Football Season is here.  The NCAA season will be in full swing the last weekend in August.  My dear wife, Carrie, and I will be covering the Marshall Thundering Herd  as they visit the Miami (OH) Redhawks in Oxford, Ohio on Saturday, August 30th.  Kickoff is 3:30 PM.

The Marshall Thundering Herd will do well this season.  I am calling for the Herd to go 12-0 in the regular season.  They will then host and win the Conference USA Championship game and proceed to be somewhat media darlings as they get to play in a New Years’s Eve or New Year’s Day Bowl…one of the BIGGIES.  The Peach Bowl?  Maybe.  The Orange Bowl?  I hope so.  The quarterback, Rakem Cato and his favorite receiver, Tommy Shuler, are both from Miami.  So to start the season in the smaller Miami and end the season in the big Miami would be apropos.

This will be good and bad for the Herd faithful.

West Virginia is going to continue to stumble in the Big 12.  I believe they will fire their coach, Dana Holgersen, at the end of the season and offer that job to current Marshall coach, and WVU alum, Doc Holliday.    I have no doubt Chuck Landon, the Huntington Sports Columnist, is prepared to barb away at Doc on this matter.

Go Herd or Go Home!

 

 

Lets look at three conference races that will appeal to many of us…but not all of us.

The Atlantic Coast Conference.

The ACC is made up of two divisions.  There are seven teams in the Atlantic Division and there are six teams in the Coastal Division.  I think they should have named these sub-groups the Ocean Division and the Beach Division.  Marketing would enjoy this much more.

Note:  I am not writing about the ACC because the University of Louisville joined said conference this year.  I liked it better before Louisville got there.  I pull for the North Carolina schools.

Here are my predictions as to how these teams will finish in their prospective division:

Atlantic Division                                                     

1.  Florida State-    Injury and themselves are worst threats.

2.  Clemson-  Howard’s Rock will be rockin’ this season.

3.  Louisville-  The welcome mat is out for Petrino until he burns it.

4.  NC State-  Things have to get better in  Raliegh.  A kind schedule could mean 8 Ws.

5.  Boston College-  Coach Addazio has his work cut out for him…he can shell the corn.

6.  Syracuse-  If they’d move out of that dome they’d win against warm weather schools.

7.  Wake Forest-  Left BB&T Field off my list of football venues.  I was wrong.  Team is bad.

Coastal Division

1.  Virginia Tech-  Beamer -ball is back in a big way.

2.  Duke-  The heart wants to put’em #1.  Coach Cut has worked miracles.

3.  Georgia Tech-  Their option “O” can  still give  teams fits finding the ball.

4.  Miami (Fla)-  There is always trouble.  Canes of old didn’t have social media woes.

5.  Pittsburgh-  Give them credit…they have same Head Coach for 3 years now.

6.  Virginia-  The Cavaliers have a tough road.  Schedule is brutal.

Over the years I have seen nine of these teams play in person.  The four I have missed are Pitt, Syracuse, Clemson, and Georgia Tech.  I weep not for any of them.

North Carolina is our adopted second home.  Carrie and I visit there as often as we can.  What is so special about it?  Well…the first time I crossed the Virginia state line into North Carolina, Carrie was sitting beside me looking out the window.  This was the first destination we ever found together,  having neither of us been there before.

I enjoy keeping up with the happenings of the ACC during football season.  I know it is a historically strong basketball league; I won’t hold that against them.  Yes… I do watch basketball when it matters:  March…and only March.

I also pull hard for Duke because they were stinkers for years and former Ole Miss Coach David Cutcliffe has brought them out of the doldrums and onto the high seas.  They won ten games last year.  It used to take’m six years to win ten games.

Wake Forest

Ole Miss @ Wake Forest 2008

THE BIG TEN

Like the ACC, the Big Ten is also made up of two divisions.  One division is called the EAST DIVISION and the other is called…imagine…the WEST DIVISION.  Believe it or not the names of these divisons are an improvement.  They used to be called the Leaders and Legends…talk about nose out of joint attitude.  But, that is what you get from the Big Ten…they tend to be a little class conscious.  Reference Indiana University Football ticket prices.  I guess they don’t think they will fill the place if they charge  5 or 500 dollars. Their tickets are too too high. The rain’s gotta start and stop somewhere.  This where the adage “you get what you pay for” lost its credibility.

I know my barbecuing of IU may come as a surprise to some that have read about my affinity for Memorial Stadium where the Hoosiers play.  Where they play and how they do business are two totally unrelated variables.  I still love the place.  I wish I loved what was in it.

Indiana’s Memorial Stadium…The Safest Place in America on Saturday.

Enough of the social commentary already.  Let’s talk football.

BIG TEN predictions…yes… I know they have 14 teams.  Makes a great deal of sense.

BIG TEN EAST

1.  Michigan State-  Sparty is ready.  Lost one game by 4 points last year.  Look out.

2.  Ohio State-  If they stay healthy, they could make a great deal of noise.

3.  Michigan-  The Big House will recover.  Struggled last year.  Still is 3rd not enough.

4.  Penn State-  Could be 2,3, or 4.  Coach Franklin is that good.  See Vandy work.

5.  Indiana-   Hoosiers need to justify doubling the new coach’s salary over the last one.

6.  Maryland-  New kids on the block.  First season in Big Ten.  Odd appendage.

7. Rutgers-  New like Maryland.  Bring with them the TV Cow of the NYC market to milk.

 Iowa will shell the corn.

BIG TEN WEST

1.  Iowa-  They are singing “This is Gonna Be My Year” in Iowa City.  Ball bounces their way.

2.  Wisconsin-  Swissconsin and the fans of Bucky are happy again.  And cold.

3.  Northwestern-  Feels odd picking NU over Nebraska.  Think it’ll happen.

4.  Nebraska-  The Cornfield of the West belongs in the Big 8…but it doesn’t exist anymore.

5.  Minnesota- Coach Kill will be sharing time with the Vikings at TCF Bank Stadium.

6.  Illinois-  The Illini will wish they had Red Grange in their huddle.  Great place to visit.

7.  Purdue-  They just plain eat it.

With the addition of Maryland and Rutgers, I now have two teams in the Big Ten that I have never seen play…those two.  This past summer I drove on the New Jersey Turnpike and went past the exit to go to Rutgers.  It looked like Big Ten country about as much as Gene Simmons looks like he belongs in The Moody Blues.  Oh what Big Ten purist have to put up with in the wake of cash-driven college sports looking for the next big city market to get a piece of.  Next year the Big Ten will probably branch out with the addition of the University of Edmonton or London State.

Drum roll please…

The League that matters.  The League that if they didn’t beat on each other every week for eight weeks no one else in the country would have a chance.  The other schools in so-called power conferences look not at the scores of SEC games….they want to see who got hurt?   Ohio State fans are pinning their hopes of getting to the national championship based on whether or not a hoss of linebacker from Ole Miss put the hurt on Alabama’s best back and knocked him out of commission.  The whole country knows it.  Most of them resent it.  It is just a matter of priority.  Football rules in The Southeastern Conference.

THE SEC

I love the intensity of SEC football.  They get it started in a hurry.  During the first week of the season, South Carolina is taking on Texas A&M in a HUGE conference game.  That kind of intensity and sense of urgency is on fire from week one in this conference until they settle on a Champion the first weekend in December.

An Ole Miss fan as far as the SEC goes, I have seen every team in the conference play over the years with the exception of Florida and Mississippi State.

This year’s SEC predictions from speaktherights.com:

The SEC is, like most conferences these days, split into two divisions…primarily so the winner of each division can play for the championship at the end in front of a huge crowd while…the legend continues (my apology to Keith Jackson).

SEC EAST

1.  South Carolina-  The old ball coach is finally going to sling it again and throw his visor.

2.  Georgia-  Coach Richt is a survivor. There is a TV  show by the same name.  He’s it.

3.  Missouri-  Belong in the SEC East like Rutgers belongs in the Big Ten.

4.  Florida-  Happy days are not here again for the Gators.  Injuries and trouble abound.

5.  Tennessee-  Butch Jones will have them moving on up…but another year of growing pains.

6.  Vanderbilt-  Derek Mason has a tough job following James Franklin.

7.  Kentucky-  Need to change name from Wildcats to Mildcats.

SEC WEST

The greatest division of football on the planet.

1.  Alabama-  Hate it. Wish it was the Rebels.  I’ll be like an Ohio State fan looking for injuries.

2.  Ole Miss- Coach Freeze is a winner.  Hope Ole Miss has sense enough to hang on to him.

3.  Auburn-  So many starters returning, you’d think I was a Homer.

4.  LSU-  It is time for LSU to stub their toe….or Mike to get a thorn in his paw.

5.  Mississippi State-  Their Hail State campaign was a meteorologist’s nightmare.

6.  Texas A&M- Johnny football gone.  The whole dynamic and culture needs rebuilt.

7.  Arkansas-  Pig Sooooie?  All I can say…Razorback fans be prepared to hold your nose.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t put a pic of Dad and me at Notre Dame last year.  I haven’t been that cold since.

CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH-UPS

ACC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME:   Florida State v. Virginia Tech

Winner: Florida State by virtue of their team speed.

BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP GAME:  Iowa v. Michigan State

Winner:  Iowa… though I am the only one believing.

SEC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME:  South Carolina v. Alabama

Winner: South Carolina…the head ball coach retires as king.  The Gamecocks will win it all this year.

Enjoy the 2014 Football Season.  I know I will.  In fact no one has it better than I do each and every college football season.  I can look at Carrie and say we are going to Nashville to see Ole Miss play and she will have one question… “What time is kickoff?”   I am a blessed man.

As the season goes on I’m sure I’ll find time to speak the rights about it.

Danny Johnson