What’s the Line? (vs. Charlotte)
According to the current BetMGM odds, Georgia is a 45.5-point favorite over Charlotte with a point total of 54.5 for their game this Saturday afternoon at Sanford Stadium. Notably, in his 10 seasons as the Bulldogs’ head coach, Kirby Smart is 0-14-1 against the spread (ATS), including 0-2 this season (vs. Marshall, vs. Austin Peay), when favored by more than 38 points.
Matchup: Georgia is 9-1 straight up and 5-5 ATS this season. Last Saturday, the Bulldogs defeated Texas, 35-10, in Athens, covering as a 3.5-point favorite. Remarkably, Georgia has now covered five out of its last six games after going 3-15 ATS dating back to the second game of last season. A member of the American Athletic Conference (AAC), Charlotte enters the game 1-9 straight up and 2-6-1 ATS. In their last game, the 49ers lost at home to UTSA, 28-7, while also failing to cover as a 16.5-point underdog. Although Charlotte has a non-winning ATS mark in each of the last four seasons, the 49ers are 14-5-1 ATS as a road underdog during the same time, including 2-0-1 ATS this season.
Coaching Trends: Smart’s 0-14-1 ATS mark when favored by more than 38 points is even more puzzling considering the Georgia head coach is an impressive 58.0% ATS in his career under all other circumstances. In his first season at Charlotte after guiding Ohio to three consecutive 10-win seasons, Tim Albin inherited a 49er program that had won no more than seven games in a season since joining the FBS in 2015. In five seasons as an FBS head coach, Albin is a respectable 54.2% ATS in all of his games, but that includes an 8-15-2 mark (34.8%) vs. non-conference opponents.
Series History: This will be the first meeting between Georgia and Charlotte. Since joining the FBS, the 49ers have faced SEC foes on four occasions (2015 vs. Kentucky, 2018 vs. Tennessee, 2022 vs. South Carolina, 2023 vs. Florida), going 0-4 straight up, but covering against Tennessee and Florida. Since the AAC was formed in 2013, Georgia has faced conference members twice, defeating Cincinnati in the 2021 Peach Bowl and UAB in the 2023 regular season, but failed to cover both games.