Hello Group!

Let us kick this thing off. Maybe when the ball starts flying and the pads start popping and the hits keep coming and we cringe when our team throws an interception, and we cheer when an unlikely hero makes a great play that we still can’t wrap our brains around; the one we will talk about for the next three decades.

Whether it is George Teague catching Miami WR Lamar Thomas and stealing the ball to give the Tide another National Championship, or Kordell Stewart uncorking a pass that travels 75 yards in the air on the last play of the game that gives the Colorado Buffs a fantastic finish in The Big House that still stings the Maize and Blue. Or maybe Vince Young running for the corner in The Rose Bowl Stadium against USC. Uh-oh. I did it again. We didn’t even make it two paragraphs in, and I am talking about the man who made the calls of those moments. Yes, Keith Jackson. I can hear them all. “He’s got three people down there!” He’s going for the corner…he’s got it!”

This past week I spent time introducing myself to the 9th and 10th grade students at North Harrison High School. I wanted them to hear from their new school counselor. We discussed many things, including learning styles and making the most of study techniques that suit them best. I told them I am an auditory learner. The best way I learn is to listen. My sweetest memories are those of sounds that I remember. Whether it is the voice of someone I can’t listen to anymore, or the sound of the ocean, or music experiences I have had, or hearing our son Cody yell “Charge!” as he was riding a wave off the coast of Orange Beach. That is why I am always listening to music. I need it.

College Football brings great life experiences to listen to. Go to The Joan in Huntington, West Virginia and listen to the East side of the stadium answer the West side of the stadium. “WE ARE! …MARSHALL!”

You’ll be ready to run out on the kickoff team.

Walk into Neyland Stadium rooting for Ole Miss Rebels only to hear Rocky Top being played after eight Tennessee Vol Scores. You’ll be ready to jump in the Tennessee River. I have been there.

Or you can listen to the sounds of silence in Bloomington in late November when the last home game of the season for the Indiana Hoosiers holds little left with a merciful noon start time. And you know you are in the safest place in America.

The sounds of College Football… there is nothing like them!

It is that time, boys and girls. Time to talk about the 2024 College Football season.

This past week I read where, in the age of NIL and players wanting someone to show them the money, that Oklahoma State Head Coach Mike Gundy told his team he wasn’t going to acknowledge any of their agents until after the season. Believe it or not, these coaches do have to coach as well as negotiate contracts. With that said, let’s talk football.

LOCALLY

The INDIANA HOOSIERS! Yes, I have been a bit tough on new Coach Curt Cignetti. On these pages, we have discussed everything from his high school days in Morgantown to his dad getting fired at WVU when the man was ill, to the stops along his coaching career that included some assignments that were there for him not to screw up. He hasn’t. Fortunately, his Win-Loss record shines nicely. Just ask him. I am for the success of Indiana Football. I am DELIGHTED that this team has a schedule with only two preseason Top 25 teams compared to no less than four the last seven years. Face it, there is not much about Indiana Football to screw up. It can only get better and a season with a schedule like the one the Hoosiers have is made for improvement. If Kurtis Rourke, the QB from the Ohio Bobcats, can hit wide receiver Donaven McCulley, one of the best in the land, eight times a game beyond 12 yards downfield, the Hoosiers will have an offense that will be able to make defense coordinators do a little guessing for a change when they play the Hoosiers.

The Louisville Cardinals… Jeff Brohm really brought it last year. The Cards were 10-1 before they lost the last three games including a toe-stubber against the Kentucky Wildcats in The Govenor’s Cup. After the Indiana Hoosiers played Santa Claus for Louisville last year in game three at Lucas Oil Stadium, the Cards’ season took a turn for the better.

On this drive, the Hoosiers were looking to tie the game 21-21 late in the fourth quarter. On 4th and goal, the Hoosiers ran the ball up the gut which was a place they gave up yards all day. Louisville pulled out a 21-14 win. The tale of two seasons began. Louisville beat Boston College like a colonial drum the next week. In a game the Hoosiers should have lost, the next week, it took IU 4 excruciating overtimes to beat Akron 29-27.

Heading into the season, it seems the Cards defense is coming along nicely, according to Coach Brohm. But just yesterday I heard they lost a playmaker in wide out Caulin Lacy. He caught 91 passes at South Alabama for more than 1300 yards last year with some speed to boot. He will be missed. The QB this season is 7th year veteran Tyler Shough who brings his wares from Texas Tech.

The Kentucky Wildcats… The boys in Lexington were just handed a hard slap on the wrist by the NCAA with regard to some ghost employment issues some players dealt with during the 2021 10-3 campaign. The NCAA vacated those wins. I doubt the rest of the world noticed much, given what we are dealing with in 2024. Coach Mark Stoops has worked miracles in Lexington. If you know SEC Football history, you understand this assertion. This is the toughest place to guide a winner in the SEC. Vandy? Yeah, but they don’t have expectations like the rest of them do.

The Wildcats seem to have a defense that can play with most. Look at how many defensive guys are on NFL or CFL rosters. Providing junior Deone Walker hangs with the team, look for this mass of defensive tackle to give some QBs serious fits. Most of the D-Unit is returning for the Cats. If their offense can turn a few of the usual close losses to a W or two, they might shock too. The offense will go as long as Georgia transfer Brock Vandagriff keeps going. He is a former five-star recruit, if you believe in that kind of stuff. I don’t.

THE BIG TEN

I am not going down the road I have for the last ten years giving a dish on each and every school in the conference. I still have a soft spot for Goldy at Minnesota.

I still like the Iowa Hawkeyes where they are made to fire winning assistant coaches related to the head coach and where under former head coach, Haden Fry, the team did the Hokey-Pokey in the locker room after a victory. Coach Fry himself told me this when I was writing a paper in college about post-game celebrations.

The UCLA Bruins are now my second favorite team in the conference. During our two visits to see the USC game at The Rose Bowl, they have been kind hosts.

My Dad will be the first one to tell you that!

Hanging out in an empty Rose Bowl with a newly installed turf still being painted was a highlight I will never forget. And I didn’t miss a kick!

