There is a time to be silent.  There is a time to be still.  There is a time to write.  There are times when all of these things present themselves at the same time.  And I don’t want to touch a single one of them.

Last month my dear friend Kelly Samons’ wife, Nancy, passed away.  This was not expected two weeks beforehand.  I have been at a loss dealing with this.  How can I leave my friend a voice message and say what I always say, “Enjoy your evening.”  When he doesn’t answer that is what I still leave him with.  I feel like a fool.

Looking inside, optimism has had to be at the forefront of a great deal that I have done and continue to do.  Only when I am still and silent do I see some of the things behind me that I am not sure how I made through so seamlessly.  Well, I do know, and I am still amazed.  If not for the grace of God, I would not have stood a chance.

Somewhere in Mississippi right now my football buddy, Aunt Barbara, is bedridden and fading in a nursing home.  We spoke on November 24th for just over ten minutes.  She sounded pretty bad.  Through it all, the last football question she asked me was if Arch Manning is going to hang with Texas or transfer as is the fashion in college football these days.  Our last phone transmission was on December 2nd.  We talked for nearly six minutes.  I did most of the talking.  She did not have much energy and sounded much worse.  Just as I suspected when our conversation ended, we have not shared a phone call since.  Via a nurse’s station on Christmas Eve, I wished her a Merry Christmas.  I have a kind uncle, her brother-in-law, keeping me posted now.

Aunt Barbara and I talked often.  We covered a great deal of ground.  She is 88 years old.  One thing she told me was that she sure didn’t want to end up in a nursing home in the shape she is in now.  That part is hard to take.  We talked Ole Miss football.  We talked family.  We talked life.  In the late 80s, 90s, and early 2000s, we attended Ole Miss games in Jackson, Oxford, and Lexington.  She came up and saw a few Indiana Hoosier games too in the 1990s.  We talked of those times often.  

Most of our phone calls were while I was on the walking trail in the afternoons.  I’d tell about what was around me.  I think it helped her get a mental picture or two away from her home where she lived alone until this past October when she went to an assisted living facility.  Her husband died in 1988.  He had a brain tumor.  They had no children.

On December 4th, as I was on the walking trail, I took this photo to mark the sun going down on the phone calls we had, the laughter we shared, and the beautiful meaning of it all.

As 2024 came on, I finally decided to wave the white flag on an endeavor I have hinted at and never accomplished.  There was one curious question I had for Justin Hayward and I never got an answer out of him.  Part of that was my fault.  The first time I inquired, his very kind publicist allowed me to forward some questions.  I was told he was not doing press at the time.  When he was, I did not get my questions answered.  I tried again over a year later and told the students in my English class involved nothing of my one question; I kept it in the weeds.  Nothing again. We got nowhere.  I suppose one of the questions (thee question) that I sent wasn’t supposed to be answered.  Some things we just leave alone I suppose.

My question was about Buddy.  Justin Hayward has often referenced Buddy Holly as being one of his heroes.  When he plays his solo shows, Justin always mentions Buddy when talking about the next song played.  What was my question?

Had Buddy Holly lived, would we still be here had there not been a torch to carry on?

Crazy things happen to kids when their hero dies.  Buddy Holly influenced so many musicians of a certain vintage.  Buddy paved the way for young songwriters whose desire was to do it their way.

I don’t blame Justin for passing on the question.  I wrote a song called Unspoken Feeling a long time ago.  I get it.

When I saw this new tour promo, I smiled.  There may be another day to listen to his songs yet.  There is not a 77 year-old dude that ever did it better.  Nostalgia need not apply here.  He’s still bringing new tunes and new arrangements.  I’m still bringing a new sense of awe to every show and I am glad I have been afforded the opportunity to appreciate music the way I have.  Listening to Justin Hayward again or writing another one of my own songs, for the first time I can balance the two with ease and I don’t need Justin to tell me the answer to that question after all.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

Hello, Group.

2024.  Say it again.  2024.  Wow.  I have always enjoyed the even years more so than the odd ones.  I don’t know what that means.

