Oh my.  What a day.

Thank you, Tim Petty.  You got me here, literally.

Tomorrow I will witness a football game at Bryant-Denny Stadium on the campus of the University of Alabama.  The Crimson Tide will be the home team.  My beloved Ole Miss Rebels will be the visiting team.

I don’t think the Rebs will win.  I hate to pick against them.  Hopefully I will be the jinx.  I doubt it.

Today we walked into the Bear Bryant Museum.  I saw my life flash before my eyes.  I knew it was going to be a good time.  I didn’t know it would be a great time that would remind me of so many great moments.

I was humbled as I looked at this knowing I have stood on that field and kicked a couple footballs.

Coach Bryant’s office. Enough said.

One of many displays that need few words.

In 1985 Van Tiffin kicked a 52 yard field goal to beat Auburn.  I was a senior in high school and this was the shoe that made that kick true.  I was so impressed with this display.

Just to appreciate.

The tackle that won the Sugar Bowl and the National Championship in 1979.

Coach Bryant’s last game was the Liberty Bowl December 29, 1982.

And now the picks for the games this week with little commentary:

Michigan beats Rutgers…If not, Harbaugh rents a UHaul.

Oklahoma beats Texas Tech…Hurts looks good.

Clemson beats UNC…Hurts me.

Purdue beats Minnesota…Cos it is a home game.

Notre Dame beats Virginia…Might be a good one.

South Carolina beats Kentucky…Hurts me again.

UCLA beats Arizona…UCLA was the ship that found itself last week.

Iowa beats Middle Tennessee…Go Hawkeyes!

Boston College beats Wake Forest…I think.

Auburn beats Miss. State…War Eagle!

Indiana beats Michigan State...I still believe and I am a homer.

Georgia Tech beats Temple...Tech needs this one.

Southern Cal beats Washington…And many think I am crazy.

Bama beats Ole Miss…Hope I am bad wrong.

Have a good weekend all.  Enjoy the games and when you can…

Speak the Rights.

Danny Johnson

Am on the porch listening to the North Harrison Cougars take on the Brownstown Central Braves.  The game is being brought to us online from WJAA 96.3 in Seymour, Indiana.  This is my favorite radio station.  Robert Becker runs the station and he is the best.  When I ask him to play The Moody Blues he never lets me down.

Harv Brown and Jake Brown are bringing us the game and doing a fine job.

Harv in his Brownstown Central playing days.

Jake was a good quarterback.

Last week I attended the Indiana Hoosiers game against Ohio State.  I thought the Hoosiers would beat the Buckeyes.  I really did.  It was not to be.

Last week I picked 10 winners and 4 losers.  31-11 is the record so far.  I have to break out with a better week.  What can I say?  I’m greedy.

Y’all know I am a homer.  And the first game I pick is a Homer of a call.

Ole Miss beats California…Cal is ranked.  Ole Miss is at home and have the Tide next week in Tuscaloosa and I will be there.  Hotty Toddy!

LSU beats Vandy….in Nashville with a third of the folks they play in front of in Baton Rouge.

Michigan beats Swissconsin…Don’t like the Wolverines.  Hope the Badgers lose every game they play.

Alabama beats Southern Miss…Sorry Dad.  Your Eagles won’t fly in this one.

Indiana beats UConn…Cos they need this one badly.  My 8 win prediction needs this one.

Northwestern beats Michigan State…Was not impressed with Sparty’s effort against Arizona State.

North Carolina beats App State…Tar Heels rebound this week.

Florida State beats Louisville…The Cards are better than we expected.  But not ready to go to Tallahassee yet.

UCF beats Pitt…And this one may blow up on me.  Will be a very entertaining game.

Washington beats BYU…The Huskies go into Provo and take one back to Seattle.

NC State beats Ball State…Wolfpack should roll here.

Georgia beats Notre Dame…Game of the Week for sure.  This one could be fun.

Nebraska beats Illinois…The corn fed beef up front will push Illinois around all night.

Washington State beats UCLA…Love Coach Leach.  Will always roof for UCLA and things are tough all over in Pasadena.

Never give up.  Keep working at it.  Believe in yourself.  Have faith you can do better and prove it to yourself.

These are things I say often to those who need to hear it.  It is part of what I do.

My affinity for Indiana Hoosier Football has been a strange romance.

I grew up watching The Lee Corso Show on Channel 4.  He’d mark up a chalk board with plays and declare “THIS IS HOW IT WORKS!”  Coach Corso’s last year at IU was 1982.  Having moved from Brownstown to North Harrison in 1979, we lost a great deal of our Indiana-based news influence.  The local Louisville televison stations did not carry the Lee Corso Show.  In fact, by 1982, the University of Louisville football program was in doubt playing in antiquated old Cardinal Stadium.  The announced attendance of a U of L upset over Oklahoma State on September 25, 1982 was 21,202.  I doubt that many were there.

A guy name Howard Schnellenberger changed all that and he is the one to thank for Louisville being in the ACC these days, along with the former Pizza Shop they play in.

Geography and media shifts could not sway my affection for the Hoosiers.  After Coach Corso left Indiana, Sam Wyche came in for one year.  Indiana was 3-8 that season.  He bolted to return to the NFL where he did quite well.

Enter Coach Bill Mallory.  From 1984 to 1996 Coach Mallory lifted Hoosier football to new heights.  Six winning seasons seasons and six bowl games.  He was amazing.

Everything changed on Halloween Day 1996.  Indiana fired Coach Mallory. The school has had one winning season since.  For me it was the day Hoosier Football died.  I never wished ill on the players.  But I will report to you like I told Bill Mallory’s successor one day when we were standing face to face pulling up the ground, I had enough.  No offense, coach, but I am done.  Coach Cameron said he understood.  Our conversation led to a form of commiseration.  We found out we both had Dad’s who were high school coaches that were asked to turn in their keys to the stadium at some point in their careers.  It wasn’t enough.

Coaches came and coaches went.  We lost one to brain cancer.  Coach Hep gave me some hope. He was quite a presence in a room with media types.  I liked Bill Lynch.  I expected Coach Kevin Wilson would be a disaster.  And along comes Coach Tom Allen.  He’s the first Hoosier head football coach who is younger than I am.  But I still have faith.  I still believe he will continue to do good things at Indiana.

I won’t apologize for picking the Hoosiers to beat the Buckeyes this past Saturday.  I will say I expected more effort.  I will say a no call on a pass interference along the Hoosier sideline deflated some air too.  It was butt-ugly all around.

Before the game I ran into Mr. Hoosier Football, Anthony Thompson.

I asked if he had any eligibility left, and he said no.  He also said he didn’t want any.  After that game I think I know why!

I am not giving up on this team.  I think they will be playing in a bowl game.

I BELIEVE!

The best part of football season for me is this.  My dear wife, Carrie, loves going to football games with me.  I am a blessed man.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

So I have been asked about photo of a ball game ticket I put on social media recently.

I quit collecting baseball cards and football cards decades ago.  They aren’t important to me anymore.  I don’t follow the players anymore.  I will sheepishly admit I don’t have an Eli Manning football card and he has been my favorite football player since I saw him on the Ole Miss Rebels Team Walk into Vaught-Hemmingway Stadium on a cool autumn night in Oxford, Mississppi in 1999 when Eli was a red shirt freshman before a close 20-17 loss to Georgia.  I was there Aunt Barbara and Jarrett.  We had a ball.

But I have kept my ticket stubs.  When I order still want a good old fashion ticket, even if I have to pay a few extra bucks to get.  No getting into the game with a cell phone for this old boy.  Forget about it.

I have the ticket stub from when I saw Ken Anderson’s last start in Riverfront Stadium in 1985.  $15.50 and they were very good green seats, for those of you who remember those.

I have ticket stubs from every Moody Blues concert I attended from 1986 to 2017 and there are over fifty of them.  As they fade a little I notice the faded ones have much lower prices.  I wrote all about that a few posts ago, and I was not giving The Moodies the business.  I was giving the business the business.

I have ticket stubs the say Rose Bowl Stadium on them.  Taking my Dad there was more than a bucket list item.  Together we got to see our dreams before us.  That is what it was like.

I have been so many places.  The Rose Bowl Stadium was my favorite before I got to stand inside the middle of it and breathe in and out with my dear wife, Carrie.  That was almost more than I could handle.

I hope to see the Indiana Hoosiers playing there one day.  I believe I will.

So I was asked about that old Indiana Hoosiers football ticket that was on display earlier.  Well, it was more special to me than any Moody Blues concert ticket stub.  That is saying something.

In 1988 the Indiana Hooisers defeated the Ohio State Buckeyes 41-7.  The great Keith Jackson was calling the game on ABC television.  That was validation before the game started.  It ended with emphatic validation.  And over the years I looked at that ticket stub and smiled.  It was important.  And I think it may have had a life of its own and continues to hang in there.

What would possess me to go to my ticket stub diary and pluck this out for good measure, as Carrie and I were heading out the door to attend Coach Bill Mallory’s Celebration of Life Service at Memorial Stadium on June 2, 2018?  I didn’t know.  It just felt like the right thing to do.

During the memorial service one of Coach Mallory’s players, Mark Hagen, got up and said a few words about his coach.  Hagen is a defensive coach at Indiana University right now.  Mark Hagen was in uniform when the Hoosiers beat the Buckeyes that day and he spoke from the heart.  And as he spoke I looked at that ticket stub and rubbed it a little bit.  It felt like the right thing to do.

After the service Carrie and I were heading to our exit tunnel out of the stadium.  At that point I spotted Mark Hagen’s wife and family.  There was a lump in my throat when I spoke up and offered that ticket stub to Mark Hagen’s wife.  “This belongs to someone else.  I know it will be in good hands, please take it.”  Mrs. Hagen was obviously touched.  She asked my name.  I told it did not matter and that my first name is Danny.  “Thank you, Danny” she said.  It felt like the right thing to do.

That is not why I believe the Indiana Hoosiers will beat the Ohio State Buckeyes.  I think the Hooisers are that good.  I do.  Depth, turnovers, missed tackles, missed assignments, all of that matters. I know.  But I also know that when the time is right, those things will work out.  IU has been close many times.  I was hopeful.  I was not optimistic.  This time, however, I BELIEVE.

Week # 3 College Football Predictions   Season records 21 good 7 bad.

Indiana beats Ohio State…and I will do my best Keith Jackson when they march into the end zone again and I will say the Marching Hundred is going to be tuckered out this after this one from playing the school song so much.

Washington State beats Houston…Battle of the Cougars.  And some fun football to watch.

Georgia beats Arkansas State…Silver Britches and Lewis Grizzard.  Make me want to get on all fours and bark a little.

Tennessee beats Chattanooga…They dern well better.

NC State beats West Virginia…Trip to Morgantown may be tough.  I’d stay in Raleigh.

North Carolina beats Wake Forest…At Wake?  But Coach Mack is on a roll.

Penn State beats Pitt…The back yard brawl is back as it should be.  Classic matchup.

Alabama beats South Carolina…Why do I even put this here?

Northwestern beats UNLV…I am rooting for the Rebels.

Ole Miss beats Southeastern Louisiana…Rebs need another victory after beating the Hogs.

Clemson beats Syracuse…See the Alabama comment.

Marshall beats Ohio…Great rival game here too.  Herd is not bad.  Ohio always pesky.

Purdue beats TCU…Defensive woes for PU may stink the place up?

Oklahoma beats UCLA…Struggling at UCLA.  Hate to see that.

Stay cool if you can.  This unseasonable heat is not good for football.

Celebrate and we’ll be back with picks next week as we…

Speak the rights.

Danny Johnson

Well, I don’t have much to say.

I am still thinking about the high school football game I witnessed tonight.

The North Harrison Cougars came from two scores behind to defeat the Corydon Panthers 33-27.  It was indeed a Big Cat Classic.

I doubt we have a worse college football weekend than this one.  There are many garbage games this week.  Teams have two bye weeks in FBS this year.  More games on TV is my guess to be the reason.

So…briefly…last week I picked ten winners and four losers.  Let’s see how things go this week.

Indiana beats Eastern Illinois

Ole Miss beats Arkansas

Kentucky beats Eastern Michigan

Louisville beats Eastern Kentucky

Standford beats USC

LSU beats Texas

Nebraska beats Colorado

Iowa beats Rutgers

Ohio State beats Cincinnati

Louisiana Tech beats Grambling

Fresno State beats Minnesota

Mississippi State beats USM

Purdue beats Vandy

Clemson beats Texas A&M

Georgia beats Murray State

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

The Indiana Football Hoosiers 34-24 season opening victory over Ball State in a cavernous Lucas Oil Stadium looked about the license plate on the front of 2008 Ford Edge.

It was nothing pretty.

But, in the truest of football parlance, “a win is a win and we will take it”.

I have already been ridiculed over my prognostication that the Indiana Hoosiers will finish with a good season.  I have predicted at least eight regular season wins.  Guess what?  I still BELIEVE.

Saturday’s game was as ugly as a bowling shoe.  Get past the glitz of the big stadium…that was mostly empty.  The Hoosiers won’t have another road game with a football atmosphere that was as close to a flat line as this one was.  I for one can’t wait to get to Bloomington to hear a few bars of “INDIANA FIGHT”, my personal favorite, from the IU Marching Hundred.

The Ball State athletic director can be proud that his team’s name we planted in both end zones.  Good for them.  That is nice.

But know that the appetizer is over and it is time for the big dogs to eat.

Indiana made too many farts Saturday to compete with a Big Ten opponent.

Catch the ball!  Don’t make a fool of yourself with silly personal foul penalties.  Know where thou is standing when it is time for a fair catch.  Run the correct route. When tackling, keep thy head up and wrap up!

Those things can be remedied and they will be.  Eastern Illinois  better be ready.

We saw some great flashes on offense.  Penix can sling it for sure.  The defense showed it can hold’em.  Stevie Scott will get his yards and he will find five guys keying on him at times and that will help the pass.

We saw pure greatness out of Logan Justus the IU field goal kicker.  He knocked in four field goals, three of them 48, 49, and 50 yards.  You would have to blow dust off the annuals to find three distances like that in one game from an IU kicker, wouldn’t you?

The pieces are there.  The rust is off and if this team stays healthy look out!

There is plenty of game film to splice that would worry the best of them when looking at the Indiana team.

Go Hoosiers!

If Notre Dame beats Louisville tonight, it will be a 10-4 opening week picking winners straight up for fun.  I am like the Hoosiers, I can do better.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson