Well, bad news, you still have me for the next couple of weeks. I wish that I was able to do more coverage for the Livingston Daily but alas, one football game a week on the paper site is the best we can do.
The first week of any high school football season is always the most difficult for me to handle on predictions. I don’t think there is any level of football where a team can vary as much from year to year as high school.
That being said, I somehow lucked into a 4-1 opening week with my only miss being the Waverly at Fowlerville game. That game, if I am being honest, has me worried about Fowlerville’s prospects for 2026 as Waverly was coming off of a 0-9 season. Still, the season is early, plenty of time for me to be wrong.
Week two in Livingston County has one marquee match-up with Howell traveling to Belleville and then some games where there won’t be quite as many eyes on them but still could be telling of where the season will be going.
FOWLERVILLE at CORUNNA
Both teams are 0-1 to start the season after coming off of low scoring, one-point affairs in week one. The difference is in perceived quality of opponents in that first week.
Corunna dropped a 14-13 game to Durand who was coming off of a fairly good season in 2025 while Fowlerville had that 1-point loss to Waverly.
It was the first game in a new system for the Gladiators so I will cut them some amount of slack but still, until they have a few games under their belt, I’m not comfortable with picking them especially on the road.
Corunna by 15
TECUMSEH at PINCKNEY
The second game to look at is Tecumseh traveling to Pinckney. I was at last years contest and while Pinckney was able to play with Tecumseh but small misconnections doomed the Pirates. In looking at Pinckney last week that may have been solved as they easily handled Owosso. Tecumseh, also won in week one but it was to a weaker opponent in Airport and by only one touchdown.
Based on that it should be a fairly good game but at this point, it appears that the Pirates are the stronger team this year.
Pinckney by 12
JOHN GLENN at HARTLAND
In a typical year, I probably wouldn’t think twice about this game and just take Hartland by a pretty good number.
This year I am not so sure. Hartland didn’t appear close to Oxford in the opener John Glenn did a good job against their opponent in Livonia Stevenson but again, Stevenson is not Oxford.
Without actually seeing Hartland yet I don’t really have a perspective on where they stand which makes things even tougher to go on.
All that non analysis taken into consideration, I do think this will be a lot closer than it might have been in past years and the game is in Hartland.
Hartland by 3
HOWELL at BELLEVILLE
The one thing that I think I learned about Howell last week is that, when faced with a really good quarterback/receiver combo, the defensive secondary is going to have some issues. I think that is true about any team if I am being honest with myself though.
The other thing that is evident is that Howell can still just pound the ball with multiple options and drain time off of the clock.
I don’t think this game will turn into a shoot-out like the Traverse City West game did last week mainly because of the Highlander ball control so it may come down to who has the last possession.
Howell by 6
WAYNE MEMORIAL at BRIGHTON
Brighton looked amazing last week against a Dexter squad that, while it had lost some talent from the previous year, should still be fairly good this year.
Wayne Memorial, while good in some sports in the KLAA, is typically not a football powerhouse.
While I know that anything can happen when two teams hit the field, this should be an easy victory for Brighton.
Brighton by 21