The Florida Gators are the NCAA football betting favorites to beat the Texas A&M Aggies, but one thing is, regardless of who wins or loses, almost a certainty, and it’s that the Gators will score. Florida lost to LSU on Saturday but, for what it’s worth, they set a new FBS record for most straight games scoring a point (366), a streak that dates back to 1988. The Gators simply won’t back down.
RIP Tom Petty. pic.twitter.com/8akHgv3hKd
— Cody Worsham (@CodyWorsham) October 7, 2017
- Date: Saturday, October 14
- Time: 7:05 PM
- Venue: Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Gainesville, FL
- Sportsbook College Football Wagering Odds:
Texas A&M Aggies +3 (EV) +142
Florida Gators -3 (-120) -162
Let’s be Franks
Florida head coach Jim McElwain doesn’t seem to have a lot of faith in QB Feleipe Franks, but with Luke Del Rio’s injury, he doesn’t seem to have too much of a choice either. Following Saturday’s 16-17 loss to LSU, both of the Gators’ losses this season have taken place on Franks’s watch. He started the season-opener against Michigan and led Florida to a field goal on their opening drive, but the Gators forgot about scoring after that, and Franks was relieved by Malik Zaire in the third quarter. McElwain kept Franks on a short leash against LSU, and the freshman attempted just five passes in the second half before the last drive. Another player that’s probably fallen from McElwain’s grace is kicker Eddy Pineiro, who missed the extra point that would have tied the game, though it may not have been his fault. The Gators managed, nonetheless, to cover the NCAA football betting spread for the second straight week. On the plus side, the ground attack continues to be, thanks to running backs Malik Davis and Lamical Perine Florida’s greatest virtue, the only problem being that at some point you’re going to want to pass the ball.
This one’s for you, @TomPetty. pic.twitter.com/OMUwJOnAgS
— Florida Gators (@FloridaGators) October 7, 2017
A close loss to Alabama is almost as good as a win
The Aggies got the proverbial moral victory when they hung in there with Alabama 19-27 on Saturday. TAMU even held the briefest 3-0 lead over the Crimson Tide. Following the game, head coach Kevin Sumlin had sumlin to say. “We lost the game, but as a team, we’ve gotten better every week. The effort has been there, the communication is better, but our execution has to get better. If we get better every week, there’s not a game that we can’t win.” sumlin added that “There’s no moral victory. When you play that hard and play that long, no one’s happy.” Okay, we take it back. Well, if the Aggies didn’t get the straight-up or the moral win, at least they got the ATS win for only the third time in their last 15 games. Additionally, the NCAA football betting total went under for TAMU for the second straight week. This will be the first time the Aggies play the Gators since Johnny Manziel’s first game for TAMU, as well as Texas A&M’s first game in the SEC, in 2012, which Florida won 20-17.