I started this online writing project in July of 2014.  We’re still here.  More than 750 posts later.  More than I ever intended.  More than I probably needed.  A few I didn’t write that I needed to.  We go where we are led (most of the time).

Let’s start 2024 with this:

When we are on a bridge, for some reason we never look up.

There’s always going to be some crazy inspiration somewhere. If you give in and allow someone to do your dreaming for you, you’ll find your worst self.

January 1.  College Football’s best day.  Bowl games and more bowl games.  Yes I know, the Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl have already been played.  We won’t go down THAT road.

“This is the Mecca.  This is the mansion at the end of the yellow brick road.”                                                                                                                     – Keith Jackson

Today in the mansion, Alabama plays Michigan.  I picked BAMA to win it all in the speaktherights.com College Football Preview in August.  I think they will.  Being a child of The Big Ten and knowing full well this is the Big Ten’s bowl, I will be rooting for Michigan today.  If it were Ohio State or Wisconsin playing BAMA, I would Roll Tide.  My loyalty has limits.  The Maize and Blue with the San Gabriel Mountains in the background looks natural.  Seeing Crimson Tide mascot Big AL on the sidelines reminds me of a turd in a punch bowl.  This problem is my own and I don’t wish it on anyone.

So at the end of the day I hope the Michigan Wolverines find a match-up for the CFP Championship next Monday against the Washington Huskies.  I hope the Huskies dismantle the Texas Longhorns tonight.  I won’t hold my breath.  College Football is rarely kind to me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Speaking the RIghts…

Danny Johnson

I love the bravado the new Indiana Hoosier’s Football Coach, Curt Cignetti, brings along with him.  You have no idea how much I wish him well.

Yes, I know.  I am a Tom Allen fan.  But yours truly also implied, before it happened, that IU and Coach Allen hammer out a treaty that included a buy-out that was less than what bean counters spoke of initially.  They did just that.  Coach Allen got paid and headed East.  I feel he hit the lottery when got hired by Penn State to be their defensive coordinator.  I’ve been to Happy Valley.  I have eaten ice cream at The Creamery.  I have seen Beaver Stadium.  Yes, Tom is doing okay.

Back to Indiana’s new hire. I watched the entirety of Coach Cignetti’s press conference when he was hired.  I was on the elliptical downstairs.  I was not impressed.  I get it.  You have one chance to make a first impression and he wanted to be an ass.  Cutting reporters off and being less than gracious to those in the room will do that.  They will make you an ass.

You know, as glad as I was when Tom Allen was named Coach, and please, don’t tell Tom this, my dream hire for Indiana was always Mike Leach.  Look, Indiana University is an interesting place.  Mike Leach was an interesting guy.  Lord, the heights he could have taken that place.

I was less than impressed when new Coach Cignetti took the mic in Assembly Hall and threw out the edict that Purdue sucks and so does Michigan and Ohio State.  I heard that and I turned my head sideways.  So much for acting like you have been there before, I thought.  Then, a couple days later, I thought had Mike Leach said all that I would have been jumping up and down.  Maybe because I miss him so.  Maybe because the three syllables he yelled back to me, “Hey buddy!” still resonate.

Coach Cignetti is a bundle himself.

He was a second team All-State quarterback at Morgantown High School in West Virginia in 1978.  That year, his Dad, Frank Cignetti, was the Head Coach of the West Virginia Mountaineers.  The WVU team had a 2-9 record.  But that was least of the Cignetti’s family troubles that time of year.  In December of 1978, Frank Cignetti almost died.  Frank Cignetti  underwent an emergency splenectomy and spent 35 days in the hospital.  His survival was in the balance.  He made it.  Only then to find out he had a rare and serious form of cancer and the prognosis was not good.  Frank Cignetti must have been a tough old cuss.  He made it and, though still weak, returned to the Mountaineers for what was his son’s Curt’s, first season on the Mountaineer roster.

