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With TSSAA and VHSL playoffs in full swing, here are the BHC’s predictions for this week:

NORTHEAST TENN.
Division I-4A
Morristown West at Sullivan South
The Rebels are riding an eight-game winning streak, as Curt Phillips’ consistently hot hand and South’s running game have bailed the Rebels out of three straight early deficits. Meanwhile, West has pulled together an up-and-down season to outscore its last three opponents 115-30.
South’s in for a battle. But the Rebels should have enough offensive talent to move on – barring another first-quarter no-show.
Prediction: Sullivan South 24, Morristown West 20

SOUTHWEST VA.
Region C, Division 2
Grayson County at George Wythe
The playoffs return to Pendleton Field on Friday as George Wythe returns to the playoffs after a one-year hiatus. GW hasn’t played since a dramatic 14-7 victory over Chilhowie two weeks ago and the Maroons have been banged up. The week off allowed them to heal some of those injuries. Grayson County (8-2) won the Mountain Empire District title and early reports say this is the best outfit the Blue Devils’ have put on the field in a while. However, GW still has the edge.
Prediction: George Wythe 20, Grayson County 14
Region C, Division 1

Bath County at Holston
Here’s one prediction that is bound to be true – get to Damascus early tonight. The place should be packed as the Cavaliers make their first playoff appearance since 1995 and host their first postseason game in 22 years. First-year head coach Jason Matlock has helped reenergize a once-downtrodden program and such standouts as Eric Mefford, Aaron Reynolds and John Pratt have put together productive seasons. The bus ride from Bath County to Damascus is the longest in Region C and Bath County must overcome that. However, the Chargers’ experience in the postseason should be the difference.
Prediction: Bath County 28, Holston 26

Bland County at Rural Retreat
Rural Retreat head coach Quinton Hensley knows a thing or two about the Region C, Division 1 playoffs. The Indians have won regional championships in his first three seasons at the helm and the Indians are 6-0 in regional games since he’s been in charge. Bland, under the direction of former Tazewell coach Harris Hart, has been a pleasant surprise. However, Rural Retreat should still roll.
Prediction: Rural Retreat 34, Bland 15

Region IV, Division 3
Patrick County at Richlands
The Cougars had to win three games in a week and a half just to qualify for the playoffs, but their run stops here against the defending state champs. The Blue Tornadoes’ offense began to hit its stride in the second half Oct. 26 at Carroll County and has scored 81 points in their last three halves. Add in a long bus ride for Patrick County, plus Richlands’ stout defense and special teams, and you have a routine first round win for the Blues.
Prediction: Richlands 30, Patrick County 12.

Marion at Graham
If you like your football played between the tackles, this is your game. Watch fullbacks Tommy Lyon (Marion) and Tyler Barreras (Graham) if you want to see guys bounce off defenders and churn out tough yardage. The teams’ regular season meeting resulted in a 13-8 G-Men win on a late Scarlet Hurricanes turnover inside the Graham 5-yard line. It will be close again, but the G-Men have a little more speed and that’s the difference.
Prediction: Graham 20, Marion 14. 

Saturday
Region D, Division 2
Honaker at Powell Valley
This is a rematch of a first-round game from last year in which Powell Valley’s offense overwhelmed Honaker en route to a win. Look for the same scenario to unfold today at Bullitt Park. Honaker running back Logan Ball should get his yards, but Powell Valley has too many weapons on offense.
Prediction: Powell Valley 41, Honaker 22.

Region D, Division 2
Lebanon at Gate City
This is a rematch from Sept. 14. In that game at Tommy Bryant Stadium, Lebanon collected 255 yards rushing en route to a 33-13 win. As usual, senior tailback Skyler Musick starred with 126 yards and two scores. Gate City was intercepted three times by Lebanon. Since then, the Blue Devils have lost only one other game (Powell Valley) with a back-to-basics running approach. Gate City has won 85 percent (30-5) of its postseason games at Legion Field since 1966. The sound of Musick will ring strong today, however.
Prediction: Lebanon 28, Gate City 21.

Region D, Division 1
St. Paul at J.I. Burton
Even though J.I. Burton is a heavy favorite, this is a rather intriguing matchup. Burton went 9-1 in winning its second consecutive Lonesome Pine District title and the Raiders will attempt to win the regional title for the fifth consecutive year. However, injuries have been an issue for the Raiders. Meanwhile, St. Paul features one of the area’s most explosive players in Josh Brooks. Can Burton’s stout defense contain Brooks? Will the injuries continue to slow Burton? Those questions will be answered Saturday in Norton.
Prediction: J.I. Burton 33, St. Paul 16

Appalachia at Clintwood
Eight days after facing each other to close out the regular-season, these two teams meet again in the regional quarterfinals. Clintwood cruised to a 37-point victory last Friday at Appalachia as quarterback Heath Counts burned the Bulldogs’ secondary for four touchdown passes and Chris Robinson led the Greenwave’s ground attack. Look for history to repeat itself today at Ralph Cummins Stadium.
Prediction: Clintwood 45, Appalachia 8

Posted by From the Archives

Want to know the best way to guarantee a big-time performance from Tennessee’s football team? Try completely panning this team’s ability before a big game.
While this isn’t always a fool-proof method (see Florida, this year), just ask last year’s California team or this year’s Georgia squad for evidence. Better yet, how about Arkansas?
Outside of head coach Phillip Fulmer and his staff, and his players, no one—and I mean no one—thought the Volunteers could put the clamps on Arkansas’ running game last week.
Yet there was Darren McFadden, finding no room to run until the Razorbacks were down 27-3. There was Felix Jones, running ineffectively before leaving the game with a thigh bruise. There was the UT defense, playing like the ghosts of Al Wilson and Leonard Little had shown up in their prime.
And now Fulmer, who seemed at times this year to be a 50-50 bet to be moving out of his office in the Neyland-Thompson Sports Center at season’s end, is in position to not only survive a potential coup d’etat by influential boosters, but to possibly reach a BCS bowl.
If the Vols beat Vanderbilt Saturday (which they should) and Kentucky the following week (a 50-50 shot at this point), they’ll play LSU Dec. 1 in Atlanta for the SEC title.
While the Tigers are more talented and will beat UT if both teams play at the same level, they are also prone to lots of mistakes. They lead the SEC in penalties and haven’t really blown out an SEC team since September.
Point is, a UT win over LSU in an SEC championship game isn’t likely. But it seems a hell of a lot more plausible now than it did about two weeks ago.
And if that does happen and the Vols reach a BCS game, there’s no way you can justify canning Fulmer. Like him or not, the guy would deserve to keep his job.
Remember when ESPN’s Chris Berman kept referring to former Detroit Lions coach Wayne Fontes as Rasputin for his almost-mystical ability to go on a winning streak just when the critics would start asking for his job?
One can make the case Fulmer has become the SEC’s version of Rasputin. And not a minute too soon for UT’s title hopes this year.
The Weekly Picks
Florida Atlantic at Florida
If Gators coach Urban Meyer wants to do it this way, quarterback Tim Tebow can pad his Heisman Trophy candidacy shamelessly against the Sun Belt Conference’s Owls. My guess is Tebow is on the bench before the third quarter’s end. There’s nothing at stake here except the Gators’ health—especially if they get some help in other games. Florida 52, Florida Atlantic 14.
Kentucky at Georgia
It’s not too often the Lincoln Financial game matches two top 25 teams, but that’s the case here. The Bulldogs haven’t lost since their no-show appearance in Knoxville last month, while the Wildcats overcame a slew of mistakes to win at Vanderbilt last week and keep their East Division title hopes alive. It would make sense if Georgia lost, since this season has been so unpredictable, but it still remembers how it came from ahead to lose at Kentucky last year. Georgia 34, Kentucky 24.
Mississippi St. at Arkansas
How about Sylvester Croom for SEC Coach of the Year? All he’s done this year is guide a decent, but not overly-talented team to wins over Auburn, Kentucky and Alabama—games which no one thought the Bulldogs would have won back in August. This game belongs on that list as well, and you can’t count MSU out. But I just don’t think it matches up well enough against the Razorbacks’ blitz-happy scheme. Nor do I think Darren McFadden will get neutered again. Arkansas 27, Mississippi St. 20.
Vanderbilt at Tennessee
At first glance, the betting line (Tennessee by 11 1/2) seems low in light of the Vols’ 6-0 home record this year. Then again, the guys in Las Vegas wouldn’t be there if they didn’t get this stuff right. And the Commodores do enough things pretty well to make this a game. But even if UT isn’t at its sharpest this week, it isn’t going to allow Vandy to walk into Neyland Stadium and leave for a second straight trip with a win. Tennessee 30, Vanderbilt 21.
LSU at Ole Miss
The Rebels have had two weeks to prepare for this game. And senior DE Greg Hardy has been reinstated after a two-game suspension by coach Ed Orgeron, giving Mississippi a pass-rush threat to scare anyone. But with so much at stake nationally for the Tigers, it’s hard to construct a scenario under which the Rebels can make this a game past the third quarter’s middle. LSU can’t make enough mistakes to make this one close, can they? LSU 41, Mississippi 17.
Louisiana-Monroe at Alabama
For the Crimson Tide, this is just a glorified scrimmage before next week’s Iron Bowl at Auburn. The last two weeks have been a reality check for Alabama, which almost stole a BCS bowl bid in Nick Saban’s first year. Two years from now, when Saban recruits enough four and five-star athletes to fix the program’s depth on both sides of the ball, this will become the SEC’s top program. Alabama 45, Louisiana-Monroe 20. 

