MOBILE, Ala. — Darron Patterson finally had the perfect week on the Prep Picks Panel. It just did not do much for his standing.
Patterson went 12-0 picking last week’s high school football games, the first perfect week by any panelist this season. But because every other member of the panel finished 11-1, he gained only one game on the field and remains in last place in the season-long standings.
One game made the difference
The panel was unanimous on every game last week except one, and every one of those shared picks was correct. The lone split came on Mary G. Montgomery’s game against Baker. Patterson was the only panelist to pick MGM, and MGM’s win gave him the clean sweep.
Everyone else on the panel, including last week’s guest picker, Scott Todd, went 11-1.
For a panelist sitting at the bottom of the standings, a perfect week was the best possible outcome. It simply could not make up much ground when the rest of the panel was nearly perfect too.
Current standings
The rotating guest pickers, scored together as a single entry, have built a strong lead through the first portion of the season. Patterson remains last, 11 games behind the leaders.
- Guest pickers: 66-18
- Randy Kennedy: 64-20
- Tommy Hicks: 61-23
- Pigskin Pete: 60-24
- Darron Patterson: 55-29
Each panelist has now picked 84 games this season. Kennedy is two games behind the guest pickers, and Hicks and Pigskin Pete are within a game of each other in the middle of the pack.
Brian Genard takes the guest chair
This week’s guest picker is Brian Genard, a familiar voice to local football fans. Genard follows area high school football closely and provides color commentary on high school radio broadcasts. He is also the color commentator for South Alabama Jaguars football home games.
His college beat has been busy, too. South Alabama is 4-2 and 2-0 in the Sun Belt Conference after a 56-49 win at Arkansas State on Thursday night, the highest-scoring FBS game of the season, and the Jaguars’ next home game will come after a trip to Marshall on Tuesday, Oct. 20.
Genard inherits the guest pickers’ lead, meaning his picks will determine whether that entry keeps its cushion over Kennedy and the rest of the panel.
Eight unanimous picks this week
The panel agreed on eight games this week:
- Fairhope over Baker
- Daphne over Foley
- McGill-Toolen over Glenwood
- MGM over Davidson
- Williamson over Citronelle
- St. Paul’s over Faith Academy
- Blount over Baldwin County
- Bayside Academy over Providence Christian
Because every panelist made the same choice in those games, they will not change the standings no matter how they turn out. The race will be decided by the games where the panel split.
How the unanimous picks turned out
All of this week’s games were moved from Friday to Thursday night because of the threat of Hurricane Isaias, which made landfall on the Gulf Coast on Friday. The early results were mostly kind to the panel, with one notable exception:
- Baker 31, Fairhope 21: The panel’s one unanimous miss among the reported results. Tate Graham threw three touchdown passes as Baker rallied from a 21-14 third-quarter deficit and snapped a three-game losing streak, ending Fairhope’s five-game winning streak.
- Daphne 24, Foley 17: Correct. Christian Segar’s late touchdown run and 2-point conversion completed a Daphne comeback.
- McGill-Toolen 38, Glenwood 14: Correct. The Yellow Jackets won their fifth straight.
- Williamson 42, Citronelle 7: Correct. Thad Wilder threw for 402 yards and four touchdowns for the top-ranked Lions.
- St. Paul’s 42, Faith Academy 0: Correct. The Saints won behind their running game and special teams.
- Bayside Academy 49, Providence Christian 14: Correct. Davis Barnett threw six touchdown passes.
Results for MGM at Davidson and Blount at Baldwin County were not available at publication.
Among the reported unanimous picks, the panel went 5-1. Since the Baker upset counts as a loss for everyone, it does not change the order of the standings, but it does mean no panelist can match Patterson’s perfect week this time around.
Why one game can matter so much
With so many unanimous picks each week, movement in a prediction panel like this one usually comes down to a handful of contested games. Last week, the MGM-Baker game was the only one that separated the panelists, and it moved Patterson one game closer to everyone else in the standings.
For Patterson to climb out of last place, he will need more weeks like that one: correct calls on games where he breaks from the group. With 11 games to make up on the leaders and five games behind Pigskin Pete, he has ground to cover with the regular season set to end on Oct. 31.
A wild week for the schedule
This week tested more than the panel’s football knowledge. As Hurricane Isaias moved toward the coast, nearly every area game originally scheduled for Friday was shifted to Thursday night. The Gulf Shores-Elberta game kicked off at 4 p.m. Thursday and was moved to Elberta. Satsuma’s game at Orange Beach was pushed to Monday, Oct. 12, and the Houston Academy-St. Michael game was also rescheduled for Monday.
The changes meant the panel’s picks were decided a day earlier than usual, with most of the results in hand before the storm arrived.