Who wins THE BIG TEN? Ohio State will. If Quinshon Judkins, that rascal that left the Ole Miss Rebels, stays healthy and plays like he can, look out. The worst of it is, he might have another year left in Columbus.

I look forward to seeing the Washington Huskies in Bloomington this year. I have seen every Big Ten team play now except Oregon and Washington. I think Oregon comes calling to Indiana in 2028. I don’t plan on going to Eugene anytime soon.

The Hoosiers? I see 5 wins. I see a possibility of 7. The ultra-realist is still waiting on the FIU game and looking for a two-score win. This old boy has seen too many incarnations of this movie before. Indiana is sinking more interest into the gameday experience than Memorial Stadium has ever seen. A concert stage on the south side of the stadium along with food trucks and I don’t know what all. They moved Hep’s Rock outside to the east side of the stadium where everyone can tap it and wish the Hoosiers luck. I will tap it and think of Coach Hep and the job he was doing when was here. If only… a lament Hoosier Football fans live with in perpetuity.

Game I am looking forward to early? USC at Michigan on September 21st. This one kicks off at 3:30 on CBS. Gary Danielson, an old Purdue QB, will be back in the Big Ten calling games. He needs to be there. The SEC fans need someone who played in the SEC and talks a little bit slower. Welcome home, Gary. That is same day I will be looking at, gulp…Indiana hosting Charlotte.

THE SEC

This is where the who’s who of college football live. They have the crowds, the fan bases, the tailgates, and that is just during the spring season.

There is nothing like SEC Football. For better or worse, there is nothing like SEC Football. Most of the time I think it is for the better. As long as Tennessee or Florida are not in the mix, I am usually all about it.

Don’t get me wrong. Being in Knoxville for the third Saturday in October in 2016 was an event of a lifetime. Neyland Stadium, aka “One Cheek Hill” is a place you will get to know the one sitting next to you, in front of you, and behind you. I know what I speak of.

What on earth is a football preview without remembering this kind gentleman leaning over to melt my earwax while I was the only one there wearing a neutral Ole Miss shirt in Knoxville.

The Tide whipped the Vols that day.

I still root for the Rebels. My family roots are deep there. Many of my kin ‘finished’ ‘there. Do they still say that? And I will say it one last time. This will be tough without my best Ole Miss buddy to share it with. I will keep talking to Aunt Barbara on 4th and short, even though she is not with us anymore. Our weekly calls during the season will be missed. Our speaks about the colorful callers on The Paul Finebaum Show will be missed. Without her, the SEC will just mean less to me.

I still have a great deal of faith in Alabama to take care of the SEC. Why? Kalen DeBoer. The pressure is more on UGA and that ugly bulldog than it is at BAMA. That is saying something, I know. Believe me, I know. I will tell it every year. In 2019, referenced in the photo above, Ole Miss was bested by the Tide. That day Tua threw 6 touchdown passes against the Rebs. After the game, an old boy said, “…yeah, but Tua left a few balls out there.” I thought I was going to faint. I think the last time I wrote about this, not long ago, I mentioned it was too hot to faint.

I made sure to take a picture of the of scoreboard that day while the Rebs were ahead. Kind of like the time when Lee Corso was coaching the Indiana Hoosiers, and they scored first at Michigan. He called time out and got the whole team together for a picture of them with scoreboard in the background.

Who wins the SEC?

I have to pick Ole Miss for no other reason than the heart wants what the heart wants and cards fall on occasion the way one wants them to. There is great deal of momentum in Oxford. The current climate of college football seems kinder to the Rebs and their coach, Lane Kiffin, than most places. And maybe I just want things to seem that way. I know they lost some players. I know they could lose to LSU, Oklahoma, and Georgia. They could also beat those teams and everyone else on their schedule. So why not? Let Georgia and Bama and Texas and LSU knock each other out. We know at least four of these teams will be playing in the expanded college football playoffs. So being the SEC Champ holds more pride and less necessity than ever. Why else did the playoffs expand? For Penn State? I don’t think so. We know who owns college football’s main street. It doesn’t stretch from coast to coast.

The ACC

Florida State and Clemson are still the shellers of the corn in this league. Again, I am not running down each team like we have in years past. Stanford and Cal are in this league for goodness’ sake. Do those ACC fans even remember the Standford Band? That was played after basketball season started in 1982. That 1982-83 NCAA Basketball season was an ACC doozy.

I still enjoy watching Boston College play. What I wouldn’t give to have had a camera handy the time I was standing with Gerard Phelan when BC was playing at Louisville in 1990, and he was calling the game on NESN. I shook the hand of the guy who caught Flutie’s miracle pass in the Orange Bowl when I was a junior in high school six years earlier. Also, my heart still roots for UNC and Mack Brown.

I see at least 8 wins for the Louisville Cardinals. Can they go up to South Bend and beat Notre Dame again?

Leagues with 17 teams or 18 teams calling itself The Big 10 will forever be hokey and just for marketing’s sake. I get that. Won’t we eventually make it a four-division big boy setup that is more geographically friendly than having USC in The Big Ten? I hope so, for the sake of West Coasters who’d rather see the Beavers come calling that the Gophers, if you catch my drift.

No one has more affection for The Rose Bowl than I do. That dream is gone. I can call up YouTube and watch a real Rose Bowl and listen to Keith Jackson or Curt Gowdy or Dick Enberg and sit there with a smile on my face knowing what I am fortunate to know. I won’t so much as sigh when they eventually move this game to SoFi Stadium, in town, since the Pac-12 has been dismantled thus ending the game for many of us. But I will feel terrible for the folks of Pasadena and the traditions that they hold all year as they plan the Rose Parade that holds hands with The Rose Bowl Game itself. The Pasadena Jaycees is where you can order the game program. That is quaint these days. And the folks of Pasadena, residency proof required, still hang on to a number of tickets to the game. I know they are trying to hold on to that game only being played on January 1, as it should be. Who will listen?

