Sad does not begin to address how I feel that the College Football season is already half over.  I cant’t believe it.

Though I am in North Carolina as I type these words, I kind of feel like I am in Indiana.  Most of the folks around here are already looking forward to basketball season.  The UNC football team is not doing well.  NC State is on a downward slide.  Duke is doing well but they still love their basketball off the charts.  You think you are in the south when you visit North Carolina…but you’re not. Talk radio is looking to bouncing balls.  Like the folks in Indiana, I feel sorry for these people too.

Last week was kind.  Ten games picked…ten winners.  I doubt we run into that again.  Simply put we are 57 winners picked and 13 losers picked so far this college football season.  If I may, let me impart that I do not bet on college football…or any sport for that matter.  I think betting is a waste of money.  The day I am more interested in the point spread than whether or not my team wins, you will know that I started smoking crack.  It just ain’t going to happen!  My regard for the game and the effort that goes into one includes much more respect than I can write about.

I do enjoy picking the winners.

Baylor will beat West Virginia…As a Marshall fan, you enjoy games like this.  You enjoy watching big brother get taken to the wood shed.  Baylor should score many points.

Duke will beat Virginia…Duke will have six wins and one defeat after Saturday.  They will be bowl-eligible for the third consecutive year…a first in school history.  The Wahoos have improved a great deal.  Duke’s home-field advantage is minimal.  Doesn’t matter.  The Dukies have a football mentality that says it is us against the world of college football.  They would be right.

Michigan State will beat Indiana… I have heard word that Indiana wants to fill in the open end of their stadium and make Memorial Stadium a “bowl”.  If you can’t get to bowl game, you might as well make your own.  How disturbing this is.  Nate the Great went down with injury…might buy Coach Wilson another season.

Alabama beats Texas A&M…Good for Nick Saban showing a little passion at the press conference this week.  I agree with him.  Style points in the SEC are predicated on one thing…did you score more than your opponent?  The Tide will come back stronger than they have been all season.

UCLA beats Cal…The PAC 12 is having a tough time.  No marquee left there.  UCLA still has a chance to make noise in January if they win out and get some help.

Ole Miss beats Tennessee… Rocky Top will have to settle on being played in between commercial breaks.  The Vols won’t score much.  The Rebels are in a great place.  Their rival Cowbellers are a couple places ahead of them in the polls and they won’t take focus off the field or the accelerator until the end of the Egg Bowl.

Notre Dame beats Florida State…For the sake of college football the Irish need to beat the Seminoles (hope I didn’t offend anyone).  If FSU loses, perhaps some of their off the field woes will be focused just there…off the field.  I am sick of listening to excuses for a player that should know better…or Johnny Manziel may say he is just a kid and will make some mistakes.

LSU will beat Kentucky…  Tiger Mike will claw and the Wildcats will paw then run home to Lexington.  Kentucky is much improved.  They are not ready to go to LSU and make that statement just yet.  Win a couple more and go to a bowl game.  We all know it could be much worse.

Iowa beats Maryland…Why does he care about the Hawkeyes?  I still have a soft spot for Coach Hayden Fry.  I like the way Coach Kirk Ferentz does business.  His buy-out alone has saved his job thus far.  With that said…I still think the Hawkeyes are a good team and will play for the Big Ten Championship.

Marshall beats Florida International…the Herd is ranked for the first time in 12 years.  They will keep pouring it on too in hopes of making a big bowl in January or December 31st.  When Rakeem Cato throws a touchdown pass this weekend, it will be a record 39 games in a row in which he has done so.  Oh…and their run game is pretty awesome too.  See Devon Johnson tote the mail a few times.

Happy Watching this Saturday.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

As Carrie and I have been taking in the North Carolina shore, we have not been alone.  We actually made the trip with a new friend of ours.  His name is Carl and he had been having a great time.

Here is Carl admiring the sunrise.

Carl enjoying his breakfast.

Carl reading the morning paper.

Carl keeping up with his media.

Carl getting some sun.

Carl examining the shells he collected.

Carl says to tell you hello.

I think he too speaks the rights.

Danny Johnson

My dear wife, Carrie, and I are enjoying a few days away from the normal day to day we are fortunate enough to be a part of… back home again in Indiana.  We are in North Carolina.  Not far from Wilmington…north of Wilmington…on the coast.

