1.) Can Lane Kiffin keep a secret or what? Rumors emerged earlier this week that Tennessee would break out black jerseys against South Carolina tonight. Those rumors were summarily dismissed by media types, and never gained ground. But after warming up in orange jerseys tonight, the Vols switched before taking the field for the kickoff. Keeping this a secret was quite a feat by Kiffin and his staff.

2.) I’m not a fan of the black jerseys, but this was a pretty good time to break them out. Primetime on ESPN, with several high-profile prospects visiting for the game, and it’s Halloween . . . so, for the benefit of the purists who will complain, you can blame it on that. The fact that it was kept a secret until the Vols hit the T was icing on the cake, because it got the crowd pumped up early. You have to think that these events played a role in Tennessee exploding out of the gate to a 14-0 first quarter lead.

3.) It doesn’t matter if he’s at Florida or USC-East: Beating Steve Spurrier is always fun. Especially when you can do it convincingly.

4.) Another blocked field goal? Are you kidding me? This one was more of a great play by the USCe special teams guy than a mistake on Tennessee’s part–honestly, the guy looked like he was jumping from a step-ladder–but still . . .

5.) Special teams might not have gotten any better at putting points on the board, but they did get better at keeping the other team from putting points on the board. Kick coverage was improved, except for the punt return that the Gamecocks returned for a touchdown, only to have it called back due to a penalty.

6.) Garcia isn’t a great quarterback, but he shredded Tennessee’s defense . . . okay, to say “shredded” might be to engage in hyperbole a little, but Garcia did throw the ball with a lot of success against the Vols’ D tonight. That’s a concern.

7.) Another injured linebacker? Are you kidding me? Is this possible?

8.) When South Carolina scored (on a dazzling catch, by the way) late in the 3rd quarter, that was the first touchdown given up by Tennessee’s defense in more than two and a half SEC games. It’s too bad the streak ended at 11 quarters, but as it is, the Vols have given up just one offensive touchdown in the last three SEC games. It would take some research to find, but I’m sure it’s been a lot of years since Tennessee has accomplished that.

9.) If you can’t get to the game, watching the games on ESPN with Brad Nessler is a pretty good substitute. TV announcers and color commentators are my pet peeve; so many of them have nothing to offer but bad cliches and useless statistics. But Nessler is a nice exception. ESPN will never be able to recreate a college football duo like Ron Franklin and Mike Gottfried, but I’m a fan of Nessler (though he’s probably better when doing college basketball telecasts, when he’s paired with Jimmy Dykes).

10.) A 45-19 win over Georgia and a 31-13 win over No. 21 South Carolina sandwiched around a 12-10 loss to Alabama, a game the Tide needed two blocked field goals to win? Tennessee isn’t going to be 9-3 like I predicted, but as a lifelong UT fan, I’ll take this level of play anytime. Those who don’t think Kiffin has this team headed in the right direction are not paying attention or are ignoring the obvious. Kiffin’s post-game comment: “We’re building a championship program.” Tennessee’s rivals will laugh at that. His critics will roll their eyes. The laughing and the scoffing will eventually end, if Kiffin is given enough time in Knoxville to get the talent in place to make this a championship-caliber program.

10.b.) Wow. Was the Kiffin-Spurrier meeting at midfield the quickest post-game handshake in college football history or what? They little more than brushed by each other. I think it’s safe to say that these two guys don’t like each other. And it’s worth pointing out that (for once) Kiffin didn’t start this one. Spurrier tried to do the same thing he’s done to his chief rivals–from Phil Fulmer to Georgia’s Ray Goff to Florida State’s Bobby Bowden–since he arrived in the SEC, but in Kiffin he found a guy who was mouthy enough to fire right back at him . . . and, for the first time, a fellow coach returned Spurrier’s fire and what we learned when Spurrier confronted Kiffin at the SEC spring meetings in Destin, Fla., is that Spurrier can dish it out, but he can’t take it nearly as well. Getting beat up by the brash newcomer tonight probably didn’t improve his attitude, of course.

10.c.) Another thought: Does anyone think those physical practices Tennessee held in the preseason–the ones Spurrier said Kiffin was “stupid” for holding–might’ve helped Tennessee whip USCe tonight?

I have to point out these comments from our resident curmudgeon, twice guessing. I don’t care who you are, this is funny right here:

And it gets even better when you look closely at their site. 12 month free financing! Now you can bury uncle Joe in the finest box and pay for it by the month without paying any interest.

