Parker's Corner

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College Football

Colorado -3.5

Coach Prime is the darling of America right now, and for good reason. I’m not saying they are going to win the national championship (this year), but there is some backing to the hype in Boulder. TCU is not what it was last year, but under Sonny Dykes, no team is a slouch. That was a quality win for Deion & co. Don’t be surprised when they win this game easily against a revamped but still unproven Nebraska team.

Miami/Texas A&M Over 48.5

There isn’t too much to say about this one. Bobby Petrino’s offense will continue to score until they absolutely can’t. I don’t see Miami being the ones that stop them. Plus, we didn’t see the best defense ever out of the Aggies last week against New Mexico, so look for the Hurricanes to add some points to the cause.

UCF -3.5

Guz Malzahn is a really good coach, and he’s finally in a conference that doesn’t worry about defense. He’ll be running it in a few years, but for right now, look for him and his Knights to take care of Boise State this weekend.

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NFL Week 1

Eagles -4

The Patriots are bad, and the Eagles are good. These are truths. I should probably give a little more, so I’ll let you know that the Eagles have won 8 out of their last 10 season openers. Look for the Birds to take care of business.

Jaguars -4.5

I’m probably a little higher than I should be on the Jags this season, but Duvall County is sure to be content with the product they put on the field against a Colts team that simply cannot be trusted. Take the spread on Jacksonville.

Panthers +3.5

My only underdog of the weekend, I really think Bryce Young will do well in the League. I think the Falcons could settle into their weapons and do something soon, but the Panthers brought in a few weapons of their own that could do some damage very early (as in Week 1) against an unproven Atlanta squad. I think this will be a close one, and it is worth noting that I don’t know if I would have taken it at +3 or +2.5. Field goal could be the difference here, and that means profit.

Alright, let’s get into the big games and sporting news from this past weekend, along with a few previews for this week.

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The Boston Bruins kind of failed.

The Florida Panthers just eliminated the Boston Bruins in overtime in Game 7 of the first round of the NHL playoffs. That really sucks.

The Bruins were won of the most dominant teams in NHL history. There is a trend of having the “best team ever” lose in the first round, as Tampa Bay got swept a few years ago. Regardless, it is a tough look, and the season kind of has to be considered a failure.

The Miami Heat knocked off the Bucks.

Giannis says it’s not a failure. I agree that it is not his failure. The man was out for a chunk of the series, and his teammates simply did not pick up the slack. It didn’t help that Jimmy Butler played out of his mind. The Heat are moving on to face the Knicks in the second round.

The Warriors committed regicide.

Stephen Curry killed the Kings. Plain and simple. His teammates made 23 shots, and the Warriors won by 20. Steph scored 50 points, including seven threes. Defense was incredible, but without Mr. Curry, this Game 7 goes the other way. The Warriors are taking on the Lakers in the next round, which we’ll preview later.

Mexic-Over

The San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres had an absolute classic in Mexico City on Saturday. The over was 15.5, which is already an insane total for a baseball game. The Padres hit that on their own. The final score was 16-11 with 11 bombs from both teams, resulting in the Sunday game having one of the highest over/unders in MLB history, closing at 19.5 but getting up to 21.5 at one point in the day. Easiest under in the world, but wouldn’t it have been fun if it hit?

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Week-Ahead Preview

The Warriors-Lakers second round matchup is something that Adam Silver would have rigged if he thought about it. Steph vs. LeBron in a relatively wide-open Western Conference is just awesome. The legends of our time. I’ve already bet that it will go to Game 7, strictly manifesting a classic series.

I’m weirdly pumped for the Seattle Kraken and Dallas Stars series in the NHL second round. They both just play so hard, and it is incredible to me that one of these teams could play for the Stanley Cup in a couple of weeks. I want them to both wear their home jerseys so we can get an all-time weird color combination. Also, Jason Robertson is a dawg.

76ers-Celtics has the makings of an all-time series. It honestly sucks that this isn’t the Eastern Conference Finals. Obviously, the 76ers win it because they have to fulfill their Philly destiny and lose the championship, but it’s gonna be tough with Embiid out tonight and questionable for the rest of the series.

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Check back in on Thursday for a new take and some weekend picks!

There are some dawgs in this draft class. Now, I’m not saying these other guys won’t have decent careers. They’ll probably make some money, and they’ll probably have some good games. I just think one set of five will have immense amounts of success, and the other five simply won’t. I’d love to be proven wrong, but I don’t think I will be. Just to preface, I do watch more SEC football than anything, so I’ll have more insight on those guys.

These are in no particular order.

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Bryce Young (QB, Alabama) will make it.

The sophomore came in as one of the most touted recruits in Alabama history. At the burgeoning of the NIL era, he remained disciplined, humble, and hungry. He pushed the agenda for his entire time as the leader of the Crimson Tide, and I expect him to do the same in the league. His play is magical, and he seems to be calm no matter what the situation. He could and should be the top pick in this year’s draft.

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Anthony Richardson (QB, Florida) won’t.

If combine performance is the sole indicator of NFL success, Anthony Richardson, Tim Tebow, and Tyrod Taylor are the three best quarterbacks of all time. Look, I’m all for having a quarterback that can run through a tackle, especially on a team that doesn’t have a strong offensive line, but Richardson just plays bad ball. After being a preseason Heisman favorite, the guy had more tackles (3) than he did passing touchdowns (0) through three weeks. Draft him at your own risk. 

