Gut Check Picks - the second week

My debut of Gut Check picks was more like a sucker punch to my gut. I went 6-4 in the Camden News Pigskin Picks and my other prognostications weren't much better. I guess this proves you really should do some research before predicting the outcomes of football games. Let's try it again. In local high school, I have El Dorado over LR Central; Fairview over Warren; Magnolia over Hamburg; Harmony Grove over Arkansas Baptist; Junction City over Bearden and Fordyce over Monticello. In college: Arkansas over Rutgers; Florida over Tennessee; LSU over Auburn; Stanford over Arizona State and Arkansas State over Memphis. Just for fun, Harvard and Philip Hay opens its season at San Diego. San Diego has played twice, although is a 38-35 win over Western New Mexico really a game? Who knows? I'll pick San Diego. In the NFL: Oakland over Denver; Philly over KC; Green Bay over Cincinnati; Dallas over St. Louis; San Diego over Tennessee; Minnesota over Cleveland; New England over Tampa Bay; New Orleans over Arizona; Detroit over Washington; Carolina over NY Giants; Houston over Baltimore; Atlanta over Miami; Buffalo over NY Jets; San Francisco over Indy; Seattle over Jacksonville and Chicago over Pittsburgh. *** Oh and the WNBA Playoffs are finally here. The Sky over the Fever and the Dream over the Mystics in the East. In the West, I'll take the Sparks over the Mercury and the Lynx over the Storm. I'll buy a Diet Dr. Pepper to anyone who knows the city of these teams without looking it up.

A 'real' coach can win at Grambling

Grambling just fired Doug Williams as head coach two games into the 2013 season. I find it outrageous that it took two games for the school to see what was fairly clear to most. Williams, a Grambling legend and NFL trailblazer, wasn't getting the job done. Grambling sits right in the middle of a hotbed of football talent. Surrounded by South Arkansas, East Texas and North Louisiana, you can't tell me a coach that's serious about his job can't find players in Shreveport, Monroe, Haynesville, Junction City, El Dorado, Strong, Camden, Texarkana, etc. Coach Williams let that program drop to never-seen-before depths and that's a shame. But, Grambling is still Grambling. Any coach who is serious about being a football coach can win there. It will take some work but it won't take a whole lot of gas money. The talent is sitting all around the campus.

It's Gut Check time

It seems every sports writer is an expert on football these days. Every time I turn on the TV, some dude or dudette is telling me who is going to win a particular game or explaining why a team lost. Explaining why a team lost is easy. It's called hindsight and even Stevie Wonder is blessed with it. El Dorado lost at Camden Fairview last week because of, first, the Cardinals' speed and skill, second, the Wildcats' own miscues. El Dorado came out jittery, which is understandable with so many new faces. A mistake here, a bobble there and it's 14-0. The Wildcats never recovered because Fairview never let up. How's that for hindsight? Well, here's a little foresight. This week, I'm going to start predicting the winners of games at the high school, college and NFL level. I'm calling it Gut Check because I'm not doing any research. I'm just looking at the teams and going with my gut. Here are my predictions for the Camden News Pigskin Picks, in which I participate each week: Fairview over Hamburg; El Dorado over Southside; Monticello over Magnolia; Star City over Harmony Grove; Bearden over Hampton; Junction City over Rison; Strong over Smackover in an upset; Alabama over Texas A&M; Ole Miss over Texas and Dallas over Kansas City. My other college picks are: LA Tech over Tulane on Thursday; ASU over Troy; Arkansas over Southern Miss; Oregon over Tennessee; South Carolina over Vandy; Auburn over Mississippi State and Wake Forest over Louisiana-Monroe. My NFL picks are: Patriots over Jets; Raiders over Jaguars; Falcons over Rams, Panthers over Bills; Bears over Vikings; Packers over Redskins; Dolphins over Colts; Eagles over Chargers; Ravens over Browns; Texans over Titans; Saints over Bucs; Lions over Cardinals; Broncos over Giants; 49ers over Seahawks and Bengals over Steelers.

Random ramblings

I've been busy putting the El Dorado section of our football tab together. Ever try to fill 15 newspaper-sized pages on one high school team? It's not easy but, thankfully, it is finished. Perhaps I won't be leaving the office at three in the morning again for a few weeks. Since I've been focused on football, I've sort of skimmed the sports world recently. There were a few things that caught my attention ... briefly. 1. Okay, Johnny Manziel gets off with a 30-minute suspension (imposed by Texas A&M and not the NCAA) for selling his autograph? When it first happened, several media members expressed their outrage that the rule even existed. I found this odd. Low-income student athletes lose their eligibility when they exchange complimentary tickets for pizza money but a rich kid sells his autograph so he can buy rims for his Mercedes Benz and that's when the media says the rule stinks? 2. Whoever designed Victoria Azarenka's tennis dress for the U.S. Open should be whipped on the legs and buttocks with thorny branches. 3. Bret Bielema brought the Razorbacks' football program back to SEC-caliber. No, I know they're not a championship contender. But, the style is what I'm talking about. It's a lot more smash-mouthed than Bobby Petrino and a lot more high-flying than Houston Nutt. It's football and I don't care what the record ends up being, if the Hogs keep trying to run the ball and throw it smartly, I'll be happy. 4. WWE superstar Darren Young recently announced to the world that he was gay. I don't know if this is real or a wrestling stunt but Young, who lost nearly every match before his announcement, has won nearly every match since he said he was gay. I guess times have changed. The last time Vince McMahon had a gay wrestler, they made him wear pink trunks and a feather boa. 5. Speaking of ... San Antonio Silver Star (that's a WNBA team) Sophia Young recently announced she was for some sort of local legislation that was anti-gay. I don't know the details but the team's website, which I am a member, sent me an email saying they were changing the name of the site from Silver Star Nation as long as Miss Young was a member of the team. I don't know if she deserves credit or ridicule for taking such a public stance. Being anti-gay in the WNBA is like being a vegetarian in a butcher shop. Okay, that analogy was terrible. I'm sorry. I'm not at my best.