FOOTBALL PICKS: Coaching decisions making JMCSS football better
This has been addressed already early in the regular season, but now that we're two weeks into the playoffs, it warrants a second addressing.
This time last year, I had a conversation with a high-ranking official at Jackson-Madison County Schools who is a fan of athletics.
The four football teams in JMCSS had a less-than-stellar season in 2023.
There were six games pitting the four teams against each other for the Commissioners' Cup.
One team of the four - North Side - made the playoffs and was eliminated in the first round.
So each team played 10 games in the regular season, minus those six against each other and add North Side's playoff game, that equaled 35 games JMCSS' teams played against other teams.
North Side's win over Lexington and Jackson Central-Merry's win over Gibson County were the only two victories JMCSS had over teams from other districts. That's a record of 2-33.
Then a year later, here's how that situation looks: Liberty went 0-7, South Side went 3-4, North Side went 4-3 (counting their playoff loss) and JCM has gone 6-2 so far.
All of that adds up to a combined record for JMCSS of 13-16.
North Side nearly came away with a region championship. JCM is the only team to beat its region champion (and could do it again this week at Milan). They caught the short end of the stick in a tie for second and were awarded third in the region through tiebreakers.
South Side didn't make the playoffs, but they showed some fight throughout the season they didn't show.
Liberty is a program that we'll consider is a plane preparing to leave the runway.
Marlon King looks to Ricky Catlett when it comes to hires for high profile sports positions.
Honestly, there have been times when Catlett wasn't happy with comments I've made during some of these coach searches, and I let him know I disagreed with his disagreements.
But he deserves credit for an 11-game improvement in the district's football record for getting coaches that can lead these programs.
Speaking of credit, I'd like to get credit for my picks. Out of five games picked last week, I went 2-2. (The fifth game was Liberty's bowl game, and their opponent cancelled that game.) My overall record for the season is 43-21. Of my 21 misses, 12 of them combined were me picking University School of Jackson or JCM to lose during their win streaks because I kept wanting to be the one to pick the end of the streak.
Anyway, here are this week's picks:
Milan 42, JCM 38: Hold on Cougar fans, don't get mad at me just yet. Hear me out. If there's a list of the most over-used cliches coaches like to use is how difficult it is to beat the same team twice in a season. TCA did it last week, but neither of those games were close. JCM's win over Milan in September was close. Milan has the talent on the field and in the coaches' office to compete with JCM, so JCM will have to play an almost-perfect game and/or throw a few wrinkles in to keep Milan honest before snaps on both sides of the ball to give itself the best chance to win.
Jackson Christian 42, Franklin-Grace 7: I nearly picked a shutout, but that's hard to achieve once you pull the starters and second string out as soon as the Eagles will be able to do that in this game.
Trinity Christian 27, Columbia Academy 21: Looking at CA's scores throughout its season, TCA probably matches up well talent-wise with CA. The Lions will have two hours on the bus Friday (possibly more depending on what route they take and they are riding in a bus or two), and their minds should be right by the time they get in the locker room and get their gear on ready to play. Of course, this would get us two games away from an all-Madison County championship in Chattanooga in December.
Battle Ground Academy 28, USJ 21: If USJ's coaching staff is good at one thing and nothing else, it's getting their players in position to be successful consistently. That is what will keep USJ in this game. Noah Spencer will get his yards and get his touchdowns and will keep USJ in the game. But BGA appears to be really really tough and will be able to outlast USJ in the fourth quarter to get that extra score and the win.
Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news