I will say again. I am enjoying watching the Canadian Football League. It is like old-fashioned football for me. No drama involved. There is nothing on my phone’s newsfeed telling me who the worst five coordinators are. The pregame show reminds me of watching The NFL Today when we listened in on Brent, Phyllis, and Irv. I don’t see a list of Paul Finebaum’s best or worse this, that or the other. I doubt Paul endorses these, though I am sure it is good for business. I just watch the games. I haven’t missed one and we finish week 11 today with Winnepeg at British Columbia. Go Blue Bombers!

My penchant for college football has not gone yet. Who would sit here and knock out these many words if that was the case? I just hope the college game lives up to what mixture of nostalgia and sincere interest I may have, and I wonder if others feel the way I do. Or am I just a hopeless romantic who needs to find a different outlet for this game I still love so much.

I hope I can feel the words I once stole from Keith Jackson and used during the days of calling high school games on the radio with my partner, Gus Stephenson. We can only hope, “It should be a good one.”

Beginning with week one, August 31st, we’ll look at the weekly picks of fourteen games.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

Don’t do it. Don’t tell me about my realism regarding the 2024 Indiana Hoosiers Football Team is based on my positive affection for Coach Tom Allen. Yes, I liked the guy. I still do. That won’t change. I also implied that Coach Allen and Indiana University needed to hammer out a treaty that would facilitate his way out of town last fall before they did just that about a week later.

Coach Allen is off to greener pastures. I have not seen a game at Penn State. But I can tell you that Beaver Stadium is a thing of beauty, and the Penn State Berkey Creamery has the best ice cream in America. Being a part of a great college football history is not a bad place to hang out for a while. Of course, I hope the Nittany Lions win every game.

On to the Hoosiers.

Am I the only one who is a realist when it comes to Coach Curt Cignetti? Has Indiana University Football become such a sympathetic/inspiring figure in the eyes of Hoosier fans that they automatically think the new coach will come in and win 7 games? This is the first time in my life that I have witnessed wishful thinking that seems a little more than just wishful.

Rest assured there will probably be no games in Indiana’s Memorial Stadium like the one they played against Michigan in the snow a few years ago. Coach Cignetti will see to that, providing he keeps blowing off as much hot air as he has since he made it to Bloomington. If hot air will give Indiana victories, the Hoosiers may land in the Music City Bowl.

Other media types don’t believe Indiana will face a challenge until the third game of the season. That is when the Hoosiers go to Pasadena to take on the UCLA Bruins in ‘some old stadium’.

Look, Coach Cignetti comes in from James Madison University with a great run there. 52-9 is darn good in five years of work. But where was James Madison in the five years before Coach Cig got there? 55-13. Coach Cig inherited a gold mine at JMU in terms of the Colonial Athletic Association.

We all know that these FCS and fledgling FBS programs schedule a “money” game with a traditional power. They need the money to help keep their football budgets as healthy as possible. That is why Alabama plays a JV team every year before the Iron Bowl. So, I asked how Coach Cig’s JMU teams did against the big boys in his 5 years there with his first three teams being FCS and last two at the FBS level. And how the five teams, all at the limited FCS level did in the “money” games before Coach Cig took over at JMU? Keep in mind the Covid year of 2020. That fall the CAA postponed the season until the spring of 2021. That was a season of attrition for sure. That saw the JMU Dukes play only five conference games before going 2-1 in the FCS playoffs.

The JMU teams coached by Everett Withers in 2014 and 2015 went 18-7 overall and lost to Maryland in 2014 while defeating SMU in 2015. Mike Houston took the JMU helm in 2016 and went 37-6 in his three years. The money games he played were losses against North Carolina in 2016, a win against East Carolina in 2017, and a loss to NC State in 2018.

It’s safe to say Coach Everett Withers and Coach Mike Houston had the refrigerator full when Coach Curt Cignetti made the move to JMU from Elon, unlike the empty cupboard he had to replace at IU. And, just like when he landed at Indiana and increased his salary seven times over, he said it was a tough decision to leave Elon after only two seasons.

During the Curt Cignetti five-year JMU era, the Dukes were 52-9. In the money games, minus the abbreviated 2020 Covid season, James Madison was 1-2. They were defeated by West Virginia in 2019, Louisville bested them in 2022, and JMU defeated Virginia in 2023. Coach Cig’s team did not play an FBS team in 2021 which was JMU’s last season in FCS. Not much there.

As I said earlier, many folks don’t believe the Hoosiers will be tested before the third game of the season when the UCLA Bruins host their first Big 10 game. And I think the Bruins will be ready.

Coach Cig recently said, “We’re just going to an old stadium to kick somebody’s ass. When I say that, that’s not directed toward UCLA. That’s the objective every week.”

For Coach Cig’s sake I hope he’s not expecting to play the Pasadena City College Lancers that day. The Bruins will be there, and they will be ready. You can get two tickets to the Indiana game at The Rose Bowl for 30 bucks less than I paid for one to see UCLA play USC eight years ago. The next week against Oregon, the same ticket as the one to IU is 77 dollars higher. So, I guess the Hoosiers have them right where they want them, if they don’t mistakenly show up at The LA Coliseum that day, you know, the other “old stadium”.

For me, the season starts at Memorial Stadium against FIU on August 31st. Coach Cig’s last four home openers have been against Bucknell, Middle Tennessee, and Morehead State twice. A two-score victory over FIU will give me a glimmer of hope.

This is The Big 10 boys, and it is a whole new ballgame, Google notwithstanding.

Nothing would please me more than to eat many words here. But as you know, I speak the rights. Google me.

Danny Johnson

NEXT UP: The 2024 speaktherights.com College Football Preview

The Best of Times was a great movie with Robin Williams and Kurt Russell. The critics won’t tell you that. I will. It was a flop at the box-office. But for a guy who was going to graduate from high school in a few months and already missed playing football with his friends, this movie resonated with me. It still does.

Had we had cell phone cameras back then, my friends and I would have looked like Jack Dundee and Reno Hightower. Kurt was Reno. He was the hero, obviously.

