Vanderbilt
vs.
Georgia
College Football Pick
10/15/16
This season hasn’t gone great for either of these teams, but that was the consensus thinking before the campaign began. Georgia has lost the Games it was expected to and won the rest, while the same could technically be said for a 2-4 Vanderbilt team. But playing at home, the Bulldogs opened as a large -14 point favorite as seen at 5 Dimes Sportsbook.
When these teams met early last year, Georgia surprisingly ran away with it despite getting nothing from quarterback Greyson LAmbert. Nick Chubb ran for 189 and Sony Michel had another 56 yards and that was all the Bulldogs needed in a 31-14 win. As for the Commodores, they couldn’t do anything right from rushing for less than 3.0 yards per carry to throwing three interceptions.
Unfortunately for Vandy, nothing has really changed for this offense in the past year. In SEC play, they have yet to Scoremore than 13 points with that total coming in the last loss against Kentucky. Simply put, nothing is going right for them with sophomore Kyle Shurmur at quarterback. He’s completing just 52.8% of his passes and has 3 TDs and 3 INTs for the season. As a positive, running back Ralph Webb is still churning out five yards per tote, but that’s just not enough in the SEC.
It’s not to say Georgia has looked great this year, but their running Game is at a different level and that has led to more scoring. That’s none more noticeable than last Sunday’s Game against South Carolina in which the Dawgs ran for 326 yards as a team with Chubb at 121 and Michel at 133. Quarterback Jacob Eason was terrible passing for just 29 yards, but he wasn’t needed and that’ll probably be the case in this one.
This spread seems like a lot for Georgia considering how they’ve looked so far, but with the Gamecocks having beaten this Vandy team, there’s no reason to think the ‘Dores will be able to move the ball. Maybe they’ll reach 10 points through Webb, but to cover this Game, Vandy’s defense will need to step up and right now they don’t look good enough to do that.
Georgia will take the same strategy in this Game as they took last weekend and the last time these teams played. Expect Chubb and Michel to be super busy as usual with 35-40 carries split between the two of them. And if they find more success, Eason once again won’t be asked to do anything extraordinary.
The Commodores are 2-5 ATS in their last seven road Games and 1-4 ATS in their last five Conference Games. The Bulldogs are just 3-7 ATS in their last 10 Games following a straight-up win and having played Sunday will be on a shorter week of rest. The under is 8-2-1 in Vandy’s last 11 road Games and 8-1 in Georgia’s last nine at home.
Our Pick – Georgia took the last two in this series by large margins but this years team much weaker than those Georgia teams, both of which finished 10-3. The Vandy defense keeps them in this one. Vanderbilt +14.5