Florida's history at home gives the Gators a slight edge over Ole Miss in the early odds

Now the fun begins for the newly-ranked Florida Gators as they host No. 4 Ole Miss in The Swamp for a game that should have an electric atmosphere. Gator Nation is pumped, and so are the oddsmakers, who have made Florida a 2.5-point favorite over the Rebels on FanDuel.

Both teams won their respective SEC openers last week in highly emotional games. The Gators took down Auburn on the road for the first time since 1999 to give Jon Sumrall his first conference win. Ole Miss took down LSU in the Magnolia Bowl, getting sweet revenge on former coach Lane Kiffin. 

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

Florida is starting 3-0 for the first time since 2019, when the Gators won six straight to open the season. If Gator fans are drinking the Kool-Aid, they aren't alone, but that group doesn't include Sumrall.

Jon Sumrall wants Florida to stay focused with Ole Miss up next

There's no rest for the weary in the SEC, and Sumrall knows the challenge that lies ahead. Surely Pete Golding has the same concerns with Ole Miss after the Rebels put so much into beating LSU and slaying the Kiffin Dragon.

Sumrall is a new head coach in the SEC, but he isn't new to the conference. He knows that many a ranked team has come through the Swamp and left with a loss. Even in the most feeble of runs under Billy Napier, the Gators managed to put things together and knock off Texas at home — a loss that likely kept the Longhorns out of the College Football Playoff.

But he also doesn't want his team to get too far ahead of itself. The Week 3 win over Auburn was great, but there is a lot to fix, especially those 16 penalties, and much left to work on before anyone should believe that the Gators are ready to take down a top-5 team with a Heisman frontrunner at quarterback. 

"I did talk to our team about rankings in Week 4... Like, nobody posts anything up in the building about this year's team where you're ranked in Week 4. Nobody cares. And the same pats in the back you're getting, if you go out and lay an egg, you're going to see the same hands hitting you in the back and there's going to be a knife in [them]," he said.

That guy doesn't mince words, does he?

But that's why Sumrall is the perfect coach to lead the Gators through this week of preparation. He's going to make it hard and treat last week's result in Auburn like it was a loss. Florida needs to stay hungry with Ole Miss coming in because a win Saturday will be a game changer for the Gators in their quest to return to greatness. 

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