Sharon Peacock moves into first place in local college football contest

Hillcrest got a little sweet revenge over McKenzie last Friday night at Williams-Vickery Field in McKenzie, aka “Stomp City.” McKenzie entered that game ranked in the Top 10 in Class 1A and fresh off a disappointing loss to region rival, Georgiana, who is also ranked among the best teams in Class 1A. Hillcrest handed the Tigers their second loss in a row, and the Jags also picked up their first ever win against McKenzie, evening the all-time series between the two schools to 1-1.

Hillcrest will play Excel tomorrow (Friday) night in Evergreen and that game will mark the first time that Excel has ever played Hillcrest in Evergreen. Excel did play old Evergreen High School in Evergreen at least twice in 1932 and 1933. Excel won, 7-0, in 1932, and Evergreen won, 7-0, in 1933. Excel and Evergreen met at least three other times in the 1930s, but all of those games were played on Excel’s home field.

Sparta suffered their first loss of the season last Friday night against Fort Dale, a much larger school with a lot more depth. The Warriors should be more evenly matched against tomorrow night’s opponent, region rival Jackson Academy. Jackson Academy is one of Sparta’s longest-running rivals, and Sparta holds a 10-9 edge in the all-time series between the two schools in football. Interestingly, Jackson has only won three times in Evergreen since 1972.

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The fourth full weekend of the college football season has come and gone, and only five SEC teams escaped the weekend with perfect, undefeated records. Florida, Georgia, LSU, Ole Miss and Texas A&M all remain undefeated, but that’s sure to change some this week when Ole Miss butts head with Florida in Gainesville.

According to my handy, dandy helmet schedule, there are five head-to-head SEC conference games this week, while four other SEC teams will play lesser teams from outside of the conference. 

For what it’s worth, here’s how I see those games playing out. I like Georgia over Alabama, Auburn over San Jose State, Ole Miss over Florida, Missouri over South Carolina, Tennessee over Arkansas, Texas A&M over Mississippi State, Kentucky over Eastern Kentucky, Vanderbilt over Middle Tennessee State and LSU over Eastern Michigan.

Last week: 8-1. So far this season: 36-7.

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This past weekend also marked the fourth weekend of our local ESPN College Football Pick ‘Em Contest. Sharon Peacock moved up to first place from second place, and Ricky Taylor, who’d held top honors for two weeks straight, dropped from first place to second place. Ricky Powell went from fourth place to third place, and Jonathan Tuberville dropped from third place into the fourth place spot.

Deegan Dailey, Mike Dailey, Sam Rowell and Casey Grant were all in the four-way tie for fifth place. Hunter Norris and I were tied for ninth place, and Travis Presley was in eleventh place.

If you’re one of the contestants in the contest and didn’t do well over the weekend, don’t sweat it. We’ve got nine weeks to go before the end of the season, and the Top 10 will change a lot over the course of the next three months.