A good deal for sure - think I’ll buy mine and store it in the barn while they are cheap.

Hey wait a minute - just had an idea. We saw someone returning several identical items to a store recently and what’s her name commented that the lady probably bought them on sale to sell them in a flea market and when they didn’t sell she was returning them. So why couldn’t a person buy up a bunch of these cheap “beautiful” caskets and sell them at the gravel pit in Helenwood on Saturdays? People could see what they were buying (a lot of people don’t like to buy something they can’t see in person). In fact they could even lay down in ‘em and try ‘em out. Kind of like “Hey momma, do you think I look good in this contraption?”

Uh oh. I just thought of something. What’s Walmart going to do when someone pushes a casket up to the service desk to get their money back because they didn’t like the way Aunt Sally looked in it?

The Tennessee high school football brackets have been released. Scott is in with a wild card berth, the first playoff appearance since 1999 for the Highlanders, who will travel to Nashville in the first round to take on Maplewood. As expected, Oneida is a two-seed and will have the first round off. All first round games are scheduled for Friday, Nov. 6, with kickoffs set for 7 p.m. local time.

Class 1A: Grace Christian is the #1 seed in the 1st quadrant and will have a bye in the first round. Sunbright manages to sneak in as a wildcard, and is the #5 seed with a 5-5 record. They will travel to #4 Cloudland (3-7) in the first round. Coalfield (3-7) is the #3 seed and will host #6 Copper Basin (5-5) in the first round. Harriman (6-4) is the #2 seed and will have a bye in the first round.

Class 2A: As expected, Oneida (8-2) is the #2 seed in the 1st quadrant and will have a bye in the first round. The Indians will host the winner of #3 Rockwood (8-2) and #5 Unaka (5-5) in the second round. Oliver Springs (8-2) is the #4 seed in the same quadrant and will host #6 Tellico Plains (7-3). The winner of that game will travel to #1 Hampton (9-1), which also has a bye in the first round. In something of a surprise, TSSAA opted to shift Trousdale County AND Friendship Christian west to the 3rd quadrant, which means that Boyd Buchanan (8-1) is an almost certain opponent for whoever emerges from the 1st quadrant. BB is the #1 seed in the 2nd quadrant. This will create a premier matchup in the state championship game in 2A, with BB and Trousdale being the favorites going into the playoffs.

Class 3A: In the 1st quadrant, Gatlinburg-Pittman (9-1) is the #1 seed and will host #8 Johnson County (5-5) in the first round. CAK (9-1) is the #3 seed and will host #6 Happy Valley (5-4) in the first round. Cumberland Gap (5-5) is the #7 seed and will travel to #2 Elizabethton (8-2) in the first round. In the 2nd quadrant, Alcoa (10-0) is the #1 seed and will host #8 Tyner (6-4) in the fist round. Austin East (7-3) is the #4 seed and will host #5 McMinn Central (7-3). Kingston (5-5) is able to get in as a #7 seed and will travel to #2 Polk County (10-0). By virtue of its big win over Smith County, York Institute (7-3) gets a wildcard spot as the #7 seed in the 3rd quadrant and will travel to #4 Sequatchie County (6-4) in the first round. Smith County (7-3) is the #3 seed in that bracket and will host #6 Pearl Cohn (5-5). Cannon County (6-4) is the #2 seed and will host #7 Harpeth (5-5).

Class 4A: John called it. Scott is in despite last night’s loss and despite no district wins. I looked at the records across the state before the games began last night and thought they would miss it by one or two spots if they didn’t win, but obviously that wasn’t the case. This is the Highlanders’ first playoff appearance since 1999. They are the #8 seed in the 2nd quadrant and will travel to #1 Maplewood (8-2) in the first round. In that same quadrant, Stone Memorial (3-7) is the #6 seed and will travel to #3 Livingston Academy (7-3) in the first round. DeKalb County (6-4) is the #5 seed and will travel to #4 Greenbrier (6-4) in the first round. Should the Highlanders win in the first round, they would travel to the winner of the DeKalb-Greenbrier game in the second round Nov. 13. In the first quadrant, Fulton (7-3) is the #4 seed and will host #5 East Ridge (7-3) in the first round. Claiborne (7-3) is the #3 seed and will host #6 Brainerd (7-3) in the first round.