Posted by The Continuous News Desk
College Sports

Young Wasps lose fifth straight as curtain falls

From staff and wire reports
The Wasps’ slide continued and ended at the same time.
Emory & Henry fell to Guilford 21-17 on Saturday afternoon in Greensboro, N.C., in an Old Dominion Athletic Conference game.
The loss marked five straight defeats by a total of 23 points for E&H (4-6, 1-5 ODAC) and also brought about the end of their season.
The Quakers compiled 484 total offensive yards to the Wasps’ 228, had 15 more first downs and held the ball seven more minutes.
Guilford (6-4, 2-4) quarterback Josh Vogelbach torched E&H’s defense for 364 passing yards and a touchdown, completing 34 of 54 attempts.
Senior Matt Gillespie ran for a game-high 123 yards on 26 rushes for the Wasps.
E&H wide receiver Johnathan Hawkins pulled down his ninth receiving touchdown of the season when he caught a pass from Daniel Booher (7 of 16, 71 yards) and turned it into a 27-yard score.
Booher then connected with Hawkins again late in the second quarter for a 7-yard touchdown.
And the Wasps held a 17-7 lead with 7 minutes, 58 seconds left in the third quarter before the Quakers mounted their comeback.
Emory & Henry began the season 4-1 but finished it last in the ODAC.