The last game I played at North Harrison on November 1, 1985, was in an epic monsoon. The field was still recovering two years later. Mick Rutherford made a tackle, and he was on the bottom of the pile on the sidelines underwater. All you could see were bubbles rising up from the bottom of the pile. Mick finally surfaced, shook his head a few times and let out his signature “war-hoop”. I just laughed then like I just did all over again. We were bested by Providence that night.

I met up with Mick, and Kelly Samons last week. I still marvel at the fact the two guys who came over to sit with the new kid from Brownstown in August of 1979 at North Harrison Elementary would one day be snapping and holding for the new kid’s kicks when we were in high school. I love these guys.

The Philpot brothers of the Canadian Football League. One plays for Calgary and the other for Montreal. They are both fun to watch. And so is the CFL for me. I looked at my dear wife, Carrie, as I was watching Friday’s CFL game. I told her it was so much fun, the best of times, to just sit and enjoy the games. And I in week 8 of the season already, I have watched every game. I told Carrie it is just a joy to watch. I am not inundated with the “drama” that goes along with college football and the NFL. CFL crap is not on my phone. Most of the guys playing in this league will make less money than most NCAA football players will. I enjoy the purity of the announcing. Matt Dunnigan, an old Louisiana Tech Bulldog and CFL legend, is the star at the desk and usually calls one game a week. It reminds of what I used to watch. Football minus all the drama.

The Moody Blues at The Ryman Auditorium, July 22, 2017. There is a Hatch Print in the living room reminding me of that date every day. This was the last time we saw The Moody Blues. I have told this before. During the last song that night, I looked at Carrie and grabbed her hand. I told her I didn’t want to be in The Ryman when the last note of Ride My See-Saw encore ended. We were out of the building before the last note. Never reaching the end.

And it seems, looking at Justin Hayward’s tour schedule, which is light, 2024 looks like the first time I have not heard Jus sing Nights in White Satin since 2003. 2003 to 2023… we either saw The Moodies or Justin solo. Covid 2020 was a wash for all of us. That is how committed the man has been to his music and his fans. For the record, since 1986, it has been 63 concerts in 37 venues, in 26 cities and 13 states. Yes, Carrie and I were there for The Moodies’ last show at Red Rocks in 2011.

Last year in Columbus, Ohio.

My biggest hurdle this college football season is how I am going to get along without the lady sitting next to Carrie. Talk about the best of times. I have no doubt the first time I see the Ole Miss Rebels hit the field this year, I will be crying like a baby. The Rebels play Furman first. That kicks off at 7 PM local time. I will be in Bloomington that day watching Indiana’s opener against Florida International University. So yes, I will be home in time to see the 4th quarter and cry. That is, if I don’t hang around for IU Coach Curt Cignetti’s post-game presser.

Lastly…for fun.

I hope this guy helps Penn State win every game this season! He hit the lottery with his exit from IU and his hiring at a place that understands football. Really, does Tom Allen not look better in these colors than he did in Crimson? Go get’em, Coach!

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

I have a dreadful weakness for the sound of Dusty Springfield’s up front and true sounding voice like no other lady singer I can think of.  Yes, I know, Barbara Streisand is in the neighborhood.

For decades I thought Dusty Springfield had to have grown up just down or up the road from Bobbie Gentry from Mississippi.  You know, the gal who sang the Ode to Billie Joe.  If you head down I-55 down from Memphis, you drive over the Tallahatchie River.  One can only speculate if that was “the bridge”.

That husky voice of Dusty Springfield actually came from the old country.  Dusty Springfield was born in London, England.  Here’s a piece of musical trivia for you.  Dusty and her brother and another chap were in a trio called The Springfields.  This group was voted England’s most popular group in 1961 and 1962.  Here’s the good one.  The Springfields rendition of the tune Silver Threads and Golden Needles was the first song by a British vocal group to be a Top 10 hit single in the USA.

In earnest, my life’s contemporary listening of Dusty Springfield was when she appeared on the Pet Shop Boys’ tune What Have I Done to Deserve This in 1987.  She sang the chorus.  If you can call it that.  Every time that song came on MTV, I waited to hear her voice.  Dusty Springfield was 59 when she passed away in 1999.  Hers is one voice that I missed hearing in person, and I regret it

So… I am mining through YouTube videos to watch whilst I exercise.  This is how I find out that David Gilmour has “dropped” a new song.  That is what the kids say when a new song comes out.  The new song is “dropped”.  The English teacher in me is not fond of such connotation.

I saw Gilmour at Rupp Arena in 1987 when he was in Pink Floyd, and they were on their first post-Roger Waters tour.  I enjoyed that album, Momentary Lapse of Reason; they played most of the album that early November night.  The concert was great.  Pink Floyd was one of those “other stratosphere” bands.  I can’t explain it.  But, just like Rush and Genesis, and to a degree, The Moody Blues, there are more guys in the audience than there are ladies.  It’s an industrial sound.  Those concerts are no place to look for sugar from your sweetie, unless Justin Hayward is singing Nights in White Satin.

Gilmour is like the rest of us.  He’s getting older.  But he can still play.

Go find something to listen to!

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

 

Indulge me this one more time.  My 2024 college football covering season is already a struggle.  When my SEC football watching buddy, Aunt Barbara, in Brandon, Mississippi died this past April, it reminded me of that Jerry Clower story where he met his brother coming back home as Jerry was walking to school.  Jerry’s brother told him there was no reason to go to school that day.  Someone let the air out of the basketball.  That about sums up facing a college football season without Aunt Barbara.  Alas, she would want me to press onward.

Aunt Barbara and I went to games together in Oxford, Jackson, Lexington, and Bloomington.  Yes.  I got her up here twice to watch the Hoosiers.  She thought the Indiana Hoosier Football experience was kind of, well, quaint.

One topic of conversation we often shared when I called her in the late afternoon was whether or not she had watched that day’s installment of THE PAUL FINEBAUM SHOW on the SEC Network.  It is the place where they “Call Paul”.

Calling Paul is a ritual to many SEC fans.  Listening to folks “Call Paul” is even more popular.  Count me in that number for sure.  The man is phenomenal from a phenomenon that he saw before the rest of us did.

