By MONTE DUTTON

Laurens football would be a question mark wrapped in an enigma, anyway.

New coach with big name. Lots of new players, tough schedule. It’s not hard to figure out the Raiders are going to be better. It is to anticipate how much.

Laurens has only faced another team once, and it’s been over a week. The Raiders soundly defeated Union County, but those two teams combined were 3-19 last year. My guess is that both are better, the Raiders more so.

Greg Porter said he was putting complete effort into preparation for the opening game. This is uncommon.

Will Thompson, the new quarterback, has a live arm and is hard (6-5, 225) to bring down. Doug Holliday is going to yell “Thompson to (Josh) Goodwin!” frequently.

Greg Porter is a fascinating man. He is as firm in his resolve as a military planner. Porter knows what works, and he’s working on it.

What a spectacle the first game is going to be. Hillcrest is where Porter won a state championship. Hillcrest is where Thompson played last year. When Nick Danciu played for Hillcrest against Laurens, and for Laurens a week later against Clinton, I thought that was the strangest move I was going to see for a while.

If the Raiders put up a fight against the Rams, they’re going to put up a lot of them.

The State paper labeled Clinton “legit” following its 18-7 victory over Class 5A Blythewood in the Chapin Kickoff Classic on Friday night.

Citing the performances of running back D.J. Clark and lineman Tre Aiken, the newspaper report referred to Clinton as “dominant with its spread version of the wing-T.”

Woodruff visits Wilder Stadium on Friday night.

Believe it or not, I heard some minor grumbling about the Red Devils while making the local rounds. Never mind that Clinton, now in Class 2A, has scrimmaged only 5A opposition. Clinton fans expect to win against anyone, and that’s more a good expectation than a bad.

Another 3A demotee, Chester, is, like Clinton, highly ranked. I saw the Cyclones in Union. To borrow the characterization above, they’re legit.

I’ve seen three preseason polls. Chester is ranked first, Clinton second, in two, and the other is vice-versa.

I haven’t watched much preseason football, but on Saturday I did last long enough to hear an announcer say a game was at Soldier Field in Cincinnati.

These exhibitions are irrelevant. A team that looks great in preseason will stink once the real games commence. A team that looks awful will have a great season.

In both cases, it will be a coincidence.

The week’s highlight – and low light – was the NASCAR race last Sunday night at Richmond and the week of controversy that followed.

I don’t recall even the more famous No. 3, Dale Earnhardt, knocking two cars out of the way in the final half of the final lap. It certainly gave the fans something to discuss vehemently.

Austin Dillon’s escapade ended up mirroring the words of a David Allan Coe song: “Went to college on the GI Bill, but it wasn’t worth what I had to kill to get it.”

Dillon didn’t kill anybody, but he didn’t make the playoffs, either.

Setting aside fair play, which is not an attribute cited often in NASCAR, it was the most exciting episode in a race since Ross Chastain rim-rode his way into the playoffs at Martinsville.

NASCAR didn’t like that either but didn’t ban the maneuver till the next year.

I just got my first direct contribution in a while, and the ads are almost paid up.

Advertising alone will not keep me going, but there’s room for a few more. Every ad is inset in every story.

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