, you're starting to hear other anonymous coaches within the Big Ten saying, enough already.

Like, this is kind of ridiculous. This was such the kind of secret that everybody knew was taking place. My hunch is that it was another team that turned in Michigan or think about the turnover on staffs. Maybe there's a former staffer who was disgruntled, maybe didn't get a raise or left somewhere else and now their competitor. There is a ton of movement in college football coaching circles. So my hunch is that somebody handed this to a silver platter on the NCAA. And then you talk about that relationship, the NCAA is like, all right, yeah, this is great information.

We'll go ahead and act on it. So it's probably a combination of both. Do you think that person has a very dark beard and maybe walking around the campus that you're on right now and name could be Ryan Day, potentially? It absolutely could be. It wouldn't surprise me at all. I mean, the rivalry runs deeper than just a little friendly trash talk. I mean, it is super competitive on the recruiting trails. There's a lot of negative recruiting that takes place. There's always animosity between these two schools. It wouldn't surprise me at all. And I'm sure you saw the circulated video. I think Greg Ciano has now Rutgers is officially kind of said, no, that was about the officials in that game, but it was kind of odd.

He didn't, you know, why not call out the officials as opposed to saying there are some weird things going on. That to me says that might that might have been Greg Ciano calling out the signals, you know, signal stealing controversy that's taken on. But yeah, it wouldn't surprise me if it was Ryan Day one bit. How about Florida State this weekend? I know Duke may be getting their quarterback back.

That's still uncertain. We know a high Florida State has had a really good season, but Mike Elko has done a good job at Duke. How do you kind of think this game will play out to any canal? I've been telling Florida State fans don't don't get cocky, don't get confident. You know, overconfident in this matchup because Duke is a really good football team and they have to overcome the perception of being a basketball school.

It's just a reality of the situation. And they haven't been very good historically. I mean, this is the first time they've traveled to Tallahassee ranked in the top twenty five since nineteen ninety four when I was the quarterback. That's how long ago that was.

So it's, you know, and Mike Elko and they're trying to overcome that. But if you go watch the film and you see what they did against Clemson, you see what they did against Notre Dame. They went toe to toe athletically, physically and every phase of the game with those programs. So I think Florida State will have their hands full. I am very kind of relieved that Riley Leonard, if he does play, I still think he'll be limited with what he can do. And he is an athletic quarterback like running is his strength.

And if he's even if he does play, which I don't think he does, but even if he does, he will not be one hundred percent. And if you can't run the way he was able to against Clemson where he took over the game, I think he has limitations. So I like Florida State to win in a lower scoring game because I think Mike Elko is a really good defensive mind. I think he'll be able to slow down Florida State's offense a little bit before state had so many weapons.

But I think he'll be able to provide some sort of a headache for Jordan Travis and company. So now with the Brock Bowers injury, Danny Connell, and he'll be out four to six weeks, who knows if he does return for Georgia with winning two national championships and already having his NFL future set up. People are now sort of back in on Alabama. They play Tennessee this weekend. Does Alabama run the table and they are live to make the college football playoff, in your opinion? I don't think so, but I've been sort of down on Bama this year, not believing their national title contender. And, you know, after Texas, I was feeling pretty good about it, but it's still Bama.

They still have so much talent. But my biggest concern was at the quarterback position when we didn't know it. It's like, man, if they have three quarterbacks behind, they brought in, you know, Todd Buckner from Notre Dame.

It just felt like there was some issues there. Now, Jalen Milro has settled in as the starter, but they're only averaging thirty point one points per game. That's the low, the fewest points per game since 2008 for the Crimson Tide.

So they are not the same team offensively. I think they have enough to win. Tennessee is not the same offense they were last year. I think Bama will win this weekend, but I do like Tennessee with the points. But then keep an eye out for the LSU game because Jayden Daniels is playing as good as anybody in the country, even with two losses. I think he's playing good enough to win the Heisman Trophy. So I think Alabama will slip up one time before the season's over.

So I don't think they make the playoffs or win the SEC. By the way, what's going on with you and Coach Prime? Because I love Danny Connell. I also love Coach Prime. And I see the two of you just going back and forth with one another.

I feel like I am the child in a parent divorce here between the two of you. So I'm going to clear something up because I have a lot of people that are like, why do you hate Coach Prime or why do you hate Colorado? I did not like, this was I think right in the preseason or week one, when Deion Sanders kind of distanced himself from Florida State and wouldn't acknowledge that he was a Florida State Seminole. But I called him out for that. And he kind of responded. There were some things going on. He wasn't happy that he wasn't given the opportunity to be the head coach at Florida State.

And, you know, it's no secret now. So I was unhappy with the way he handled it. But then we kind of put that to bed. Then I was, you know, I don't think I was over the top, but I just didn't think Colorado was worthy of some of the attention they were getting. And Deion Sanders Jr. came out and kind of slammed me on social media, calling me a derogatory term that rhymes with a garden tool that you use out in the garden.

I cannot, you know, I don't know what kind of language you can use on here, but we'll keep it clean. So he came after me and here's my thing. So I go back to I love to talk trash in locker rooms like and I always thought it was fun. And I understand why they like to talk trash, too.

But I'll give it back. So when they lose or when they beat a team that's one in five and they're out there celebrating the other team's face and indoors, putting up his watch and doing the celebration, I'm going to call it out. And when they lose to a team like Stanford, I'm going to give it back just like they give it out when they're winning. And for whatever reason, and I think this is mostly Colorado bandwagon fans who don't really follow college football because I'll get into the SEC fans. I've gotten into it with Oklahoma fans. I've gotten into it with even my own families, Florida State.

I like to go back and forth and talk a little smack. But for whatever reason, the Colorado fan base does not take take it very lightly, like they take it very serious. So I posted the video of the Saturday Night Live skit, which I thought was hilarious. I didn't think it was derogatory towards Deion.

I thought it was funny, but they thought it was me slamming Deion just because I reposted the video. I think Deion has been great for college football. I think Sidor Sanders has done a phenomenal job.

I think Shiloh Sanders is an incredible defensive player. I don't have any problem with them. It's the bandwagon fans that have hopped on board and are so sensitive. They've got to get some thicker skin. That's who my problem is with.

All right. Before we let Danny Connell run, tell me what you're doing today with Beto Line. Just out here pumping the games this weekend, man. They have so many fun lines that are out there. Heisman odds, championship odds, you know, regular game time odds.

But they also get into some of the specialty lines, too. It's always fun, man. So check it out.

Betonline.com for all the different action. He is Danny Connell. Danny Connell, you be careful on that Ohio State campus, all right? It's starting to rain. I don't know if you noticed, I moved under the umbrella here. It's starting to rain. I hope the weather clears up. I think it's supposed to.

It is a nasty, ugly Big Ten fall day right here in Columbus. Well, here's the big thing. Is someone holding your umbrella like Rodney Harrison two years ago on Sunday Night Football? No.

Is this by yourself? It's on a stand, so I have that. No personal umbrella holder. Look at that.

A very bougie Danny Connell with this umbrella holder on his stand. Danny, appreciate the time. Thank you. You got it, Zach.

Have a good one. You got it. There he is. Danny Connell joining us on CBS Sports Radio. We will take a break. We will come on back to five questions, five answers, little onsides, offsides. Zach, I'll pair with you on CBS Sports Radio.