Class 5A: Anderson County (7-3) is the #3 seed in the 2nd quadrant and will host #6 Hillsboro (3-7) in the first round. Clinton (10-0) is the #1 seed in the same quadrant and will host #8 Shelbyville (5-5) in the first round. Knox Catholic (5-5) is the #6 seed in the 1st quadrant and will travel to #3 Morristown West (8-2) in the first round. Powell (5-5) is the #7 seed in the same quadrant and will travel to #2 Sullivan South (8-2) in the first round.

Class 6A: Oak Ridge (7-3) is the #6 seed in the 1st quadrant and will travel to #3 McMinn County (8-2) in the first round. Maryville (9-1) is the #2 seed in the same quadrant, and will host #7 Dobyns-Bennett (5-5) in the first round. Farragut (8-2) is the #5 seed in the same quadrant, and will travel to #4 Ooltewah (9-1) in the first round. Bearden (8-2) is #8 in the same quadrant and will travel to #1 Sevier County (10-2) in the first round.

Stone Memorial 20, Scott 7. Playoff hopes were dashed for the Highlanders tonight, but Stone Memorial earns the 1st playoff berth in its short history with an upset win over Scott. The Panthers led 12-7 at the half and added a security TD in the 3rd quarter. Scott had a couple of opportunities inside Stone territory in the 2nd half, but those chances were squandered by penalties and a turnover. There’s not really any way to describe this one; Scott was at least two touchdowns better than Stone. Instead, Stone wins by two, and had the ball on Scott’s 1-yard-line when time expired with an opportunity to add another score. But, as they say, that’s why they play the game. This is a huge win for a fledgling Stone Memorial program. (Prediction was Scott 27-14.)

Oneida 42, Jellico 6. This one was predictably ugly. Oneida built a 28-0 lead by the end of the 1st quarter and got its fifth touchdown mere plays into the 2nd quarter. It was 42-0 midway through the 2nd quarter when the Indians called off the dogs, playing reserves the rest of the way. (Prediction was Oneida 49-0.)

Loudon 36, Kingston 7. It was 22-7 at halftime, with Loudon tacking on a couple of bonus scores in the 2nd half. The Redskins’ 7th win should be enough to allow them to earn a wildcard berth for the Class 3A playoffs. (Prediction was Loudon 28-13.)

Alcoa 24, CAK 7. It was close early. But, as predicted, Coach Gary Rankin and his Tornadoes prevailed, wrapping up the District 4-AA championship and the No. 1 seed in their quadrant of the Class 3A playoffs. (Prediction was Alcoa 28-24.)

York Institute 28, Smith County 0. Wow. York has Smith County’s number. The Owls had lost just one district game coming in. I predicted a Dragon upset, but would’ve never imagined this score. (Prediction was York 20-14.)

Other scores of interest:
Coalfield 33, Oakdale 0
Maryville 27, Lenoir City 14
Rockwood 45, Harriman 7
Cannon Co. 35, Upperman 7
Livingston 35, DeKalb Co. 14
Trousdale Co. 40, Red Boiling Springs 0

I don’t know what to say about this, so I’ll submit without comment.

When I’m going to watch a Halloween flick, these are the movies I’m most likely to be watching.

10. Garfield’s Halloween Adventure (1985)
Garfield and Opie cross the river to reach more houses and more candy-candy-candy and find themselves in a ghoulish pickle. CBS re-ran this one annually until 2000. Taking it off was unfortunate. They should put it back on. This is the first Halloween show I ever remember watching (as a 1st grade student in Angela Morrow’s library at Robbins Elementary).

9. The Shining (1980)
Stanley Kubrich directed this film adaption of Stephen King’s novel, starring Jack Nicholson. At one time, I hated this film—which is about a caretaker and his family being assigned to an isolated hotel for the winter—but I’ve gained a new respect for it over time. It’s actually pretty well done . . . especially for its time.

8. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966)
Honestly, how can you let Halloween pass without watching this Charles Schulz classic? I mean, good grief. If you haven’t watched as Linus spends Halloween in the pumpkin patch awaiting the arrival of the Great Pumpkin (Halloween’s version of Santa Claus) while the rest of the gang are trick-or-treating, you aren’t American.

