Congratulations, Rod Heckman!

In record breaking fashion, he has won the 2025 Bob Ford Memorial Grid Picks Cup.

With a 15-0 record in Week 12 — Heckman’s second perfect achievement this season — he finished with an historic 12 games ahead of Yours Truly, who finished in second place. He achieved the largest margin of victory (with a record of 152-27) in the history of this race.

Heckman, my preseason favorite to capture the Cup, has won five times in the past 11 years making him a first-round ballot Grid Picks Hall of Fame selection — if there ever would be one. He admitted he had some help with his success this season.

“I would say getting my son’s input has helped earn countless wins,” said Heckman. “We talk about the games after I made my initial picks and even on the games where I hadn’t decided yet. He works for TV 13, so he knows a lot about the high school football teams.

“Other than that, I look at previous games, common opponents, and even strength of schedule to help me make my picks.”

The order of the odds

In August, I set preseason odds to predict the order of this year’s finish. I predicted Heckman would win, and then the rest of the order would be Hurley, Strack, Matsinko, Carlucci, Matta, McCall, Engle, Haines and Moeller. As one can see from the final standings, I was fairly accurate if you move a few names around.

Leather Helmet Awards

While Heckman does his victory laps around the office with trophy in hand, I’m taking a moment to present my Leather Helmet Awards. And if this would actually be a real awards program, each winner would get, well, a leather helmet!

The Three and Out Award … Goes to me (140-39). I was only three games behind with two weeks to go and then after a bad Week 11, I was out of contention falling seven games back and then finishing 12 games out of first place.

The Fumble the Ball Away Award … Goes to Brad Hurley (136-43). Sitting in third place for most of the season, he then fumbled the ball away in Week 12 and finished in fourth.

The Red Zone Blues Award … Goes to Pat Matsinko (131-48). For most of the season, he was in the top five of the standings, but was never able to finish his drives. He had to settle for field goals because he couldn’t score touchdowns with big-win pick weeks.

The Comeback Player of the Year Award … Goes to Justin Carlucci (138-41). Missing all of last season, he returned without high expectations because he might not have been following high school football as much as the rest of us were. He proved everyone wrong and with a great final week of picks, he finished third.

The Move the Chains Award … Goes to Sam Matta (134-45). He had weeks when his picks moved the chains toward first-place contention, but had other weeks where his fourth-down passes fell incomplete. Yet Sam still finished in a respectable fifth place.

The 50-yard line Award … Goes to TJ Engle (128-51). He had some good weeks which drove him closer to the middle of the pack, but other times, he was sacked and lost yards. That said, his effort kept him out of the Pundit Pit.

The Field Goal Attempt Award … Goes to Mike Haines (123-56). He had great weeks when his picks sailed right between the goal posts, and some when his picks went wide right or wide left. He finished ninth, but safely away from the Depths of Despair.

The It’s Not How You Start Award … Goes to Jeff Moeller (125-54) because it’s how he finished. Once teetering on the edge of the Pit, his final 12-3 record moved him out of ninth and into eighth.

The Fourth and Forty Award … Goes to Emmett McCall (117-62). He just could never make first downs with his picks and move out of the Pit. For yet another year, he’ll need to find a new crystal ball.

Go Tigers!

Northwestern is our area’s only football team that remains in the hunt for a district championship. Tonight, the unbeaten Tigers — winners of 27 straight games over two seasons — will battle the undefeated Crusaders from Notre Dame. This game will draw much attention, and not just from the fans of each school. The Tigers score an average of 46 points a game, while ND lights up the scoreboard with 48 on average.

My feeling here is that the Tigers will roar into the victory circle. In their last four games, their opponents have a combined record of 21-24, while the Crusaders’ opponents’ records were 10-35. This might give Josh Snyder’s team an advantage because they played teams that were more difficult to defeat.

Notre Dame’s up-tempo passing offense can score quickly from anywhere on the field. Northwestern scores a ton of points with a more balanced attack. Expect both teams to score a lot, but I think the Tigers’ “D” comes up with enough big plays to capture their 13th win of the season.

The Times News rocks!

Our annual Grid Picks race is first an acknowledgment to our award — winning sports photographer Bob Ford, who passed away during the pandemic. Ford was a top-five finisher every year, and won the race in 2017. His legacy continues each season when we make our picks.

The Times News proudly conducts the largest staff football picks contest in the coverage and surrounding areas. My thanks to my nine colleagues for their dedicated participation, and for sending me their picks every Wednesday night.

Until next August when our local teams tee up the ball to kick off the 2026 season, thanks to our readers for following our weekly contest and once again, congratulations to Rod Heckman for winning this year’s race.