Every time I think about Wilmington, North Carolina, I can’t help but think about the Andy Griffith  episode when Gomer Pyle was joining the Marines.  Camp LeJeune, an enormous Marine Base, is just up the road from where we are.  In the episode, Andy told Gomer he would drive him to the Marine base the next day because he said he had some business to attend to in Wilmington.  I doubt Andy had anyone to see in Wilmington.  He was just going there to take care of Gomer.

Ironically enough, Carrie and I walked past the Courthouse that is shown as the primary building Andy Griffith did his legal practicing on his later show Matlock.  Though Matlock was set in Atlanta, they did their filming of the show…at least a great deal of it… here in the Wilmington area.  That show is not alone.

A new show set to premier next spring on ABC called Secrets and Lies was filming this week down by the Battleship Wilmington along the Cape Fear River.  The carnival set is just for the show…explain that to an eight year-old.

The next picture shows the Battleship Wilmington next to it.

A great many television shows are filmed here, as well as movies.

Current shows filmed in the Wilmington area include: Sleepy Hollow, Under the Dome, Revolution, and once upon a time a show called One Tree Hill was filmed here.  Across town yesterday they were also filming a Nicholas Sparks’ film adaptation of “The Choice”.

No one in town blinks an eye if they see production equipment moving about.  What they do see is opportunity and the prospects of jobs for the people in the area.  While I hate to get into something I know little about, it seems there is some political push-pull going on between the Filming Industry and the State Politicians…they are trying to hammer out treaties regarding tax and revenue (if you can believe that).

SHRIMP

One great thing about coming down here is the Carolina Shrimp.  Carrie and I acquired a pound and a half of these fresh critters and she commenced to working her culinary magic.  I am a fortunate man to be in the presence of a great cook.  She could open a restaurant and do quite well anywhere in America…I am convinced.  Many of you whom have eaten her fare understand what I am saying here.

Fried Shrimp and Onion Rings on the way!  The tomatoes are just there for decoration.

We picked this assortment of veggies at the Farmer’s Market just a mile from downtown Raleigh.   I threw them on the grill.  They were very tasty.

I can’t overstate how nice the people are around here.  Carrie and I feel quite at home here.  I suppose that is why we keep coming back.  Admittedly I am a creature of habit.  This place is a good place to be acclimated to.

I wonder why?

We met a friend on the beach when we got here.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Yesterday at Faith Harbor United Methodist Church in Surf City, North Carolina, my dear wife, Carrie, and I enjoyed the service.  The Children’s Sermon was a preview of what Mr. Vaughn was going to share with us, the Parable of the Vineyard Workers.  The lady giving the children’s sermon was doing a good job.  Given there was one little jasper there interrupting her with a comment every third word, I think she performed a miracle.

She conveyed the parable quite well and at one point one of the kids said: “So you get thirty dollars and he gets thirty dollars and I get thirty dollars even though you worked longer”.

The kid made me laugh out loud.

I immediately hearkened back to our youngest son, Cody, and some of the shenanigans he used come up with while taking the English Language to its literal limits.

Don’t ask me how many years ago these incidents were.  I know that the last I will share happened in the Summer of 1996.

As I mentioned, Cody was a literal sort when it came to his interpreting the English Language as a young lad.  The following are such examples:

I was holding down the couch on a Saturday afternoon.  I had one eye on the pillow and one eye on the Atlanta Braves playing…someone.  Cody was in and out of every door to our house at the time…two…with such repetitive speed I wondered how he could be in two places at once.  On one pass through the living room, the baseball announcer made the comment that it would be a good idea to think about stealing home.  Cody looked at me and asked why anyone would want to steal their home?

Cody and I were driving down the road and the radio was tuned to a classic rock radio station.  Nazareth’s “Love Hurts” was blaring through the speakers.  That song has a guitar solo that can still tickle my spine all these years later.  Anyway…Cody looked at me and said, “That song reminds me of you and Mommy….Love Birds.”

I suppose it was a television news story.  A guy on the television was talking about how a Military person was being given a Purple Heart.  Cody stopped in his tracks, looked at me, and asked…”Why would anyone want a purple heart?  They are supposed to be red.”

My all-time favorite Codyism came the Summer of 1996.  Carrie was taking a class at Indiana University in Bloomington that summer.  It was a one week intensive class.  She was at it from 8 AM to 5 PM.  The boys and I were piddling around while she was taking the class.