Paul Finebaum has a nose for news.  He is a natural.  Along the way football has proven a nice vehicle for Paul’s news-oriented style of journalism.  In the early days of his journalism career, Paul was at his best and making a name for himself while he was digging up the dirt.

The world may never know what lured Paul Finebaum to The Shreveport Journal in 1978 after he had served as the sports editor of The Daily Beacon at The University of Tennessee.  Paul Finebaum, the political science major, headed to Shreveport to embark on a journalism career that has made him the most popular Paul since McCartney.

What did bring Paul Finebaum to Shreveport in 1978?  Was it the only gig he could find?  Was it the lure of working with venerable and proven journalism veterans in town in the likes of Jerry Byrd and Nico Van Thyn?  I sat with these two during a 1986 High School Jamboree in Shreveport at Caddo Parish Stadium and had a great time.

My grandparents lived in Shreveport for nearly 40 years.  Being a newspaper buff, perhaps the last one, I have enjoyed looking back at Paul Finebaum’s early days of working for The Shreveport Journal.

Paul Finebaum has always been about the story and the personalities around the game more than the game itself.

In April of 1979, Paul wrote a small feature about a Captain Shreve High School track participant.  For Some, the Sun’s Enough was the title of the piece.  Paul, in less than 300 words, reported this kid’s lack of track prowess and let us know that the young man was, as the boy said, “Really I’m out here for a suntan but don’t tell Coach that.”  The 5-9 165-pound defensive back was also on the track team at the behest of his football coach to stay fit, so we found out.  Paul, like only Paul can, wrapped things up with a suntan being the rest of the story.  My apologies to Paul Harvey.

One of the most interesting things I found was a story series Paul did in June of 1979. Riding With: An Independent Trucker was something Paul worked on while an independent truck driver strike was going on in this country.  Paul was riding along with Shreveport truck driver Bill Sams.  One of Bill’s regular runs was from Shreveport to Evansville.  I know it well.  Run up to Hope and catch I-30 on to Little Rock to hit I-40 to Memphis.  Pick up I-55 in Memphis to I-57 in Sikeston. MO to I-64 East at Mount Vernon, Illinois and that will lead you to Evansville.  I have driven it many times.

This assignment was not an easy gig for Paul.  Bill Sams was still running while many of his contemporaries were on strike. It was an ugly scene for a while.  Bill couldn’t afford to stay overnight at a truck stop due to the threat of violence.  He opted for the Holiday Inn instead of his cab’s cheaper sleeper.  Paul did a great job painting the picture of the plight of this gutsy guy who was not in a union.  He had to work to eat and provide for his family.  But leave it to Paul to throw in a zinger.  In one story Paul referenced the Evansville run as being one of the “tackiest stretches” in America.  Coming from a guy working in Shreveport, I can’t help but turn my head a little sideways.

In August of 2022, when I called The Paul Finebaum Show and had speaks with Paul, he asked where I was in Indiana.  That day we talked more about Mid-South Wrestling than we did football.

In Shreveport, Paul did dig the sports dirt.  There was an issue with LSU Basketball in early 1979.  Seems Paul Finebaum found out that LSU basketball player DeWayne Scales had been contacted by pro scouts.  It was true.  At the behest of LSU coach Dale Brown, the sports writers at the papers in New Orleans and Baton Rouge acquiesced to Coach Brown’s wishes and they stayed away from the story.  Paul Finebaum?  Paul was all over it and won an award for his article in The Shreveport Journal.

By 1980, Paul moved on to Birmingham.  The SEC loomed.  Alabama, UT, Auburn, Georgia, the big boys. He may have been fixed on the Alabama Crimson Tide before even he knew it.  1978 was a magical season for the Alabama Crimson Tide Football Team.  In a November 1978 column in The Shreveport Journal, Paul was ruminating over where the Tide was going to land during the Bowl Season.  Remember this was 1978.  Your old Uncle Dan can remember that there were only 15 bowls played that year which were two more than were played the year before.

The question at hand in 1978 was if Georgia lands in the Sugar Bowl, which was a looming possibility at press time, could the once beaten (by Southern Cal) Tide still play an undefeated Penn State team in Jacksonville in the Gator Bowl (the last time we would see Woody Hayes) for all the marbles if Bama could not make it into the Sugar Bowl?  No worry.  Calm down all ye yellow hammers. The Bulldogs would stub their toe and tie Auburn.  We know what happened next. Barry Krauss made THE TACKLE.  But a month and half before Matt Suey was denied, Paul Finebaum was worried about the Tide and just where this game was going to be played. He ended that November column with an inference that indicated he himself had bought an Alabama hat.

The Finebaums go to Birmingham.  That is where you will usually find the earliest references about Paul Finebaum’s journalism career.  If you don’t know any better, you’d think the road started in Birmingham and not Shreveport.  I suppose the SEC road did.  Just ask those folks.  That is the only road that matters.

From The Birmingham Post-Herald to The Mobile Press Register to various local radio and TV gigs to the great SEC Network where you can find Paul from 3 to 7 Eastern Time on most days.  From feuding with Ray Perkins to pushing and pulling with Lane Kiffin, Paul was made for the SEC and most of all, Paul was made for the place in time we exist now.

The 2024 College Football scene was made for Paul Finebaum.  These days one doesn’t have to dig the dirt anymore.  The dirt is everywhere.  On The Paul Finebaum Show the topic of the day is whichever dirt pile we care to talk about.  NIL?  Coaches?  Transfer Portal?  Conference Woes?  Toomer’s Corner?

Like the Billy Joel tune suggests, Paul didn’t start the fire.  With a demeanor and a delivery that is wise, experienced, discerning at times, and still willing to pounce, when need be, Paul is there for an SEC Nation.

I’d give anything to talk football and life with Paul.  I’d tell him about the time I was at an Ole Miss at Alabama game in 2019.  Tua threw 6 touchdowns passes!  After the game, I heard a Tide fan say, “Yeah…but Tua left a few balls out there.”  I thought I was going to faint. I started to but it was too hot. Indiana Hoosier football fans won’t see 6 touchdown passes in a month of conference games.

