GRIDIRON GUESSES: In the spirit of COVID-19, it's time for a 'pause'

By MARK NELKE

and JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writers

At least the high schools got most of their football games in.

The college are becoming more hit-or-miss each week with whether they will actually play their scheduled games — or if they will actually play who they originally scheduled.

That uncertainty has trickled into our weekly picks for Gridiron Guesses.

Washington State has had its last two games — vs. Stanford and vs. Washington — called off due COVID-19 issues with at least one of the teams.

And there's no guarantee the Cougs will play Sunday at USC, in a game pushed back two days from tonight so the Trojans can get their COVID house in order.

Boise State, same thing.

The Broncos' "showdown" with San Jose State last week was canceled due to COVID, as was this week's all-but-walkover at UNLV.

So rather than continuing to pick a bunch of games that might not be played, we've decided to "pause" Gridiron Guesses for the season.

It was either that, or keep going and award a point for correctly predicting that a game would be canceled.

Besides, the high school games were the inspiration for this exercise in the first place.

So Jason will end up the winner for a second straight year, and gladly accept the first prize of five take-and-bake pizzas from Papa Murphy's*.

Mark will deliciously accept the second prize of that real thick prime rib they serve on Friday and Saturday nights at Nosworthy's Hall of Fame*.

*Prizes are unofficial.

For the record, Jason finished 36-15 overall — including 32-14 on high school games. Mark finished 34-17, including 31-15 on high school games.

We are appreciative of the thousands* of emails we've received over the years, pro and con. Keep ’em coming next year when Gridiron Guesses returns for a (hopefully) COVID-free high school and college football season.

*Actual total may be slightly less.