One day we hit the jack-pot.  IU’s Memorial Stadium has an open door and we had a football.  Jarrett and Cody and I started throwing passes to each other.  Cody soon got tired of the football tossing and he proceeded to run up and down the West Stands of Memorial Stadium…all 109 rows of it.  He would disappear for a minute and you could hear him hoot and holler inside the bowels of the stadium.  In a minute he would reappear and yell at Jarrett and me on the field.

During this time I was showing Jarrett where I saw Rick Leach and Michigan in 1975.  I showed him where Anthony Thompson leaped for a touchdown against Kentucky in 1988.  I showed him where Ray Griffin returned a mammoth interception for Ohio State.  I was in my glory and Jarrett knew it.  We had a great time.

Cody came running back down to the field and he was red-faced and worn out from all the steps he had taken throughout the structure that is Indiana’s Memorial Stadium.

Cody looked at me, caught his breath, spit on the ground, and said something that I will never forget.  Here I was showing Jarrett all these great memories from my childhood and Cody says:

“Man, this would be a great place to play hide and go seek!”

I treasure that day.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

Upon further review, the speaktherights.com College Football Picks for this weekend turned out pretty good.

Ten games picked….ten winners.  I had faith in the Mississippi teams.  Thanks to Adam Disque for bringing my belief in Mississippi State to fruition.  It is just a little tough to call Cowbell State a winner.  I did, in my last past, give them credit.  I said they might be the best of the bunch.  They might be.

2014 will long be remembered as the year of the Magnolia State.  Ole Miss and State are for real.  They have all the motivation they need.  They just need to look at each other.  Let down?  I don’t think so.  That is why this is going to be so interesting.  If Ole Miss can get by LSU and Auburn, they might win them all.  Might not.

Today’s AP Poll has State leap-frogging Florida State to claim the #1 spot.  Ole Miss is #3.  That is just fine.  As a Rebel fan, I prefer that.

The Marshall Thundering Herd comes in ranked #25 in the Associated Press Poll this week.  It is the first time the Herdsman have been ranked since 2002.  The folks in Huntington are happy and they should be.

At this writing I am sitting on the couch looking at the New York Giants play the Philadelphia Eagles.  Eli Manning, my favorite player, is the quarterback of the Giants.  They are down 10 to 0 right now.  Eli just got sacked by Vinny Curry…an Ole Miss guy sacked by a Marshall guy.

The College Football Predictions total is:

57 good picks

13 bad picks

My dear wife, Carrie, and I visited Faith Harbor United Methodist Church this morning.  When one is out of town, it is good to have a nice church to go to.  Pastor Duke was out of town this week and did not give the message. He was there this morning and it was good to see him.  Another member of the church, Mr. Vaughn, brought forth the speaks.  He did a great job.  Faith Harbor is full of friendly folks.

I look forward to bringing forth some speaks of my own this week on this very site.  I have a few things I feel we need to revisit and I am looking forward to it.

Have a great week.

Speaking the Rights.

Danny Johnson

I sponsor a SONGWRITING CLUB at the school where I work.  We have minimal club time; we make the most of it.

When quizzed about their 5 favorite songs, a couple students included Beatles’ songs.  I was impressed.  Another student included a Train song among his Top Five.  This kid is going to go somewhere!

I, however, was the only lost one in the room.  I must admit the majority of the songs they listed and the artists they listed were truly lost on me.  I did not know who many of them were and the song titles were not familiar at all.

One thing I am trying to impart to them is that they can write a song if they want to.  I am living proof.  The best part of it is these kids are in their early teens.  I was nearly thirty before I wrote songs proper.

Today I played my group a song that I had recorded.  We were discussing how emotions are so prevalent in songs and how themes often present themselves in both lyrics and music.

They were spot on in diagnosing the wherefore and the why of the song I played them.  It is a tune called “When We Could See the Wind”.   I wrote it with my high school chums in mind.  It kind of tells the tale of how we rarely see each other compared to the whirlwind force we once seemingly produced together when we would walk into a room.

The first verse says:

We’ve seen better days for sailing

The leaves are listlessly falling down

When I look back I can still see us

I can see those leaves swirling around

Days when sailing waters were stormy seas at best

Now looking outside my window

I see that breeze has come to somewhat of a rest….

I really enjoy this song.  It doesn’t make me sad.  It makes me glad to know I have such great friends…even if we do just get around to seeing each other a few times a year.

In a couple of weeks I am going back to the recording studio to demo a couple new tunes. I am so looking forward to that.

Have a great weekend.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

There is not much more than can be said here to add to the grandeur that was last week’s college football scene.

Straight to the picks…I am up against a deadline here.

Iowa will beat Indiana…the Hoosiers won’t go to Iowa City and pull the upset.  The Hawkeyes are still a good team and they are about to find their stride.  The Hoosiers are not steady enough yet to pull this off.

Kentucky will beat Louisiana Monroe…the UK faithful are still enjoying a win over the South Carolina squad as well they should.  The Cats get to come back to earth gradually starting with the Warhawks of ULM.

Marshall will beat Middle Tennessee… the Herd is rolling up big numbers and will continue to do so in this home contest.  Rakeem Cato needs a TD Pass in this game to tie the record for consecutive games throwing a touchdown….38.

Oklahoma will beat Texas…the State Fair Classic…I don’t think they call it the Red River Shootout anymore because it is not politically correct to talk about football, colleges, and guns.  Still the Sooners will score enough to leave Texas hurting.

Mississippi State will beat Auburn…the Cowbellers may be the best of the bunch.

Clemson will beat Louisville….the indoctrination of the Cards into the ACC will continue to be a bit painful.  The Tigers will be spitting out feathers before the end of the 3rd quarter.

Notre Dame will beat North Carolina…they should and they will.

East Carolina will beat South Florida…but the Pirates beware…the Bulls will be a test.  Still,  things in Greenville are looking nice as the locals are enjoying a season for the ages.

LSU will beat Florida… The Tigers are smarting after two whippings in a row.  Tiger Mike will be ready to tame the Gators…even if they are in Florida doing it.

Ole Miss will beat Texas A&M…the Year of the Rebels continues for at least one week.  They got a view from the top of the mountain and they are not ready to give the sight up just yet.   I don’t care if there are 106,000 fans there are not…the Rebs will not be denied.

The season total heading into Week 7.

47 Good Picks

13 Bad Picks

Picking…and speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

College Football is dominating the sport scene this fall like it never has before.

Is it because there has been a kind of playoff system put in that will pit the so-called best four teams in a two game semi-final leading to a definitive final National Championship game?

Did anyone think about how the 5th best or the supposed 5th best will be left out just like any other scenario college football has tried to bring forth?  If they did, they made a pact not to talk about it.  This is the year of the unexpected.  There will be a team left on the outside looking in come playoff time and we’ll find a reason to complain about this system just like we did the BCS and the Bowls of old.

I am still dumbfounded that the Ole Miss Rebels and the Miss. State Bulldogs are tied at #3 in the land in the Associated Press Poll.  Do you know how long Mississippi fans waited for this time…can you say forever?

I personally liked the old bowl system we had for eons that led to National Champions voted on by the Associated Press and the United Press International…the AP and UPI Polls.

I still want to see the SEC winner in the Sugar Bowl.  I still want the PAC 12 (10) Champ playing the Big 10 (14) Champ in the Rose Bowl.  I want to see the Big 12 (8) Champ playing in the Orange Bowl.  I want to see the Southwest Conference Champ playing in the Cotton Bowl.  Uh, never-mind…the SWC got absorbed into other conferences years ago.  So much for wishful thinking.

I guess I just miss watching Notre Dame playing Houston in the Cotton Bowl as they were led by Joe Montana.  I miss knowing that it was probably going to be either USC or UCLA playing Ohio State or Michigan in the Rose Bowl.  I miss watching Oklahoma run the triple-option in the Orange Bowl.

Listen to me….I miss this and I miss that.  I sound like some old fart on a park bench.

How can I say this after seeing the best weekend of college football we have seen in maybe forever.  I hear there is still research going on trying to find out if there has ever been a College Football Saturday in which Alabama, Nebraska, Michigan, USC, and some other school all lost on the same weekend.

I guess I am pitiful.

No…I am not.

Baseball is pitiful these days.

I remember when Major League Baseball playoffs were the talk of the land.  We all watched them.  I suppose we all watched them because we didn’t have 40 football games playing on TV  the same Saturday the baseball playoffs were on.

What is the problem?

Baseball takes an actual attention span.  That is the problem.  I see folks looking at phones and mashing buttons and expecting to get the answer here and now and faster than they got it yesterday.

Baseball doesn’t work that way.  It is a slow and meticulous game.  It still is, thank God.  It is a game of subtle nuance, as strategy is played out on every pitch.  It is still a great game…even though it is no longer America’s Pastime.  It is more of America’s past.

