Delta Fair, Slider Inn, Football

The Delta Fair & Music Festival kicks off on Friday and continues through September 11th.  This event continues to add strange attractions every year. This year's new events include sumo wrestling and "pig wrastling." For those not into the freak shows, there is pretty respectable music line-up as well. Best bets for the festival: The Fabulous Thunderbirds and Sister Hazel.

Finally had the chance to stop by the Slider Inn this week. There is a ton of potential for this new Midtown restaurant owned by Aldo of Bardog Tavern fame. Its pretty obvious they are working out the kinks, so be patient. Give the lobster roll a try on your next visit.  

For many sports fans, it's this week is the most wonderful time of the year. College football kicks off another season Thursday night. One of the games on Thursday night will be Mississippi State visiting Memphis at the Liberty Bowl.

One way to build up the Memphis football fan base is to continue to have quality opponents at home, like the Bulldogs. Future home games against BCS AQ conference teams include games against Duke, Missouri and Miami. Schedule them and they (the fans) will come.

The only negative to Thursday night's game will be the constant ringing of cowbells and the "Go State, Go State" cheer. Thank goodness the Liberty Bowl sells beer.

Here's the picks for the first week of the football season.

Mississippi State over Memphis
Tennessee-Knoxville over Montana
Illinois over Arkansas State
BYU over Mississippi
Oregon over LSU
Boise State over Georgia



Pre-season Liberty Bowl Projection: Houston vs Auburn

With Case Keenum back at quarterback for Houston, the Cougars could win Conference USA over East Division Champion Southern Miss or UCF. Many are expecting Auburn to have a down year after winning the National Championship last season.