Upon further review, the speaktherights.com College Football Picks for this weekend turned out pretty good.

Ten games picked….ten winners.  I had faith in the Mississippi teams.  Thanks to Adam Disque for bringing my belief in Mississippi State to fruition.  It is just a little tough to call Cowbell State a winner.  I did, in my last past, give them credit.  I said they might be the best of the bunch.  They might be.

2014 will long be remembered as the year of the Magnolia State.  Ole Miss and State are for real.  They have all the motivation they need.  They just need to look at each other.  Let down?  I don’t think so.  That is why this is going to be so interesting.  If Ole Miss can get by LSU and Auburn, they might win them all.  Might not.

Today’s AP Poll has State leap-frogging Florida State to claim the #1 spot.  Ole Miss is #3.  That is just fine.  As a Rebel fan, I prefer that.

The Marshall Thundering Herd comes in ranked #25 in the Associated Press Poll this week.  It is the first time the Herdsman have been ranked since 2002.  The folks in Huntington are happy and they should be.

At this writing I am sitting on the couch looking at the New York Giants play the Philadelphia Eagles.  Eli Manning, my favorite player, is the quarterback of the Giants.  They are down 10 to 0 right now.  Eli just got sacked by Vinny Curry…an Ole Miss guy sacked by a Marshall guy.

The College Football Predictions total is:

57 good picks

13 bad picks

My dear wife, Carrie, and I visited Faith Harbor United Methodist Church this morning.  When one is out of town, it is good to have a nice church to go to.  Pastor Duke was out of town this week and did not give the message. He was there this morning and it was good to see him.  Another member of the church, Mr. Vaughn, brought forth the speaks.  He did a great job.  Faith Harbor is full of friendly folks.

I look forward to bringing forth some speaks of my own this week on this very site.  I have a few things I feel we need to revisit and I am looking forward to it.

Have a great week.

Speaking the Rights.

Danny Johnson

I sponsor a SONGWRITING CLUB at the school where I work.  We have minimal club time; we make the most of it.

When quizzed about their 5 favorite songs, a couple students included Beatles’ songs.  I was impressed.  Another student included a Train song among his Top Five.  This kid is going to go somewhere!

I, however, was the only lost one in the room.  I must admit the majority of the songs they listed and the artists they listed were truly lost on me.  I did not know who many of them were and the song titles were not familiar at all.

One thing I am trying to impart to them is that they can write a song if they want to.  I am living proof.  The best part of it is these kids are in their early teens.  I was nearly thirty before I wrote songs proper.

Today I played my group a song that I had recorded.  We were discussing how emotions are so prevalent in songs and how themes often present themselves in both lyrics and music.

They were spot on in diagnosing the wherefore and the why of the song I played them.  It is a tune called “When We Could See the Wind”.   I wrote it with my high school chums in mind.  It kind of tells the tale of how we rarely see each other compared to the whirlwind force we once seemingly produced together when we would walk into a room.

The first verse says:

We’ve seen better days for sailing

The leaves are listlessly falling down

When I look back I can still see us

I can see those leaves swirling around

Days when sailing waters were stormy seas at best

Now looking outside my window

I see that breeze has come to somewhat of a rest….

I really enjoy this song.  It doesn’t make me sad.  It makes me glad to know I have such great friends…even if we do just get around to seeing each other a few times a year.

In a couple of weeks I am going back to the recording studio to demo a couple new tunes. I am so looking forward to that.

Have a great weekend.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

There is not much more than can be said here to add to the grandeur that was last week’s college football scene.

Straight to the picks…I am up against a deadline here.

Iowa will beat Indiana…the Hoosiers won’t go to Iowa City and pull the upset.  The Hawkeyes are still a good team and they are about to find their stride.  The Hoosiers are not steady enough yet to pull this off.

Kentucky will beat Louisiana Monroe…the UK faithful are still enjoying a win over the South Carolina squad as well they should.  The Cats get to come back to earth gradually starting with the Warhawks of ULM.

Marshall will beat Middle Tennessee… the Herd is rolling up big numbers and will continue to do so in this home contest.  Rakeem Cato needs a TD Pass in this game to tie the record for consecutive games throwing a touchdown….38.

Oklahoma will beat Texas…the State Fair Classic…I don’t think they call it the Red River Shootout anymore because it is not politically correct to talk about football, colleges, and guns.  Still the Sooners will score enough to leave Texas hurting.

Mississippi State will beat Auburn…the Cowbellers may be the best of the bunch.

Clemson will beat Louisville….the indoctrination of the Cards into the ACC will continue to be a bit painful.  The Tigers will be spitting out feathers before the end of the 3rd quarter.

Notre Dame will beat North Carolina…they should and they will.

East Carolina will beat South Florida…but the Pirates beware…the Bulls will be a test.  Still,  things in Greenville are looking nice as the locals are enjoying a season for the ages.

LSU will beat Florida… The Tigers are smarting after two whippings in a row.  Tiger Mike will be ready to tame the Gators…even if they are in Florida doing it.

Ole Miss will beat Texas A&M…the Year of the Rebels continues for at least one week.  They got a view from the top of the mountain and they are not ready to give the sight up just yet.   I don’t care if there are 106,000 fans there are not…the Rebs will not be denied.

The season total heading into Week 7.

47 Good Picks

13 Bad Picks

Picking…and speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

College Football is dominating the sport scene this fall like it never has before.

Is it because there has been a kind of playoff system put in that will pit the so-called best four teams in a two game semi-final leading to a definitive final National Championship game?

Did anyone think about how the 5th best or the supposed 5th best will be left out just like any other scenario college football has tried to bring forth?  If they did, they made a pact not to talk about it.  This is the year of the unexpected.  There will be a team left on the outside looking in come playoff time and we’ll find a reason to complain about this system just like we did the BCS and the Bowls of old.

I am still dumbfounded that the Ole Miss Rebels and the Miss. State Bulldogs are tied at #3 in the land in the Associated Press Poll.  Do you know how long Mississippi fans waited for this time…can you say forever?

I personally liked the old bowl system we had for eons that led to National Champions voted on by the Associated Press and the United Press International…the AP and UPI Polls.

I still want to see the SEC winner in the Sugar Bowl.  I still want the PAC 12 (10) Champ playing the Big 10 (14) Champ in the Rose Bowl.  I want to see the Big 12 (8) Champ playing in the Orange Bowl.  I want to see the Southwest Conference Champ playing in the Cotton Bowl.  Uh, never-mind…the SWC got absorbed into other conferences years ago.  So much for wishful thinking.

I guess I just miss watching Notre Dame playing Houston in the Cotton Bowl as they were led by Joe Montana.  I miss knowing that it was probably going to be either USC or UCLA playing Ohio State or Michigan in the Rose Bowl.  I miss watching Oklahoma run the triple-option in the Orange Bowl.

Listen to me….I miss this and I miss that.  I sound like some old fart on a park bench.

How can I say this after seeing the best weekend of college football we have seen in maybe forever.  I hear there is still research going on trying to find out if there has ever been a College Football Saturday in which Alabama, Nebraska, Michigan, USC, and some other school all lost on the same weekend.

I guess I am pitiful.

No…I am not.

Baseball is pitiful these days.

I remember when Major League Baseball playoffs were the talk of the land.  We all watched them.  I suppose we all watched them because we didn’t have 40 football games playing on TV  the same Saturday the baseball playoffs were on.

What is the problem?

Baseball takes an actual attention span.  That is the problem.  I see folks looking at phones and mashing buttons and expecting to get the answer here and now and faster than they got it yesterday.

Baseball doesn’t work that way.  It is a slow and meticulous game.  It still is, thank God.  It is a game of subtle nuance, as strategy is played out on every pitch.  It is still a great game…even though it is no longer America’s Pastime.  It is more of America’s past.

Pro Football?  I have never cared less about an NFL season than the one that is going on right now.  The league stinks.  Too many off the field problems.  Too much whooey.  Teams are building leads and getting beat in the last second.  It looks like the USWA Wrestling I grew up watching.  Just when you thought a guy was gonna win, here comes someone off the top rope!  If Eli or Peyton aren’t playing, I might not watch.  I am more inclined to exercising in the basement as I watch Hill Street Blues on DVD.

What I miss are those October nights when my Dad and I were watching playoff baseball and my Dad was telling me what pitch he thought was coming next.  He was always partial to the curve.  Here’s to you George Brett…Reggie Jackson…and all the members of the Big Red Machine.  Oh, and Steve Garvey.  And Jack Morris.  And Jack Buck.  And…

Speaking the Rights.

Danny Johnson

Granny and I watched Football today.

I should have taken a picture.  I did not.  There we were, Granny and me, watching the Indianapolis Colts on television as Andrew Luck took care of business as only he can.  Where is there a stronger, more confident fella passing the football?  You won’t find him.  The Colts won 20-13.  Actually, I was the big winner.

For as long as I can remember my grandmother, Flo Johnson, has been keeping up with and watching pro football on Sunday afternoons after church.  She has lived in Indiana for the last twenty years.  Before that she lived all over…my grandfather retired from the military.  In the mid to late 1950s they moved to Shreveport, Louisiana.  Granny lived there until she moved to Indiana in 1994.  Living in Shreveport you were most likely a Dallas Cowboys fan.  Big D is the closest pro football team to Shreveport.  Check out your atlas and you will find that New Orleans is much farther than Dallas.  Grandma loved rooting for Roger Staubauch and Tom Landry.  When my grandfather was alive he was good for one game a day then he would go to the other room and watch Big Valley or Gunsmoke.  Granny can watch as many games as the television will put on.  I understand this.

“Get him!”  That is Granny’s signature phrase when it comes to football watching.  She likes to see the runner for the team is rooting against go down hard.  She’s tough that way.

Like I said, I wish I had taken a picture of us sitting there watching football together.  It was a very good time.  There aren’t too many guys my age that can say they spent part of their afternoon watching football with their grandmother.  I am a blessed man.

OLE MISS BEATS ALABAMA and other tales…

Wow.

The Ole Miss Rebels defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide on October 4th of this year (2014).  It was a long time coming.  What is the best thing about it?  The Rebs overcame adversity in the form of a no-call facemask that cost them a touchdown at the end of the half to make the score Bama 14 Ole Miss 3.  I thought that was it.  After that play I felt like the Water Pistol that shoots Jelly on the Island of Misfit Toys.  I was certain we were going to have to wait until next year.  Then, just like when Rudolph guides Santa’s sleigh back to the island to pick up the misfits…Bo Wallace led his offense methodically and without major error and while he was at it he picked the rest of us up and carried us to the smiling side of the scoreboard.  Ole Miss 23  Alabama 17 Final.  This is a memory I hope I never forget.

After the game I called my Mother and Father.  They were in Mississippi attending the family reunion.  They watched the game, of course.  Some of my relatives were at the game.  I am so happy for them.  The house where my folks were staying, Uncle Bob and Aunt Nell’s place, was a jubilant place.  You could feel it over the phone over 600 miles away.  I say it again.  I am happy for them.

Later in the evening I called my Ole Miss Football watching buddy….Aunt Barbara.

Aunt Barbara and I have seen some good times and bad times when it comes to Ole Miss Football.  We’ve attended Ole Miss games together at Oxford, Jackson, and Lexington over the years.  The last one we saw together was Eli Manning’s senior year in Oxford the day they beat South Carolina 43-40.  In 1999, my son Jarrett and I went to see Ole Miss play Georgia with Aunt Barbara.  That day we saw Eli, a red-shirt freshman, walking through the Grove as the team was heading to the stadium.  I remember thinking he could use a few biscuits for that frame of his at the time.  Needless to say, it has worked out for him.  Georgia won that game 20-17.  It was a heart breaker.

Yesterday though, Aunt Barbara and I could have talked all night about the big win over Bama.  I am so glad she was able to see it and we could talk about it later.  I have a feeling we will be talking about this one for some time to come.

Ole Miss is 5-0 for the first time since 1962.  I read that the new AP Poll for College Football is out for this week and Ole Miss and Mississippi State are tied at #3.  Good for the Magnolia State.  When the media wants to make Mississippi out to be a nice place for a change, it doesn’t take near as much effort as it does to make the place look unpleasant.

The Speak the Rights College Football Predictions for Week #6 went quite well.  Nine wins one loss.  The one loss?  Can you believe it…Kentucky beat South Carolina.

I was the one that gave South Carolina all the love in the preseason.  They have not acquiesced.  I did call for Ole Miss to win.  I called for State to beat A&M.  The Indiana Hoosiers played well and whipped North Texas.  I think the boys from Texas were cold.  And the Marshall Thundering Herd….they won 56-14.  It wasn’t that close.  Hope they get their chance to play Cinderella in the post-season.

Right now we stand at 47 wins and 13 losses.

THE CORNER KING CLASSIC

Kelly Samons, Gus Stephenson, myself, Mick Rutherford

It took 19 holes…but I outlasted Gus in this year’s 15th annual Corner King Classic played at New Salisbury National Golf Course.

In earnest, I did not think I had a chance to win.  I was playing horrible…more so than usual.  At the end of 18 we look at the scores.  Gus and I were tied.  We went back to the last hole to play it again.  I bogeyed.  Gus doubled.  I won in a playoff.  It was a Corner King Classic first.

None of that really matters.  What is important is that I had a chance to play golf with these guys again.  We laughed.  We laughed some more.  Then we got together and had a hearty meal that my dear wife, Carrie, prepared for us.

Looking down the 8th fairway.

Mick Rutherford does a great job of addressing the ball.  He thinks they have previously met.

What matters is that we get together and remember our friend the Corner King, Todd Lincoln.  We all miss him so very very much.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

How can we be at week six already?   Well, it is October.

How can it be October already?

The air will be cooler this weekend all across the land.  In Oxford, MS the gametime temperature is planned for the upper 60s the last time I checked.  That is frosty at 3:30 in the afternoon this time of year in Mississippi.

You know things are heating up in college football when all the conference teams are playing each other and a degree of separation for conference supremacy is on the line.   You ask me the best division in football…I’ll tell you it is the SEC West followed by the NFC West.

Ole Miss will beat Alabama… Let’s just get this out of the way.  As disappointed as I was when Peyton Manning and the Broncos last the Super Bowl, I will be just as delighted.  I wrote in an earlier post that it is the Rebels time.  I watched a documentary about Chucky Mullins this week for the first time.  It alluded to the “this is our time” theme.  I believe this will be the one Rebel fans have been searching for.

Marshall will beat Old Dominion….This is ODU’s Super Bowl.  They will be ready to play.  They could give Marshall some grief early.  Marshall seems to start when they feel like it.  When they do…look out.  If they get going good in the first quarter, the score board might need another battery before the game is finished.

East Carolina will beat SMU…I feel bad for the Mustangs.  They will be no match for the Pirates of ECU.  Coach Ruffin is doing a great job.

Mississippi State will beat Texas A&M… If you root for the Rebels you probably won’t root for State.  I am indifferent.  No…I hope A&M whips them!  I don’t think they will.  State will beat the Aggies.

Virginia Tech will beat North Carolina…I have a penchant for the ACC.  I made note of that in a previous post.  Though North Carolina is our adopted home state, the Tar Heels need help.  They will get it eventually.  Beamerball wins out.

Indiana will beat North Texas…Up and down.  This week is up for the Hoosiers.  They need it to go to a bowl and stay out of the toilet bowl…where I think they will be by season’s end.

Auburn will beat LSU…my brother in-law, the legendary Stevarino, asked who will win this. I told him the Tigers.  The Auburn Tigers that is..not the Bayou Bengals.  Though it will be close…the homers come out for a reason.

Virginal will beat Pittsburgh…Mike London has done a good job with a UVA team that had low expectations.

South Carolina will beat Kentucky…UK, like IU, is victim to a natural order of things.  Steve Spurrier will not be beaten by Kentucky.  If he does…he will not coach another season.

P.S. I had faith in South Carolina at the beginning of the year.  They have been a major disappointment.

Michigan State will beat Nebraska…I predicted Sparty to have a good season.  It does’t stop this weekend as they handle a Cornhusker team that will make too many errors.

So far we are 38 wins and 12 losses with our speaktherights.com College Football Predictions.

This is a great time of the year.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

My Mom and Dad have the car packed and will be hitting the road in the morning to head to Mississippi.  On Saturday, October 4th, the Hines Family Reunion will be held outside the town of Forest.  It has been this way for as long as I can remember.

The Hines family is a unique lot.  My maternal grandparents were made up of Walter Earl Hines and Levi Jane Robbins Hines.  My Grandmother Hines died in 1965.  Ironically, on the day of the reunion Saturday she would have been 114.  Granddaddy Hines died in 1979.  I remember that time.  It was the last time all of their children were together.  I am proud to say I was there.

There were seventeen Hines children.  Same mother.  Same father.  Same patch of Central Mississippi.

My mother, Tressie Hines Johnson, is the youngest of ten girls.  Eight of those girls are still around.  Most of them will be attending the reunion.  These girls had seven brothers.  Three of these gents are still with us.

I suppose the greatest regret I have in the time I have traveled on this orb is that I don’t know any of my cousins all that well.  I can’t tell you off the top of my head how many first-Hines cousins I have.  I don’t know.  I think I could find out very easily.

Why have I not had close relationships with my cousins?  Proximity would be a good…safe answer.  I am in Indiana and they are not.  A scarce few of them have ever stepped foot onto Hoosier soil.  I can’t blame them.  What is here for them?  An aunt and uncle and a few cousins they know little about.

Last fall I was very excited when Dale Fulton, the husband of one of my first cousins, and his son Cam came up to do some deer hunting.  Cam and his family came first.  He did some scouting.  Later he and his Dad came to hunt.  I remember walking through a cornfield explaining to Cam how delighted I was that he was there and how he was the first of the Hines branch that I had ever walked a cornfield with.  It was a special time.

We’re all busy.  We all have our own lives.  We all have our own interests.  We cousins.

We also have a great deal to live up to and that is kind of intimidating, to tell you the truth.  This Hines family is the stuff of legend.  A Mom and Dad that had seventeen kids living a life of meager economic means…but plenty of love and life’s lessons to live on.  They went to church on Wednesday nights, Sunday morning, and Sunday night.  I used to do that too when I was a kid.

Seventeen kids.  Not a single Aunt or Uncle I can look at a say weird things about.  Oh they may say side-bar things about us grandchildren or even the ones they married.  Still…when you are among this group you know you are in the presence of greatness.  I can’t say that very often.  Perhaps I should look a little harder.

Perhaps I should just shut my mouth and be thankful that I can convey anything about a special family like the one brought forth into this world by W.E and Levi Jane Hines.

Speaking the Rights, indeed.

Grandson-Son-Nephew-Cousin (many times over) Danny Johnson

My niece, Katie, is a better writer than I am.

I read  a piece of her writing that appeared in the local paper last week and it made me feel like I need to go into typewriter maintenance.  It was that good.

Here’s the thing…Katie is a freshman in high school.  Her command of the English language and her ability to turn a phrase with so much ease it slides like a Scrambler at the fair in slow motion is a joy to take in.  Though it was just a few solid paragraphs, what she offered was a portent of goodness to come.

Katie’s writing acumen is so far ahead of the ballgame compared to most youngsters her age it is amazing.  I know a thing or two about the various abilities you will see when grading…and sometimes just try to get through an essay written by a 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade student.  I have assigned and graded thousands of them in the past twenty years.

My prayer is that Katie continues to make progress.  I hope she develops a thick skin.  Sooner or later she will run into a red pen that wishes it could write like she can.  Press onward, Katie.  Take your lumps and at the end of the day…remember what a wonderful gift you have.  Your friends may not always understand why you are toting around a notebook and writing down this and that.

One day they will.  We all will.  I am looking forward to it.

Speaking the rights.

Uncle Danny Johnson