Tag: The Napkin

The Napkin: Week 12 betting picks highlighted by a trio of road teams

Shoutout to the West Coast for giving us some quality football. You can call me “Pac-12-Sergio” this weekend.

In my Week 11 edition of The Napkin, I decided to focus on three young quarterbacks that I felt could lead their teams to victory. It didn’t go as I expected, but it didn’t go awry, either. Mikey Keene didn’t even play for UCF so that one went out the window. Quinn Ewers looked like a 19-year-old freshman quarterback, which is fine for his development cause he’ll only get better. Not fine for my bets.

The only one of the three that delivered in a big way was North Carolina quarterback, Drake Maye. He put up yet another electric performance. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a Heisman finalist come January. If not, the freshman should be on everyone’s watch list for the award next season.

This week, I’ll be focusing on three road teams that I believe have the ability to win outright. I feel like I use that principle a lot, but it’s been working for me the last two weeks, so we’re going to keep riding this one.

I went 2- in Week 11 to bring us to 15-29 on the season. All odds are provided by BetMGM, our current official partner here at Gators Wire.

Without further ado, The Napkin for Week 11.

The Napkin: Week 11 betting recap has potential future Heisman QB living up to hype

Three young QBs. One forgot how to play football. One didn’t even see the field. One looked like he could win the Heisman next season. Somehow, someway, it all added up to a winning week. Sports Betting!

One thing I like to keep consistent on The Napkin is my belief that process is more important than results. If you maintain a consistent process, then the results will follow. It’s a philosophy I like to maintain in my life and it applies to my betting as well.

That process finally, and I mean finally, saw results. I have consistently been selecting three games that surround a weekly narrative. There’s that “behind the scenes” of my writing you’ve been wondering about.

Last week, the theme was “Young QBs”. I chose three teams that had young quarterbacks that I thought could lead their teams to victory in massive games. One of them laid a massive goose egg, one of them didn’t play, and the last one proved why he is going to be a preseason favorite for the Heisman next season, and might even get some votes this season.

Let’s take a look at how I did last week.

Here’s a recap of what my Week 11 picks looked like.

The Napkin: Week 11 betting picks highlighted by a belief in young QBs

I’ve decided to put my financial security in the hands of three young QBs. May the betting odds (!!) be in my favor.

Let’s just be honest with ourselves: Compared to what Week 10 gave us in terms of quality games, Week 11 is just your run-of-the-mill college football week. That’s okay! We only have three more regular-season Saturdays left, and we should be focused on enjoying every single moment of it.

If you find yourself complaining about the schedule, just think about February, a time when college football feels like it’s as far away as possible. Live in the moment.

One way to spark interest in the schedule is to revolve your betting picks around three young quarterbacks that I find to be very intriguing to watch. After all, that’s what betting on sports is designed to do. Give you something extra to make the games more exciting than they already are.

Time to put The Napkin, and my financial security, in the hands of young college quarterbacks.

What could possibly go wrong?

I went 1-2 in Week 10 to bring us to 13-28 on the season. All odds are provided by BetMGM, our current official partner here at Gators Wire.

Without further ado, The Napkin for Week 11.

The Napkin: Week 10 betting recap includes an outright LSU win

If you saw how much homework I do to place these bets, you would have much more sympathy for me. I’m like a real-life Charlie Day.

I had an epiphany on Sunday. I was going through the highlights of games that I didn’t get a chance to watch (per usual) and I realized that betting on college football is the most insane thing you can bet on.

Some say that hockey (another sport I love) is the craziest, but those people clearly haven’t spent four hours on a Thursday analyzing how Kansas State’s offensive scheme is perfect for Adrian Martinez to maximize his potential.

I’m like a real-life Charlie Day.

Anyway, Week 10 was tons of fun and let me know that I’m perpetually destined to go below .500 on my picks, regardless of how much research I do to place my bets.

But the point of gambling on these games is to have fun (or so I’m told) and I had a ton of fun this weekend watching the College Football Playoff picture begin to take shape. It’s time to see how this week’s bets did.

Here’s a recap of what my Week 10 picks looked like.

The Napkin: Week 10 betting picks highlighted by Tennessee & LSU

Am I getting too many points? I think I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending. IYKYK.

Last week, The Napkin had a great week in principle. The logic behind all three games was sound. The execution, not so much. If not for Iowa’s offense deciding to, oh I don’t know, be competent, then I would have gone 2-1 and posted my third straight positive week.

We’re not going to talk about that Kentucky bet.

With Week 9 in the rearview mirror, it’s time to look at one of the biggest weeks of the college football season. There are three games in this week’s edition of The Napkin. One of which is considered the Game of the Week, the other two enacting the “home-dog” principle that I just can’t seem to shake.

Hopefully, it works out for me this week.

I went 1-2 in Week 9 to bring us to 12-26 on the season. That improves this week.

All odds are provided by BetMGM, our current official partner here at Gators Wire.

Without further ado, The Napkin for Week 10.

The Napkin: Week 7 betting recap includes (finally) a winning week

Ladies and Gentlemen, a winning week !!!!

What a college football week, huh? We had multiple game of the year candidates this week, and two of them were on The Napkin! I’m glad that I decided to shortne up my bets this week. I took the “quality over quantity” mantra to heart and it paid off for me in the end.

Spoiler alert: we’re going to maintain that same mentality this Friday when the Week 8 edition of The Napkin drops.

I was actually at a friend’s engagement BBQ (congrats to Ben and Kendall) during all three of these game. Luckily, the Tennessee vs. Alabama game was on the TV and a friend of mine took my advice and also had some interest in the Oklahoma State vs TCU game. I didn’t miss a play of either game and boy was I happy about that. Let’s dive in and see how we did.

Here’s a recap of what my Week 7 picks looked like.

The Napkin: Week 7 betting picks highlighted by Tennessee, Oklahoma State

We’re slowly approaching “all-time worst betting season” and my betting history only goes back to 2015.

Let me start out by apologizing that there was no Week 6 recap on Monday. I promise I wasn’t ducking any criticism for yet another (sigh) disappointing week at the window.

I’ve decided to shorten my bet slip until I can get some positive momentum on my bets. I picked the craziest college football season since 2007 to start publicizing my bets on a national platform. I promise you, I had some really great (read: profitable) years before I took The Napkin to a bigger platform like Gators Wire.

A quick recap of last week, since I cheated you all out of a Week 6 recap post.

  1. Kansas (-6.5) vs TCU – LOSS
    1. Kansas’ backup QB throwing four TDs wasn’t enough. I lost this bet by half a point. My eternal suffering continues.
  2. BYU (+3.5) vs Notre Dame – LOSS
    1. BYU came back late to make this a game but still lost by eight points.
  3. FSU (+3.5) vs NC State – WIN
    1. FSU blew a lead to lose 19-17. So this was the best possible outcome for a Florida fan.
  4. Arkansas (+9.5) vs Miss. State – LOSS
    1. LOL. Arkansas didn’t have KJ Jefferson, but still. Miss State is a good team (more on that later on).
  5. Alabama (-24.5) vs Texas A&M – LOSS
    1. The less I talk about this the better. Threw a wrench in my whole “Texas A&M are frauds” theory. Still hate goal-line fades, though.

I went 1-4 last week (yet again) with my selections to bring us to 9-23 on the season. We’re approaching “all-time worst betting seasons” territory, and my betting history only goes back to around 2015.

All odds are provided by BetMGM, our current official partner here at Gators Wire.

Without further ado, The Napkin for Week 7.

The Napkin: Week 6 betting picks highlighted by Alabama, Kansas

I’m driving the Kansas bandwagon until the Riggins brothers strip it for parts. I’ve been watching a lot of Friday Night Lights lately.

It may not seem like it, but last week’s edition of The Napkin was much better than the bet slip made it look. I went back to basics and followed the rules I laid out in my introductory post. The logic was sound, but the execution (and by execution I mean the spread) was not.

This week, I’m going to stick with teams that I think will win outright. Of the five picks on The Napkin this week, four of them are teams getting points, despite the fact that I think they’re going to win outright. I promise that the fifth pick will make sense, despite the massive spread that needs to be covered.

This isn’t a “there’s some value there” principle play. This is an “oh wow, they’re actually giving them points” principle play.

I went 1-4 last week with my selections to bring us to 8-19 on the season. I have a really good feeling about this week. Why? No idea. I just do.

All odds are provided by BetMGM, our current official partner here at Gators Wire.

Without further ado, The Napkin for Week 6.

The Napkin: Week 5 betting recap includes multiple close calls

How many times can someone be on the wrong side of a close call?

Alright. It’s getting old now. How many times am I going to lose a bet because the team I bet on doesn’t cover the spread? I feel like after a strong start to The Napkin in the first two weeks, the ball just hasn’t been bouncing my way over the last three weeks.

I’m making the right choices. My analysis is pretty accurate. I just make the mistake of trusting a team to cover the spread, regardless if the teams are favorites or underdogs. I correctly picked three of the five games in last week’s edition of The Napkin, with only one of those three covering the spread.

Time to start the autopsy and find some lessons for next week’s edition. We’re going to continue and stay the course. Incremental improvements that will lead to long-term success. There’s still plenty of time in the season to get back to winning ways.

Here’s a recap of what my Week 5 picks looked like.

The Napkin: Week 5 betting picks highlighted by multiple SEC teams

Back to basics is the motto of a light Week 5 edition of The Napkin.

Honestly, it’s been pretty difficult to think about football this week. I grew up in the Ft. Lauderdale area and have had my share of hurricane experiences. I can only imagine what the west coast of Florida is going through. We take for granted the things we have every day, and we should not only be thankful for what we have, but we should do everything we can to help our fellow Floridians.

Despite all that’s going on, football games will be played this weekend. And if football games are being played, I will be betting on them. The Napkin has been very up and down this season. Last week wasn’t the bounce-back I was hoping it would be. This week, we’re getting back to basics. We’re taking a short hiatus on the weekly parlays, and we’re betting on teams that we have confidence in.

I went 1-4 last week with my selections to bring us to 7-15 on the season. Keeping it simple is the key here.

All odds are provided by BetMGM, our current official partner here at Gators Wire.

Without further ado, The Napkin for Week 5.