CELINA-Michael (PA) Miller used a big winning streak in the college bowl games to come from behind and take the annual HORIZON Pigskin Prognosticators title.

Miller, who wound up with a 21-9 record in the bowl games, leapfrogged four pickers on his way to the title.

PA overtook former leader Parker (Part Time) Donaldson, whom he trailed by four games heading into the final 30 contests, and vaulted from fifth place thanks in large part to a 12-game winning streak in the middle part of the bowl season. 

Miller lost three of the first four games on the schedule, but gave a hint of things to come by being the only picker to take Notre Dame over Hawaii in the fifth game, launching a streak that saw him win 18 of the next 21 games. It was quite a display of peerless pigskin prognosticating prowess. 

It appeared for a while the prognosticator title might hinge on the national title game between Oklahoma and Florida, which would have been fitting. However, Kentucky’s comeback win over East Carolina put Miller two games up on Donaldson with only the title game picked differently between them in the remaining games, clinching the title for PA. Miller was the only picker to take Oklahoma over Florida, so Donaldson wound up only one game back of his former Bulldog football teammate. 

Those two, and Bryan (RFD) Coons, were the only pickers to be above the .500 mark on the final 30 games. Coons had a nice 18-12 mark in the bowl pickings, while Part Time was 16-14. The rest of the field registered 13 to 15 wins on the big windup. 

Coons’ good finish enabled him to grab third place, four games behind the winner.  There was a three-way logjam for fourth place between defending champ Craig (Linebacker) Ogletree, Mike (Principal) Brawner and Joseph (Insulator) Burnette, who wound up five games out of the lead. Winton (Commish) Young finished seventh, 12 games out. 

Miller’s final .648 win percentage was roughly three percentage points under Ogletree’s winning mark last year, and about five points under Brian (Prime Time) Plumlee’s all-time Prognosticator mark.