And then there were 14.
There were 28 teams from Oakland County entering the start of the state football playoffs, and now that has been cut in half. The first round last week produced its share of upsets (Kosmo told you on Friday that someone was goin' down) and great performances.
Here are Kosmo's 3 stars for the first round of the playoffs.

Third star
Zac Leimbach, Walled Lake Central
Count Kosmo among those who didn't think the Vikings would go into Lake Orion and win, but Ike the Vike showed up Kosmo. Leading the way was Leimbach, who ran for 156 yards on 26 carries.

Second star
Prescott Line, Oxford
Sad that this is the last time this season Line will be in Kosmo's 3 stars. He was amazing again in a loss to Rochester Adams last week, running for 219 yards and two touchdowns on 39 carries. I guess we'll hear more about Line during wrestling season. This was as good of a season as Kosmo can recall a single player having.

First star
Tony Annese, Rochester Adams
Outshining Line, Annese was stellar for the Highlanders, rushing for 177 yards and three touchdowns on 23 carries. He also threw a touchdown pass, meaning he accounted for all four of the touchdowns for Adams in a 26-20 win at Oxford.

Kosmo has been holed up in his cave in all this chilly Fall weather over the past couple of days, so sorry for ignoring this blog. Anyway, in light of what's taken place at Walled Lake Western, Kosmo has even more admiration for what Clarkston did earlier in this season.
The K-Man agrees wholeheartedly with Keith D., Jason S. and his other spies about how cowardly the Walled Lake School District has acted by choosing to stay silent and not address the hazing incident.
Always nice to see people hiding behind lawyers.
It's amazing the good things that happen to people when their honest. Walled Lake can certainly take a lesson from Clarkston.
The Wolves probably could've hid the fact they used an ineligible player earlier in the season. It had to have been easy since it was "internal." But the Wolves reported the incident and nearly cost themselves a playoff spot as a result.
As it turns out though, Clarkston is doing just fine. The Wolves made the playoffs and have a good shot to host two playoff games, which was thought to happen all along.
Clarkston was rightfully rewarded for its honesty and integrity.
Being honest and accountable and having good things happen? What a concept.

The regular season has come and gone for high school football, and count Kosmo among the thousands around the state excited for postseason play.
But before focusing on the playoffs, your all-knowing one wants to hand out his 3 Stars for Week 9.

Third star
The Holly football team
Kosmo can't remember when Dwight Eisenhower was President because he wasn't born, but that was the last time Holly won a league title in football until last Friday, when the Bronchos earned a share of the Flint Metro title with a win at Ortonville Brandon. Kudos to Ryan Culloty and his staff for the remarkable job they've done up there.

Second star
Kezlow Smith, Pontiac
One of the most productive players on a what's been a hot Pontiac offense of late, Smith ran for 172 yards and four touchdowns on 14 carries in a 66-40 win over West Bloomfield. The Phoenix are now in the Division 1 state playoffs as a result.

First star
Al Fracassa, Birmingham Brother Rice
Who else could it be this week? The legend of Brother Rice became the first coach in state history and just the 10th in the country to reach 400 career wins after the Warriors crushed Harper Woods Chandler Park. It took longer than he would've liked, but it finally happened for the great Fracassa.

Kosmo has received two bits of good news involving a former Oakland County football standouts and a current one who is among the country's best at his position.
Koz will start with the current player.
Orchard Lake St. Mary's senior James Ross has been invited to play for the United States under-19 national team in the third annual International Bowl at The Palace at Round Rock in Austin, Texas.
The game pits 50 youth football players from the United States against a team of 50 players from around the world.
It will take place on Feb. 1.
As for the former county standouts Kosmo wants to mention, former Lake Orion quarterback Chris Lum has been selected to the watch list for the Walter Payton Award, given to the nation's top FCS player.
Lum is having an outstanding senior year at Lehigh, where he has completed 68 percent of his passes for 2,590 yards and 26 touchdowns in seven games.

The boys soccer state tournament began on Monday, and that always gets Kosmo excited because of how talented players and teams in Oakland County are each year.
The odds are always good that an area team will be playing for a state title, which brings up a concern for Kosmo.
There doesn't seem to be any GREAT teams in the area this year.
Novi is a very good team with the capability of making a run at a title, but by no means are the Wildcats invincible.
Same goes for Troy. Very good and capable, but maybe not great. Ditto for Country Day in Division 3 and Cranbrook in Division 2, as well as the county's best teams in Division 4, Birmingham Roeper and Auburn Hills Oakland Christian.
All this makes Kosmo worry that there won't be an area team that advances to the state title game.
Hopefully teams read this and are so angry at Kosmo that they become beyond motivated to prove otherwise. Kosmo would love nothing better than to admit he's wrong if an area team raises a state title trophy in a few weeks.

