December 21, 2024

ET POWER PICKS, ULTIMATE EDITION | Kilgore, Carthage play for state titles; first round of the CFP; Cowboys alive in the playoff hunt?

AT&T Stadium in Arlington, the site of this week’s UIL State Championship Week, crowning high school football champions in Texas through Saturday. Kilgore and Carthage both play Friday — Kilgore in the 4A-Division I championship against Celina at 3 p.m., and Carthage just before that, taking on La Vega in the 4A-DII title game at 11 a.m. (Photo courtesy of STOCKAERIALPHOTOS.COM)

So, it’s come to this.

Kilgore, still standing, the only one from the ETBlitz.com coverage area.

Carthage, still standing, the nine-time state champion going for a 10th.

Twenty-four teams play for University Interscholastic League (UIL) state football championships this week at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. Carthage faces La Vega for the Class 4A, Division II title Friday morning, then Kilgore meets Celina at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon.

The National Football League’s regular season is winding down. The Houston Texans are in the playoff hunt in the AFC; the Dallas Cowboys are currently still alive, although their playoff hopes may have came down to “slim” and “none,” and slim just bought a ticket for the bus.

And the College Football Playoff, 12 teams for the first time ever, begins this week – Friday night in South Bend, Ind., to be specific, where Notre Dame will host in-state rival Indiana in the first game, and the rest, including Clemson at Texas, take place on Saturday.

Questions:

  1. Can Carthage, led by coach Scott Surratt, avoid any kind of a letdown and leave AT&T Stadium with a 10-0 record in state title games? La Vega owes them a little revenge: Carthage beat La Vega, 42-28, in the 2019 state title game.
  2. Can the Kilgore Bulldogs – back in the state championship game for the first time since 2013 – utilize all that talent and knock off an unbeaten (so far) Celina team for the UIL Class 4A, Division I state crown?
  3. Will Clemson put up any kind of a fight in Austin when the Texas Longhorns host ‘em in the first round of the CFP? And will we see more of Arch Manning at quarterback for the ‘Horns?
  4. How ‘bout them Cowboys? Can they rally, with a late-season cakewalk of a schedule, and sneak into the NFC playoffs? And if not, is this the last round-up for Mike McCarthy and his coaching staff?

We’ve got all kinds of questions. In the coming days, we’ll get our answers. For now, here’s our picks.

THE PANEL & THE STANDINGS

Our panel of pickers / guessers / prognosticators / unlucky people, whatever you’d like to call them, have tried to predict the outcome of 336 games so far this season. This week, they’ll add 19 more to it.

Regardless of what happens this weekend, the panel will return for the ETBlitz College Football Pick-Off next week, but here’s our panel, and how they’ve done so far.

We have Joe Hale, who’s been writing sports in East Texas so long, he remembers when “Bear” Bryant had the Junction Boys out practicing.

Not really.

But Joe has been writing for over 40 years, and he does have our best record. Through 336 games, Joe is 250-86, and that is phenomenal.

More on overall records momentarily.

There’s my assistant editor, Clayton Fletcher, a former cross-country standout and state qualifier at Kilgore High School. There’s Ronnie Sartors, the freelance photographer whose work has not only graced our own website and many newspapers, but also Dave Campbell’s Texas Football Magazine.

We also have two other photographers: Dennis Jacobs, who’s been my right-hand man for over a decade and a half, and Kilgore College student Alex Nabor, only 20, but a seasoned 20, if that’s possible: Alex has been to more sporting events for us than I can count. Both of them are outstanding.

There’s my family, who help keep ETBlitz up and running: my wife, Jenna, our executive editor and financial officer; there’s our videographer, my son Jacob, who’s a student at the University of Alabama and works in their athletic and marketing departments; and my daughter, Ashtyn, also a student at KC, a dancer, and an aspiring writer in her own right.

And there’s Dereck Borders, my great friend, a school board member for KISD, a taxidermist and a jack-of-all-trades. He’s also often my tackle-spotter.

So, last week, here’s how we finished.

