#Alex Padilla

LINCOLN - One more offseason. One more preseason. One more football season. And one more postseason. All with a new commissioner, and an eye toward a larger future in the league. One more trip around the sun with this iteration of Big Ten football. And one more year with divisional schedules. One more year, for certain, of a Big Ten title game. The…

From who is sitting out to who is expected to start, here's everything you need to know about the Iowa vs. Kentucky matchup. NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Iowa Hawkeyes (7-5) face the Kentucky Wildcats (7-5) in the 2022 TransPerfect Music City Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 31 - New Year's Eve - in Nashville. The Hawkeyes were scheduled to play in the Music City…

In last season's Citrus Bowl, Kentucky beat Iowa 20-17 when both teams struggled on offense for the first three quarters before finally putting things together in the fourth quarter to provide some offensive fireworks. The good folks at the Music City Bowl watched it and thought to themselves, "We need to get us some of that." Now here we are with…

College football bowl season takes a big step towards New Year's with a notable Big Ten vs. SEC matchup in the Music City Bowl between Kentucky and Iowa. The game features two teams that failed to repeat their success from the year before, each coming in with 7-5 records after having won 10 games last season. Iowa comes in playing behind the…

After not a bad start to bowl season, things really went off the rails over the last few days. Arkansas blew a big lead, Syracuse scored a late touchdown, and a number of other teams I picked had terrible performances. While we can't even up our season record, hopefully we can still have some fun with these last games of bowl season. Who knows,…

And just like that, the Iowa football season is coming to a close. In typical Hawkeye fashion, Iowa gave fans a reason for optimism. Heading into a Black Friday showdown with a reeling Nebraska team, the Hawkeyes needed to just not completely trip all over themselves to return to Indianapolis as Big Ten West Champions for the second straight…

For the second year in a row, the Iowa Hawkeyes and Kentucky Wildcats will be hooking up in the postseason after they met last January in the VRBO Citrus Bowl, seeing the Big Blue come out with a 20-17 win. Fast-forward 364 days and these two will be back at each other again in Nashville in the Music City Bowl. Want more irony? Last year was just…

The lowest total of any bowl game is the Music City Bowl, where Iowa and Kentucky have second and third-string QBs starting. Our free college football picks, however, are scared of the low full-game total... so we're keying in on the first 15 minutes. One year after playing against each other in the Citrus Bowl, Iowa and Kentucky will square off…

It's not often that two schools from different conferences play each other twice in a calendar year, but the Iowa Hawkeyes (7-5, 7-5 ATS) and Kentucky Wildcats (7-5, 8-4 ATS) can make that boast. The Wildcats beat the Hawkeyes 20-17 in the Citrus Bowl on January 1, 2022. Here they are, 364 days later, meeting again on New Year's Eve in the Music…

IOWA CITY, Iowa - Iowa and Kentucky are running it back in the New Year's Eve Music City Bowl in Nashville. It's a rematch of last year's Citrus Bowl in Orlando. It's not often we see Power 5 schools meeting up in back-to-back bowl games. And this one is being frowned upon by college football fans outside of the fan bases, especially by the folks…

Although a nationwide cold front chilled the holiday weekend, bowl season is ready to heat up significantly. After a dozen days of one matchup, maybe two, we're ready for a complete week of three or four showdowns. This is, in fact, the most wonderful week of the postseason. This edition covers the biggest bowl-season questions, as determined by…

The Iowa Hawkeyes and the Kentucky Wildcats will square off in the Music City Bowl. The matchup is at 12:00 PM ET on December 31, 2022, and airs on ABC. In their last game, the Hawkeyes were beaten by the Nebraska Cornhuskers 24-17. The Wildcats are coming off of a 26-13 win over the Louisville Cardinals. Against the Cornhuskers, Alex Padilla led…

ATHENS - The SEC portion of the bowl season will get off to an early and somewhat unfamiliar start this weekend. The helmets and uniforms will say "Florida," but the Gators won't have the same bite without projected first-round quarterback Anthony Richardson under center. Florida will also be missing a few other key players: • All-American…

