Saturday’s game between the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and Georgia Bulldogs opened with the Dawgs favored by 13.5 points, according to our odds bros at Odds Shark. The Dawgs may not have a better record, but they’ve clearly been the better team this year, with most of their losses coming to teams currently ranked and all of their wins by two scores or more. Plus Vegas knows the Jackets will roll into Athens without three-year triggerman Joshua Nesbitt.
The line has since come down a bit to 12.5. Perhaps bettors are looking at Georgia’s record and seeing a lot of confounding inconsistency — though almost all of that came without WR A.J. Green, so who knows. Some could also be looking at box scores and realizing QB Tevin Washington has filled in for Nesbitt better than had been expected.
An over/under hasn’t been set yet, but throwing together each team’s in-conference scoring offense and defense per-game averages, we get 52.55 points. Vegas’ over/under should be a little higher than that, considering Tech’s defense hasn’t faced anything like Green all year and this will be the first time Todd Grantham’s 3-4 has seen Tech’s offense, but it’s in the ballpark.
It’s hard to bet on a double-digit win in a rivalry game. It’s also hard to bet on this year’s Jackets team, whose best game was a loss. I have no advice for you today. I’m sorry.