Now that we’ve finally got the pairings figured out, we thought we’d put the pressure on you guys to make the first-round playoff picks this week.

Nothing to it. Just pick out your favorites from the list below, and we’ll calculate the winner this weekend.

To give us your picks, click on the headline at the top of this post, then proceed to the response section and tell us who you think will win.

Tennessee
Class 5A: Cordova vs. White Station at Fairgrounds
Ridgeway at Whitehaven
Houston at Arlington
Collierville at Millington
Class 4A: Jackson North Side at Melrose
Hardin County vs. Fairley at Kirby
Kingsbury at Munford
Raleigh-Egypt at Henry County.
Class 3A: Ripley vs. Mitchell at Freeman
Haywood vs. Sheffield at Halle
Trezevant at Dyersburg
Frayser at Dyer County
Cheatham County at Fayette-Ware.
Class 2A: Westwood at Huntingdon
Washington vs. Carver at Crump.
Class 1A: Manassas at Bruceton
Gleason at Fayette County.
D2-AA: Nashville Ensworth at CBHS
Nashville Father Ryan at MUS
ECS at Brentwood Academy.
D2-A: FACS at Harding Academy (St. George’s and SBEC have first-round byes.)

Arkansas
Class 6A: Marion at Lake Hamilton
Sheridan at West Memphis.

Normally I don’t look at story titles and get upset but the “Eagles Look To Run All Over Tigers” or something to that effect got me a little perturbed. Come on guys they’re still the hometown team and deserve a little dignity.

When I heard about McCrary quitting I am reminded of a lesson my Marine father taught me, don’t get upset about something when you probably don’t know all the facts. Remember that before you pass judgment on any of the parties. Remember the old saying, “there are three sides to every story, yours, mine and the truth.”
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THE BIG STORY

Most in the college football business talk about taking one game at a time. They talk about their teams showing up to play every game, winning on both sides of the football and, above all, establishing a ground game.

Ron Morris, columnist for The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C., hasn’t found South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier to be that way.

“When I got into coaching, I just made up my mind I was not going to talk like all the other coaches talk,” Spurrier says. “I try not to use the word ‘great’ or ‘football.’ I didn’t want to sound like every other coach. If you want to be a little different than everybody else, you’ve got to talk a little different also.”

Spurrier does that, and how.

He loves to sprinkle his conversations with the media with baseball references. His teams at Duke, Florida and South Carolina rarely have passed the ball well in stadiums around the Southeast. That is because Spurrier always wants them to “pitch it around the ballpark.”

Two seasons ago, USC scored a late touchdown at Auburn in a 48-7 loss. Spurrier, of course, commented about Auburn “nearly pitched a shutout against us.” In 2006, USC pitched its first shutout in the season-opener against Mississippi State, then apparently faced a front-line pitcher the following week when Auburn returned the favor.

Spurrier says his affection for applying baseball terminology to football stems from a deep-rooted love for the former sport. He began playing Little League Baseball in Newport, Tenn., at age 7, or three years before the legal age for participation. It helped that his father was the coach.

One might surmise that Spurrier picked up a few of his quirky sayings from his father. But Graham Spurrier, Steve’s older brother, does not believe that is the case.

“I think they just came to him,” says Graham Spurrier, who is retired and living in the Spurriers’ hometown of Johnson City, Tenn. “I don’t think Dad ever said things like that, that I recall. Steve’s just brought it on by himself, things that he thought were appropriate to the situation. I think it’s just his way of describing things. He likes to be different in describing things sometimes.”

While another coach might describe a block by an offensive lineman as being ineffective, Spurrier almost always talks about how his linemen “whiffed.” Or, “Our linemen seem to whiff a lot on their blocks.”

Rarely does Spurrier refer to an opponent by its proper name. Vanderbilt is “Vandy,” Arkansas is “Arky,” and he even made a recent reference to Oklahoma State as “Okie State.” He almost always calls Florida “The Gators,” and has taken to calling Tennessee “The Mighty Vols.”

His pet phrase for teaching his team is to “coach ’em up.” So, part of preparing for Saturday’s USC game against Florida and trying to plug the dike in a three-game losing streak is for his staff to “coach ’em up.” Throughout his coaching career, the solution to just about any problem with his team is “we need to coach ’em up a little better.”

When USC failed to recover a couple fumbles against both North Carolina and Tennessee, a reporter asked Spurrier if there was a way to practice pouncing on loose balls. Without blinking, Spurrier opted for basketball lingo in replying, “We’ll roll the balls out and see if our guys can get their hands on them.”

As he enters a room full of media, whether in a postgame interview situation or at his weekly meeting at Williams-Brice Stadium, Spurrier usually scans the audience and jump starts the event by saying, “Alright media boys.” With the proliferation over the past few years of female members of the sports media, Spurrier has occasionally altered his introductory statement by saying, “Alright media boys … and girls.”

His quarterbacks often throw “pretty balls.” Sometimes, though, they have a tendency to “toss one out of the ballpark.” Occasionally, his team is “not all that super.”

Spurrier has earned a reputation for being one of the great offensive minds in the game. His offense was revolutionary to the Southeastern Conference in the 1990s at Florida. But to Spurrier, it is just a matter of “drawing up a few ball plays.”

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