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Jalin Hyatt (WR, Tennessee) will make it.

Let’s be honest, the man is just straight up fast. The crazy part is, however, that’s not that best part of his game. Jalin Hyatt’s hands are so sticky that he wouldn’t have to fake that one Madden 10 touchdown celebration. Hyatt’s hands are so sticky that he’s fighting the Green Goblin after practice. His QBR when targeted was highest in the nation. He’s a phenomenal route runner, too. I hope to see him be the first wideout drafted, but wherever he goes, they’ll be getting a ballplayer.

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C.J. Stroud (QB, Ohio State) won’t.

First off, quarterbacks from Ohio State don’t pan out. That’s a thing. Justin Fields is working on that, but we haven’t seen enough yet (plus he wasn’t always at Ohio State). That’s neither here nor there. I’m more worried about his football mind. He’s a big guy for a college quarterback, but he won’t be at the next level. Therefore, he’s gotta be a thinker, which, judging by his S2 Cognition scores (lowest in this year’s class), he is not. I hope to see some good ball from the guy, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

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Will Anderson Jr. (EDGE, Alabama) will make it.

Mr. Anderson is a crazy man. He’s a crazy ball player too. He’s been at or near the top of the leaderboards for every statistic since he started playing college football, beating out linemen that are making a lot of money in the league now. Not to mention that Alabama’s defense is built to send guys to the next level, so he will be coming in hot to a training camp near you.

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Tyree Wilson (EDGE, Texas Tech) won’t.

Tyree Wilson has gotten more hype as a draft prospect than he did the entire season this past year. As a “franchise-changing” edge rusher, this guy was obviously breaking games in the Big 12, right? Wrong. He had good stats, but nothing to justify the hype he’s gotten, especially when you consider that he’s two inches taller than the average guy he lined up against.

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Jalen Carter (DT, Georgia) will make it.

Mr. Carter is a winner. He’s been the centerpiece of back-to-back national championship defenses, each more historic than the last. He’s both the immovable object and the unstoppable force. He controls the field. It didn’t translate to the box score as much this year, but it’s hard to get to the backfield when you’re being triple-teamed. It takes an incredible level of domination for offenses to ignore other five-star linemen just to stop you. Heaven forbid you pair this guy up with another powerful interior lineman. The quarterbacks might start putting themselves on the injury report.

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Christian Gonzalez (CB, Oregon) won’t.

Let me get this straight. Gonzalez had one season of great ball, so we should fall in love with him. We should waste a top 5 pick on him. I don’t think so. In his first two seasons (very down seasons in the PAC-12, mind you), quarterbacks were throwing for over 90 QBR when targeting him.  His stats were much better this year, but he didn’t play the best receivers in the conference, two of whom are on USC. Gonzalez is a purely man-up corner, but he still has to start backed off of the line most of the time. I just don’t think he’ll work out.

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Quentin Johnston (WR, TCU) will make it.

The TCU product is an absolute scramble drill king. TCU had so many close wins, and so many of them are due to Johnson’s pure electricity on the field and in the clutch moments. On top of this, the man is immensely talented and shows a ton of promise. If he gets on the right team like the Bills, Jets, or Ravens, I could see him being a prominent receiver in the league for a long time.

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Michael Mayer (TE, Notre Dame) won’t.

Mayer is the highest-graded tight end in this class, but he still isn’t a game-changer in his own right. This class isn’t the strongest for that position. I expect next year to have a much more exciting TE group. Also, Notre Dame doesn’t play anybody.

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Make sure to tune into the first round of the NFL Draft Thursday night on ABC and ESPN.

I’m convinced that all playoff hockey games go into overtime.

I can’t think of a single game I’ve watched that ended in regulation. The games all last nine and a half hours, and it’s perfect. The energy level is so high all the time.

Last night, I tuned into game one of the Oilers-Kings and Stars-Wild series. Both of the teams I bet on lost, but I loved the games nonetheless (a testament to how good these games are). 

The Oilers put on an absolute show in the first period, going up 2-0. Slowing hard in the second, we headed to the third with the Kings ready to make a run. Tying the game with only a few ticks remaining in a Power Play-driven end of regulation, the Kings forced overtime and eventually stole the first game in Edmonton. A full-game recap from NHL.com can be found here.

Despite dropping game one, I still like the Oilers in this series. Too much talent on that roster, and Connor McDavid has to make a run at some point.

As for the Stars-Wild game, I didn’t get to tune in until after the Oilers-Kings game finished out, already sitting at midnight local time. Watching a recap, I learned that the game had been back and forth the whole time. No scoring in the third period led to no scoring in overtime. Since the NHL is awesome, we just got more hockey after that. In the second overtime, Ryan Hartman put one in the net just so everybody could go home. A full-game recap from NHL.com can be found here.

Once again, I really like the team that dropped the first game at home. I don’t get it either. Watching the game, however, Dallas just dominated every aspect of pace of play. The Wild had two absolutely insane lucky saves in 2OT, and outside of that, the Stars completely outpaced them even though they were all so tired. I believe they outrun them eventually and Dallas will be moving on.

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P.S. If the Bruins don’t win the Stanley Cup, it’s a travesty. They’re so electric.

He scored a goal right after smelling salts 😂 @BR_OpenIce pic.twitter.com/2so2wdpiFU

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) April 18, 2023