Drew Skipper takes sole possession of lead in local college football contest

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

This week, when the last of Saturday’s games came to a close, Drew Skipper found himself in sole possession of the No. 1 spot in the local standings. John Johnston was in second place, and Brett Loftin was in third. Ricky Taylor and Jeremy Matheny were tied for fourth.

Justin Mixon, Travis Presley and I were tied for sixth place. Kaleb Wright, Clint Hyde and Darrell Burch were locked in a three-way tie for ninth place. Casey Grant, Robert Bozeman, Vanessa Sales and Mark Peacock were all tied for the No. 12 spot in the standings.

With that said, if you didn’t do as good as you would have liked, don’t sweat it. As I’ve said before, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. We’ve got five more weeks to go, and the standings will change a lot during the next month or so.

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By my count, we’ve got seven games this weekend featuring SEC teams, and five of those are head-to-head conference games. For what it’s worth, here are my picks in those games. I like Alabama over LSU, Auburn over Texas A&M, Ole Miss over South Carolina, Georgia over Kentucky, Florida over Missouri, Mississippi State over Louisiana Tech and Tennessee over Charlotte.

Last week: 4-1, Overall: 64-13

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Many baseball fans in the reading audience will know that the Boston Red Sox clinched the World Series title by beating the Dodgers, 5-1, in Game 5 Sunday night in Los Angeles.

As part of an annual World Series promotion, Taco Bell is again giving everyone in the country a free Dorito’s Locos Taco today (Thursday) because Boston’s Mookie Betts stole a base in Game 1 on Tuesday of last week. Betts stole second base in the first inning, fulfilling Taco Bell’s “Steal a base, Steal a taco” promotion, which promises a free Dorito’s Locos Taco anytime a player steals a base during the seven-game series.

Taco Bell has been doing this promotion for the past 11 years, and Betts is the seventh player to steal a base during the series since Taco Bell launched the promotional campaign in 2007. Doing so earns Betts a spot in Taco Bell’s “Taco Hall of Fame” alongside such other players as Cameron Maybin, Francisco Lindor, Lorenzo Cain, Angel Pagan, Jason Bartlett and Jacoby Ellsbury.

According to Taco Bell’s website, those interested in getting a free Doritos Locos Taco can visit a participating Taco Bell today (Nov. 1) between 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. I think the key word in all of this is “participating,” so on Monday afternoon I called the Taco Bell in Evergreen, and the nice lady who answered the phone said she wasn’t 100-percent sure if the Evergreen restaurant was taking part in the promotion. She said that since I’d seen it on television, they probably were, but she couldn’t swear to it.

In any event, I’ll probably swing out to Taco Bell to see if I can get one of these free World Series tacos. If they aren’t participating, I’ll just buy one anyway. If memory serves, these tacos are just $1.99 each, so it’ll be money well spent.