Hamp Sisson and Sean Elmore were superbly clutch last Friday Night in the Mountain Brook Spartans’ 24-17 victory over Huffman, a victory that secured the Spartans second place in Class 7A, Region 3 and enabled the Spartans to host a first round home game in the Class 7A playoffs.

Sisson connected with Elmore on a 10 yard TD pass on fourth and goal with 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 17 and the Spartans scored another late TD on a Harold Joiner 4 yard run with 1:25 left to secure the victory and move to 7-2 overall and 5-2 in the region with their only losses coming on the road to Hoover and Vestavia Hills.

The Spartans will open postseason play facing James Clemmons of Huntsville-Gadsden City loser this Friday Night on Friday, Nov. 4th at 7 PM @Spartan Stadium. If the Spartans were to beat Clemmons or Gadsden City, they would play the Oak Mountain-Hewitt-Trussville winner in the second round. If Oak Mountain wins, Mountain Brook would be at home for round 2, but if Hewitt wins, the Spartans would travel, but not very far, which Yeager likes.

But first things first for Coach Yeager and his team. The Spartans play an outstanding Ramsay team tomorrow night at Spartan Stadium @ 7. Yeager says this Ramsay team is going to be battling it out with Minor to be the team from the North in the Super 7 for Class 6A, which will be played at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn this year Nov. 30th-Dec. 2nd.

Yeager calls the Rams quarterback Baniko Harley, a 6’2″, 190 pound senior, a stellar passer and runner. Harley is an FBS prospect with offers from many mid major programs, and some higher level programs. Yeager says a lot of colleges are recruiting him as an athlete, but he is a really good quarterback and he’s holding out for a quarterback offer. Yeager says he’ll be a very good quarterback  in college.  Yeager calls Harley superb and a heckuva challenge for the Spartans defense. Offensive guard Andrew Robinson is 6’1″, 290 and is outstanding also according to Yeager. He’s received offers from Samford and some others, but Yeager says that his own defensive coordinator, Bert Newton, says Robinson is the closest thing to William Vlachos that he’s seen. Vlachos was a standout offensive lineman for Mountain Brook and center at the University of Alabama, where he won two national championships in 2009 and 2011. 

Yeager says the Rams have returned four punts for TDs, two kickoffs for TDs, they have two scoop and scores on defense, and three ints they’ve taken to the house. Sounds similar to that group in Tuscaloosa which has 12 non-offensive touchdowns. 

So Yeager and his coaches got their players attention after the players watched five clips of Ramsay film on Sunday afternoon. 

As far as the Spartans making a run this year and going deep and in the playoffs really being special, Yeager says, “We have clicked on the defensive side one week and on the offensive side on another week. This team is hungry and wants to be special. We have been peaking, but if these guys want to be really special, now is the time to peak.”

Kickoff Thursday is at 7 PM @ Spartan Stadium. 

Update:

Spartans defeat Ramsay, 19-13, at Spartan Stadium. Spartans finish season 8-2. Really good victory over a Ramsay team whose only loss this season was to a very good 7-1 Grayson, Georgia team that plays @ Hoover tomorrow night on ESPNU @ 7 PM.  Ramsay dropped to 8-2.

Spartans open the playoffs @ home next Friday Night, Nov. 4th,  @ 7 PM vs. the Gadsden City Titans. The Titans finished the season 5-5 and won their final game tonight, 49-21, over Huntsville. Preview with Coach Yeager early next week. 

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The WGC-HSBC Champions 

In Shanghai, China at the Sheshan International Golf Club, West Course, 7,266 yards, par 72

TV: Golf Channel, Wednesday-Saturday 10 PM-3 AM CT/11 PM-4 AM ET. You either need to load up on the Royal Cup, work the afternoon shift or tape it. I’ll take the latter option.

I’m going to go with the hottest player in the world at the moment and I’m predicting him to go back to back. The 23 year old University of Alabama player shot a 64 to come back from a three shot deficit last week heading into the fourth round in Malaysia, to capture the CIMB Classic by 3 shots over Hideki Matsuyama. The Louisville, Kentucky native hit a 290 yard three wood to 35 feet for eagle on the par 5, 10th. He two putted for birdie. He posted eight birdies and no bogeys in his final round. This young gun looks elite to me with major championships in the future. He went back to back at the CIMB Classic in consecutive years and I see him going back to back in consecutive weeks. I like the fact that this will be his third week in a row to play. I picked him two weeks ago at the Safeway Open and he finished tied for eighth. I’m going back to the well this week. It was a tough choice between this player and Patrick Reed, but I’ll go with JT.

Justin Thomas

Sanderson Farms Championship 

Country Club of Jackson (MS), 7,421 yards, par 72

TV: Thursday-Sunday, Golf Channel, 1:30-4:30 PM CT/2:30-5:30 PM ET

While JT won the national championship in 2013 at the University of Alabama, this 24 year old sank a 22 foot eagle putt on the 17th hole at Prairie Dunes Country Club in Hutchinson, Kansas in 2014 to help Alabama capture back to back national championships. He won on the Web.com tour last year at the Rex Hospital Open in Raleigh, N.C., and finished 10th this past year in the 25, the 25 top money winners on the Web,com tour who automatically qualify for the PGA Tour the following year. At the Safeway Open two weeks ago, he finished tied 22nd. I decided on this young guy over former University of Alabama golfer Robby Shelton and former Auburn golfer Patton Kizzire, who finished second two weeks ago at the Safeway Open. But I’m going with this young guy to capture his first title on the PGA tour. His uncle, Craig, is a very good friend of mine, so I’d like to see him get it done for his uncle as well. 

Trey Mullinax