During pregame warmups for last night’s semifinal playoff game between Harding and First Assembly Christian Academy, Lions star Marlon Brown walked the field in street clothes.

It appeared Brown, who has been nursing a shoulder injury, would miss the biggest game of his life and the final home game of his illustrious career.

But just before gametime, Brown found his uniform.

The 6-foot-6 senior, who is considered one of the top college prospects in the nation by some, got dressed quickly and came out as one of the Harding captains for the pregame coin toss.

Then he played in the game - and played very well.

The rain made it hard for the Lions to air out their precision passing game, so they just handed the ball to Brown out of the backfield most of the night.

He carried nine times for 72 yards and a touchdown.

He also made five tackles from his free safety position in the first half alone. I lost count when the rain started falling in the second half.

Brown certainly didn’t look hurt to me - and I sure will miss seeing him play for Harding.

He’s the most elusive player I’ve seen on a high football field since David Palmer played for Jackson-Olin High School in Birmingham back during the early 1990s.

Palmer went on to have a solid NFL career as a kick returner with the Minnesota Vikings.

Brown is nearly a foot taller, so I expect much more out of him.

I probably won’t make it to the state championship game in Murfreesboro.

So the next time I see Brown, it will probably be on TV.

Every year about this time, my inbox starts filling up with trail-camera photos of big whitetail deer.

Some of the biggest always come from Rod and Brenda Alexander at Brandywine Island, Ark.

Here’s the most recent monster buck photo they’ve sent. I’d love to hear your estimates on what this deer might score.

Also, if you’ve got an interesting trail-camera photo, I’d like to see it.

It doesn’t have to be a monster buck. It could be two bucks fighting or a raccoon holding its own against a deer over a bait pile.

Just anything out of the ordinary.

If you’ve ever used a trail camera to locate a big deer and then hunt that deer, I’d like to hear about that, too.

I know from experience that trail cameras can be a valuable tool for hunters.

Jason Padawer and Brad Sinclair sent me this picture of a green sunfish they caught during the recent FedEx/United Way Bass Tournament on Pickwick Lake.

Brad said they caught the two-inch fish on a three-inch Rat-L-Trap.

That doesn’t surprise me at all.

Green sunfish are one of the meanest fish I’ve ever dealt with – and even the tiniest ones will bite anything that swims by.

I once put one in a 55-gallon aquarium with a pacu - that’s a species of piranha - and the green sunfish ruled the tank.

I finally had to separate the fish because I was afraid the pacu would literally starve to death.

Some people refer to green sunfish as the “magic fish.”

If you build a pond in your back yard and leave it there for a couple of years without stocking any fish, green sunfish will just magically appear.

Some fisheries biologist believe wading birds might be responsible for transporting green sunfish eggs to landlocked bodies of water.

I don’t know about that.

But I know this – if green sunfish had teeth, it might not be safe to go in the water.

Mark Rose of Marion, Ark., caught five bass that weighed 10 pounds, 2 ounces Thursday and jumped to 32nd place in the Stren Series Championship with a two-day mark of 20-12.

Texas angler David Curtis continues to set the pace on Table Rock Lake with 30-3, while Lendell Martin, Jr., is second with 29-15.

Germantown angler Zack Bull, who made the top 30 on Day 1, caught just four bass that weighed 7-10 Thursday and slipped to 38th with 19-9.

Click here for complete results.

We’ve only had one weekend of muzzleloader deer hunting season, and sadly, there’s already been a fatality.

On Saturday, 38-year-old Brian C. Aldridge of Butler died after an apparent fall from a tree stand in East Tennessee.

TWRA reports say Aldridge was found by a hunting companion when he did not return to the vehicle after dark. Aldridge’s tree stand was still hanging about 30 feet high, and the cable on the seat portion was loose.

Unfortunately, Aldridge had not been wearing a fall-restraint system.

After one round of the Stren Series Championship on Table Rock Lake, Germantown angler Zack Bull is in 27th place with 11 pounds, 15 ounces of bass.

He’s a little more than five pounds behind first-place angler David Curtis of Trinity, Tex. Curtis caught 17-1 on Wednesday.

Marion, Ark., angler Mark Rose, who went into the tournament on a huge roll after winning the PAA event on Pickwick, caught 10-10 Wednesday and landed in 53rd place.

For complete first-day results, click here.

Arkansas angler Mark Rose began pursuit of another big payday this morning as the first round of the Stren Series Championship got underway on Table Rock Lake.

This week’s first-place purse is $140,000.

If Rose wins, it’ll be the third time in 14 months that he’s earned a six-digit payday.

He won the FLW Series event on Pickwick Lake in October 2007, earning $125,000. Then last month on Pickwick, he teamed with Greg Hackney to win $100,000 in the PAA Corporate Cup.

You can watch the Stren Series weigh-in live from Table Rock at 2:30 p.m. today to see if he’s on his way to another monster check.