Leaderboard

RIP Joe Pinkos. I did not know him but always looked forward to seeing how my team would be predicted to do. His rankings will definitely be missed and prayers to his loved ones and family who knew the legend.

Josh, consider making the "Pick 'em" contests (regular season and/or playoffs) an 'official' part of this site and name the contest after Joe. "The Pinkos Pick 'Em.' RIP to Joe and peace and condolences to his family.

I never met him and can only speak from the standpoint of his tremendous contributions to the world of high school football which cannot be overstated. However as I get older, I appreciate times gone by and cherish what lies ahead because we all have to make that journey sooner or later. Peace to his family and all those that are directly affected by Joe's passing that had the pleasure of knowing him personally. One day, it will all make sense. RIP Joe...

My worst fears have been confirmed. I suspected that all was not well with JOE P. Rest in Peace!

Also followed Joe Pinkos HS football forecast week by week for the past many years prior to participating on this forum. I was amazed at how an individual could analyze every game statewide with such accuracy and consistency over time. He truly was a respected source of information and will be sorely missed by all, especially his family in mourning. Our hearts go out to all of them. Rest in Peace Joe, from all your fans.

Yes agree! RIP.

That's because all 17968 people still go to school in Madison.

Big urban schools are always going to poach from smaller schools with less resources. It’s unfortunate but I understand why it happens and there’s not much that can be done to stop it at a local level. As far as scheduling, it would behoove any team that expects to make a deep playoff run to schedule some tough quality opponents. Don’t have to break your back playing the IMG’s and STA’s of the world but playing some tough area opponents (i.e, Cardinal Gibbons, American Heritage, Central,) would certainly help as you get an understanding of the physicality and power of other teams. Beating up on local garbage isn’t going to prepare you for an opponent like STA or AHP in the playoffs. Have to challenge yourself in order to bring your play to the next level.

Treasure Coast seems like a very tough game for anyone. But, I have a hunch their style of play will be a favorable matchup for Apopka. Apopka is excellent against the run, with a great LB group. Darters have a great shot there IMO. But I think 8A is Venice's to lose.

I feel sorry for West Orange having to make the almost 4 hour bus ride to Venice the day after Thanksgiving and then all the way back. But that final score is very very misleading. Although it may seem Venice dominated from start to finish, West Orange wasn’t out of the game in the first half and had chances in the third quarter and even in the first few minutes in the 4th to mount a comeback. In their first drive of the second half Orange drove the ball down to Venice’s 12 yard line only to throw a bad interception that cost them a touchdown. Still only 21-7 at that point so while maybe not ideal they weren't getting squished. Congratulations to the Warriors on a great season. They played really well, but Venice just wears you down by the 4th quarter. Interested to see how they play against Columbus.

So sorry to hear this. His game forecasts were second to none. I always compared mine to his to see if I was in the right ballpark. RIP Joe. You’ll be missed.

RIP Mr. Pinkos. You'll be missed. You made a selfless contribution to HS football. I'll miss looking at your rankings and predictions. God bless you and your family.

Went and watched last Friday against Mosley. Triple Option is nasty. They have 2-3 rbs that can take it the distance any given snap and qb is 6’ 3” about 235-240 and a tough runner. I’ll be at game Friday night against jones

Why baker County driving over 5 hours to get blown out by Miami Central. They can save money not going, everyone would understand. Nobody would be upset with them.

You're right any school can lose and sooner or later does. Dade is no different. You said you didn't care about the 60's and 70's but those times add to Dade's overall title count? You can't have it both ways. The weird facts according to you are still that, FACTS! For example, you stated that Southridge dominated the 90s and I call bull on that. Southridge went 1-2-1 and I don't give a damn where you went to school, no one is going to look at that record and say, "Southridge dominated the 90's". I respect the fact that Southridge made it to the finals 4 times in the same decade. That is legit especially back then. However, you could've easily mentioned CC or NW as they both managed better finals records in the 90's than Southridge. From 90-99, Dade went 5-2-1, the tie and losses all came from Southridge. Segregation was prevalent everywhere in the south. Miami wasn't the only city that had to deal with that. Segregated black schools have been closed and/or converted all over Florida/America without a doubt. Polk County has the same story; Rochelle in Lakeland - fed directly into Kathleen high, Union Academy integrated into Bartow, Roosevelt in Lake Wales served Lake Wales, Frostproof and smaller communities, and Oakland in Haines City just name a few that started Polk County's early football history. Same story, albeit on a smaller scale than what happened in Miami. That's a different history lesson altogether and the detriment that followed is not one soon to be forgotten. Everyone knows that Dade has more rings. Again, not debating that. Hell, since 8 classes were created, it's been easier than ever to get to the finals. With the sheer amount of schools that Dade has, Dade arguably has the easiest path to the finals. I mean 21 titles in 10 years is unheard of and due to realignment, Dade has the good fortune to not have all their powerhouse schools in the same class. It is what it is. Florida football is what it's all about.

