College football had its season kickoff this past weekend. We're happy here in central KY as our UK Wildcats got the 2008 season off to a good start with a 27-2 whipping of their arch-rival Louisville Cardinals.
The Governor's Cup, which goes to winner of the annual UK/UL game, will stay in Lexington for another year after the Wildcats shut down the Cards at Papa John's Stadium on Sunday afternoon (August 31st).
This is UK's first back-to-back victories in the series' recent history since 1997-98 (the Tim Couch era). My forecast for UK's season is 6-6 and a return to a minor postseason bowl. I'm calling for victories over all four non-conference games (Louisville, Norfolk St, Middle TN and Western KY) and two SEC wins over Arkansas and Vanderbilt. The Big Blue will have realistic shots at South Carolina (at home) and Mississippi State (away).
Games versus Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee seem to be likely losses.
I see the Cats making it three straight bowl trips and traveling to Birmingham, AL, for a spot in the Papajohns.com Bowl in late December. In Birmingham, a SEC team is slated to face a team from the Big East conference. My guess on the Big East team would be Connecticut, Cincinnati or Rutgers.
The NFL kicked off its new season last night in New York with the defending Super Bowl champion Giants defeating the Washington Redskins.
Maybe more importantly, though, the start of the NFL season marks the start of fantasy football leagues all across the country.
I played in one for the first time last year and I'm now hooked.
Never before did I care how the backup Tight End of the Arizona Cardinals was doing in the 4:15 game on a given Sunday. But once you get interested in fantasy football and such a player is on your team's roster, suddenly these little things matter.
For the 2nd year in a row, we have a league here with guys from the church. The Gardenside Football League (GFL) held its 2008 player draft on August 21st.
It went well. We had 12 teams draft 14 players each (168 total players) in just over 2 hours.
Last year's incredible performance of Patriot QB Tom Brady had a big effect on this year's draft. In past years, the first 8-9 picks would normally be running backs. This year, however, 4 QBs jumped off the board in the first round!
Last year's champion (Barron Rulon) drew the number one pick and had a very nice draft. Overall, it looks like the tea
ms are pretty well balanced.My team, the Creelsboro Catfish (logo pictured to the left), is named after the small town in the Lake Cumberland (Jamestown, KY) area where much of my family is originally from. Many years ago, Creelsboro was the busiest river port on the Cumberland River between Nashville, TN, and Burnside, KY. Many a big channel cat has been pulled out of the Cumberland River.
After a great finish to our spring/summer softball season, the church decided to play in a fall league.
Gardenside Christian is playing on Thursday nights at Woodland Park.
After 2 games, we're wondering if this would such a good idea.
GCC has been thumped in consecutive weeks by Eastland Church of God (13-6) and Calvary Baptist Red (19-1). While none of the teams in the fall league were in our spring league, we did face Eastland and Calvary Red in the post-season tournament. I might add that both of the games were much closer than our fall results as we defeated Eastland and lost in extra innings to Calvary (the eventual city champion).
As Calvary pounded out hit after hit last night, I couldn't help but think I'd rather be home watching the NFL opener, the South Carolina-Vandy game and the John McCain speech.
Hopefully, things will get better for the G-siders.
Next week's game against 1st & 2nd Presbyterian is Thursday, September 11th at 9:30 pm. Why we have to face two churches and not one, is beyond me. I'm thinking of asking league officials if we can bring Gardenside Baptist along to help our cause.
We'll keep you posted. Hope and pray you have a great weekend!
God bless,
Greg H