My, time flies when you're having fun. It seems like just yesterday teams from around the state began practicing for the high school football season, and now, after this week, the season will be over for all but the fortunate 256 that qualify for the state playoffs.
It's already Week 9, so hopefully teams will have fun with spirit weeks around school since this is usually rivalry week. Before looking ahead to Week 9, here are Koz's 3 stars of Week 8.

Third star
Shane Frakes, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep
In helping the Fighting Irish improve to 8-0 on the season, Frakes ran for 157 yards on 14 carries in a win over Pinconning. The amazing story of the Fighting Irish got even more amazing.

Second star
Kirk Thomas, Walled Lake Northern
Even though Kosmo thought Milford would beat Northern, this wasn't a result totally unexpected, mainly because of the abilities of Thomas. He was at it again in a 35-28 win over the Mavericks, throwing for 261 yards and three touchdowns and running for 50 yards and a touchdown.

First star
Lorenzo Collins, Farmington Hills Harrison
Since Prescott Line of Oxford is ineligible for being the first star again this week due to being the first star so many times this year (296 more yards against Clarkston. Wow), Kosmo will give the nod this week to Collins. As if Harrison doesn't have enough rising stars, the sophomore ran for 218 yards and two touchdowns in a win at Lake Orion. It was the fourth straight game he ran for more than 200 yards.

Technically, the start of the high school football playoffs are a couple of weeks away, but don't tell that to your all-knowing one.
The playoffs actually start this week in the mind of the K-Man with some matchups that'll eliminate teams from playoff contention.
One of them will be at Auburn Hills Avondale, where host Avondale meets Bloomfield Hills Lahser in a battle of 4-3 teams that need to win out to qualify for the playoffs.
These teams have been among the most unpredictable all season, so even the Krystal ball has a hard time reading this one.
Another elimination game will be at Pontiac, where 5-2 Farmington will visit 4-3 Pontiac.
Make no mistake, the loser of this game will miss the playoffs. Yes, Farmington will still have a shot with a 5-3 record if it wins its Week 9 game, but that's not going to happen.
The Falcons have to play at Harrison in Week 9. Good luck there, so Farmington will have to win at a surging Pontiac team in order to make the playoffs.
Yet another game to watch will be at Troy, where Rochester Adams puts a 4-3 record on the line at 3-4 Troy. If Adams can't win, it'll be the end of a 15-year playoff streak

Kosmo can't say his much of a golf fan, but he does have an appreciation for the athletic ability of Gabby Yurik and read his spies enough to know that the Division 1 state golf finals are this weekend, and Stoney Creek is in it.
The Cougars entered last season as the favorite to win, but fell three shots short. Stoney Creek wasn't expected to be ranked No. 1 going into this year's tournament, but thanks to the brilliance of Yurik and good development from younger golfers, the Cougars are once again ranked No. 1 going into states.'
Evidently, No. 2 Grosse Pointe South is one heck of a team and could be considered the favorite, but Kosmo is definitely rooting for a Stoney Creek redemption story.
With Yurik and an improving supporting cast, hopefully the Cougars can get the title that eluded them last year.
- In addition to the state golf finals, the state boys tennis finals in all four divisions will be held this weekend. As is usually the case, teams such as Cranbrook, Country Day, and Catholic Central have good shots to win the crown.

The NHL season has begun, the Tigers and Lions are on fire and the high school football season is winding towards the playoffs.
Kosmo agrees with everyone else that this could be the best week in Detroit sports history, so hope everyone enjoys.
Before focusing on Week 8 of the season, here's a look at Kosmo's 3 stars for Week 7.

Third star
Brandon Thornton, Ferndale - Man, Ferndale has turned into giant killers this year. The Eagles have only two wins, but both were upsets against Auburn Hills Avondale in Week 4 and last Thursday against Birmingham Groves. Thornton was the big reason why, rushing for 215 yards on 16 carries.

Second star
Waterford Mott team - It's been a rough go of it for the Corsairs with a long losing streak and a winless season last year, but Mott finally got to celebrate a win with a 21-0 shutout of rival Waterford Kettering. Congrats to head coach Keith Garrison and his staff.

