Whit’s Picks: Take a break from the crazy and focus on football

Published 7:30 pm Thursday, August 17, 2017

Good morning, gentle souls, and as you thumb through today’s paper or scroll across the digital edition on your favorite mobile device, rest assured that once again all is right with the world.

Clear your mind, and let your senses breath it in. Forget about presidential politics dispensed in 140 characters. Forget about the threat of North Korea’s nuclear umbrella. Clear your mind of division, and join the movement which is neither alt-right nor alt-left nor control-alt-delete.

With all apologies to REM, it’s not the end of the world as we know it.

It is high school football season, and as Michael Stipe would wail out for you, “and I feel fine.”

We enter into another season of gridiron guessing with your faithful Guru here to lead you down the path of peace and love and understanding. Most who are reading these words share a passion for a football Friday night, and it has been a long hot summer as you have waited for the return of your beloved Prep Pigskin Prognosticator.

The teams in our area had one of the most productive football seasons across the board that we have witnessed in a long time. Only Christian Heritage and Coahulla Creek had losing seasons in 2016 while North Murray and Northwest Whitfield both advanced to the second round of the state playoffs, and Dalton was a few key plays away from playing for the state title. For most, it had to be considered a successful season.

Now, we turn our attention to tonight and the first real action of the season to see if 2017 meets last year’s standards, exceeds those standards or falls short. Along the way, we’ll share some laughs, raise some ire, pause to think, applaud the achievements, console the defeats, engage in some shenanigans and poke fun at Coach Preston Poag (how does he maintain such wonderful hair?). We’ll share stories of old, enlighten new tales of accomplishment and along the way give people in the Forum something to talk about other than animal control and Donald Trump’s little fingers typing away as quick as they can on social media.

And through it all, your fearless Friday night forecaster will be here to see you through it. Unfortunately for some, there are no term limits on Gurus.

• Mr. Saturday Night Special — Southeast Whitfield at Coahulla Creek: There is no truth to the rumor that on the first day of orientation at Coahulla Creek all students must sign a blood oath to disagree with every tweet from the account @cwhitfi7. Or so the administration says. They still refuse to give me a copy of the student handbook. Kidding, kidding.

For the last couple of years, the hashtag #creekisrising has been around, and for most of the school’s sports programs, that has certainly been the case as seemingly each sport continues to keep building on its successes. But when it comes to football, the rapid flash flood rise of the Creek has been more like a summer drought.

Six wins in five seasons has been a tough pill to swallow. But with changes in the administration in recent years and with the hiring of new coach Caleb Bagley, it is much more realistic to say success is in reach for the school. How different people judge that success will depend on their point of view, but the bar hasn’t been set very high.

And believe it or not, Colt “Neightion,” count the Guru as a fan of the way Bagley and his staff have gone about their business.

On the other end of the county, Southeast knows what it is like to be in Coahulla Creek’s shoes with only six winning seasons since 1975. But lately coach Sean Gray has been able to add a lot more “non-losing” seasons and will likely add more since the Raiders only play down in classification in their non-region schedule. But they will need a lot better region success than their 2-4 mark last year in order to sniff the playoffs.

Last year, the Raiders won 49-0, and while Southeast will still get off to a strong start, this year’s Coahulla Creek team will put up more of a fight.

Whit’s Pick: Southeast 42, Coahulla Creek 13

• Christian Heritage at North Murray: Oh, I have missed those Mountaineer Maniacs. I miss the big hair, the spray tans and the wailing throughout each game — and that’s the guys!

North Murray made the playoffs for the first time ever last year under the leadership, power and sheer awesomeness of Prodigal Son Poag, the Mountaineers became a force to be reckoned with. Now, comes a new season and new challenges, and we start the season off with another version of the War Between the Poags, or as I like to call it, the War of Northern Murray Aggression.

Christian Heritage and coach Jay Poag will try to bounce back with new recruits to the Army of the Lions after last year’s disappointing 1-9 crusade.

Whit’s Pick: North Murray 49, Christian Heritage 14

• Ringgold at Northwest Whitfield: This will be a good opener for the Bruins, who are still trying to find that rhythm they had last year offensively. But everyone is expecting big things from Northwest this season.

I don’t think we will be disappointed.

Whit’s Pick: Northwest 42, Ringgold 21

• Murray County at Gordon Central: The Indians lost a lot of key players, but return one of the most potent rushing attacks in the area. Last year, Murray County put 55 up on Gordon Central to start the season.

Whit’s Pick: Murray County 41, Gordon Central 17

Chris Whitfield is a reporter and sports columnist for the Daily Citizen-News.