Posted by Brian T. Smith
College Sports

Pigram drops 30, Bucs fall late

From staff and wire reports
Courtney Pigram’s 30 points weren’t enough, as ETSU dropped its season-opener 78-74 to Dayton on Saturday afternoon in front of 12,115 at the University of Dayton Arena.
Pigram shot 11 of 23 from the field and knocked down 5 of his 11 3-point attempts. He also grabbed three rebounds, dished out two assists and had one steal.
“I really felt like we could win this game, so I just went out and tried to take it to ‘em,” Pigram said. “I wasn’t looking at my numbers. I was just trying to score to help us win.”
The Bucs (0-1) led by as many as nine points midway through the first half. But the Flyers (1-0) went on a 7-0 run to close out the period, and pulled to within 41-40 at the break.
ETSU held a hot hand in the first 20 minutes. The Bucs shot 50 percent (15 of 30) from the field and 46.7 percent (7 for 15) from beyond the arc.
But Dayton slowed the game down in the second half, and Flyers guard Brian Roberts (game-high 31 points, five assists) and forward Chris Wright (18 points, 13 rebounds) slowly took control.
“They’ve got great players in Wright and Roberts,” said Bucs coach Murry Bartow.
Roberts knocked down a three to give Dayton a 67-64 lead with 4:42 left in the second half.
But the Bucs battled back to make it 76-74 when junior-college transfer Jacolby Davis scored on a lay-up.
“I saw a lot of encouraging things,” Bartow said. “[Courtney Pigram] played a heck of a game. And we played a good team to the end in a hostile environment.
“And I don’t remember the last time we made 11 3-pointers in one game.”
The Flyers shot 53.8 percent (14 of 26) from the field in the second half, outrebounded ETSU 43-31 during the game, and took 15 more foul shots than the Bucs.
“I’ve got make sure that we get a better shot towards the end of games,” Bartow said. “We had some empty possessions late, in the last seven or eight minutes of the game.”
ETSU takes on Milligan College in an exhibition at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at the Memorial Center.
Bristol Herald Courier staff writer Brian T. Smith contributed to this report.

Posted by Brian T. Smith
College Sports

KNOXVILLE—Sorry that I haven’t posted anything for the teeming masses who read this blog. Actually, if we even start getting a bare trickle, that will be a vast improvement.
Anyway, between the normal workload and cranking out copy for our basketball previews, the blog has had to take a back seat.
But while I have time this morning before the UT-Arkansas showdown, I’ll give you the weekly SEC picks.
Around the SEC
Arkansas at Tennessee
Looks like a dream matchup for Darren McFadden, Felix Jones and the Arkansas running game, doesn’t it? They’ll get a lot of yards and points, but the Volunteers will win the game. Why? UT is 5-0 at Neyland Stadium this year and has been a different team there. Its offense moves the ball, its defense seems to come up with big plays and it’s like it has a 12th man out there. Sounds cliched, but as someone who’s watched this team all year, I will vouch for it. Just like I’ll vouch for the Vols continuing to stay in control of the SEC East race after today. Tennessee 38, Arkansas 34.
Alabama at Mississippi St.
If I had some guts, I’d pick a Bulldog upset. The Crimson Tide invested a lot emotionally into last week’s mega-showdown with LSU and barely came up short. It’s not like Alabama is so talented they can just walk into Starkville, throw on those all-white unis and leave with a win. MSU isn’t bad and it’s rested to boot. But this is why Nick Saban makes $4 million a year—to win games like this. And in the end, the Tide will. Alabama 27, Mississippi State 24.
Kentucky at Vanderbilt
Every SEC East team has won its game coming off a bye this year. The Wildcats’ bye was last week and it was much-needed after a brutal stretch of SEC games which resulted in a pile of injuries. With rest, they face a Commodores team which just got plastered at Florida and may be running out of steam in their quest for their first bowl bid in 25 years. Kentucky 35, Vanderbilt 21.
Auburn at Georgia
Here’s the only stat you really need to know for this week: 11-3-1. That’s the record of the road team the last 15 years of this series. Since the Tigers are the road team, bet on them. They are physical enough to stop the Bulldogs’ run game and force Matthew Stafford to try to beat them. If I’m Tommy Tuberville, I take my chances with that parlay any day. Auburn 24, Georgia 17.
Florida at South Carolina
Looks like the Gamecocks’ chances for a breakthrough season expired when Ryan Succop’s field goal sailed wide right down here two weeks ago. I know Steve Spurrier will get the masses fired up for the Gators, but it’s hard to imagine a defense which got ripped as it did last week can magically stop Tim Tebow, Percy Harvin and the Florida offense. Florida 37, South Carolina 27.
Louisiana Tech at LSU
This is the breather the Tigers sorely needed. The less said about this one, the better. LSU 49, Louisiana Tech 7.

Posted by The Continuous News Desk
College Sports