Standings shake up in local ESPN College Football Pick 'Em contest

Hats off to the Hillcrest Jaguars this week. To be honest, I didn’t have much hope for them last Friday night against the Opp Bobcats, who entered the game with only one loss and ranked No. 4 in the final Class 3A poll.

When the dust settled on Friday night and Hillcrest left with a win, I immediately began to look at the bracket and saw that they would be hosting Oakman this week. In the event that Hillcrest wins that one, it’ll likely set up a rematch against Mobile Christian, which should prove interesting.

In the event that Hillcrest wins that game, it could set up another rematch with Bayside Academy in the semi-final round of the playoffs, just like last year. Many of you will remember that Bayside barely beat Hillcrest, 34-33, earlier this year in Daphne. Needless to say, if Hillcrest can get some revenge on Bayside, that will propel the Jags into the state finals for the first time in school history.

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According to this week’s SEC football schedule, there are seven head-to-head games between SEC teams this Saturday. Mississippi State will play Alabama in Tuscaloosa at 11 a.m., and Auburn will play Georgia in Athens at 2:30 p.m. South Carolina will play Florida in Gainesville at 11 a.m., and Kentucky will play Tennessee in Knoxville at 11 a.m.

Vanderbilt will play Missouri in Columbia at 2:30 p.m., and LSU will play Arkansas in Fayetteville at 6 p.m. Ole Miss will play Texas A&M in College Station at 6:30 p.m.

Here are my predictions as to how those games will turn out. I like Alabama over Mississippi State, Auburn over Georgia, Florida over South Carolina, Tennessee over Kentucky, Missouri over Vandy, LSU over Arkansas and Texas A&M over Ole Miss.

Last week: 6-2. So far this season: 68-16.

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The tenth weekend of our local ESPN College Football Pick ‘Em Contest wrapped up on Saturday night, and the standings went through another shake-up this week.

I held on to first place for the sixth week in a row, and Drew Skipper remained in second place for the fifth straight week. Steve Stacey remained in third place for the fourth week in a row.

Justin Chandler remained in fourth place for the second straight week, and Robert Bozeman jumped to fifth place from tenth place. Rod Sims remained in sixth place for the second straight week.

Hunter Norris and Ricky Taylor were tied for the No. 7 spot. Last week, Norris was tied for fourth place, and Taylor was in ninth place.

Nick Watson jumped back into the Top 10, finishing the week in ninth place. Casey Grant dropped from seventh place to tenth place.

If you’re taking part in this contest and didn’t make the Top 10 this week, don’t worry about it. We’ve got four more weeks left in the contest, and there’s a lot of football left to be played. The Top 10 changes a good bit every week, and you can bet that next week will probably be no different.