Future Looks Bright for the SEC

Contrary to the rest of the Nation, where there are shootings, murders and robberies, the SEC had all good news. What an opening day for football in the SEC! I believe it was the most points scored on opening day in the history of the SEC.  A great year is in sight for the fans.  

The four best teams in SEC East looks like Georgia, Tennessee, Florida & South Carolina. From the SEC West it looks like Ole Miss, Arkansas, Alabama & Texas A&M. Of course LSU did not play because of lighting so we'll have to wait and see how they look as I am pretty sure this game will be played in the future. The only game I picked out of the SEC doesn't play until tomorrow night - Ohio State and Virginia Tech. 

Overall, on the predictions this past weekend I was right 100% - 11 wins no losses. Not a bad start! Again, the fans are in for a treat this year in the SEC.  If there are as many good teams from top to bottom in other conferences, I would like to know. Send in your questions and I will try to answer them by Friday. Feel free to ask anything you would  like and I will give my opinion.  Looking forward to hearing from you.  

I had a total of 551 hits the first week I started this Blog. 11 from Peru, 3 from India, 2 from Guatemala, 2 from Jamaica, one each from United Kingdom, Canada and Mexico!

Week 1 Predictions

Well, I did pretty good with Thursday night's predictions. It was an absolute blowout by Tech over Alcorn State, 69-6! Tech was able to let their 3rd and 4th string play the entire second half. On the other hand, UNC did not upset SC. It was a close game, SC won 17-13. North Carolina was on the 10 yard line about to score to take the lead and the quarter back threw an interception in the end zone! That ended the game for the Tarheels. It was a fun game to watch, could have gone either way.

In honor of the first Saturday of the season, I thought it would be fun to throw out my predictions for today. I decided to only pick the SEC, except for my first prediction. I probably won't do this every week, we're just all excited for opening day! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Joe's Predictions 9/5/15 

Ohio ST vs Virginia Tech-----28 to 10 Ohio St

Alabama vs Wisconsin-----28 to 10 Alabama

Ole Miss vs WT Martin-----30 to 10 Ole Miss

Tennessee vs Bowling Green-----42 to 10 Tenn

Georgia vs UL Monroe-----48 to 7  GA

Auburn vs Louisville-----31 to 17 Auburn

LSU vs McNeese ST-----28 to 0 LSU

Missouri vs SE Missouri ST-----30 to 10 Missouri

Kentucky vs Louisana-Lafayette-----28 to 7 Kentucky

Mississippi State vs Mississippi Southern-----17 to 10  Miss St

Texas A & M vs Arizona St-----27 to 10  Texas A&M

Arkansas vs UTEP-----48 to 7 Arkansas

Florida vs New Mexico ST-----28 to 9 Florida
Vanderbilt does not play

Will there be an upset? Check back next week...

Are You Ready for Some Football?!

After all the months that have passed by, College Football is finally back! Games start tonight! Ga Tech plays Alcorn State and South Carolina plays North Carolina. I've picked UNC to upset SC. I don't know why, it just feels like that will happen. Ga Tech should not have any trouble defeating Alcorn State. There is no way Alcorn State can stop the Paul Johnson option play. I expect a blowout.

For this blog, I will try to comment on the top games rather than commenting on all of them. This year should be interesting and very competitive. I think we are in for the most exciting season because of the parity of the players. Like I've said, one school can't recruit all the good players; therefore, they are spread out all over the nation. 

I will also try to tell you a funny story each week. One of those is as follows:

One of my friends, who was a football official, was carrying his bag with his uniform in it. He arrived at the hotel and saw all the other officials eating breakfast. He asked the bellhop to watch his bag while he went to join the other officials for breakfast. The bellhop said that it was fine, he would watch the bag. The official had a nice breakfast with all of his colleagues but when we get ready to leave, he could not find the bellhop or his bag! Neither of them were anywhere in sight. My friend thought one of the other officials was playing a joke on him by hiding his bag and decided not to say anything. All the officials gathered in their shared dressing room. My friend walked in (thinking another official was playing a joke) and asked everyone, "alright, who's got my bag?" He discovered that no one was playing with him. None of us had his bag. The game we were getting ready to officiate was going to be on National TV. Each official was trained at that time to bring extra parts of the uniform with them in case something like this happened. My friend was able to get most pieces of his uniform except for the shoes. He had to borrow those from the LSU locker room. He also had to use a safety pin to keep his pants up. He was one of the smallest officials on the crew so all of the extra pants were too big! Needless to say, this made the crew a little nervous since it was a national broadcast but luckily his pants never fell down. Any time we think about it today, we just laugh!

Introduction

About Joe

Joe Delany was awarded a full football scholarship to Georgia Tech and earned letters in 1956-57-58.  He was elected as Captain of the 1954 Freshman Team.  Joe was on the team that defeated Pittsburgh in the Sugar Bowl in January 1956 and again in the Gator Bowl in December 1956.  He was elected by Bobby Dodd as the Most Valuable Player in 1958 and was selected to play in the North-South Shrine All Star game in 1958. 

*Officiated in the 2nd SEC championship game held 

in Birmingham, Alabama in 1993.

*Officiated in the 1st SEC championship game held in the Georgia Dome in 1994.

*Officiated in 20 bowl games of which six were National Championship games.

*At retirement, was the only official in the USA to work in all five major bowls -
Cotton, Orange, Sugar, Fiesta, and Rose.
               
*Was selected to become a Technical Advisor in Football Officiating for 1995- 2007.  This position is involved in selection, training, critiques and reporting
       weekly to the SEC Supervisor of Football Officials on games observed and film watched and graded during the SEC football  season.

*Wrote a Supplemental Mechanics Manual of  Football Officiating for the SEC. This manual was used by the SEC Football Officials for 12 straight years until Joe’s retirement. This manual clearly states the correct position for all seven Football Officials to be in so that they will be "in the right place at the right time" on any given type of play.     

*Won the George Gardner Award in 1997 for outstanding service and dedication to College Football Officiating.                     

*Was rated #1 at his position by five different Supervisors of Football Officials for 20 straight years (each having their own method of grading) . 

*Inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2011 for his dedication of 45 years working with the SEC. (30 years on the field and 15 years of training, film work etc.)

Check weekly for Joe's evaluation of the past week's games and predictions for the upcoming week's games. Every Friday Joe will go to his memory vault and tell all the details of stories from the past. From his playing days at Ga Tech to officiating bowl games from California to Florida. He will also take time to answer ANY QUESTIONS you may have. Just comment below and he will be in touch. You don't want to miss it!

The 1956 Ga Tech football team. Joe is on the third row from the bottom, 

third player from the right.

Joe made the cover of Sports Illustrated by officiating the National Championship game 

between Clemson and Nebraska in 1982.