Updated: Weekend opening for J.R. Cricket’s in Rome

11:30 a.m. update: The restaurant will not be opening today, but will have a soft opening on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

It was around 10:30 a.m. Thursday when the call came from a local business office. The caller had seen our earlier report about J.R. Cricket’s opening as early as Thursday. “We want to put a big order in for lunch,” she said. Our response: “Probably not today” as in Thursday. But this might be the day, or Saturday, according to the chain’s main office as Drew Montgomery and staff will do a small soft opening followed by the real thing. “Should be opening this weekend,” said the Facebook note from corporate. If so, they have good timing. A surprising large crowd of Jacksonville State fans are planning several Broad Street, Cartersville and Cedartown stops to watch the Gamecocks play North Dakota State for the FCS national title. And then on Monday: Clemson vs. Alabama. A reader submitted this bit of trivia Thursday: When was the last time a state had two teams contending for national titles? 1990 — Georgia Tech and Georgia Southern.

This update: It happened again in 1992 when Alabama won as did Jacksonville State (thanks to Jay Shell)