{"id":34446,"date":"2014-07-05T18:00:16","date_gmt":"2014-07-05T23:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=34446"},"modified":"2014-07-05T09:38:55","modified_gmt":"2014-07-05T14:38:55","slug":"college-football-week-1-picks-bowling-green-falcons-vs-western-kentucky-hilltoppers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/college-football-week-1-picks-bowling-green-falcons-vs-western-kentucky-hilltoppers-34446\/","title":{"rendered":"College Football Week 1 Picks: Bowling Green Falcons vs. Western Kentucky Hilltoppers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bowling Green Falcons vs. Western Kentucky Hilltoppers
\nFriday, 8\/29\/14, 8:00 PM EST
\nOpening Point Spread: Bowling Green -4
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Bowling Green -4
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 N\/A
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 N\/A
\nOdds Courtesy of 5Dimes<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Bowling Green Falcons will have opportunities to score against the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers in their 2014 season opener<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bowling Green begins a new era under first-year head coach Dino Babers, who led Eastern Illinois to a 19-7 record in his two seasons, with the offensive leading all FCS programs in averaging 48.2 points and 589.5 yards per game in 2013.\u00a0 Falcons junior quarterback Matt Johnson is capable of putting points on the scoreboard, as he threw for 3,467 yards and 25 touchdowns versus just seven interceptions a year ago.\u00a0 Bowling Green has covered the number in its last four Friday games, which is important to consider when looking over the college football odds page in Week 1.<\/p>\n

The Falcons captured a 41-21 win in this series back in 2007, but it\u2019s important to point out that the Hilltoppers were transitioning to the FBS level during that particular year.\u00a0 Bowling Green is 5-3 SU in its last eight road openers, while it has tallied a 9-0-1 mark in head coaching debuts since 1935.\u00a0 On the defensive side of the ball, the team will definitely make things tough on opposing Mid-American Conference offenses, with leading tacklers DJ Lynch and Ryland Ward returning to the fold.<\/p>\n

Western Kentucky will also possess a new look with head coach Jeff Brohm, who spent last season as the team\u2019s assistant head coach and offensive coordinator.\u00a0 He oversaw an offense that set 18 new school records and will have nine of 11 starters back from that high-powered group.\u00a0 Brohm\u2019s biggest challenge is replacing All-American running back Antonio Brown, who led the nation in all-purpose yardage the last two seasons.\u00a0 Senior quarterback Brandon Doughty will need to avoid unnecessary mistakes this year, as he comes off a season of throwing for 2,857 yards, but tossing 14 picks in the process.\u00a0 Western Kentucky is 1-5 ATS in its last six non-conference affairs.<\/p>\n

The Hilltoppers are a solid 15-3 SU in home openers, but they\u2019ve dropped their last three versus FBS opponents.\u00a0 Western Kentucky is certainly going to be challenged defensively in this matchup, considering it needs to replace its entire starting linebacker corps and three of four starters in the secondary.<\/p>\n

Sports bettors will likely play the total, as the OVER is 4-1 in the Falcons\u2019 last five games on field turf.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the college football handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bowling Green Falcons vs. Western Kentucky Hilltoppers Friday, 8\/29\/14, 8:00 PM EST Opening Point Spread: Bowling Green -4 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Bowling Green -4 Opening Total:\u00a0 N\/A Current Total:\u00a0 N\/A Odds Courtesy of 5Dimes Bowling Green begins a new era under first-year head coach Dino Babers, who led Eastern Illinois to a 19-7 record in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":29381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,1444],"tags":[3773,8343,8341,8342,7842,4240],"class_list":["post-34446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-football","category-headlines","tag-bowling-green-falcons","tag-brandon-doughty","tag-dino-babers","tag-jeff-brohm","tag-matt-johnson","tag-western-kentucky-hilltoppers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34446"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34446\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34448,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34446\/revisions\/34448"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}