First star
Prescott Line, Oxford - Yes, Kosmo seemingly has Line in this threesome every week. But Friday was as good of a performance as Kosmo can recall in ALL of his years of forecasting. Playing against a good Southfield team, Line ran for 391 yards and six touchdowns on 46 carries. He also made 15 tackles on defense. If there's been a better player in the state this year, Kosmo doesn't know who it is.

Week 7 of the high school football season has come and passed for the OAA, so that means teams in the OAA Red and White finally know who their opponents will be in Week 8 next week.
The first place teams, Farmington Hills Harrison and Lake Orion, will meet on Friday at Lake Orion.
Fresh off a 49-26 upset of Southfield, Oxford will play at Clarkston in a battle of 5-2 teams.
After that, it'll be Southfield at Troy Athens, Farmington at Pontiac, Rochester Adams at Troy, Oak Park at West Bloomfield, Stoney Creek at Rochester and Southfield-Lathrup at Royal Oak.

For a team that's only one two games this season, Ferndale certainly has had a big impact on the OAA Blue race.
In Week 4 of the season, Ferndale entered a game at Auburn Hills Avondale 0-3 and had to play the 3-0 Yellow Jackets.
Usually, games between unbeaten teams and winless teams are an obvious choice, but Ferndale ended up leaving Avondale with a 23-22 win.
Then, when it was thought that Birmingham Groves was the frontrunner in the OAA Blue race with a 5-1 record, the Eagles pulled off another stunner on Thursday.
Ferndale recorded a 28-13 win over Groves to make an already crazy OAA Blue race even nuttier.
Seemingly every team except Andover and Ferndale is in the league title hunt with two games remaining in the season.
For that, all the other teams with league-title aspirations can have Ferndale to thank for all its two big wins this season.

Last season a lot was made about the terrific coaching job Todd Schultz did at North Farmington, and rightfully so. Schultz still coached his team despite a bout with cancer, and even though the Raiders had a 2-7 record, the life lessons the players learned through his battle were immeasurable. This season, Schultz and his staff are doing another terrific job, although it has nothing to do with a cancer fight.
Given a clean bill of health before the season, Schultz and his staff have coached the Raiders to four straight wins and they're in contention for their first playoff spot since 2005 with a 4-2 record.
With a potent running game and sky-high confidence at this point of the season, it's a good bet the Raiders will get the six wins necessary to qualify for postseason play.
- The first sign that the fall sports season is actually winding down will arrive on Thursday. The postseason is here for girls golf and boys tennis teams, who will play regional tournaments on Thursday and Friday. The state tournaments will be held in those sports next weekend, so the great time of the fall season has arrived. Postseason play for the other sports won't be too far behind.

This weekend's weather may have been more like November than late September, but that didn't stop area players from putting on some incredible displays even in awful conditions.

Here are Kosmo's Week 6 stars on the gridiron.

Third star
Chris Woolen, Orchard Lake St. Mary's
Are you kidding me? Third-and-goal from the 17 and the Eaglets still score? What an unbelievable catch and run by Woolen. Kosmo saw it on the video broadcast on MIPrepZone.com and it looked amazing on tape delay. The K-Man can't imagine what it was like live.

Second star
Kevin Miller, North Farmington
The hottest team in the county might be the Raiders who are on a four-game winning streak following a big win over Berkley on Saturday. First and foremost among the heroes was Miller, who rushed for 151 yards on 18 carries.

First star
Prescott Line, Oxford
Line is becoming a permanent fixture in Kosmo's three stars each week. Not only did he rush for 252 yards and three touchdowns in Oxford's 22-16 win at Rochester Adams, Line made a game-saving tackle and forced a fumble to end the game near the goal line for the Wildcats. Incredible

The heartbreak had to have been evident on the faces of the Birmingham Brother Rice players late Friday night against Orchard Lake St. Mary's after the Warriors were two plays away from winning for the first time at St. Mary's and giving head coach Al Fracassa his 400th career win.
But the Warriors gave up the game-winning touchdown on a third-and-goal from the 17-yard line, and now there's a tough road ahead for the Warriors, who badly want to get Fracassa his 400th win.
Next up for the Warriors is a game at arch rival Novi Detroit Catholic Central on Saturday night, and the Shamrocks are unbeaten and playing as well as anybody in the state.
The week after that, Brother Rice will travel to Ohio to play one of the top teams in the country, Cincinnati La Salle.
If Brother Rice doesn't win one of these next two games, it'll have to win its Week 9game against a to-be-determined opponent to not only give Fracassa his 400th win, but get to the five wins Brother Rice at the very least has to win in order to qualify for the playoffs.