Pro Football?  I have never cared less about an NFL season than the one that is going on right now.  The league stinks.  Too many off the field problems.  Too much whooey.  Teams are building leads and getting beat in the last second.  It looks like the USWA Wrestling I grew up watching.  Just when you thought a guy was gonna win, here comes someone off the top rope!  If Eli or Peyton aren’t playing, I might not watch.  I am more inclined to exercising in the basement as I watch Hill Street Blues on DVD.

What I miss are those October nights when my Dad and I were watching playoff baseball and my Dad was telling me what pitch he thought was coming next.  He was always partial to the curve.  Here’s to you George Brett…Reggie Jackson…and all the members of the Big Red Machine.  Oh, and Steve Garvey.  And Jack Morris.  And Jack Buck.  And…

Speaking the Rights.

Danny Johnson

Granny and I watched Football today.

I should have taken a picture.  I did not.  There we were, Granny and me, watching the Indianapolis Colts on television as Andrew Luck took care of business as only he can.  Where is there a stronger, more confident fella passing the football?  You won’t find him.  The Colts won 20-13.  Actually, I was the big winner.

For as long as I can remember my grandmother, Flo Johnson, has been keeping up with and watching pro football on Sunday afternoons after church.  She has lived in Indiana for the last twenty years.  Before that she lived all over…my grandfather retired from the military.  In the mid to late 1950s they moved to Shreveport, Louisiana.  Granny lived there until she moved to Indiana in 1994.  Living in Shreveport you were most likely a Dallas Cowboys fan.  Big D is the closest pro football team to Shreveport.  Check out your atlas and you will find that New Orleans is much farther than Dallas.  Grandma loved rooting for Roger Staubauch and Tom Landry.  When my grandfather was alive he was good for one game a day then he would go to the other room and watch Big Valley or Gunsmoke.  Granny can watch as many games as the television will put on.  I understand this.

“Get him!”  That is Granny’s signature phrase when it comes to football watching.  She likes to see the runner for the team is rooting against go down hard.  She’s tough that way.

Like I said, I wish I had taken a picture of us sitting there watching football together.  It was a very good time.  There aren’t too many guys my age that can say they spent part of their afternoon watching football with their grandmother.  I am a blessed man.

OLE MISS BEATS ALABAMA and other tales…

Wow.

The Ole Miss Rebels defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide on October 4th of this year (2014).  It was a long time coming.  What is the best thing about it?  The Rebs overcame adversity in the form of a no-call facemask that cost them a touchdown at the end of the half to make the score Bama 14 Ole Miss 3.  I thought that was it.  After that play I felt like the Water Pistol that shoots Jelly on the Island of Misfit Toys.  I was certain we were going to have to wait until next year.  Then, just like when Rudolph guides Santa’s sleigh back to the island to pick up the misfits…Bo Wallace led his offense methodically and without major error and while he was at it he picked the rest of us up and carried us to the smiling side of the scoreboard.  Ole Miss 23  Alabama 17 Final.  This is a memory I hope I never forget.

After the game I called my Mother and Father.  They were in Mississippi attending the family reunion.  They watched the game, of course.  Some of my relatives were at the game.  I am so happy for them.  The house where my folks were staying, Uncle Bob and Aunt Nell’s place, was a jubilant place.  You could feel it over the phone over 600 miles away.  I say it again.  I am happy for them.

Later in the evening I called my Ole Miss Football watching buddy….Aunt Barbara.

Aunt Barbara and I have seen some good times and bad times when it comes to Ole Miss Football.  We’ve attended Ole Miss games together at Oxford, Jackson, and Lexington over the years.  The last one we saw together was Eli Manning’s senior year in Oxford the day they beat South Carolina 43-40.  In 1999, my son Jarrett and I went to see Ole Miss play Georgia with Aunt Barbara.  That day we saw Eli, a red-shirt freshman, walking through the Grove as the team was heading to the stadium.  I remember thinking he could use a few biscuits for that frame of his at the time.  Needless to say, it has worked out for him.  Georgia won that game 20-17.  It was a heart breaker.

Yesterday though, Aunt Barbara and I could have talked all night about the big win over Bama.  I am so glad she was able to see it and we could talk about it later.  I have a feeling we will be talking about this one for some time to come.