Dade (4) 2701767 - Columbus, MNW, MC and Champagnat Broward (3) 1944375 - STA, Cardinal Gibbons and Chaminade Hillsborough (3) 1459762 Jesuit, TBT and Berkeley Orange (3) 1429908 - Apopka, Jones and OCP Polk (2) 725046 - Lake Gibson and Lakeland Christian Brevard (2) 606612 - Merritt Island and Cocoa Alachua (2) 278468 - Buchholz and Hawthorne Duval (2) 995567 - Jax TC and Bolles Washington (1) 25318 - Chipley Madison (1) 17968 - Madison County Levy (1) 42915 - Chiefland Collier (1) 375752 - First Baptist Leon (1) 292198 - Florida High Pinellas (1) 959107 - Lakewood Baker (1) 28259 - Baker County Escambia (1) 321905 - Pine Forest Highlands (1) 101235 - Sebring St Lucie (1) 329226 - Treasure Coast Sarasota (1) 434006 - Venice

Don’t give em facts!!!! Lol. He ain’t taking his cheerleading outfit off! It’s easier to talk loud than talk smart!!!!

I find the Dade/Broward argument rather hilarious. UP here in Central Florida, I have always considered Orlando to be: Seminole, Orange and Osceola counties with the extended area also including Brevard, Volusia and Lake counties. The truth of the matter is that it is not unusual for kids to transfer from one of all the counties above to another even though the rate of transfers seems to be greater in South Florida. With that said, I am happy for whatever team from Greater Orlando that is successful in the playoffs and see no need to get into arguments as to who is more successful or who depends on recruiting whose talent. In large, urban metro areas the argument seems kind of pointless to me.

The Jones victory over Vanguard was not improbable. Jones was the more talented team. Vanguard fought back, and proved with a winning program that that truly are, but Jones could have put the game away a little earlier than they ended up doing. The Tigers will be very tough to beat going forward. Elijah Williams is a great High School Football Head Coach.

I agree with Ray that this should be Venice's game. The main things Columbus has going for them right now is their coaching and scrappy nature. They don't have the size this year to go man to man with the Indians. As for the BT game, I will say that that was Columbus' 2nd back to back 7hr+ road game (they played Benedictine in GA the week before), and played that game without our starting RB. We played an ugly game there (2 turnovers and sloppy execution on offense overall). But the past few games, the ugly spots have been smoothed over by some real grit. I am impressed with how they have turned their season around since that Palmetto loss. All this said, Columbus needs to score on nearly every possession in order to keep pace with that Venice O. The size of this team looks on par with the kids from CM. And yes, we were up on them 17-10 in the first half, but their size were too much for 4 quarters for our guys. I see Venice as much the same. My heart says 30-28 Columbus win with a field goal. My head says 21-35 Indians. Should be a great game. Go Explorers!

Columbus had a good schedule this year but to say it was better than Venice's overall schedule just because they stayed within 2 scores of Chaminade-Madonna is lame. Bartram Trail beat Columbus and yet last week they got hammered by Apopka at home. I suppose anything is possible and although I am not a betting man I certainly would take that one as the odds are extremely good on Venice's side.

They earned home field by their consistent performance all year long and in the playoffs it is a huge advantage, particularly if the road trip is over 2 hours long. Jones has to travel to the panhandle from central Florida while Apopka to the Treasure Coast. Cardinal Gibbons comeback win was definitely an impressive feat and that is what champions do as Jullian rightly points out. STA is just STA and no one expected Homestead to have a chance, again playing away from friendly confines. Most thought the game between Pahokee and Hawthorne would be more competitive, but despite the penalty complaints the result was as Jullian describes "A DEMOLITION". So hard to blame refs for losing in a game you get run all over in.

Coach us and find out lol

Just curious, did you see the play? There was no pulling back by the FSU defenders and nothing about the contact was incidental. Just to be clear, I recognize that the rules require a helmet-less player to immediately stop playing, which the UF RB did not do, so the penalty was deserved. But I don't fault the UF RB for letting his football instincts take over and continuing to run the ball (especially when he was 5 yards away from the end zone). Similarly, I don't fault the FSU players for letting their football instincts take over and trying to tackle the UF RB as he approached the end zone. But, if this is all about player safety, and the offensive player gets penalized when he continues to play, then the defensive players who continue to play and make contact with the guy without the helmet should be penalized as well. That's just my opinion.

I don't know, Jesse . . . I think STA will be able to hang with Buchholz.

Pine forest has a few former college players on staff that seem to know how to coach em up. Oline coach played at ucf. Defensive coordinator played linebacker in college. I’m looking forward to a good game against jones Friday night they have to come a long way from Orlando.

Breaking with the trend, I think Tampa Bay Tech is going to defeat Lake Gibson. They’re playing at home and have a good passing scheme out of that gun formation to help them move the ball against Gibson, especially with that disciplined front four they have. TBT loves the power run and isn’t afraid to take shots off play-action, so if they can manage to force Gibson into playing Cover 1 or at least shading their coverage underneath they will be able to move the ball effectively through the air and keep the chains moving. Defensively Tampa Bay Tech will need to stand in the muck and prevent Gibson from doing what they like to do: running the ball. Offensively these two teams’ schemes are not alike but similar and that may actually assist the Titans in their game preparation as they’ve seen this offense before. Gibson will need to find a way to move the ball through the air because if they can’t, they’re going to be in trouble. All in all this should be a great game, possibly the most competitive one in the Florida State Semis this year as well. Good luck to both teams.

This is sad news indeed. RIP Joe...

Looking at the data, seems the bigger the county the more likely it's a private school still in the playoffs.

It's always fun when it's Orlando & Tampa vs. Dade or Broward. Great Interstate games.

Cocoa is battle tested, Madison needs to schedule them

Cocoa is a very tough, scrappy football team with a lot of heart. I met their Coach, Ryan Schneider in 2019. Really awesome guy who is dedicated to the game and his craft. He has those kids playing at a high level. I don’t think many teams are dying to meet the Tigers in the playoffs!

I totally agree that you need to play tough teams to prepare you for the playoffs. Teams with a tough playoff bracket and make it to the finals will be prepared for that championship game. Hope that Cocoa playing 2 soft teams in the playoffs don't come back to bite them.

If you are not loaded you should not play a national caliber schedule. If you want to make a playoff run, you can't play a schedule loaded with weak teams. If your district is weak, you must supplement your schedule with solid teams. If you don't, beginning in the second or at the latest, the third round, you will be overwhelmed by the level of talent and speed you are not used to seeing. In many respects, the talent level at Apopka resembles the talent level currently at Dillard. Very solid, but not recruited through the roof. If you were to line up this year's schedules by these two teams for comparative purposes, you will see that Apopka was in a weak district, but supplemented the schedule with: West Orange, Dr. Phillips, Edgewater and Lakeland. All of those four teams were expected to be playoff contenders. Phillips had an unusual down year and disappointed. Outside of district, Dillard had: Deerfield Beach, Miramar, Plantation and Hallandale that were expected to be quality opponents. Unfortunately, Hallandale had a mid-summer meltdown and lost most of their impact players to Central, Killian and other schools. This hurt the Panthers schedule in that what would have been a competitive game suddenly became a blowout. Outside of the above, the rest of Dillard's schedule excluding district rival and national power, St. Thomas Aquinas, was weak. And that hurt in the playoffs and may have led to the Homestead loss and premature exit. From my perspective, it is not Dillard's fault that Deerfield turned out to be below their normal level (see DP above), nor is it their fault that Hallandale lost all its talent over the summer. And I know the Ely game is a tradition. However, Dillard should drop the Cooper Cities and Boyd Andersons from its schedule and replace them with expected playoff teams. That will better prepare them for the post season going forward.

If Dade been running the state since the beginning of time (or at least since the advent of the FHSAA keeping records in 1963): Why doesn't Dade have more titles? Why was Dade iced out from winning titles from 1978-1992? Why has Dade missed the finals in the following years? 1966, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1992, 2000, 2005 If nothing past Broward matters, why did Dade manage to lose to non-South Florida teams in the following years? 1973, 1974, 1976, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1989, 1991*, 1994, 1999, 2001, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018** *tie result **Multiple schools

These are the 32 teams still in it by county Dade 4 Columbus, MNW, MC and Champagnat Broward 3 STA, Cardinal Gibbons and Chaminade Hillsborough 3 Jesuit, TBT and Berkeley Orange 3 Apopka, Jones and OCP Polk 2 Lake Gibson and Lakeland Christian Brevard 2 Merritt Island and Cocoa Alachua 2 Buchholz and Hawthorne Duval 2 Jax TC and Bolles

That's ok. I'm not a big reaction type of guy. We retired to Fort Pierce three years ago, and while we love getting out and going to the games, I have no emotional ties to any of the schools. We just want to see some good football games, and on a Friday night, we may be found anywhere from Fort Lauderdale to Cocoa.

who??!

Blountstown will blast dade county easy bruh hush.

I think Madison County could hang with STA on a good day, maybe even come within 70 points!

Welp! Somebody will be wrong and right on Friday, LOL!

I wouldn't be surprised if Columbus won the ball game but you all are NOT holding us to only 7 points. You will need at least 28 to defeat Venice and your defense will need to stop the run at every turn because Peacock loves the read-option/ play action fakes. Good luck to the Explorers.

Yes agreed. The picture is on ScoreStream & taken 3 yds deep in the endzone.

Coach Peacock will have em ready! Both teams play the full 4 qtrs.

TBT vs Lake Gibson should b a great one. Bolles vs Cocoa!!! They annihilated their opponents! props to Merrit Island for a great season! Of course the 305 has that classification locked down. congrats Baker County. Nice win vs Wakulla.

Regarding the still picture you reference in the OT TD by Apopka, I don't have any additional comment other than locally reporters nor opposing coaches have complained about the call. So would have to assume it was called correctly, but definitely hard to see due to the SCRUM it created.

Saw a picture from Apopka/Seminole game. The 4th down in overtime, called a touchdown. The pic had no one near the goal line from Apopka. Still picture. Any comments? Cardinal Gibbons comeback win vs Gulliver Prep was epic. Down by 3 TD’s +, How does a coaching staff keep the players in the game!!!!! Coach Matt DuBuc, one of the best! Hawthornes demolition of Pahokee was scary! STA’s demolition of a really good Homestead squad was impressive. props to the Blue Streaks for shutting down the Tornadoes fierce O. Chiefland vs Union County!!! What a game! BULLS VS JESUIT......Whatcha think?

Class 8A No. 4 Columbus at No. 1 Venice No. 3 Apopka at No. 2 Treasure Coast Class 7A No. 4 Lake Gibson at No. 1 Tampa Bay Tech No. 3 Buchholz at No. 2 St. Thomas Aquinas Class 6A No. 4 Northwestern at No. 1 Jesuit No. 3 Jones at No. 2 Pine Forest Class 5A No. 4 Sebring at No. 1 - TBD No. 3 Baker County at No. 2 - TBD Killian will be No. 1 with a win over Miami Central; Merritt Island is No. 1 with a Killian loss and No. 2 with a Killian win Class 4A No. 4 Bolles at No. 1 Cocoa No. 3 Lakewood at No. 2 Cardinal Gibbons Class 3A No. 4 Florida High at No. 1 Chaminade-Madonna No. 3 Lakeland Christian at No. 2 Berkeley Prep Class 2A No. 4 Trinity Christian at No. 1 Orlando Christian Prep No. 3 Champagnat at No. 2 First Baptist Class 1A No. 4 Chipley at No. 1 Hawthorne No. 3 Madison at No. 2 Chiefland

Buchholz has a chance. But they will have to play mistake free football, not let St. Thomas get ahead by more than a touchdown early, and hope that they get a lucky bounce or two. If the game were in Gainesville, I would give them a more realistic shot at pulling the upset. Of the three teams remaining in the final 4 not named STA, I think Buchholz is actually the best.

305 always think they got it figured out.....lol