Tennessee football: Week 3 SEC and top 25 picks and bets
No. 1 Alabama Crimson Tide at No. 11 Florida Gators (CBS)
Saturday, Sept. 18 at 3:30 p.m. ET; Ben Hill Griffin Stadium; Gainesville, Fla.
Line: Alabama -14.5; Over/Under: 60
Moneyline: Alabama -660; Florida +470
Welcome to the game of the week. Two of Tennessee football’s three circled losses on the year get to take each other on. The Alabama Crimson Tide come in after an ugly 48-14 win over the Mercer Bears. Nick Saban wasn’t happy with his team, and that could be a bad sign.
At the same time, the Florida Gators have scored two three-touchdown victories over good Group of Five programs in the state of Florida the first two weeks, the Florida Atlantic Owls and South Florida Bulls. Dan Mullen’s team has a lot of talent it has to replace from last year, most notably Kyle Pitts and Kyle Trask, but he seems to have done a good job so far.
Prediction
In four of his last six games against Nick Saban, Dan Mullen has come within this 14.5-point spread. He’s done it in four of his last five games coaching teams with winning records. However, three of those times, he had a returning starter at quarterback. The other time was with Dak Prescott. Emory Jones is no Prescott, and Anthony Richardson is hurt.
As a result, I’m taking Alabama to cover here. Don’t forget about how they dominated the Miami Hurricanes to open the season. Florida has been doing a lot of chirping. That combined with Saban being angry after last week is enough for me to take the risk and bet on them to cover the two-touchdown spread. Florida allowing 20 points to USF is enough for me to take the over too.
Alabama: 45 Florida: 27 (Alabama -14.5; Over 60)