Dereck had the best record of the week, going 16-3 in the 19 games assigned. Alex and Clayton each went 15-4, and Ashtyn and Ronnie each finished 14-5, as did Dennis and Joe.

Jenna and Jacob both had 13-6 records, and I, unfortunately, brought up the rear (12-7), in spite of getting the Navy-over-Army pick and the Southlake Carroll-over-Longview pick correct.

I told you Joe’s record, 250-86, and that he’s leading the field. It’s just about turned into LAPPING the field. Ashtyn and Dereck are the closest people to Joe, and they each have records of 238-98. Jacob is 228-108.

Ronnie is 226-100, and that actually totals to 326, instead of 336, because Ronnie came on a week late.

Dennis and I are tied at 225-111 each, and that’s pitiful, because we’ve both won this picks contest over the years and should have done better.

Clayton sits at 219-117; Alex is 216-120; and Jenna is 210-126, because she picked our ETBlitz.com coverage teams through thick and thin (and sometimes it was thin).

THE GAMES

Here is this week’s list of picks. Note that it begins TONIGHT with a pair of bowl games on ESPN, and it continues through “Monday Night Football.”

By the way, if you want to enter the College Football Pick-off for a chance at our ETBlitz Tailgate Party Pack, you’ve gotta qualify. Do it here: THIS IS IT | The end of the Cyclone Stampede, the final chance to enter the College Football Pick-Off.

Here’s the list of games, followed by the grid with our picks. NOTE: If you’re looking at the grid on your phone, you’ll probably need to turn the phone horizontal and then scroll left and right to see all of them correctly.

ETBLITZ POWER PICKS!

Friday, December 20-Monday, Dec. 23, 2024

HIGH SCHOOL GAMES

UIL Class 4A, Division II State Championship – Carthage (14-1) vs. Waco La Vega (12-3), Friday, 11 a.m., AT&T Stadium.

UIL Class 4A, Division I State Championship – Kilgore (13-2) vs. Celina (15-0), Friday, 3 p.m., AT&T Stadium.

+++++

COLLEGE GAMES

Wednesday’s games

BOCA RATON BOWL (FAU Stadium, Boca Raton, Fla.): Western Kentucky (8-5) at James Madison (8-4), 4:30 p.m., ESPN

ART OF SPORT L.A. BOWL (SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles, Calif.): Cal (6-6) at UNLV (10-3), Friday, 8 p.m., ESPN

Thursday’s game

R+L CARRIERS NEW ORLEANS BOWL (Caesar’s Superdome, New Orleans, La.): Georgia Southern (8-4) at Sam Houston (9-3), 6 p.m., ESPN2

STAFFDNA CURE BOWL (Camping World Stadium, Orlando, Fla.): Ohio (10-3) at Jacksonville State (9-4), 11 a.m., ESPN

Friday’s games

UNION HOME MORTGAGE GASPARILLA BOWL (Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, Fla.): Tulane (9-4) at Florida (7-5), 2:30 p.m., ESPN

College Football Playoff First Round

Friday’s games

Indiana (11-1) at Notre Dame (11-1), Friday, 7 p.m., ABC / ESPN

Saturday’s games

SMU (11-2) at Penn State (11-2), 11 a.m., TNT / Max

Clemson (10-3) at Texas (11-2), 3 p.m., TNT / Max

Tennessee (10-2) at Ohio State (10-2), 7 p.m., ABC / ESPN

+++++

NFL

Thursday’s games

Denver (9-5) at L.A. Chargers (8-6), 7:15 p.m., Amazon Prime

Saturday’s games

Houston (9-5) at Kansas City (13-1), noon, NBC / Peacock

Pittsburgh (10-4) at Baltimore (9-5), 3:30 p.m., FOX

Sunday’s games

Cleveland (3-11) at Cincinnati (6-8), noon, CBS

Philadelphia (12-2) at Washington (9-5), noon, FOX

Minnesota (12-2) at Seattle (8-6), 3:05 p.m., CBS

Tampa Bay (8-6) at Dallas (6-8), 7:20 p.m., NBC / Peacock

Monday’s games

New Orleans (5-9) at Green Bay (10-4), 7:15 p.m., ABC / ESPN

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