Ole Miss is 5-0 for the first time since 1962.  I read that the new AP Poll for College Football is out for this week and Ole Miss and Mississippi State are tied at #3.  Good for the Magnolia State.  When the media wants to make Mississippi out to be a nice place for a change, it doesn’t take near as much effort as it does to make the place look unpleasant.

The Speak the Rights College Football Predictions for Week #6 went quite well.  Nine wins one loss.  The one loss?  Can you believe it…Kentucky beat South Carolina.

I was the one that gave South Carolina all the love in the preseason.  They have not acquiesced.  I did call for Ole Miss to win.  I called for State to beat A&M.  The Indiana Hoosiers played well and whipped North Texas.  I think the boys from Texas were cold.  And the Marshall Thundering Herd….they won 56-14.  It wasn’t that close.  Hope they get their chance to play Cinderella in the post-season.

Right now we stand at 47 wins and 13 losses.

THE CORNER KING CLASSIC

Kelly Samons, Gus Stephenson, myself, Mick Rutherford

It took 19 holes…but I outlasted Gus in this year’s 15th annual Corner King Classic played at New Salisbury National Golf Course.

In earnest, I did not think I had a chance to win.  I was playing horrible…more so than usual.  At the end of 18 we look at the scores.  Gus and I were tied.  We went back to the last hole to play it again.  I bogeyed.  Gus doubled.  I won in a playoff.  It was a Corner King Classic first.

None of that really matters.  What is important is that I had a chance to play golf with these guys again.  We laughed.  We laughed some more.  Then we got together and had a hearty meal that my dear wife, Carrie, prepared for us.

Looking down the 8th fairway.

Mick Rutherford does a great job of addressing the ball.  He thinks they have previously met.

What matters is that we get together and remember our friend the Corner King, Todd Lincoln.  We all miss him so very very much.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

How can we be at week six already?   Well, it is October.

How can it be October already?

The air will be cooler this weekend all across the land.  In Oxford, MS the gametime temperature is planned for the upper 60s the last time I checked.  That is frosty at 3:30 in the afternoon this time of year in Mississippi.

You know things are heating up in college football when all the conference teams are playing each other and a degree of separation for conference supremacy is on the line.   You ask me the best division in football…I’ll tell you it is the SEC West followed by the NFC West.

Ole Miss will beat Alabama… Let’s just get this out of the way.  As disappointed as I was when Peyton Manning and the Broncos last the Super Bowl, I will be just as delighted.  I wrote in an earlier post that it is the Rebels time.  I watched a documentary about Chucky Mullins this week for the first time.  It alluded to the “this is our time” theme.  I believe this will be the one Rebel fans have been searching for.

Marshall will beat Old Dominion….This is ODU’s Super Bowl.  They will be ready to play.  They could give Marshall some grief early.  Marshall seems to start when they feel like it.  When they do…look out.  If they get going good in the first quarter, the score board might need another battery before the game is finished.

East Carolina will beat SMU…I feel bad for the Mustangs.  They will be no match for the Pirates of ECU.  Coach Ruffin is doing a great job.

Mississippi State will beat Texas A&M… If you root for the Rebels you probably won’t root for State.  I am indifferent.  No…I hope A&M whips them!  I don’t think they will.  State will beat the Aggies.

Virginia Tech will beat North Carolina…I have a penchant for the ACC.  I made note of that in a previous post.  Though North Carolina is our adopted home state, the Tar Heels need help.  They will get it eventually.  Beamerball wins out.

Indiana will beat North Texas…Up and down.  This week is up for the Hoosiers.  They need it to go to a bowl and stay out of the toilet bowl…where I think they will be by season’s end.

Auburn will beat LSU…my brother in-law, the legendary Stevarino, asked who will win this. I told him the Tigers.  The Auburn Tigers that is..not the Bayou Bengals.  Though it will be close…the homers come out for a reason.

Virginal will beat Pittsburgh…Mike London has done a good job with a UVA team that had low expectations.

South Carolina will beat Kentucky…UK, like IU, is victim to a natural order of things.  Steve Spurrier will not be beaten by Kentucky.  If he does…he will not coach another season.

P.S. I had faith in South Carolina at the beginning of the year.  They have been a major disappointment.

Michigan State will beat Nebraska…I predicted Sparty to have a good season.  It does’t stop this weekend as they handle a Cornhusker team that will make too many errors.

So far we are 38 wins and 12 losses with our speaktherights.com College Football Predictions.

This is a great time of the year.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson