Florida football: Looking at early Florida-Georgia betting trends

Florida football is gearing up for their showdown with the Georgia Bulldogs at The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party this weekend in Jacksonville.

As expected, the Gators opened this week as rather large underdogs at +14.5. This line is way down from around +21 where it opened preseason, but is still a rather large number.

On paper, this is a bit of a mismatch. But we’ve seen stranger things happen in this rivalry than an underdog covering a two-touchdown spread.

With four days left until gameday, let’s take an early look at the initial betting trends surrounding this game.

Florida football: Never say never

The number dropping almost a full touchdown from where it was in the preseason is already a reason for optimism for Florida fans.

But another figure that will boost UF’s confidence is that the Gators are currently receiving 70% of the bets to cover against the Bulldogs.

That volume of public confidence is surprising and would have gotten you laughed at a couple of weeks ago. But people like where this Florida team is at through seven games, and the loss of Brock Bowers is not a small one for the Dawgs.

What’s also notable is that Georgia has been one of the worst teams in the country at covering the spread. They’re 1-6 against the number on the year, with their lone cover being their route of Kentucky in Athens.

Now, Florida hasn’t been outstanding against the spread either at 3-4, but have covered their last two games.

The biggest movement among these lines has been the total. It opened up at 54.5, but in the past week, it has plummeted to 47.5.

A lot of this has to do with the Bowers injury, but 92% of the best are coming in on the over with this new lower number.

Both teams are 4-3 toward the over, so if you like cheering for points this might be the time to dive in and grab a low figure.

We’ll learn a lot over these next 48 hours as more bets come in, but it would be a shock to see the spread dip below 14.

Regardless, the Gators have a chance to shock the world on Saturday, and it doesn’t seem to be an impossible task.