Category Archives: College Football

Browns, Cavs, College Football, Indians

Kevin Hogan Should Start, Football Betting Tips, And The Tribe

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The Bottlegate “staff” has officially grown from 2 to 3. Excited to welcome Dan Whalen to the team.

Here’s his new weekly column (we’ll think of a name for it soon.) Go give him a follow on Twitter at  @dwhalen5

Like most of you, I felt no need to tune into the Browns game this weekend. Misery turned to apathy a while back-if I can remember correctly, for me it happened right around the time Johnny Manziel was drafted by Ray Farmer and the gang. So I’ll start my weekly diaTribe of five feelings here:

1. I’m not revealing anything you don’t already know when it comes to the team, the franchise, the management yada, yada…but I came instead to shed some light on the quarterback situation and how it should play out for the remainder of the year, since they, ya know, passed on the guy I touted as the best in the draft, on the day of the draft. See: @dwhalen5, dak in your closest twitter search bar. Do you know we’ve had EIGHT general managers since 1999?

The Browns have to go with Kevin Hogan as long as they can, until and maybe even after Kessler is healthy. And I’m not “stats tell the full story” guy at all, but if you go back and look at Andrew Luck vs Kevin Hogan, you get ALARMINGLY similar statistics and win/loss records when comparing the two. Except Hogan went 3-1 in bowl games and Luck wend 1-2. But WHATEVER. Point is, the kid can make plays, he learned from the best, in arguably the most pro-friendly offensive college system there is, and quite honestly, sometimes the second quarterback you draft just ends up being better than the first. So drop the ego, change the culture, and let the kid sling it while Kessler picks his fragile ass back up off the ground.

Otherwise, they may miss out on him altogether, he’ll go be a stud for somebody else, and we will draft another shitshow who sets the squad back another three years.

 

2. I fancy myself a bit of a football handicapper, especially when it comes to picking the correct underdogs on the money line. So here are a few picks for the weekend:

A) Va Tech to cover -4.5 at Pitt for a little Thursday night action if you’re itching to make a play before the weekend. I think the defense is too good, and Pitt’s defense is woefully bad. When Pitt plays good teams, they lose.

B) Washington -10 at Utah. Huskies are the real deal. And they’ve got a hell of a defense. I get to watch Utah every single week due to rooming up with a former Ute footballer, and their offense has a tendency to sputter at times when they get inside the red-zone. This game will have some turnovers, and they’ll all come from the red and black side of the football. Pac-12 south runs through Colorado this year.

C) Auburn -4.5 at Ole Miss. There’s a trend this week with the road favorites, but trust me that’s coincidence-like I mentioned above, I’m an underdog guy. However, if you witnessed what LSU did to Ole Miss on the ground last week (312 yds/8.6 avg), and you had a chance to see Auburn’s ground game against Arkansas (543 yds/9.5 avg), then you should see that this could be another bloodbath of sorts. Even with Chad Kelly being night and day when he plays at

home vs on the road, he ain’t getting in a 3-technique to stop the deluge.

 D) Cowboys -4 vs Eagles. The Eagles are a different team when they have to travel. And not a single defense has shown they can stop Zeke. Cowboys have been money at home. Oh, and Dak.

E) Underdogs to keep an eye on straight up: Navy, Texas Tech, Nebraska, Arizona State, Redskins, Lions, Raiders

3. Also, was happy to see that Indians beat writer Paul Hoynes took this kind of chilly dip instead of this kind of chili dip for losing a bet to a clever Tribe fan. One time I’m sure he’s happy to be wrong.

4. The only thing better than being there when the banner is raised tonight in Cleveland, is being there tomorrow night for game two, which I’m pretty jacked up for.

5. That said, with respect to my most beloved franchise in town since age seven, I’m going with Indians in six games, starting with Kluber tonight. From my perch here in Chicago, Cubs fans are a bit out over their skis and are already planning their parade. And if we know anything about being underdogs, it’s that they play these games for a reason, and you shouldn’t count anyone out before the fact, because you never know when you might blow a 3-1 lead in The Finals.
PS: If you couldn’t tell this was supposed to be posted last night but Austin and I were downtown all afternoon. Stay tuned for the next installment on Tuesday.
College Football

Bottlegate’s Week 5 College Football Top 10 And Heisman Hopeful

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College football Saturdays are the best days of the year and if you disagree you’re just flat out wrong. The 20 minutes when the trio of FSU-North Carolina, Wisconsin-Michigan, and Tennessee-Georgia were ending was absolutely incredible and what makes college football arguably the best sport in America. I get giddy just thinking about it.

 

Here’s the top 10:

 

10. North Carolina

I’m all in on the North Carolina bandwagon right now. A cocky kicker, a coach that looks like he could kick your ass, awesome jerseys… and, oh yeah, they’re led by a kid from Northeast Ohio (Mentor) who is generating a little bit of Heisman buzz right now. They lost a close game early in the season to Georgia in the Georgia Dome and their last two games vs. Pitt and Florida State have been instant classics. They’re the favorites to represent the Coastal divison in the ACC Championship.

They host AP #25 Virginia Tech in an interesting afternoon game on Saturday.

 

9. Houston

I said I’d keep Houston around the 5-9 range the rest of the year and nothing changes until they host Louisville in November. Once Oklahoma starts wiping the floor with the other Big 12 teams, Houston’s signature win over the Sooners is going to look better and better.

They travel to Maryland to take on Navy and I can see this being a tough game for the Coogs.

 

8. Texas A&M

They were pretty unimpressive in their 24-13 win over South Carolina but that was to be expected after their drubbing of Arkansas last week and their big clash with Tennessee this Saturday.

 

7. Tennessee

There’s always that one team that no matter what happens to them, you never think they’re out of it. Coming back from 21-3 halftime deficit vs. Florida and then their Hail Mary win over Georgia this week, Tennessee just kind of seems like they can’t lose right now… And I don’t even really think they’re that good. These next 2 games (A&M and Alabama) will show us who the Vols really are.

 

6. Washington

Confession: Friday night was probably the first time I’ve watched the Washington Huskies play football in about 4 years and I (shocker) was impressed with what I saw. #6 is probably too high for the Huskies since I know nothing about them but when you beat Standford FORTY FOUR TO SIX, you vaulted to one spot out of the top 5. Washington also has one of the most underrated college football stadiums in the country. Boatgating seems like it’d be the best thing ever.

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The Huskies travel to Eugene to take on Oregon.

 

5. Michigan

That was just some good old fashioned Big 10 football between Wisconsin and Michigan on Saturday.

Michigan travels to Rutgers.

 

4. Louisville

Louisville and Clemson played possibly the game of the year on Saturday and Louisville came out looking great even with the loss. As long as Lamar Jackson is under center I think the Cardinals have a shot against anybody. On a neutral field I think Louisville beats Clemson.

This is still a high quality loss for the Cardinals that probably won’t hurt them because it happened still semi early in the season. What hurts the Cardinals, however, is that they’re not in the driver’s seat to get to the ACC title game. Would a one loss not conference champion Louisville team make it in the CFB Playoff over a one loss power 5 conference champion? It’ll be interesting to see how the committee handles that if it were to happen.

 

3. Clemson

Clemson is now in the driver’s seat to win the ACC after an impressive win over Louisville on Saturday. Is there a better gameday atmosphere than Clemson for a night primetime game? From the buses carrying the players to the hill and Howard’s Rock, Death Valley looks like the most fun place on Earth to watch a football game.

 

2. Alabama

Keeping the Tide as the second best team after they beat (but didn’t cover) Kentucky. I still think the inexperience at quarterback may hurt Alabama sometime down the road this season.

 

1.Ohio State

Ohio State took care of business and their offense and defense seem to be firing on all cylinders right now. I still give Ohio State the nod over Alabama because of their quarterback.

 

Heisman Frontrunners aka Lamar Jackson and everybody else

This quarterback from UNLV who had one of the craziest runs you’ll ever see in college football:

Mitch Trubisky

My new dark horse. We’ll see how he responds against Virginia Tech with the new national recognition he’s received this week.

JT Barrett

Rutgers and Indians are great teams to pad your stats. Once Ohio State starts their slate of primetime Big 10 games, JT will start to garner a lot of Heisman talk.
Lamar Jackson

Even with his loss to Clemson Jackson was phenomenal. It’ll take an insane stretch of games for anyone to catch him by December. 