The end of the 1979 season saw West Virginia finish with a 5-6 record.  It proved to be Frank Cignetti’s last as head coach.  He was fired.  A new athletic director was hired.  Coach Frank Cignetti was replaced with a name most college football fans of a certain vintage recognize, Coach Don Nehlen.  Ironically, I saw Don Nehlen’s last game when WVU defeated the Ole Miss Rebels in the 2000 Music City Bowl.

What happened to Curt Cignetti in all of this?  Well, he stayed with West Virginia even after his Dad was fired after four seasons and a 17-27 record.   Curt did not attend another school.  His Dad was still employed by WVU and that was that, I suppose.  Had he been a serious player, maybe he would have transferred.  Or did they transfer back then? Who knows?  My guess is that part of Coach Frank Cignetti’s severance was that WVU held on to his boy for school and good will.

Fortunately for Coach Frank Cignetti, he did find good health again.  I smile at that.  In 1986 he was name the head football coach of Indiana (PA).  Coach Frank Cignetti was 182-50-1 from 1986 to 2005 at the NCAA Divison II level.  Not a bad gig.  And a great record.

So, with this I see myself toe to toe with former Indiana Coach Cam Cameron in 1999, I think.  Cam and I were standing in the Mellencamp Pavilion with mutual friends when our mutual friends were taken from us.  I told Cam I was still warming up to his IU team.  I told him I was a Bill Mallory fan and when Indiana fired him on Halloween in 1996 it was like the day the music died for me.  I told Cam my Dad had been fired at Brownstown Central when I was 11 and it was tough.  At that point, Cam told me his step-dad was a high school coach and he had been fired.  We looked at each other with a common ground that only sons of coaches that have been fired know.  It is a small room.

Look.  My high school football career was an overwhelming success.  Why?  In 1982 our North Harrison Cougar team took on a homestanding Brownstown Central team that had won 18 games and defeated them 27-14.  In 1984, we went to BCHS and beat them 59-0.  That is the worst defeat the BC Braves have ever endured on their home field.

With that said, I get Coach Curt Cignetti.  He may not say it.  But I know there are ghosts he is still chasing for his Dad.  I hope he catches every one of them.

Coach Curt Cignetti says “It’s pretty simple: I win.  Google me.”

Collectively, Coach Cig’s coaching career, be it Indiana, PA, Elon, James Madison, Alabama, NC State, Pitt, Temple, Rice, or Davidson,  it has been an average of 612 miles from Bloomington.  And Bloomington is a world away from the rest of college football.

Well, Coach Cignetti, an old friend of mine named Frank Latuerbur  left the Toledo Rockets after leading them to a 23-0 record and two bowl wins in his last two season.  He went to Iowa.  His record at Iowa?  4-28-1.

Frank was my friend.  He was a stand-up guy.

I hope history doesn’t repeat itself.

Coach Cig…Go get’em!

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

A month ago I wrote on these pages that I hoped Tom Allen and Indiana University would hammer out a treaty to end his tenure.  Guess what?  They did that today.  Coach Allen, the class act he is, leaves with a settlement that is less than what he was ultimately owed.

I hate it.  I hate it all.  No one wanted Tom Allen to succeed more than I did.  I so like the man.

We move on.  And I mean move on.

I have made no secret of my disdain for all the conference realignment.  Stanford and Cal members of the Atlantic Coast Conference?  Please.  USC and UCLA in The Big Ten? Pardon me while I throw up.

“You can’t pass through life without becoming acquainted with tradition, with legacy, and with a feeling of history, and The Rose Bowl does all of that.”                    – Keith Jackson

Keith Jackson was not talking about a stadium.  He was talking about their way of life against ours.  He was talking about USC v. Ohio State.  He was talking about UCLA v. Michigan.  He was talking about relying on a New Year’s Day tradition of The Big Ten versus the PAC-8/ PAC-10/PAC-12.  That was the tradition.  That has been ruined.

When I took this picture at The Rose Bowl in 2018 it was because I appreciated the history of the stadium and The PAC-12.  I never imagined it would one day be changed to The Big 10.  I don’t like it.  Makes no practical sense.  Money is not practical.

Where do I go from here?

