NCAAF
Payton Matthews
October 23, 2023

Georgia vs. Florida Point Spread: College Football Week 9 Odds, Prediction

The game is on Saturday with the No. 1 Dawgs priced as 14.5-point favourites on the odds board.

Point Spread and Betting Analysis

Seriously, if you can ever go to one of these games even if you don’t care about either school, it’s a very entertaining time. The stadium in Jacksonville right near the Florida/Georgia border is essentially split 50-50 like Oklahoma and Texas when they play their annual rivalry game in Dallas. Of course, both those schools are headed to the SEC next year, but there’s no way this rivalry isn’t protected. These teams always have a bye before this game.

Georgia head coach Kirby Smart previously said he wants the game moved on campus so the schools can host recruits, and he’s not alone in wanting that but it will be played in Jacksonville through at least 2025. The schools might each host the game in the following two years, though, because the city is planning a wholesale renovation at EverBank Stadium that also would displace the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars for those two years – maybe to London (or Orlando).

UGA has become by far the superior program to Florida and won last year 42-20. The Gators scored the first 17 points of the third quarter and turned a 28-3 deficit into a one-score game, but Georgia pulled away again. The Bulldogs lead the series 54-44-2 and have won the past two.

Georgia Bulldogs

No. 1 Georgia (7-0) is on a school-record 24-game winning streak, which is the fourth-longest in SEC history, but begins life without the nation’s top tight end and a likely Top 15 pick in next year’s NFL Draft in Brock Bowers. The All-American injured his ankle in Georgia’s 37-20 win over Vanderbilt on Oct. 14 that required surgery. Bowers, who leads the team with 41 catches for 567 yards and four TDs, could miss the rest of the regular season. He ranks fifth in school history with 2,391 career receiving yards and sixth with 160 catches. Certainly not ideal timing as Georgia’s schedule had been rather weak so far but faces three straight ranked schools (Missouri, Ole Miss and Tennessee) following Florida. UGA’s regular-season winning streak is 34 in a row. It again ranks among the national leaders in scoring defence at 14.0 ppg.

Florida Gators

Florida (5-2) was not very good in 2022 under first-year coach Billy Napier but already is within one victory of that season’s win total. Both of UF’s losses were by double digits on the road, and it probably should have lost last time out on Oct. 14 at South Carolina but rallied from down 10 in the fourth to win 41-39 and keep its SEC East alive – they will be all but gone with a loss Saturday. Wisconsin transfer Graham Mertz is having the best season of his career, completing 76.2 per cent of his passes (third nationally) for 1,897 yards, 12 TDs and two picks. UF also has one of the best 1-2 punches at running back in the country in Montrell Johnson Jr. (85/438/2) and Trevor Etienne (69/407/3), who is the younger brother of former Clemson star and current Jacksonville Jaguars running back Travis Etienne.