Turn the Night Up

I chose Enrique Igelsias' "Turn the Night Up" not because I like the song necessarily, but because it explains what the sport season is about to become.

In the fall my favorite thing to cover is evening football, and my first night game is on Saturday as the Dakota College at Bottineau home opener.

This past week I previewed that college opener and also put by third installment of T.O's Fantasy Minute out. It was on wide receivers. Which means it's time to check out how I did with wide receiver rankings from last season:

2012 prediction No. 1: Calvin Johnson. Actual finish for Johnson: First. 
Not hard to predict this one.

2012 prediction No. 2: Larry Fitzgerald Actual finish for Fitzgerald: 42.
Wow. I sure got that wrong. Fitzgerald was a bust. However, I think he's in for a resurgence in 2013. 

2012 prediction No. 3: Roddy White. Actual finish for White: 10. 
I can't believe that I was naive enough to believe that White wouldn't decline with a healthy Julio Jones opposite him.

2012 prediction No. 4: A.J Green. Actual finish for Green: Fourth. 
Spot on for me here.

2012 prediction No. 5: Julio Jones. Actual finish for Jones: Nine.
Not too bad, but I thought that the Falcons were going to pass to the wideouts more last year and to Tony Gonzalez less, but I was wrong.

2012 prediction No. 6: Greg Jennings. Actual finish for Jennings: 75.
He got injured, but a decline should have been seen by me.

2012 prediction No. 7: Brandon Marshall. Actual finish for Marshall: Second. 
I did not expect Marshall to explode as much as he did, but he and Cutler reunited even better than I thought they would.

2012 prediction No. 8: Victor Cruz. Actual finish for Cruz: 13. 
Cruz slipped a bit last year, but I wasn't too far off.

2012 prediction No. 9: Wes Welker. Actual finish for Welker: 12.
Welker didn't do as well I as I had expected, but only three spots off isn't terrible.

2012 prediction No. 10: Marques Colston. Actual finish for Colston: 11.    
Another strong prediction by me.

Overall not too bad. While I didn't do very well with the top five predictions, I did do pretty well with 6-10. I had two exactly right and five within five spots.

Anyway I have a few pictures of racing and football practice to share:  

Lance Schill glides around turn one and kicks up a bunch of mud in the process during hot laps last Sunday at Thunder Mountain Speedway north of Bottineau.

Near to far: Jarett Lovcik, Zach Dockter, Grant Hall and Pat Smith ride around turn one.

Shawn Nostdahl (right) chases down Ray Smith (left).

Frank Smith loses his rear bumper after a collision.

Chris Romfo spins out on turn four and slides into the infield.

Cody Smith's car expels some nasty blue smoke as he heads out of turn four.

Coach Dano Fagerlund fires a pass to a Jacks receiver last Thursday at practice.

Dylan Arntzen forces one of his teammates to fumble during a hit drill.