I think I am heading North.  I was always partial to the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League.  They have since been rebranded as the Edmonton Elks.  There are players in the Canadian Football League that make less money than I do.  One guy on a CFL team is a firefighter during the week and a kicker on game day.  I appreciate that.

When a college football player makes more money than a physics professor, I draw a line.

I’ve been to more college stadiums and seen more college teams and more college games than anyone I know.

I watched the UCLA-Cal game in The Rose Bowl last night on ESPN.  It was the last PAC-12 game.  I sat there in stunned silence.  There was no regard for the respect of the history of the college game when UCLA and USC and Washington and Oregon headed to The Big Ten.  Didn’t they have enough money?  Did they need that much more?  Will the other sports of PAC-12 teams flying all over the place agree?   I doubt it.  Geography was once the cornerstone of rivalry.  That goes by the wayside when you sign a TV contract with FOX at noon, CBS at 3:30, and NBC in primetime.

I told my dear wife, Carrie, the most fun I had watching football this year was the CFL.  Montreal upset Winnipeg in the 110th Grey Cup last weekend. I watched every play.

One last Indiana Football note.  Jason Candle at Toledo.  If they can talk him into coming to Bloomington, they need to sign him in a hurry.  I don’t know that I will be paying as close attention as I have.  My current focus is more on Toledo Rockets of days gone by than today.  What does that mean?  We’ll see.  I have an idea or two.

Coach Tom Allen, I will always be a fan.  Forrest Gump said it best, “Sometimes there are just not enough rocks.”

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

This is the last week of the 2023 College Football regular season.  If you are an Indiana fan, you might be very thankful this Thanksgiving weekend.  This painful season is almost over.

Last week I experienced two Indiana Hoosier firsts for me.  It all started on Thursday, November 16th.  My dear wife, Carrie, and I made our way to Bloomington to watch the Indiana Hoosiers take on the Wright State Raiders in…wait for it…a men’s basketball game in Assembly Hall.  This was the first men’s college basketball game I have ever been to.  We had a great time.  Indiana won 89-80.

This looked like a circus during a timeout.  It was good.

I think the basketball Hoosiers have some great ingredients.  If they get the recipe right, look out.

Two days later, my brother, Darrell, and I took in the last home game of the Indiana Football season (thankfully).  Michigan State beat Indiana 24-21 in another game that just plain got away.  The one that got away is no longer a theme with Hoosier Football; it is the norm.  My optimism and my hope for Hoosier football has waned.  Looking out on the horizon of today’s wild wild east and west of college football, I don’t see things getting better for many teams.  Indiana is in that number.

Being there with my brother was awesome.  The last college game we saw together was the 1993 Independence Bowl when the Hoosiers were bested by the Virginia Tech Hokies in Shreveport. He was ten years old then.  The crowd for the game last week was pitiful.  Those stands behind us were during the second half of game that stayed close until the end.

This photo was taken in the first half.

The Hoosiers play for the Old Oaken Bucket at Purdue today.  Have you seen what that trophy looks like?  It looks like it belongs in Bloomington.

Last week’s picks were not good.

8 winners  6 losers.  I picked IU, Kentucky, Duke, and a few others who let me down.

Season total:  123 winners  45 losers

Today we see the last Saturday of the regular season for  2023 college football.  Man did it go fast.

Here goes…

Indiana beats Purdue…  I have to.

Louisville beats Kentucky… UK will give them something.  But I see U of L still kicking themselves over the loss to Pitt and being sky high at home working toward the ACC Title Game with Florida State.  Now that is exciting!

Ohio State beats Michigan… Marvin Harrison, Jr.  Say no more.  Can Michigan really keep this up in another episode of As the Wolverine Turns?  I don’t think so.

Duke beats Pitt… Will bring Duke to 7-5.  We’d take 7-5 at a basketball school.

LSU beats Texas A&M… Daniels at QB for LSU is the most fun to watch since Johnny Manziel was looking like a computer game at Kyle Field.

Troy beats Southern Miss… Southern is at home.  Troy is better.

