Thursday, September 5, 2013

Matheny takes top spot in opening week of football pick 'em contest

The first week of our local ESPN College Football Pick ‘Em contest is in the books, and the Top 10 names in the standings this week includes names that many of you will find familiar.

Jeremy Matheny gained the first-place spot after correctly picking 98.2 percent of last Saturday’s slate of games. I found myself in second place (96.1 percent), and Hunter Norris is in third place (92.2 percent).

Peter Burmeister and Preston Albritton are tied for fourth place. Mark Peacock and Rod Sims are tied for sixth place. Chris Garner is in eighth place, and Aaron Albritton is in ninth place. Ricky Taylor rounded out the Top 10, finishing tenth overall.

If you’re playing and didn’t finish in the Top 10, don’t sweat it. This contest will run for several more months, and it’s a marathon not a sprint. You’ll find that the Top 10 will change a lot over the next few months.

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College football is now in full swing, and we’ve got an outstanding slate of SEC games ahead of us this week. Here are my picks for this week’s round of SEC games.

I like Auburn over Arkansas State, Tennessee over Western Kentucky, Florida over Miami, Kentucky over Miami-Ohio, Missouri over Toldeo, Mississippi State over Alcorn, South Carolina over Georgia, Arkansas over Samford, LSU over UAB, Ole Miss over Southeast Missouri, Texas A&M over Sam Houston State and Vanderbilt over Austin Peay. Last week: 11-2. So far this season: 11-2.

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The NFL regular season kicks off today (Thursday) with a game that will draw a lot of attention – Baltimore at Denver. Thirteen games will follow on Sunday, and there are two games scheduled for this coming Monday night – Philadelphia at Washington and San Diego at Houston.

Tonight, I look for Denver to beat Baltimore. On Sunday, I like New Orleans over Atlanta, New England over Buffalo, Pittsburgh over Tennessee, Tampa Bay over the New York Jets, Kansas City over Jacksonville, Chicago over Cincinnati, Cleveland over Miami, Seattle over Carolina, Detroit over Minnesota, Indianapolis over Oakland, St. Louis over Arizona, San Francisco over Green Bay and Dallas over the New York Giants. Monday night, I look for Washington to beat Philadelphia and for Houston to beat San Diego. Last week: 0-0. So far this season: 0-0.

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Hillcrest High School and Sparta Academy both opened their regular season schedules with a pair of losses last Friday night, but the jury is still out on just how good they actually are this year. Both schools opened the season against two of the best teams in the entire state – Washington County, the No. 2-ranked team in Class 2A, and Pickens Academy, the No. 5-ranked team in the AISA.

It looked like Washington County had more players on the sidelines than Hillcrest had fans in the bleachers, and Pickens looked about as squared away as any team could look in their season opener. Despite the final outcomes on Friday night, I still look for Sparta and Hillcrest to both make the playoffs this season.

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