Tennessee football: SEC and top 25 picks and gambling bets for Week 1 of 2021
Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks at Kentucky Wildcats (SECN)
Saturday, Sept. 4 at Noon ET; Kroger Field; Lexington, Ky.
Line: Kentucky -31; Over/Under: 54.5
Two coaches with deep Florida State connections face off in this one. Terry Bowden, the son of late FSU legend Bobby Bowden, returns to the sidelines with the Louisiana-Monroe Warhawks three years after he coached his last game with the Akron Zips. He takes over a program that went 0-10 last year and replaced Matt Viator, who never had a winning season in five years there.
On the other side, the Kentucky Wildcats enter their ninth season with Mark Stoops at the helm. Before his tenure at UK, Stoops was FSU’s defensive coordinator under Jimbo Fisher, directly preceding recently fired Tennessee football head coach Jeremy Pruitt.
Kentucky is coming off a 5-6 season and a Gator Bowl win, but given what Stoops can do there, particularly playing an all-SEC schedule, that’s pretty impressive. In recent years, he’s gotten UK to a point of consistency, and they hit that range every season. That’s probably going to be the case again this year.
Prediction
This seems like an unusually high spread for Kentucky by the oddsmakers early in the season. Stoops’ Wildcats usually take a bit of time to get going. They’ll win this game, but it’ll be an ugly affair. Take Kentucky to win but Louisiana-Monroe to cover. The game will also hit the under because UL-Monroe won’t score much.
Kentucky: 31 Louisiana Monroe: 3 (Louisiana Monroe +31; Under 54.5)