Georgia host Georgia Tech: Betting Trends
It’s Thanksgiving Day and that always means that we are somewhere around 48 hours away from Georgia vs. Georgia Tech. The game will be played in Athens this season for the first time since the 2018 season. The 2020 contest didn’t take place at all due to the spread of COVID-19 and the SEC’s decision to go with conference-only schedules.
The Bulldogs are ranked No. 1 in all three sets of rankings. They’re 11-0 with a chance to go 12-0 in the regular season for the second time in as many seasons. They’re already one of three SEC programs to go 8-0 ever. Georgia has a chance to play four more games this season, win them all, and go 29-1 over the course of two seasons with two National Championships.
Georgia Tech is using an interim coach. Brent Key has a chance to hold on to that title long term but Geoff Collins began the season as the Tech head coach and he was ousted four games into the season. Key took over and has led the Yellow Jackets to a 4-3 record.
UGA is favored by 36.5 points according to the VegasInsider Consensus. That’s up at least two points from where it opened and in some places that is up five points.
The public likes Georgia Tech according to VegasInsider but not a ton. The Bulldogs are laying a ton of points and 51 percent of the bets have been on the Yellow Jackets. A slightly larger piece of the handle is on Tech at 56 percent.
For whatever reason, VegasInsider doesn’t have any data regarding the money line (straight up). It would normally at least deliver the percentage-of-bets data. We’re not seeing that at all this week.
What we are seeing is that the public is expecting another Georgia under to hit. The Bulldogs have played in 11 games this season and the under has hit in eight of those games. Georgia and Tech have combined to play 22 games this season with the under hitting 15 times. It’s not hard to figure out why that is the case for Georgia. The Bulldogs lead the nation in points per game allowed at 11.1.
Kirby Smart still relishes Georgia Tech rivalry
Georgia players say that they’ve heard more about the history of this rivalry this week. It’s clear that Kirby Smart and his coaching staff are tapping into every possible resource to keep this team focused and energized.
The seventh-year head coach told reporters at the beginning of this week that this game is indeed still Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate for him. His players need to know what is at stake for those who have been a part of this program for a long time.
“Yeah, certainly it is,” Smart said when asked if this rivalry is still Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate for him. “I mean, it’s what this program’s biggest rivalry was many, many, many years ago when they were in the SEC. Our kids don’t know that history. They don’t know the history of this rivalry and what goes into it.
“It was a really big rivalry, you know, during Paul’s years here because of the triple option and playing something different and the physicality of the game, you know.And I think educating our players on that so they understand it — because it means a lot to our players in terms of what they want to achieve and they got to win this game to achieve those things. So making sure they understand that is really important. And teaching the history of that is important because it’ll mean something to the Georgia Tech players and the Georgia players 20/30 years from now.”
