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PICKS COLUMN: Lot of big games to pick this week

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We're coming up on the two-year anniversary of when The Jackson Post started.
We announced what we were doing on Nov. 7, 2022. And before our first print edition went out the week of Thanksgiving that year, we started doing online coverage of Jackson and Madison County that week.
Football's regular season was already over, and the three private schools were all in the playoffs, South Side had barely made it but was eliminated the week before and no other public school team came anywhere near the postseason.
JCM wasn't playing a TSSAA schedule yet. Liberty had just finished up year three of not winning a game. North Side had one victory, which was over Liberty.
To be honest, being a sports fan who got into journalism so he could get paid to go to games, I was legitimately worried about covering high school football because the place I worked before I came here in 2008 was honestly not a good place for high school football. And football season isn't fun if very few teams in your coverage area isn't good.
Look where high school football in Jackson and Madison County are now two years later.
On Friday, we're going to have three region championship games - North Side at Chester County, Lausanne at University School of Jackson and Trinity Christian at Jackson Christian.
Another team, Jackson Central-Merry, is in the playoffs as long as it wins the game it's heavily favored to win. And depending on what else happens in Region 6-2A, the Cougars could finish as region champion.
I don't know if Jackson high school football is great again, but it's working toward that trajectory. JMCSS Deputy Superintendent Ricky Catlett gets some credit for that because he's the main guy making the decisions on football coach hires.
TCA bringing in Darren Bowling and USJ bringing in Derrick Pritchard, certainly helped that too.
Darby Palmer building the Jackson Christian program the right way has brought stability there that was missing before he became the coach.
So there's a couple games on Thursday with South Side hosting South Gibson and JCM hosting Gibson County. Then the three games on Thursday. This will be a fun weekend for football fans.
As far as my picks go, I went 5-2 last week, bringing my season record to 37-17.
Here are the picks for this week:

North Side 24, Chester County 21: The Indians don't need to do like last week and wait until the fourth quarter to try to come back on the Indians. Both of these teams are noticeably better than they were a year ago when they met at The Reservation, and the Eagles sent North Side to the playoffs with a regular season-ending loss. Chester County has had some nice comeback wins this year, the biggest one probably the one that set up this championship game to begin with when they came back on South Gibson from being down 19-0 to win 28-19. Can Chester County stop North Side's offense? That'll be the key to the game.

Jackson Christian 42, Trinity Christian 35: There's no reason to think this won't be a high-scoring game, no matter who you pick to win. The Eagles have quietly put an 8-1 record together going into this game and have a deeper roster than the Lions. That's the main reason I give Jackson Christian any advantage in this one. Both teams have shown time and again they can light up the scoreboard. Does either team's defense have the ability to stop their opposition? Both teams have quality linebackers, secondary and have proven tough up front on both sides of the ball. This one will be good.

USJ 38, Lausanne 35: If we want to compare the teams by comparing scores against common opponents - they both skulldrug everyone in the region except Northpoint Christian and ECS. They both beat ECS by 14. Northpoint beat USJ by three on a last-second field goal, while Lausanne defeated the Mississippi-based TSSAA team by 11 last week - 28-17. The Bruins appear to be able to compete with Lausanne much better than they appeared to be able to this time last year. No one's defense has been able to consistently stop Noah Spencer. The few who've slowed him down on the ground paid for it as he slipped past their secondary with a long reception. Plus there are other people to go to as well. USJ wants to prove something to a lot of people, and the Bruins can be in really good shape in the playoffs with a win.

JCM 42, Gibson County 14: The Cougars are coming off a big win and want to prove they belong in the playoffs by not allowing this game to be close as if there was a committee voting on who gets into the postseason. They will come out and give their three big receivers - Jaylan Young, Michael Massey and Brian McKnight - plenty of chances to pick up a touchdown or three early on. They do cash in on a few of those opportunities, build up a big lead early on and give the starters a rest before the playoffs while Gibson County manages a couple of scores on JCM's freshmen.

South Gibson 24, South Side 7: The Hawks can't make the playoffs, and the Hornets can't move up or down in the standings no matter how this game goes. So South Gibson will be looking to get some momentum going before making a road trip into Middle Tennessee next week to take on the runner-up from Region 5. South Side will put up a fight in its final game of the season, but South Side's defense is tough enough to keep the Hawks out of the end zone for most of the night.

Bolivar 34, Liberty 12: The Tigers appear to be in the playoffs as the No. 4 team in the region as long as they win this game. So look for their defense to be a force in stopping the Crusaders early on until they've built up a sizable lead.
Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news