Skipper, Matheny tied for first in local college football pick 'em contest

Evergreen native Ken Clark at Nebraska.

The sixth weekend of the college football season wrapped up on Saturday, and we also closed out another weekend in our local ESPN College Football Pick ‘Em Contest.

This week, we have a two-way tie for first place in the local standings. Those tied for first were Drew Skipper and Jeremy Matheny.

We also had a five-way tie for third place. Those tied for third included Brett Loftin, Mark Peacock, John Johnston, Travis Presley and me.

Josh Klaetsch and Ricky Taylor were tied for eighth place.

Those tied for tenth place included Justin Mixon, Clint Hyde, Vanessa Sales, Darrell Burch and Calvin Casey.

With that said, if you didn’t do so hot in the contest last weekend, don’t worry too much about it. Like you’ve read here before, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. We’ve got eight more weeks to go, and the standings will no doubt change a lot during the next two months.

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By my count, we’ve got six games this weekend featuring SEC teams, and all six are head-to-head conference games. For what it’s worth, here are my picks in those games. I like Alabama over Missouri, Auburn over Tennessee, Florida over Vanderbilt, Texas A&M over South Carolina, Georgia over LSU and Ole Miss over Arkansas.

Last week: 5-2, Overall: 50-10

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I saw over the weekend where Hillcrest High School football standout Cam Riley received a football scholarship offer from the Nebraska Cornhuskers. What’s interesting about that is that if Riley were to accept that offer he would not be the first Conecuh County native to play football at the University of Nebraska.

Ken Clark, who played running back at Nebraska from 1986 to 1989, was born in Evergreen on June 17, 1966. Clark, who was the son of Carolyn Clark, apparently moved to the state of Nebraska at a young age. He played high school ball at Bryan High School in Omaha, Neb. and signed with Nebraska over Iowa, Iowa Sate and Kansas State. It’s said that he was the first student from his high school to ever sign with a major college football program like Nebraska.

Clark was a three-year letterman at Nebraska and was selected twice to the All-Big Eight Conference team. According to Nebraska’s football record books, Clark ranks fifth on Nebraska’s all-time rushing chart with 3,037 total yards to his credit. He averaged 6.1 yards per carry in his career and scored 29 touchdowns while playing for legendary Nebraska head coach Tom Osborne.

After college, Clark went on to play three seasons in the NFL for the Indianapolis Colts. He was selected in the eighth round of the 1990 NFL Draft and appeared in 34 games for the Colts during his career.

Tragically, Clark’s life was cut short in 2013 when he died unexpectedly from a heart attack at the age of 46. Clark is buried in the Graceland Park Cemetery in South Omaha, Nebraska – about 1,100 miles from his birthplace in Alabama.