The Georgia Bulldogs are one of five undefeated teams left in the nation. Georgia should be ranked No. 2 in the country when the first College Football Playoff rankings come out on Tuesday and it’s hard to argue with its credentials. Now, they are looking to keep the pedal to the metal when the South Carolina Gamecocks come to town.
This matchup in Week 10 of the regular season will take place on Saturday, November 4, 2017, at 3:30 p.m. ET at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia. This game will be broadcast on CBS.
College Football Opening Odds at BookMaker.eu
South Carolina +24.5
Georgia -24.5
Over/Under 45.5
Odds Analysis
If you haven’t been paying attention to South Carolina this season, you might be surprised to see that Will Muschamp already has this team bowl eligible. The Gamecocks were expected to win right around six games this season and have done so in somewhat surprising fashion. They somehow found a way to knock off a good North Carolina State team in the season opener and have now won three in a row, with a 2-0-1 ATS record in that stretch.
Kirby Smart vowed to turn Georgia into the SEC East version of Alabama and just like Saban, he has this team humming after a shaky first season. The Bulldogs turned the corner with a road win against Notre Dame and have not looked back since then, beating their next six foes by at least 25 points. This defense has been great all year, but lately the offense has come alive too and the Bulldogs have surpassed the 40-point mark in each of their last four outings.
Key Stat
The Bulldogs have an amazing ground game and have had a ton of success moving the chains with their running backs this season. All four of their top running backs are averaging at least 6.4 yards per carry, an incredible number when you consider some of the defenses they have played.
That has kept the pressure off of freshman quarterback Jake Fromm. Fromm is a competent quarterback, but Smart has not asked much of him this season. He is only averaging 16 attempts per game and has been used mostly in play action. That has been extremely successful as defenses cheat to stop the run and Fromm is averaging 9.9 yards per pass this season.
Matchup to Watch
Can South Carolina move the ball against this Georgia team? The Gamecocks have a solid young quarterback in Jake Bentley and he has been pretty effective this season. He hasn’t been as efficient as Fromm, but has had to throw the ball far more often because his run game has not helped him out much this year.
Bentley is probably the best or second-best passer that Georgia’s secondary has faced this season, depending upon your opinion of Missouri’s Drew Lock. Lock had a good amount of success against the Bulldogs, throwing four touchdowns against this defense. Bentley will try to mirror that performance.
Free ATS Pick
This is a big-time letdown, lookahead spot for the Dawgs. Georgia is coming off of a massive win against a Florida team that has been a thorn in its side for the last decade, and you could sense that this team felt a huge burden lifted from its shoulder after the victory. Next week, the Bulldogs face another tough rival in a road trip to Auburn and it’s not hard to imagine the players starting to look ahead toward that game.
Muschamp knows how to make a game ugly and get the opponent to play his style of football. This team has only been blown out once since Muschamp took over, and that was against last year’s national champion. South Carolina will do enough to get the cover here.
College Football Odds: Georgia 33, South Carolina 17
BookMaker offers play-by-play betting odds for live sporting events every day! The user-friendly wagering interface on your smartphone provides an easy way to place bets on the go. Mobile betting lines are updated by the minute, so click here to start gambling on thrilling live action at BookMaker Sportsbook!
