Well folks, week one of the 2021 Fearless Football Forecasters (FFF) is in the books, and judging from the results, it looks like this season is going to be a hard one to figure out. With the exception of two panelists, everybody else finished with losing records to begin the year. There were some great games, as Penn State hung on to knock off Wisconsin, and of course, the biggest game of the weekend, Georgia defeated Clemson 10-3, in a very hard-hitting defensive football game. The first upset occurred as Virginia Tech beat 10th ranked North Carolina.
FFF veteran Andy Whitener led the way with a record of 10-5, while second year member Eddie O’Neal finished at 8-7. O’Neal also picked the tiebreaker score right on the money, as Florida beat Florida Atlantic 35-14, for a total of 49 points.
Kevin Panter was 7-8 and John Spargo, Suzianne Pass, Coach Jeff Grimes, plus defending champion Scott Ramsey, all finished with records of 6-9. Brandon Holloway came in with a mark of 4-11.
The Copper Basin-Whitwell game was canceled due to COVID-19, so there were only 15 games in week one.
Everyone on the panel correctly picked wins by Alabama and Kentucky, but also all of them incorrectly picked losses suffered by North Carolina, LSU and Georgia Tech.
Whitener was the only panelist to correctly pick wins by Penn State, Michigan State and Maryland. He and O’Neal were the only ones to correctly pick Kansas State over Stanford.
Whitener could not be reached for comment, but someone did spot his vehicle at Waffle House with balloons attached to it, so we assume he was having a celebration dinner after his victorious week.
O’Neal was unable to be reached as he was still rejoicing over the Bulldogs win over Clemson. Panter, who is usually very vocal, was rumored to be at a local convenience store, hanging out with some new friends. Spargo was happy his Vols won a football game, although he was overheard mumbling something about a quarterback at Washington State.
The last thing we heard about Grimes was he was trying to decide if he wanted to remain a Michigan fan, or hop on the Vol bandwagon because of their new quarterback, Wolverine transfer Joe Milton.
Another rumor floating around was that defending champ Ramsey was seen heading into his office at Fannin County High School with a newly bought safe. One has to wonder if he is afraid he is going to lose his trophy from last year. It was also reported that Suzianne Pass had been spotted at the school too, and that she picked up a set of keys that Ramsey had dropped. We can only assume it was the key to the safe that Ramsey was carrying. We will definitely keep our eyes and ears open to that situation.
As for Holloway, a source close to the situation reported that he was thinking about asking his brothers to help him pick for the remainder of the 2021 season.
Hopefully, week two will be better for the Fearless Football Forecasters, although for the majority, it cannot get much worse. We will have some good games, as we have Fannin County playing in Blue Ridge, and a huge game for Tennessee that could go a long way in deciding the Vols fate for the season. We also have a big game in the SEC, as two old rivals get together for the first time in a long time, plus a huge game between the Big 12 and Pac 12. Also, the NFL gets cranked up in week two, as the Falcons try to start off the 2021 season with a win. Join us right here next week to see if the panelists can improve on their week one efforts.