Ranking 13th out of 14 teams in the Big Ten in total offense didn't stop the Iowa Hawkeyes from reaching the conference title game. However, the 42-3 loss to Michigan showed how much of a gap there was in the Hawkeyes' quest to win the conference championship. Quarterback Spencer Petras and tight end Sam LaPorta are among the top returnees on…

After allowing Kentucky to score the go-ahead points with under two minutes to play in last season's Citrus Bowl, Iowa has a golden opportunity to redeem itself against the Wildcats. But it'll have to do so on the shoulders of a third-string quarterback. Here's what to know about this matchup. Saturday, Dec. 31, noon at Nissan Stadium in Nashville,…

This rematch of last year's Citrus Bowl is going to be a rock fight. Both offenses rank outside the top 100 in scoring, while both stop units sit top-15 in scoring defense. Then, there are a number of offensive uncertainties on both sides. Iowa quarterback Spencer Petras will miss this game with an injury that requires surgery, while Alex Padilla…

The Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants met in the postseason last year for the first time in their storied history as the long-time rivals squared off in the National League Division Series. A native of San Francisco, California Gov. Gavin Newsom shared that he was cheering for the Giants, while U.S. Senator Alex Padilla - an L.A. native…

A big bowl season awaits the Big Ten. There will be a minimum of 9 B1G bowl games this postseason, with Michigan and Ohio State both earning the opportunity to play in a 10th for the national championship. The Big Ten's first year with 2 teams in the College Football Playoff has a trickle-down effect on the rest of the conference's bowl bids.…

College football's regular season has come to a close after an exhilarating final weekend of action. Five Big Ten teams saw their seasons come to an end, but nine qualified for a bowl game and will have one final chance to tie a bow on the 2022 campaign. Most notably, there's a new No. 1 team for the rest of the field to chase. Here's how all 14…

In this week's Triple Option, Andrew Caley is bullish on a Wake Forest line that is simply too low and frankly disrespectful to how good the Demon Deacons are. They could easily be undefeated if not for an OT loss to Clemson and should handle Louisville. It's a bit of an underwhelming week in college football. There is just one Top 25 matchup with…

With the start of college football season getting closer, it's worthwhile to see how oddsmakers are handicapping the power conferences. To start, we'll be looking at the favorites, sleepers, and best long-shot bets to win the Big Ten. The Big Ten East division has reigned supreme, winning every Big Ten championship game since the creation of the…

As the final month of the regular season nears and Big Ten teams get more games under their belts, it's beginning to become clearer which teams are contenders and which are pretenders. There are five games on the docket in the conference this weekend, and DraftKings Sportsbook has odds available for four of them. Let's take a look at this week's…

Can Iowa close a 39-point gap with Michigan from last December? That is the question Saturday's Big Ten championship game rematch at Kinnick Stadium boils down to. The Wolverines pounded the Hawkeyes 42-3 to clinch a spot in the College Football Playoff. Yes, teams change from year to year. But in the case of these 2 rosters, there's a surprising…

Last week was a solid performance at 4-2, though I can't help but feel sorry for myself about not putting any juice on the underdog money lines of Duke, Washington State, or Georgia Southern. That's the way it goes. Thankfully a goal line fumble brought me some respite as it kept The Battle of the Nerds under 56.5. Don't worry Evan Hull, you're…

Week one got off to a slow start with some bad beats and tough breaks but things corrected themselves in week two as the column went 7-0! Sure hope you didn't put all that cash in your wallet as your spine might be off alignment by sitting on all that cash... seriously though, it was a good week but any good bettor knows you are never as good as…

The Los Angeles Dodgers tied a franchise record with 106 wins last season, but had their streak of consecutive National League West titles snapped at eight by the San Francisco Giants, who won 107 games. After surviving a win-or-go-home Wild Card Game against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Dodgers met their longtime rival in the NL Division Series.…