Alabama beats Auburn… I picked the Tide to win it all this year.  They are still in the hunt.  The problem is that Bama has been so good for so long that no other program is penalized more by one loss than the Tide.

Maryland beats Rutgers…Look for the Terps to put up some points.

Illinois beats Northwestern… Illini are at home and these teams are pretty even.

Minnesota beats Wisconsin… Goldy is at home and he needs this one for bowl contention.

Washington beats Washington State…The Apple Cup no longer runneth over.  It is running dry.  Another rivalry in jeopardy due to conference migration.  While the Huskies count their money, the Cougars will remember when.

Florida State beats Florida… Could the Gators really pull this off with the Seminoles playing a second-string quarterback?  Nah, I don’t think so either.

Georgia beats Georgia Tech…The Engineers will ask for a running clock in the 3rd quarter.

UCLA beats Cal… Late kick in The Rose Bowl.  Kind of appropriate as this one is where the sun will go down on the PAC-12.  I will watch this until the end.

Lastly, being there for a friend is an important thing.  I wish I could have done a better job of that last week.  Adam Disque’s dad passed away after a lengthy illness and I was not able to make it up to Jackson County early in the week.  Going to see Indiana play a basketball game two days later didn’t make me question my priorities.  It did hold some regret that I was tied up on Tuesday a little too tight than I wish I had been.  I haven’t had the courage to tell Adam about my visit to Assembly Hall. That’s life.

I am looking out on this college football day with melancholy.  I don’t want to see the PAC-12 end.  I don’t want to see the SEC with Texas and Oklahoma.  Lewis Grizzard once said he was glad his father didn’t live long to see him get his hair cut in a beauty parlor.  I feel the same way when I think about the greatest voice in college football history Keith Jackson.  He predicted this nonsense on January 1, 2017, when he said the problem with college football was “oversaturation, meaning too much coverage.”  Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit were standing on each side of Keith in The Rose Bowl’s Keith Jackson Broadcast Center that day.  Chris and Kirk looked sheepish standing next to The Voice.

Today is the day the music dies for college football as we knew it.

On a good note, UCLA beat USC last week.  Now it is time for me to hit publish and go put my UCLA jersey on for this college football Saturday which is the last of its kind.

Speaking the Rights.

Danny Johnson

Indiana at Illinois on this date in 1989.  It was a cold day in Champaign.  The game was telecasted by ABC.  Gary Bender and Dick Vermeil were on the call.  I watched it again when I got home that night or morning or whatever it was.  Indiana lost.  Jeff George threw Illini darts.  Anthony Thompson scored his last touchdown.

I am picking the Hoosiers to win today.

Last week 10 winners and 4 four losers.

Season total  115 winners  39 losers

Indiana beats Michigan State… Let’s end this on a positive note at home.

Ole Miss beats Louisiana Monroe…Practice before the Egg Bowl.

Louisville beats Miami…This game means more to the Cards.  Ask their coach.

Michigan beats Maryland…Another episode of As the Wolverine Turns.

Duke beats Virginia… Mike Elko will have a new address next season.

Illinois beats Iowa… Something has to give points-wise with this Iowa D some day.  That is today.

Georgia beats Tennessee… I hope the VOLS win.

UNC beat Clemson… Coach Mack says he is back for next year.

UCLA beats USC… Tommy Trojan QB Caleb Williams has two towels at the ready.  One to dry his hands.  The other for crying.

Ohio State beats Minnesota…. Come on Goldy!

Auburn beats New Mexico State…. Most of the work in the coaching box will be tape of Bama for next week.

Kentucky beats South Carolina...The Cats are ready to break out with offense.

Washington beats Oregon State… Penix Jr still has Heisman shot.

Wisconsin beats Nebraska at home…I suspect.

Today is special.  Today I attend a college football game with my brother for the first time in 30 years.  The last college game we saw together was the 1993 Independence Bowl in Shreveport.  Indiana lost to Virginia Tech in that one.  We’re due.

Speak the rights.

Danny Johnson

Last week I failed to put my picks on.  There was a great deal going on.  Wearing a heart monitor for 24 hours will change your attitude in a hurry.  Fortunately, all is well after a little attention getting.

The picks last week were the worst of the season.

8 winners and 6 losers.

The week before 11 winners and 3 losers.

Notre Dame, Nebraska, Oklahoma, UCLA…they all let me down.

Guess who didn’t let me down after I had given up on them?  INDIANA!

Anyone whose read many of these football words over the years knows I abhor the Wisconsin Badgers.  

Last week there were more folks at Memorial Stadium in the 4th quarter than we have seen in a while.

This was the celebratory crowd as the Hoosiers celebrated the first home win against Bucky in over 20 years.

This one was special.  I was so glad for Coach Tom Allen.

The season total:

105 winners and 35 losers after picking 140 games in 10 weeks.

On to this week’s picks.

Alabama beats Kentucky… I picked the Tide to win it all.  I still believe that.

Clemson beats Georgia Tech… The Tigers are at home.

Michigan beats Penn State… Michigan is living on borrowed time.  Look for them to make Drew Allar eat turf.

NC State beats Wake Forest…The Raleigh boys have found something.

Minnesota beats Purdue… I want to pick Purdue.  But Goldy is fired up after losing last week.

Pitt beats Syracuse… I just don’t see the Orange pulling this one out outdoors.

Iowa beats Rutgers… The Hawkeyes are 7-2 and they fire their OC.  Something smells funny in Iowa City.

Tennessee beats Mizzou… I know it is at Mizzou.  They are fired up.  Maybe too much.  They have been in the SEC since lunch.

Washington beats Utah…In Husky Stadium.  Look for Penix, Jr. to throw for more than 400.

Marshall beats Georgia Southern… The Herd plays well in The Joan.

Ole Miss beats Georgia… The Bulldogs can’t keep this up.  Why not the Rebs?

Oklahoma beats West Virginia… The Sooners are not a happy bunch and the boys from Morgantown are going to know it.

LSU beats Florida… Is this the beginning of the middle of the end for Coach Billy Napier at Florida.  I hope not.  Give the guy another year, at least.

Oregon beats USC… The Ducks muddy the water even more for the CFP standings.

Enjoy the weekend and watch the sun go down early.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Talking to Mom on the phone this evening, my location or destination was never mentioned.  She didn’t ask.  I didn’t divulge.  She would have chewed me.  It would have gone something like this: “Danny Johnson, you are not a teenager anymore.  Quit trying to act like one.  You’re going to hurt yourself!”

She’s partly right.  I will hurt in the morning.  Fortunately, I made it home and all is well.

I emptied the ball bag tonight.  Sure, I had to air them up the night before.  We had not seen each other in a while.  How and why these balls all got turned with no laces to be seen I will never know.  They fell that way.  I took the picture.  There was nothing rehearsed.  When I sit here and look at this picture now, I see these balls telling me goodbye.  I don’t kick the laces.

Yes.  Tonight I went over to Crawford County High School and kicked on a field that resembles the one I used to kick on at North Harrison.  Crawford has not graduated to the likes of a nice Bermuda grass field.  This field is just plain grass.   The kind I kicked on 38 and 39 years ago on high school fields from Brownstown to Clarksville to North Daviess.

This field felt like home.  Though I wanted to make one from 38 yards, the best I could do was 33 yards.  It was amazing how far away that goalpost looked from 38 yards.  There was time I looked at the 50 yard line feeling I was almost safe kicking it 60 yards.  When I was a kid at North my longest on that field was from the opposite 48.  62 yards.  This was just me, a ball, a tee, and a goalpost.  With the help of a breeze and a sweet kick, I watched one fly over from 70 in Shreve Stadium in Shreveport in the summer of 1986.  That alone tells me this was a good time to turn in my shoe.

I hit the last three I attempted from 25 yards away.

Truly amazing how much pop the leg can loose in eight years.

I was nailing 40 yarders that day in 2015.

Today I didn’t smile so much.  Today was the end for this old kicker.

