Hooten’s Arkansas Football magazine sets high expectations for the Mount Ida Lions this season with the annual magazine picking the Lions to win the newly formed 3-2A Conference.
Mount Ida was selected as the preseason favorite to win the conference with Dierks coming in second, Poyen third, Lafayette County fourth, Murfreesboro fifth, Mineral Springs sixth and Foreman second.
Mount Ida returns several starters from last year and with the return of Mike White as head coach there are high expectations for this team.
Hooten’s points out the lack of depth and speed as concerns for the program. However, Coach White’s run heavy offense and disciplined linemen play helps slow the game tempo down.
Mount Ida is also picked as the third best team in the 2A Classification behind Hazen and Des Arc.
Neighboring Centerpoint is picked to finish fifth in the 4-3A Conference.
Glen Rose is the favorite to win the division, followed by Jessieville, Paris and Bismarck.
Magnet Cove is picked to finish sixth behind Centerpoint, followed by Danville and Two Rivers.
The 4-3A Conference has a different look this year with Prescott and other southern schools moving to the 5-3A this cycle.
The cover story for the 30th annual Hooten’s Arkansas Football bookazine goes in-depth with the Arkansas Razorbacks and Coach Sam Pittman.
The book retails for $19.99 and is on sale now statewide at Wal-Mart, Kroger, Books-A-Million, Harps Food Stores, Big Red Stores, Hays Food, Brookshire’s, Edwards Food Giant, Doublebee’s and PDQ. Locally, it’s available at Bob’s Food City.
The 432-page book, which takes more than six months to compile, offers the most comprehensive preseason football coverage in Arkansas. Hooten’s picks the upward trending Razorbacks to finish third in the SEC West.
In addition to providing extensive coverage of every high school team in the state, the book offers an in-depth preview on the Razorbacks and coverage on each Southeastern Conference school. Arkansas State and every state college are ranked as well as all 131 Division I college teams in America.
The national award-winning Hooten’s Arkansas Football features coaches’ polls for each high school conference, statewide rankings for every team, super teams for each classification, the state’s Top 50 recruits, a national college poll and complete high school schedules.
Alabama is tabbed to win the SEC West, followed by Texas A&M, Arkansas, Ole Miss, LSU, Mississippi State and Auburn. Georgia is picked to win the SEC Eastern Division, followed by Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, South Carolina, Florida and Vanderbilt.
Arkansas State is ranked 13th in the Sun Belt and 119th nationally. Louisiana-Lafayette is picked to win the Sun Belt, followed by Coastal Carolina, Appalachian State, Georgia State and Marshall.
Alabama is Hooten’s preseason No. 1 team, followed by Ohio State, Georgia, Texas A&M and Clemson. Arkansas is picked 16th nationally.
Ouachita Baptist is picked to win the Great American Conference, followed by Harding, Henderson State, Arkansas Tech and Arkansas-Monticello.
Hooten’s high school favorites to win it all in 2022 are Bryant in Class 7A, Greenwood in Class 6A, Joe T. Robinson in Class 5A, Warren in Class 4A, Prescott in Class 3A and Hazen in Class 2A.
The book is published annually by Hooten Publishing, Inc., of Benton.
Lions preseason conferance favorites
