No. 11 Auburn Tigers at Arkansas Razorbacks
Line: Auburn -19.5; Over/Under: 55.5; TV: SEC Network
Saturday, Oct. 19 at Noon E.T.; Razorback Stadium; Fayetteville, Ark.
As the one team coming off a bye from last week, the Auburn Tigers may not be looking so good right now anymore after their last outing was a loss to a team that just lost this past week. Okay, it’s actually not that big of a deal. They lost to a team on the road that then just lost to one of the best teams in the nation…on the road.
Gus Malzahn is back with Bo Nix still at quarterback, and the Tigers now have a chance to get things back on the right track on the road against one of the worst teams in the SEC. Auburn is still 5-1 and 2-1 in the league, and they have everything laid out in front of them. The loss to UF just limited their margin for error.
Hosting them, though, is an Arkansas team that has shown improvement in Chad Morris’s second season while struggling with consistency, similar to Tennessee football. They did almost beat the Kentucky Wildcats last week, and there’s a chance they give the Tigers a bit of trouble in a noon kickoff at home.
Prediction
Auburn is 7-0 under Malzahn coming off a bye, and Malzahn himself his never lost. In 2016, they faced a higher-ranked Arkansas team coming off a bye and won 56-3. Last year, they were unranked and then beat the No. 25 ranked Texas A&M Aggies 28-24 off the bye. Because of this track record, we’ve got them dominating. They win, they cover, and they hit the over.