Sixty-three. That’s how many straight games South Panola (3-0), the nation’s No. 15-best high-school football team according to USA Today, has won in a row.

This Friday, in comes mighty Trezevant (2-1), coming off consecutive wins over Washington (33-27) and Frayser (29-14). Think the Bears stand a chance?

Highly doubtful. In fact, here’s hoping whatever payoff Trezevant got to make the jaunt down to Batesville, Miss., is worth the embarrassment the Bears are likely to face on the field Friday night.

Now I can understand why a White Station, Whitehaven, CBHS, Melrose or Millington would want to play USP (that’s the University of South Panola for those of you unfamiliar with the program’s dominance). Those schools might want to see where they stack up against one of the nation’s best. But Trezevant? A Class 3A school that’s been one-and-done in the playoffs the last three years?

It’ll be a mercy killing, and that’s too bad for the Frayser-area kids who’ve got to put on their uniforms Friday night and suffer through what could be the beating of their lives.

Good luck Bears. Hopefully, you’ll come back from Batesville in one piece.

THE BIG STORY

Georgia coach Mark Richt, readying his team for Saturday’s game at Alabama, is battening down the hatches. On Monday, he closed the entire week of practices to the media.

Practices are usually open during the first 25 to 30 minutes when the team stretches and typically works on special teams.

“I wish I could just close it down completely, but it’s kind of hard to do with our setup,” said Richt in the preseason when talking about Virginia Tech limiting media access to its practices. “I can understand why every coach would want to close everything that they do especially with the Internet.”

This is the first time that Richt has shut down an entire week of practices. Former Georgia coaches Vince Dooley and Ray Goff have closed practices for an entire game week before, sports communications director Claude Felton said.

A look at the league: Read the rest of this entry »

One has to feel for University of Memphis football coach Tommy West.

When the Tigers open Conference USA play Saturday at Central Florida, arguably their best offensive and defensive players will be absent. Receiver Duke Calhoun and linebacker Greg Jackson suffered sprained knees in last weekend’s win over Jacksonville State.

Calhoun was injured in the final seconds of the opening half. Jackson was hurt on the game’s opening series.

For a Memphis team trying to rebound from an injury-filled, victory-challenged 2006, West would have welcomed as close to a full complement of starters as possible. It would have eased the pain of the U of M having to open C-USA play on the road for the 10th straight year.

Beating UCF will be a difficult task. The Knights will be playing at their new on-campus stadium for the second straight week and their offense will be paced by the nation’s leading rusher, Kevin Smith.