John Johnston takes the lead in local College Football Pick 'Em contest

Overhead photo of "The Grove" at Ole Miss.

The second weekend of the college football season wrapped up on Saturday and we also closed out another exciting weekend in our local ESPN College Football Pick ‘Em Contest.

This week, John Johnston is in sole possession of first place and he’s followed by seven contestants who are tied for second place. Those players include Greg Turner, Calvin Casey, Travis Presley, Drew Skipper, Steve Stacey, Jeremy Matheny and Robert Riley Jr.

Three contestants are tied for ninth place, including Darrell Burch, Robbie Moorer and Michael Bishop. Me and Courant publisher Robert Bozeman are among those tied for 12^th place this week.

With that said, if you didn’t do so hot in the contest this week, don’t sweat it. Like I’ve said before, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. We’ve got 12 more weeks to go, and the standings will change a lot during the next three months.

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By my count, we’ve got 12 games this weekend featuring SEC teams, including two head-to-head conference matchups. For what it’s worth, here are my picks in those games.

I like Alabama over Ole Miss, Auburn over LSU, Notre Dame over Vanderbilt, Tennessee over UTEP, Kentucky over Murray, Arkansas over North Texas, Florida over Colorado State, Georgia over Middle Tennessee, South Carolina over Marshall, Mississippi State over Louisiana-Lafayette, Missouri over Purdue and Texas A&M over Louisiana-Monroe.

Last week: 10-2, Overall: 22-4

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Alabama plays Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss. at 6 p.m. on Saturday, and I’m tempted to hop in the truck and ride over there. I don’t have tickets to the game, but I’ve always wanted to visit Oxford on gameday.

I lived in Mississippi years ago, and while I have traveled all over that great state, I’ve never visited Oxford. The Ole Miss campus is famous for “The Grove,” a 10-acre area in the center of the campus that’s used for tailgating during home football games.

I Googled it on Monday and according to Google Maps, Oxford is about a five-hour drive from our neck of the woods. If I were going, I’d get up early and head out around 7 a.m., which would put me in Oxford around noon. That would leave me about six hours to walk around and check out everything.

If I hung out through the game, it would probably wrap up around 10 p.m. With that said, I’d probably get home between three and four in the morning. Would it be worth it? Probably. Am I going to do it? Probably not this year.

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Carl Tillery came by the radio station in his Atlanta Braves jersey on Tuesday morning and it reminded me that the Major League season is winding down.

As of today (Thursday), the Braves have just 16 more games left on their regular season schedule and all of those games are against National League East opponents except for a three-game series against St. Louis next week.

As of Tuesday morning, Atlanta had a five-game lead in their division, but can they maintain that lead as the season winds down? I sure hope so because it’s going to be a lot of fun watching them make a postseason run.