I’d tell Paul about how I was in the Louisiana Tech football locker room getting ready for practice one day and a very large fella sat down next to me.  Long story short, I chatted with him for a while.  I admired his physique and presence.  I asked him if he ever played basketball.  I asked him if he had any eligibility left.  He asked me about basketball in Indiana.  He asked about my family.  He told me he was from Summerville.  When he dropped his meat-hooks over my shoulder pads when I was putting them on under my jersey, I heard assistant trainer Bob Rash yell, “Don’t hurt him, Karl!  He’s just a kicker!” It’s true.  In 1986, I asked Karl Malone if he ever played basketball.  I found out.  I watched him play for the Utah Jazz that night in a preseason game against the Dallas Mavericks in the Thomas Assembly Center.

Or I’d tell Paul about how I went nuts when I saw this graphic on the television before TCU played Georgia for the National Championship in January of 2023.  He may know already.

More than anything, I’d ask Paul Finebaum why I still need to care about college football.  This child of the voice of Keith Jackson, I dial up games Keith called on YouTube when I exercise, wants to know why I should still care.

Six years ago, when I was kicking field goals in an empty Rose Bowl, I never dreamed that a Big10 logo would one day be placed there.  And the Midwest dream that was the PAC-12 v. the Big 10 in The Rose Bowl would be nothing but a memory.  I am a traditionalist.

Paul was the first I heard say it, as he was heading to break many months ago, when a caller referenced the potentiality of college football becoming pro football.  Paul said, “I hate to be the one to break this to you, but it is pro football.”

I’m on the metaphorical couch here, Paul.  Let me tell you about it.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

 

 

 

 

How’s it going group?

It is safe to say to MOST of the USA, stay as cool as you can!  It is warm out there!  It is hot out there! I walked three miles this morning before the sun had the chance to betray me.  That is a benefit of living in a ‘holler.

Tre Roberson played QB for the Indiana Hoosiers for a while.  These days he is a defensive back for the Calgary Stampeders.  He has played for them for a while.

I know, in my initial rants of what is happening with college football in America these days, I made mention here that I was ready to turn my eyes to the North.  The Canadian Football League just finished their second week of the regular season.  I have watched every game.  I love it.  I can’t say that about the NFL.  I can’t say that about college football.  I hope I come around.  Not holding my breath.

This is Vicki.  She is our bomb sniffer.  In another life, she was in Afghanistan trained as a bomb sniffer.  Our son, Jarrett, saved her.  She hangs out with us regularly.  You have heard of PSTD.  Vicki applies.  When there is gun fire heard, she knows it. When there is thunder, look out. She needs her kennel.  To see her calm and peaceful is a great thing to behold.  She is a good one.

On August 9, 2024, you can play the equivalent of TOP GOLF at THE ROSE BOWL in Pasadena.  Why Not?  If Alabama can play a Rose Bowl there, all bets are off.  Hit’em straight!  This is what has happened to College Football.

This photo was taken 40 years ago.  Looks like I have Beatle Hair.

I remember listening to Justin Hayward at a concert he gave at the City Winery in Nashville a few years ago.  He was talking about some differences over the years.  He mentioned amplification on stage.  How loud it was in the old days.  And mentioned how his hair had changed over the years.  Big in the 60s.  Bigger in the 70s.  Shorter in the 80s.  Then he said these days, “We got what we got.”  I’m with you Jus. A few weeks ago, I was in a checkout lane at a grocery store and was having problems with the automated checkout.  I literally saw a replay, on a screen before me, of things I was scanning for purchase.  The problem was in the process I could see how much (or less) hair I had on top where I can’t see in the mirror.  I could hear Justin Hayward.  We got we got.

Foam golf balls for me to practice with in the yard!   Guess what?  I was hanging out with my 5 iron today and I think I was on to something.  Just me and the 5 iron in the yard.  I think I may have, my apologies to Bagger Vance, found my swing.  It is a process.

Finally, remember there is really a pot at the end of the rainbow!

Speaking the rights….

Danny Johnson

 

 

 

Yesterday I received my first 2024 College Football magazine to read and rue over. Oh well, life goes on.  We can watch football or watch something else.  As difficult as some of the changes that have interrupted tradition and the lay of the college football land for many of us have been, at the end of the gameday it is still about how your 11 did against my 11.  That dynamic has not changed.  The Xs and Os will still go a long way in deciding the outcome of a college football game, no matter how many dollars are thrown at one quarterback over the other.

Reading over this magazine’s Big Ten preview for this year took nearly twice as long as it used to.  ‘Ten’ became 11 in 1993 with the addition of Penn State.  Subsequently, Nebraska, Rutgers, and Maryland eventually joined.  This year we add the University of Southern California Trojans, the UCLA Bruins, the Washington Huskies, and the Oregon Ducks.  There are 18 teams in The Big Ten now.

This particular magazine picks the Indiana Hoosier to finish 18th…dead last.  We can only hope that won’t fly.  The apprehension pointed out in the magazine is the one most people are not talking about out loud much in the Hoosier State.

Oh, there has been plenty of bravado thrown around about the confidence of the new coach.  He’s going to need it.  How he displays it is another story.  I keep hearing Coach Curt Cignetti talk about taking over teams before in similar situations, meaning the teams were losing before he got there.  This ain’t Elon.  This ain’t James Madison.  This sure is not Indiana (Pennsylvania).  Maybe he can do it!  Stranger things have happened.  Uh, no they haven’t.  Coach Cignetti has never had a losing season as a head coach.  His record is 119-35.  That’s amazing.  For the Glory of old IU, I hope he does it again.  But I think it will take some time.

What folks aren’t talking about much is more a question than a statement.  Coach Cignetti has brought along a comfort zone in the form of James Madison players to help ease along the transition of expectations and “culture”…as they say… to IU.  I don’t have the heart to ask the question.  Let me put it this way:  I guess Coach Cignetti thinks these guys from JMU can help him win in the Big Ten.  I like that confidence.  I like that loyalty.  I am sure the JMU players will like the NIL bump to be had.

Coach Tom Allen was let go last season and it was the right call for all.  I believe that.  I believed a little too much, going back to the day Tom Allen was hired.  Look at how many games those Hoosiers lost by one score or less in the Tom Allen era.  There were 18 one score loses by Indiana in the Tom Allen era.  He finished 33-49.  Win 12 of those one score games and the record is 45-37 and we are all looking forward to year eight of Coach Allen’s Hoosiers knowing the last time an Indiana football coach had a win-loss record 8 games over .500 was when Coach Bo McMillin stepped off the field in 1947 with a 14-year record of 63-48-11.

Moral of the story is the potential is really there.  Indiana is not as far away as the magazine wants you to believe.  But it’s a hard sell isn’t it.  Press onward is the battle cry.  Maybe Coach Confidence will bring it all around.  Some of us would like to see it in our lifetime.

The Indiana-UCLA game is to be played in The Rose Bowl on September 14th at 7:30 PM.  When we found out what the date would be, many months ago, I ceremonially booked a room at the same hotel where I have stayed twice whilst watching UCLA-USC in football’s greatest cathedral.  I cancelled the reservation yesterday.  But I am not yet going to cancel my optimism completely.  Sometimes being able to say I told you so just plain hurts and is not fun at all.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

 

 

 

When I recently informed an old colleague of mine that I was heading back to the school counseling office for the 2024-2025 school year, he referenced Henry David Thoreau to me.  That made me smile.  Thoreau said he left Walden woods for as good a reason as he went there.

“Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more for that one.” – Henry David Thoreau

That is what my friend was alluding to.  When you get that kind of encouragement, you know you are doing the right thing.

Room 127 has been good to me and my students the last couple of years.  I have truly enjoyed the opportunity to go back to my English teaching roots and try to help learners better negotiate the English language.  At the end of the day for me, Indiana Academic Standards notwithstanding, I wanted to help my students become better communicators moving forward with their lives. The art of communication is a skill that is at a premium these days.

Room 127 is waiting for another life of its own with another English teacher to help students navigate the rigors and nuances of the English language.

Me?  Well, I am heading back to the school counseling office, and I am thankful to our school’s administration for giving me a chance to return to a place I spent five years from 2015 to 2020.  That is what I trained for.  That is what I earned a master’s degree at U of L for.  The counseling office is where I have spent 19 of my 29 years as an educator.  I feel that we are waiting on each other.  The office and me.  Helping students and parents navigate high school is not a charge to sneeze at.  This is an important time and place in the lives of impressionable youngsters, and they need all the support we can give them.  I have been there.  I think I can help.  I know I can.

I can’t say enough good things about the students I have had the last three years.  One student, Sarah Knight, drew this for me in art class this spring.  I was moved intensely.

Vex Baysore wanted me to see the bird that was crafted in art class.  It was a thing of beauty and inspiration.

One of my 9th grade students told me this week that, since we were wrapping things up, we needed to listen to some of my music.  What could I say?  I don’t make a habit of tuning into my own songs on Amazon Music.  I rarely listen to them.  I know what they are about.  I was there.  Still, I was honored the student asked.  That is all I can say.  And I acquiesced.

The last episode of North Harrison Hodgepodcast featured two of my senior students.  Mario Mendoza, me, and Nick Allen.  I had both of these guys in class as sophomores and seniors and spent the most of one football season hanging out with them.  They are class acts.  I will miss them.

The North Harrison High School Hodgepodcast was a strike!  We had 11 episodes this year.  They can be found here:

North Harrison High School Hodgepodcast | North Harrison Community Schools (nhcs.k12.in.us)

I read the Indianapolis Star each morning online.  Was I ever delighted to see that former NH basketball player Langdon (LT) Hatton will be playing for the Indiana Hoosiers next season.  After seeing more than a hundred football games at IU over the years, this past season my dear wife, Carrie, and I saw the Hoosiers play Wright State in my first game at the Assembly Hall.  I expected more from this team when I saw them.  Obviously, they were not a ‘team’.  That will be taken care of.  I believe that.  I suppose I better make it to another game or two this year.  Congrats to LT and his dad, Steve Hatton.  They have both put in hours and hours and hours of preparation.  There is still something to be said about hard work.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

 

 

 

 

 

Last Saturday, my brother Darrell and I drove to St. Louis to watch a United Football League game.  The St. Louis Battlehawks played the Memphis Showboats.  St. Louis won 32-17.  Everything about this experience was exquisite.  We left my house at 7 AM and returned right at 7 PM.

I haven’t spent much time in St. Louis.  A couple concerts and this trip.  We rarely head west.

There were over 31,000 Battlehawks fans in attendance.  Everything about was wonderful.  Tickets were affordable.  Families, entire families were there and that was a great sight.  We were all there to have fun.  It wasn’t like if we get beat by Jets today, we’re all going to be mad the rest of the week.  None of that stuff.  Look, the football Cardinals left town.  The Rams left town.  These people enjoy and support a team that is in town.  This team has the best attendance in the league.

 

Even better, AJ McCarron completed 35 passes for the home team.  What enamors me about his play is that this career NFL backup wanted to play for team he could start for so his boys could watch their dad play.  That is easy to root for.

Speaking of rooting.  I was root, root, rooting for the home team this week.

I had the pleasure of doing the PA announcing for North Harrison High School Baseball this past week.  We played four games, with only Wednesday off.  The Cougars took 3 of the 4.  It was pure fun.  Coach Kevin Fessel has a nice team.  My hat is off to him.

Today we were at NH for the spring play.  The History of Dating was the name of the play.  It was fantastic.  The players were spot on, and it went off without a hitch.  I know how difficult this is.  I have been there.

Want a giggle?  The above was on an assignment one of my students turned in.  We talked at length about the TOTAL ECLIPSE that was around these parts.  We didn’t go to school that day.  I had my senior English classes write a poem with the eclipse as its theme.  On one doc, I got a poem and this picture.  I just shook my head.  I appreciate it.

This picture was taken on November 15, 2019.  My dear wife, Carrie, and I were at Marshall to see the Thundering Herd take on the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs.

Before the game, at the hotel we were staying, I slipped down to the indoor pool facility that was empty.  It was warm.  I took a seat.  I took out my phone and dialed the 601 area code.  I called my Aunt Barbara for the first time in a long time.  Ashamedly, I can report that when I took my job at North Harrison my calls to her slowly dried up.  It was my fault.  For the previous thirteen years before I took my job at North in 2015, I worked at Medora Schools and drove 54 miles one way to get there.  Many of those days I stayed and announced ball games.  That meant late nights getting home.  To pass the time, I often called my Aunt Barbara Hines.  We talked about everything.  When things got really juicy, she’d say, “You’re a mess, Danny!”

Aunt Barbara’s husband, my Uncle Durwood Hines, died in 1988.  He had a brain tumor.  In 1989, Aunt Barbara and I went to see Ole Miss play Arkansas in Jackson.  We had so much fun we did it again in 1991.  Then Ole Miss quit playing games in Jackson and kept everything on campus.  In 1996, Carrie and I went Oxford with Aunt Barbara to see LSU.  Two weeks later, she was up here, and we were taking her to see Penn State at Indiana.  In 1998, she came up here to see IU play Minnesota.  In 1999, my son, Jarrett, and I were with Aunt Barbara heading to Oxford to see Ole Miss play Georgia.  In 2001, she came up and we took her to Lexington to see Ole Miss against Kentucky.  The last game Aunt Barbara and I saw together was Ole Miss vs. South Carolina in 2003.  It was Eli Manning’s senior year.  The Rebels won 43-40.  Had they played fifths instead of quarters, the Rebs probably would have gotten beat.  We all walked away feeling the Rebs had escaped.  Eli threw for 396 yards.

After that call I made to Aunt Barbara in Huntington, West Virginia in 2019, she and I were connected to the end.  Rarely did a week pass when we did not talk.  Sometimes two or three times a week.  Let me tell you this, last year when my lung ailments were fixed to the point where I could breathe freely for the first time in my memory, I walked and I walked.  When I walked and I walked, I called Aunt Barbara.  The last year of her life, we covered more ground than either one of us ever bargained for.  I am so thankful.

Taken at The Cock of the Walk catfish restaurant along the Ross Barrnett Reservoir in Brandon, Mississippi in 2017.  A great meal with the best of times.

This was taken the last time we saw Aunt Barbara in 2019.  Two of my favorite ladies.

Aunt Barbara died this past Saturday.  Leave it to her to go on a Saturday.  That was our favorite day of the week.  How can I watch the Ole Miss Rebels without her?  We’d be on the phone on game nights, and I would receive the signal seven seconds before she would.  I’d just wait for her to say “Get him! Get him.” Or I’d hear, “Oh, Lord.”  That was a bad play.  We’d relive every game, and we had all the answers.

College Football won’t be the same for me.  I guess I need to call Paul Finebaum again in honor of Aunt Barbara.  That won’t help.  I sure hope time will.  Cos I’m sure gonna miss her.

Speaking the Rights…

Danny Johnson

 

 

 

Yesterday I went for a long walk.  I walked more than five miles.  This was the first meaningful walk I have made this year.  My exercising has primarily been on an elliptical and stationary bike in 2024.

My reasoning for staying indoors to exercise has been based on either the temperature outside or the number of allergenic pollens in the air.  At least that is what I have been telling myself.

The truth of the matter is that I think I would have gone after my usual walking trail long before now, had I been able to call my Aunt Barbara.  I can’t do that anymore.  By now in years past, I could have told you how the Ole Miss Baseball Team was doing.  Aunt Barbara kept me in the know.  We’d talk about the Paul Finbaum Show and how long she listened to it that day before she had to turn it because it was sounding like “silly mess” to her.

I’d talk to her and walk and walk some more.  Then when I was done, I would write something like this and put all these pictures on here.  The next time we talked, we’d talk about the pictures on here.  Those times never got old.  I miss them.  I miss talking to her.  Aunt Barbara is in poor health somewhere in Mississippi.  When I think about that, I am in poor health too.

So, I need to keep moving.  I need to keep walking.  That five mile walk I made yesterday was seemingly waiting on me.  I needed it.  I talked to my mother while I was walking until the wind got too bad.  Then I listened to music.  I enjoyed it all.

Who wouldn’t enjoy walking around all this natural beauty?

The Spring is always a nice time.  But I was thinking about something.  As I was walking and looking at all the new green popping out in the warm weather we have been treated to of late, I thought about the fall.  I thought about how fleeting that special season is when the leaves are changing and the yellows, reds, and browns of autumn give us a settling comfort for just a while that is never enough.

Yes, my walking trail is special.  I walked for five miles and saw two cars in the process.  I am going to keep walking.  I am going to keep moving, however lonely it may seem at times.

A little while ago I watched Scottie Scheffler win his second Green Jacket in two years, as he won the Masters Golf Tournament today.  I enjoy golf.  There is so much grace and honor to it.  No other sport personifies grace and goodness like golf does.  Players don’t act like they are running for public office when they make a nice shot.  They know a clunker is waiting in the weeds for them.  You know, like the shots you and I make.  They make them once in a while too.  Class lives in golf.

I know I go on and on about Justin Hayward around here.  A few days ago, I listened to John Lodge’s live album that he recorded in 2017 apart from The Moody Blues.  This is a nice record.  It was recorded in Birmingham, England’s Town Hall.  This was the same place Lodgy saw Buddy Holly when he was a kid in 1958, just 11 months before the Day the Music Died.

On this day on 2018, The Moody Blues were inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  The last concert the Moodies played was in November of 2018.  It was in a hotel ballroom near San Diego.  The gig was in support of a local charity.  That was the last one.  No great fanfare.  No great goodbye.  Just a gig in a room with a low ceiling with a small crowd for a good cause.  That’s poetry.

The latest edition of the North Harrison High School Hodgepodcast was a great time.  Thank you for being my guest, senior Vicki Moorman.  We spoke of many literary pursuits and her future plans at Manchester University.  I was impressed with this young lady.

Have a great week all.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson