For the third year in a row on the same weekend in August,  I am sitting on the porch ready to speak the rights about the upcoming College Football Season.  This is usually a marathon of a post, and I know many of you don’t care about the ACC or how North Texas is going to fare in Conference USA.  Given that I nearly dislocated my right shoulder today (it still hurts) moving a piece of furniture with my brother-in-law Stevarino, all I can say is read on anyway.  I am here for the team.

As has been the case in the past, I will post college football predictions each week.  I pick games based my opinion of the outcome, though my heart may lead the way now and again.  With that said, know that I do not pick and will not pick games based on point spreads or overs and unders or sideways.  Gambling and football don’t live together with me.  I just plain love the game of football.  I always have.   I have played it.  I have coached it.  I have called high school games on the radio.  My Dad coached it.  I know football better than I probably need to.

Personally, my college football allegiances have not changed.  I root for the Marshall Thundering Herd.  Reference one of the earliest posts to find out why.  With family roots running deep in Mississippi, I pull for the Ole Miss Rebels too.  I attend at least one game at Indiana University out of a combination of loyalty, obligation, and pity.  And I also attend hoping they will win one more.  Last year when I prefaced the Atlantic Coast Conference Section, I made mention of how the Duke Blue Devils give cause for Indiana Hoosier fans to take heed and stay optimistic.  Little did we know they would meet in New York City for the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium late last December.

In the third paragraph of last year’s preview, I wrote the following sentence:

“I still dream about one day seeing a game at The Rose Bowl where UCLA plays their home games.”

Yesterday I received these in the mail:

Here’s the thing.  I want to go to The Rose Bowl to see a game.  My Dad wants to go to The Rose Bowl to see a game.  The crosstown rivalry game between UCLA and USC is a game that captured my imagination as a child.  If you are not going on January 1 to THEE Rose Bowl, and I doubt I see the Indiana Hoosiers in it as I have been here 48 years and it hasn’t happened in my lifetime, then the UCLA-USC game is the best thing going.  Dad and I will be there, as he would say “Lord willing and the creek don’t rise”, on November 19th.    My thanks goes out to Jasmin Rowland in the UCLA Athletic Department for helping me with making this trip the best it can be.  Mostly, thank you to my dear wife, Carrie, for looking at me and saying you and your Dad need to make this trip.

Now…let’s get down to business.

THE ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE

A nod here to my friend Brian Smith.  Brian was in my office this week and noticed my University of Louisville Mini helmet on display.  He enjoyed the fact that the UK helmet was smaller than the Louisville one.  Symbolism knows no bounds.  And for this year, Brian will be a happy man.

I will continue to root for the Duke Blue Devils.  Coach Cutcliffe is still there and could be for life.  If he enjoys Durham as much as I do and can find peace with not being the microscope darling of the sports world that the guys in the basketball gym are, he may be there for life.  He doesn’t have to win much.  Kind of like coaching at Kentucky.  If the team stinks in October, most of the attention is not on you…it is on the sound of basketballs bouncing down the road from the football stadium.

THE ACC ATLANTIC DIVISION

1.  Louisville:  Call me nuts and see how it turns out.  Lamar Jackson for President.
2.  Florida State:  Because Clemson got’em last year and they won’t stand for it.
3.  Clemson:  An injury or two will hurt them and so will overconfidence.
4. N.C. State:  They are hungry in Raleigh and Notre Dame comes to town.
5.  Boston College:  A downer last year lead to some hard work.  They’ll be better.
6. Wake Forest:  A kind non-conference schedule should help out.
7. Syracuse:  I drove through Syracuse this summer.  Heard basketballs

THE ACC COASTAL DIVISION

1.  Miami:  Coach Mark Richt is back home wondering why they weren’t winning.
2. North Carolina:  Coach Fedora has them on the rise.
3. Virginia Tech:  Coach Beamer will be missed; they’ll play in front of 150,000 at Bristol.
4.  Georgia Tech:  That running game is getting caught on to.  Don’t fumble.
5. Duke:  I am afraid the Dukies are going to get it handed to them now and again.
6. Pittsburg:  The upside?  Same coach…so far.
7. Virginia:  I hope I get this one wrong.  Coach Ruffin McNeil is on the D side of Cav ball.

THE BIG TEN

 

The best thing the Indiana Hoosiers have going for them is Purdue.  The Hoosiers will not be the worst Big Ten team in the state of Indiana.  If not for basketball, these two teams would be working on their second season as members of Conference USA.  Harsh?  Yes.  But the football has been that bad.  Well, maybe worse, Purdue got beat by Marshall last year.

I gave IOWA the love two years ago and used restraint last year.  The Hawkeyes then went 12-0 in the regular season.  I was delighted.  I was sick when they laid an egg against Stanford in the Rose Bowl.  Another good reason to go toThe Rose Bowl when UCLA is playing USC.  You don’t have to see the Big Ten team get whipped in the Pacific Time Zone.

The balance of Big Ten power is still in the Big Ten East.  Michigan and Ohio State.  Where they go, so goes the power.  But so also goes Michigan State.  They are no slouch either.

BIG TEN EAST

1.  Michigan:  All that blowing off Coach Harbaugh does will pay off.
2. Ohio State:  Great team has Oklahoma on the road and going to Sparty.  Tough stuff.
3.  Michigan State:  The two big boys ahead of them visit East Lansing.  Interesting….
4. Indiana…Call me optimistic.  Defense?  This blind squirrel will find some nuts this  year.
5. Penn State…their meeting Nov. 12 with Indiana will decide if this is flipped with them.
6.  Maryland:  Goofy helmets…Oct. 29 meeting at Indiana will be good day for Hoosiers.
7. Rutgers:  New York Big Ten Network Dollars franchise.  Big Ten in New Jersey?

BIG TEN WEST

1.  Iowa:  Still like them.  Coach Ferentz has done a great job keeping ship together.
2. Swissconsin:  Schedule is tough LSU at Lambeau?  It’s true.  They will rebound well.
3. Northwestern:  Coach Fitz has a brutal schedule.  The Wildcats are getting better.
4.  Nebraska:  I have committed treason here. Hope my friend Tom Osborne isn’t reading.
5.  Minnesota:  Hope Goldy climbs up soon.  I like this bunch.  Coach Kill will be missed.
6.  Illinois:  Coach Lovie Smith is three years away…if he stays that long.
7. Purdue:  Purdue?  Purdon’t.

You can bring the whole family here and have a great time…with room to spread out!

 

THE SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE….THE SEC

A game at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium is Oxford, Mississippi is NOT a place you will find room to spread out.  The only single game tickets they have left…and they are sparse…is to non-conference games.  The mighty Wofford comes calling to Oxford on September 10th.  I can’t say much.  Carrie and I be watching Marshall host Morgan State that evening.

The SEC.  Football.  That is the connotation that folks get when they hear those three letters in succession….S…E…C means football.  For all you perception is reality fans out there, you have never seen LSU play Ole Miss.  The reality is better than any perception you can fathom.  By the way, as an old English teacher with four different quality dictionaries  in the house, perception is not reality.  That is like saying connotation is denotation.  I digress.  Someone please kick the soap box beneath me!

The SEC.  As a child I bucked the notion that the SEC was better than the Big Ten.  To quote Niles Crane, “Was I ever that young?”  No…I was that dumb… and ready to argue with my Dad about it.  He wins.  Hey when Woody and Bo were coaching and Lee Corso was making chalk dust fly on his televised weekly show when he was the coach at Indiana, I was enthralled with the Big Ten.  Rick Leach and Archie Griffin and Lee Corso convincing me that the play he drew up on TV was going to work.  I learned.  Maybe I gave in.  Maybe I knew all along.  That was Archie Manning hanging on my cousin’s bed room wall in Forest, Mississippi.  It wasn’t Rex Kern.

THE SEC EAST

1. Tennessee:  With a nod to my friend Bob Biddle, the tuba player better have plenty of wind!
2.  Georgia:  Coach Kirby Smart is back on campus…this time as the coach.
3.  Florida:  10-4 last year under Coach McElwain may have this group ahead of 3.
4.  South Carolina:  Folks want to write’em off since Coach Spurrier left.
5.  Missouri:  Folks want to write off this bunch too.  Maybe they’re right?
6.  Kentucky:  I want to make them 3 or 4.  Just can’t do it.  Hope I am wrong.
7.  Vandy:  Have you been to Vandy?  Not very SEC-like.

THE SEC WEST

The toughest division in football…any league.  This will be LSU’s year.  Bama is going to get beat by USC in Dallas.  Ole Miss is going to get beat by Florida State in Orlando.  LSU is going to beat Swissconsin in Green Bay.  This is just week one of life in The SEC before conference games begin.

1.  LSU:  Coach Les Miles will have this bunch winning the National Championship then he will quit and go somewhere else.
2. Alabama:  It is not for my Brother Tim that I am this kind.  Bama will have issues.
3.  Ole Miss:  It is for me that I am this kind.  Ole Miss already has issues.
4.  Auburn:  Coach Malzahn needs help from the War Eagle…hope he got fed during summer school.
5.  Arkansas:  Pig-Sooooie may be higher than this with some help.
6.  Texas A&M:  Hope they can fill all those seats in that stadium…12th man is all theirs.
7.  Mississippi State:  Cos I hope they lose every game!  Hotty Toddy!

OTHER CONFERENCE WINNERS

PAC-12:  UCLA!  Their win over USC will propel them to the PAC-12 Championship game.  Keep an eye on Josh Rosen at quarterback.

C-USA:  Marshall…The Herd is ready to get another 10 win season. Coach Doc Holliday has done a great job and Chase Litton isn’t a good freshman QB…he is better.  Running game looked good in the spring game.

Carrie and I are ready too.

AAC:  Cincinnati…I refuse to give up on Gunner Kiel.

Big 12:  Texas…Coach Charlie Strong has to have it…or he is G-A-W-N gone!

MAC:  Ohio…Coach Solich will have the Bobcats looking even better.

Mountain West:  Boise State again.

Sun Belt:  Arkansas State…though I give some love to App. State and the job they have done.

Enjoy the games!  Enjoy the upcoming season.  I know I will.  I also know I will start with the games of Labor Day Weekend in picking the winners of the week at speaktherights.com.

A MOODY BLUE NOTE.

On July 27th I posted about a concert that I almost missed at King Island in 1988.  Well, today marks 25 years since The Moodies’ last appearance at Kings Island’s Timberwolf Amphitheater.  I was there.  And unlike the day in 1988, when my buddy Virgil and I barely made it to the concert, the young lady I was with on this occasion, Christy, and I had all day to ride the rides and have fun before we took in the show.

Two things stick out in my mind.  I shared one of them in the July 27th post.  I was bound and determined to impress Christy and anyone else caring to watch with my ability to throw a football.  The dreaded football toss into the cut out hole in particle board…the one where the ball can barely make it through.  Well…I asked Christy which one of the prizes she wanted and she pointed to a big pink stuffed bear…one so big we would have to take it out to the car before we could continue with our day.

I took the ball and instead of trying to lean over to make my toss, like a cocky smarty pants I took a deep five step drop and whizzed the ball toward the booth and it didn’t hit anything except what was behind that little hole it went through.  I did it.  I never doubted I could.  And I would try it again.

After the concert, Christy had never seen The Moody Blues before, she looked at me inside the packed 10,000 seat venue and said “What are these guys doing playing here?  They should be playing at Riverfront Stadium!”  I agreed.

The Moody Blues were touring in support of the recently released (at the time) “Keys of the Kingdom” album.  Below is the ticket, the CD, a T-shirt, and the program.

By the way, Hall and Oates did not show up…a group called “Neverland” opened.

The next year The Moody Blues moved on to the larger Riverbend Music Center closer to Cincy.  My buddy Tim Mullins attended that one with me in June.  They played Riverbend four times.  The last one was in 1996.  My dear friend Todd “Corner King” Lincoln and I went to that one.  I’m sure glad we did.

I’m so glad football season is here.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson