Georgia-Vanderbilt opening line; how UGA has fared as big favorite
Georgia and Vanderbilt take the field at Sanford Stadium this coming Saturday, and Vegas has already weighed in on what they expect to be a blowout. The line opened on books with spreads ranging from 36.5 to 38 and peaked at 39 on Caesar’s Sportsbook Sunday night. As of Monday morning, the Vegas Insider consensus spread has the Bulldogs has 38-point favorites with an over/under set for 58, meaning the expected final is 48-10 UGA.
Georgia is 6-0 on the season but just 3-3 against the spread per Vegas Insider. The Bulldogs had lost their last two against the spread before getting back on track Saturday with a cover against Auburn. That line closed at 28, the closest closing spread since Week 3 (25.5 over South Carolina). The only one closer was a 16-point spread in the season opener against Oregon. Georgia covered both of those. However, when the Bulldogs have been 30+ point favorites, they haven’t covered, beating Samford 33-0 with a 52.5-point spread, topping Kent State 39-22 with a 44.5-point spread and needing a fourth quarter comeback to narrowly get by Missouri 26-22 with a 30.5-point spread. What all this means? Georgia has played down a little bit in games that it is expected to win big (30+) while playing up in ones with lesser spreads.
Of course, Kirby Smart isn’t concerned about what the spread is. He’s only concerned about winning. The Bulldogs have gotten off to some slow starts this season, making Georgia bettors have to sweat out some of the games that the Bulldogs have played so far. Smart spoke on what still can be learned from a 42-10 win over Auburn this weekend.
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“Everything, like what does the score have to do with how we played? It really doesn’t to me,” Smart shared. “You look at the stat line and you say, ‘Oh we ran the ball great,’ and I think there’s a lot of times that we didn’t block it right. We got whipped at the point of attack. There’s other times that we did it right. That’s across the board. Defensively, all we talked about was containing the quarterback. Well, we didn’t do that all the time. He got out of there. There’s an immense amount of improvement that needs to happen for our team to get to the level we need to. I think everybody has this perception of what your ranking is and what the experts say you should beat somebody by. I keep saying over and over, we won’t get caught up in that. We have to get better. We’ve got a really really tough schedule coming and we’ve got to get back. The only way you get better is practice. So we’re going to keep doing that and keep trying to rhythm and get better.”
Kickoff time for Saturday’s homecoming game at Sanford Stadium between Georgia and Vanderbilt is set for 3:30 p.m. ET on the SEC Network.
