Casey Grant remains atop local college football contest standings

The seventh week of our local ESPN College Football Pick ‘Em contest wrapped up on Saturday, and Casey Grant remained atop the local standings with 55 total points to his credit.

Clint Hyde found himself in second place with 51 points. Blake Stringer and Mark Cotten followed closely, tied for third place, with 50 points each. Jesse Jordan was in sole possession of fifth place with 49 points.

Drew Skipper and Brett Loftin were tied for sixth place with 48 points each. Cody Thomas, Justin Chandler and I were all tied for eighth place with 46 points each. Austin Weaver followed next, in 12^th place, with 45 points.

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For the first time in a long time, Hillcrest’s varsity football team finds itself in a heated region race, and 4A Region 1 is so good that it looks like a pair of really decent teams won’t be making the playoffs. As of Monday, UMS-Wright was No. 1 in the region standings and looked to be a lock for the playoffs with games against Escambia County and W.S. Neal left on their schedule. UMS-Wright, the two-time defending state champion, looks set for another run at the state title unless the wheels just fall off.

After UMS-Wright, you’ve got a complicated four-way tie for second place in the region standings between Williamson, Andalusia, Escambia County and Hillcrest. Hillcrest beat Andalusia early this season, but lost on homecoming to Escambia County. Hillcrest will play Williamson tomorrow (Friday) night in Mobile, and it behooves the Jags to beat them in hopes of knocking them out of the race for one of the region’s four playoff spots.

As of Monday, W.S. Neal was sixth in the region standings, Clarke County was seventh and Monroe County High School was eighth. W.S. Neal has yet to play Andalusia and UMS-Wright, and I don’t see Neal beating either of those teams. I’ll be shocked if Clarke County and Monroe County find themselves in the playoff discussion when region play ends on Oct. 25.

If you look at it from Hillcrest’s point of view, the only thing to do is focus on what you can control and that is two, must-win games against Williamson and Monroe County High School on Oct. 25. If Hillcrest takes care of business in both of those games, they’ll also want to pull for Escambia County and UMS-Wright to lose one or more games between now and the end of region play.

More than likely UMS-Wright will run the table, but Escambia County still has to face UMS-Wright and Williamson before they can claim a playoff spot. I don’t see Escambia County beating UMS-Wright, but the Escambia County-Williamson game on Oct. 25 in Atmore could spell disaster for the loser, especially if Hillcrest hands Williamson a loss tomorrow night.

So far, Williamson’s only region losses have come against UMS-Wright and Andalusia, but it helps Hillcrest that the Jags beat Andalusia head to head on Sept. 20. Going into the season, it would have been hard to predict that Williamson would have played such a factor in the region race. Of course, all of this would be moot if Hillcrest had beaten Escambia County on Sept. 13. That four-point loss could come back to haunt the Jags if they don’t win their last two region games.