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Great slate of games this weekend- Tennessee-Texas A&M, North Carolina-Virginia Tech, Alabama-Arkansas, and Miami Florida State. Let’s go!

Beat the Hoosiers  

College Football

Bottlegate’s Week 4 College Football Top 10 And Heisman Hopefuls

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Week 4 in the books. Les Miles is out at LSU, Notre Dame is officially dead, Texas A&M is an SEC darkhorse, Wisconsin is for real, and Lamar Jackson just can’t stop scoring touchdowns.

Here’s the Top 10:

 

10. Stanford

Stanford is gonna have one of those seasons where they fly under the radar all season and then somehow end up as the #4 seed in the CFB playoff, I can just feel it. Any team with Christian McCaffrey on it has a chance to run the table. Stanford travels to AP #10 Washington for some Friday Night Lights PAC 12 action. Should be a good one.

Thoughts and prayers if you bet on last week’s Stanford-UCLA game, however.

 

9. Houston

Houston’s win over Oklahoma looks a little less impressive after we found out Oklahoma is kind of average. The Coogs beat up on Texas State last week which isn’t saying much. For Houston, it all comes down to November 17th when they host Louisville. Until then, I’ll probably bounce them around the #5-9 range unless they lose.

 

8. Tennessee

Tennessee was down 21-3 to Florida at the half on Saturday, I declared that they stunk, and then they decided to go Super Saiyan and outscore Florida 35-7 in the second half. It was one of the more fun games this season.

The Vols play Georgia on Saturday, then @ Texas A&M, then they host Bama. Woof.

 

 

7. Michigan

Michigan beat Penn State 49-10 and the only highlight of the game was a tackle by Penn State’s chubby kicker. Michigan hosts Wisconsin on Saturday.

 

6. Clemson

They beat Georgia Tech last Thursday in a pretty boring game. I really just can’t get a read on Clemson this season. We’ll find out a ton about them this Saturday when they host Louisville in the biggest game in college football so far this season. Deshaun Watson vs. Lamar Jackson. God damn this game is going to be a lot of fun.

 

5. Texas A&M

Had Texas A&M ranked #8 last week and this week they jumped 3 spots after an impressive win vs. Arkansas. They’ve been flying under the radar the past few weeks but everyone is starting to find out that these boys can play. Friendly reminder- Trevor Knight has already beaten Nick Saban and Alabama when he played for Oklahoma. People forget that. (Except Nick Saban. Nick Saban hasn’t forgotten that)

 

4. Wisconsin

They already have two top 10 wins this year after beating LSU week 1 and demolishing Michigan State last week. If Ohio State didn’t look like such a dominant team in their victory at Oklahoma I’d probably rank Wisconsin as the best team in the Big 10. Yuuuge matchup with Michigan this week.

 

3. Alabama

They beat Kent State and host Kentucky on Saturday.

 

1.Ohio State & Louisville

Ohio State had a bye and Louisville beat Marshall. At this point it’s not even if the Cardinals can outscore the other team, it’s if Lamar Jackson can outscore the other team by himself. He did. 7 TDs for the Heisman frontrunner compared to 4 TDs for Marshall.

Ohio State hosts Rutgers (yawn) and Louisville travels to Clemson on Saturday.

 

Dropped out: Miami, Arkansas, Michigan State

 

Heisman frontrunners aka Lamar Jackson & everybody else

 

Christian McCaffrey 

436 yard rushing and 119 yards receiving with 4 total touchdowns.

 

Jabrill Peppers

Jabrill Peppers is college football’s version of Terrelle Pryor 🙂

 

JT Barrett

13 total touchdowns in 3 games for JT. Expect him to keep up that pace vs, Rutgers this Saturday.

 

Lamar Jackson

13 passing TDs and 12 rushing TDs. Pretty sure he’s going to score more touchdowns this year than 3/4 of the teams in the SEC.

 

Stanford v Washington on Friday night,  and Wisconsin v Michigan plus Louisville v Clemson on Saturday. Lettt’s gooo!

 

One of these weeks I’ll actually have this done on a Tuesday (when it should be posted) but Indians clinched a playoff berth so, sorry.