7. Scream (1996)
You laugh, but before Scream became so popular that you just couldn’t help but make fun of it (and before the dreadful sequels), it was actually a very good movie. With Wes Craven directing and an all-star cast that included Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette, this one was bound to succeed, and it did. This one raised the bar on all of those teen slasher films of the ’80s and inspired a new generation of horror flicks. “Hellooooooooo Sidney.”

6. The Exorcist (1973)
I was never much of a fan of those old horror movies, which is why I only have a couple on my list. But this one has to be on any short-list of classic Halloween films. The screen adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s novel, this one—about the attempted exorcism of a 12-year-old girl—is truly a classic. It came in a long line of horror flicks in the ’60s and ’70s, but carved out a spot all by itself in film lore.

5. Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
It’s almost hard to believe that Wes Craven produced this film on a budget of less than $2 million. Like The Exorcist, it holds its own in the horror genre, and Freddy Krueger is probably the single most easily recognized villain in Hollywood history.

4. Beetlejuice (1988)
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice! This one—by Tim Burton—is an excellent mix of horror and comedy. Other films have tried it and failed miserably (most notably, Scream; though it was a well-done film, its mix of horror and comedy is almost disturbing). But Beetlejuice succeeded because it was comedy first and the fright part was secondary, instead of the other way around.

3. What Lies Beneath (2000)
What Lies Beneath (starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer) isn’t a horror film. But it does deal with the supernatural—and their house is haunted—and it’s one of my favorite suspense flicks; one of the few that can truly keep me on the edge of my seat.

2. Signs (2002)
What Lies Beneath might not be Halloween-ish, but it’s probably a lot more Halloween-ish than this one. But this is also one of my favorite suspense films, and it does include the extra-terrestrial, so that qualifies it as a Halloween flick, no? M. Night Shyamalan did a great job with this, and of course any movie featuring Mel Gibson is going to be a good one. I’m not typically into alien flicks. This one is an exception.

1. Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Is Tim Burton great or what? He’s a cinematic genius. This 1999 horror film, featuring Johnny Depp as Investigator Ichabod Crane, is only loosely based on Washington Irving’s classic, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. But it’s very well done, and is at the top of my list of fright flicks. Heads are gonna roll!

The end of the regular season is here. It’s become cliche to even say it, but it seems like only yesterday that the players were going through two-a-days and we were sweating in the sun at media day events at the high schools. Now we’re down to this. A number of games were played last night. Among them, Hampton defeated Cloudland 18-7 to wrap up the #1 seed in the 2A first quadrant (meaning they will have home field advantage through at least the quarterfinals, which could impact Oneida further down the line if the Indians advance that far), and Clinton defeated Anderson County 35-21 in a game that saw the Mavs play well enough to win but turn the ball over six times (to no turnovers for Clinton).

Tonight’s games worth watching in our area:

1.) Scott @ Stone Memorial: The playoffs are on the line when Scott travels to Crossville tonight for a central time zone start against Stone Memorial. The winner goes to the playoffs; the loser’s season is finished. With a win, Scott will earn its first playoff appearance since 1999, while Stone looks for its first ever playoff appearance. Already, the detractors have started saying that this playoff appearance wouldn’t mean as much since it’s only between these two teams, which enter with records of 4-5 and 2-7, respectively. But if you’re one of these two teams, a playoff appearance carries a lot of weight for your program. And, tonight, Scott is going to end their decade-long absence from the post-season. Prediction: Scott 27, Stone 14.

2.) Oneida @ Jellico: It would be nice to spin this as a competitive game. “If Jellico plays its best game and Oneida makes some mistakes . . .” Unfortunately, that seems highly unlikely. This one has lopsided written all over it. Oneida has had three district games end with the mercy rule in effect (against Oakdale, Coalfield and Sunbright). Two of those teams beat Jellico (Coalfield 23-6 and Sunbright 38-20). The Blue Devils did play Wartburg close two weeks ago, losing only 16-0, and last week they put up 46 against Oakdale. But, let’s be honest: This one should be in running clock territory by halftime. Prediction: Oneida 49, Jellico 0.

3.) Alcoa @ CAK: This is the premier matchup in the state tonight. Two undefeateds battling it out for a district championship in the final week of the regular season. CAK was the only team to hang with Alcoa last year, losing by only two touchdowns in the quarterfinals of the Class AA playoffs. Since that time, Warrior fans have had this one circled on their calendar. They think it’s their time to end the Tornadoes’ dominance in district play. But Coach Rankin has been around plenty of these games before, and he knows a little bit about coaching football. CAK has a chance to pull off what would be a minor upset, but I’m not ready to put them over the perennial state champs on my sheet. Prediction: Alcoa 28, CAK 24.

4.) Kingston @ Loudon: This has the potential to be a good game, but one that may not mean a whole lot (besides Loudon trying to keep its wildcard hopes alive). The Redskins have won the last two against Kingston, 38-24 in 2006 and 28-7 in 2005. They should be able to make it three straight tonight. Prediction: Loudon 28, Kingston 13.

5.) Smith County @ York Institute: Despite Smith County being seen as a powerhouse in Middle Tennessee, York has won three in a row in this series. In 2008, the Dragons defeated the Owls 22-9. In 2007, they defeated them 35-31 in the regular season and 28-14 in the playoffs. Prior to that, though, Smith County had won six straight against York, and they’ll be looking to return to their winning ways against the boys from Jamestown tonight. Smith’s only loss in the district was a 32-10 surprise against Cannon County. York is 1-3 in the district, but each loss has been by less than a touchdown, starting with a 20-14 setback against Cannon County after the Dragons had started the season 4-0. Home field means a lot in this series, and York pulls off the upset tonight. Prediction: York 20, Smith County 14.

6.) Cumberland County @ White County: The playoffs are on the line as the boys from Crossville drop off the Plateau to face the boys from Sparta (Oneida Coach John Brewster’s old team). Cumberland County ended a three-year skid to White County with a 21-14 win in Crossville last year. This year, they’ll be looking to beat ‘em when it means something: A trip to the post-season. It seems strange to be talking about the playoffs when one team is 2-7 and the other is 0-9, but just like with the Scott game, this one would be a huge advancement for Cumberland County, which hasn’t made the playoffs since 2002 (White County last went in 2005). Prediction: Cumberland County 33-7.

After a cool summer, we may wind up with a mild autumn, depending on how long the current temperature pattern holds. For as far as the eye can see (through at least mid-November), it looks as though low temps will be generally in the 40s and high temps will be generally in the 60s. I still think we’re going to see a switch back to cold weather sometime around Thanksgiving, but that’s just my untrained opinion.

The bigger story is that we may be finally drying out, after this weekend. These rainy systems every 2-4 days sure have gotten tiresome. Don’t look now, but the GFS computer model shows high pressure and blue skies ahead. In fact, if the GFS is correct, we may not see another storm system impact our area until around Nov. 15. Take that for what it’s worth, which isn’t much, because some prior runs had shown a storm system rolling in here by next weekend. But the current run isn’t showing that, and hopefully it will stay that way.

Latest NWS forecast for Oneida.

Latest NWS forecast for Jellico, site of tonight’s Oneida-Jellico game.

Latest NWS forecast for Crossville, site of tonight’s Scott-Stone game.

The computer guidance models have struggled with both the timing and intensity of this system. You see that reflected in the changing forecasts from the NWS and other meteorologists. What had first looked like a Friday-Friday night system later looked like a Saturday-Saturday night system. The latest trend is to speed it up; it now looks like a Friday night-Saturday system. Not good for Friday night football, but good for trick-or-treaters and the UT-South Carolina game Saturday night, perhaps.

We’ve seen rain chances for tonight upgraded to the probable category by the NWS in Morristown and Nashville.

It may not be all bad, though. Both the GFS and the NAM models keep the rain west of us until near midnight tonight. In fact, here’s the simulated radar from the NAM, which shows the precip still well back into Middle Tennessee at 7 p.m. The Hydrometeorological Prediction Center also keeps most of the precip back in Middle Tennessee until midnight. Their 6-hour precip total from 7 p.m.-1 a.m. The HPC has upgraded our precip totals quite a bit; not surprising, given the model trends. Their cuts in our projected totals yesterday afternoon seemed overdone. The latest projection by the HPC shows about an inch of rain for most of East Tennessee.

In a big recruiting setback for Tennessee, DeMarco Cobbs has switched his commitment from the Vols to Texas.

One of the top receivers in the 2010 class, Cobbs is the top prospect from the state of Oklahoma. Rivals.Com rates him the No. 120 overall player in the nation and a 4-star recruit. Scout.Com ranks him a 5-star recruit.