All this was really brought on recently when a friend of mine at another school asked if I was coaching football.  I told him I was not.  He asked if I wanted to.  I told him the situation would have to be right.  He told me their staff was re-tooling and I was the first person he thought of.  He said the route trees I was drawing up in 1985 looked like what he was looking at on Saturdays and Sundays in 2023.  He told me he figured long ago that I would have the kids at North Harrison averaging 500 yards of passing a game.  I told him that was not to be.  But it sure was nice to hear that.  I told him I interviewed for the head coaching job at North Harrison on two occasions.  I was turned away both times. That is news to many.  I never made a thing of it.  Both of those instances happened a long time ago.  That is just the way it goes.

My friend got my football wheels turning again.  I decided to end that tonight.

Look, when you get to kick in The Rose Bowl and you don’t miss, what’s left?

That’s why these balls were turned the way they were today.

More than anything, I will miss staring down a goalpost.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Don’t worry so much, I tell myself.  What they don’t know they won’t miss.

Still, I struggle with something I know that the kids I teach in English class don’t know.  Literary and grammar pursuits notwithstanding, there are days when I am frustrated with the plight of thoughtful journalism.  Translation:  I miss the paper.  I miss the  newspaper I once knew.

Over the weekend I was ruminating over the state of many forms of media in 2023.  There are some I just don’t recognize all that well anymore.  Listening to some of the bombastic comments on ESPN’s Gameday before the noon kickoffs of college football, I began wondering if Keith Jackson would have a seat at the table if he were alive today.  Unfortunately, I doubt it.  Sure doesn’t feel like it.

For me, though, it all goes back to the paper.  I have written about this before and it is still the greatest example of ‘what was’ for me.  In 1979, a sportswriter by the name of Jim Plump was covering the Holiday Bowl between Indiana and BYU.  This was no early kickoff in the eastern time zone.  My mother was working a 3 PM to 11 PM shift as an RN at Floyd Memorial Hospital in New Albany and then drove 23 miles home.  When she made it home that night, the Hoosiers were still playing.  Indiana won the game 38-37.  Plump was covering the game for The Columbus Republic.  His account of the game made it into the next morning’s paper front and center with a photo.

Today The Columbus Republic only prints on a bi-weekly schedule.  And they sure as heck would not fly a sportswriter to San Diego to cover a college football bowl game.

At the heart of my angst is knowing kids at North Harrison and their grandparents don’t get to see their names in stories and in box scores like the ones that used to run in Louisville’s Courier-Journal for every game played in Southern Indiana.

Your old Uncle Dan can remember two of those being printed.  The Courier-Journal was the morning paper and The Louisville Times was the afternoon paper.  I have articles from both with my name in both in old scrapbooks.

My thoughts about all this soon drifted to a great high school sportswriter I had the pleasure to sit next to in a few press boxes as he was writing about the football game and I was talking about it.  He was Dave Koerner, writing for the Courier-Journal.  I was calling the North Harrison football games on WKLO with my partner Gus Stephenson.  Each time I met up with Dave Koerner it was a pleasant experience.  We always had a chat.

Dave Koerner was a nice guy.  His writing was firm and flowing.  He took his craft serious.  Maybe there was one unpleasant experience between us.  Maybe, nothing.  There was and it was all my fault.  After a game in Corydon, when we had finished up the coach’s post-game interview and sign-off, I was playing kick the field goal with a empty plastic pop bottle and a trash can.  I did this as Dave was writing up his story.  He’d had enough of my noise.  “Would you please stop that?!”  It sounded more like a command than a question.  I begged forgiveness.

Before a Perry Central-North Harrison game in Ramsey, I made a comment that went something like.. “to the west there is a peach colored sky”.  He said he liked that.  He asked if he could borrow it.  He may have used it, had that sky not quickly turned into a thunderstorm delaying the game’s start and then a deluge of rain until the 4th quarter.  That was August 26, 2005.

More than a year earlier, at my behest, Dave was delighted to write a story about the Medora Lady Hornets Basketball Team winning their first-ever sectional game.  That was fun.  Dave told me he enjoyed that story.  For a guy who did more writing than talking, I was delighted that the Medora story meant something to him.  My dear friend Brad McCammon, the girls’ coach, appreciated Dave’s treatment too. I love the headline.

The ending is sad.  After more than 30 years of writing for the Courier-Journal, taking a buy-out of course, Dave Koerner settled down in Blue Ridge, Georgia and wrote locally there for The News Observer.  A little more than a year after I was sharing a press box with him, Dave Koerner died in that paper’s newsroom sitting at his desk.  He had a massive heart attack.  He was 57.  And just like the paper, Dave Koerner is missed.

Speaking the Rights.

Danny Johnson

Last week I flippantly referred to this picture, taken nine minutes before the kickoff at Memorial Stadium for the Indiana-Rutgers game.

I called Memorial Stadium in Bloomington the SAFEST PLACE IN AMERICA!

The Indiana Hoosiers were beaten by Rutgers 31-14.  When the Rutgers quarterback runs for an 81 yard touchdown and the Rutgers offense only has 39 yards passing you know the game was much worse than the score indicated.

Rutgers kicking an extra point.

Thankfully it was a nice day.  This was taken at the beginning of the 4th quarter.  The score at that point was 24-14.  It felt like 44-14.

The Dream is Over.  No one has supported Coach Tom Allen with more vigor than I have.  I believe that.  I believed he was going to turn things around.  I no longer believe that.  And it hurts.  I attended Saturday’s game alone.  I sat there and listened to Ohio State vs. Penn State while I was watching the Hoosiers.  Why?  I wanted something in my ears to take me away from the disgruntled Hoosier fans casting aspersion on Coach Allen.  I hate that part.  I don’t handle it well.  It makes me sad.  This Saturday the Indiana Hoosiers travel to Penn State.  That will make me sad.  I was happy when I found out the next home game, against Swissconsin, will kick off at 12 noon.  Not exactly a Big Noon Kickoff.  I was glad because it means I can come home and watch LSU-Alabama that night.

There is a time to move on.  I hope Indiana and Tom Allen can hammer out a treaty at the end of the season that allows him to ride off quietly.  It will save us from seeing even worse crowds next year and a root canal of a season that sees Washington, Oregon, USC, and UCLA join the Big Ten (18).  Big Ten?  That is oxymoronic.  And just plain moronic.

I can’t believe I am writing these words.  The Dream is Over.  I speak the rights.

The season, however, goes on.  On to this week’s picks.

Last week was another 9 winners and 5 losers dose like last week.

Season Total  86 winners and 26 losers.  I’ll take it.

Here we go again…

Florida State beats Wake Forest… The Seminoles may win it all.

Maryland beats Northwestern… Is there a better story in college football than the way the resilient Wildcats have comported themselves at Northwestern?

Oklahoma beats Kansas…The Sooners roll like it is 1982.

Clemson beats North Carolina State…Clemson has too much speed for the boys in Raleigh.

Texas beats BYU… At Texas.  Enough said.

Louisville beats Duke… Jeff Brohm still has to fix the malady of beating a giant one week and losing to a peon the next week.  Ask the folks in West Lafayette about that.

Georgia beats Florida…  How cool would it be if Florida shows up and gets the breaks?

Minnesota beats Michigan State… Goldy comes off a big one against Iowa.  Sparty comes off a big disaster against Michigan.

Notre Dame beats Pitt…  And bad.  Making U of L’s loss to Pitt worse.

Kentucky beats Tennessee… Yes, I know. That QB for UK can throw better than anything Bama threw last week.  5 TD passes for the Wildcats.

Washington beats Stanford… Michael Penix, Jr. puts on a show.

UCLA beats Colorado… Game of the Day!

Ohio State beats Swissconsin… And Bucky will be mad as heck going to Indiana next week.

Ole Miss beats Vanderbilt… The Rebs roll at home.  Big offensive numbers.

And so it goes.

Last Friday night I saw Justin Hayward playing a Gibson 335 for the first time since 2018. That alone was worth driving to Columbus, Ohio for.  And this concert was a whole lot better than any college football game I have attended this year.  Thank you, Jus.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson