It is the first weekend of October, and the college football betting season is heating up. By the end of the month, two more conferences – the Big Ten and the Mountain West – will have started their seasons. The character of the season will continue to change. Teams are currently focused on weeding out mistakes and shaking off the cobwebs after playing season openers in the SEC. How many improvements will these teams make in their second game, and how many flaws will continue to persist this season? These are the kinds of questions analysts will be focused on this weekend, with the featured game coming in Athens, Georgia, between two old SEC rivals who have been playing since the 1890s. Let’s take a sports betting look at Week 5 of the college football season.
NCAA Football | Biggest Games from Week 5
Auburn Tigers at Georgia Bulldogs
Odds: Georgia -6.5
The “Oldest Rivalry in the South” is usually played in November, but the adjusted pandemic schedule has put this game in early October. No one knows which team will benefit from this adjustment. But it does have to be said that in the initial stages of the season, Georgia is still figuring things out at quarterback. Georgia was hit by adversity in August when its projected starting quarterback, Wake Forest transfer Jamie Newman, opted out of the season due to worries about the coronavirus and a desire to begin preparing for the NFL draft. This left D’Wan Mathis and J.T. Daniels as competitors for the starting job, but Daniels wasn’t cleared to practice due to injury concerns.
Mathis started this past weekend in Georgia’s season opener against Arkansas and struggled throughout the game. He was relieved by backup Stetson Bennett, who was surprisingly solid. Bennett completed 20 of 29 passes for 211 yards, giving stability to the Georgia offense. However, Arkansas is picked by many to be the last-place team in the SEC. Bennett, should he get the start against Auburn, might fare a lot worse than he did against Arkansas. If Mathis plays, his confidence could easily be shaken.
As for Auburn, quarterback Bo Nix was inconsistent against Kentucky. Auburn’s defense and special teams made key plays which took pressure off the Auburn offense. Auburn scored just one touchdown in the first half versus Kentucky. Its last two touchdown drives were just 23 and 27 yards, set up by the defense and special teams. Georgia might win this game, but it figures to be low-scoring on both sides. A low-scoring game makes it harder to take the team favored on the NCAAF odds by nearly a touchdown.
TCU Horned Frogs at Texas Longhorns
Odds: Texas -12
Texas trailed Texas Tech by 15 points, 56-41, with 3:13 left this past weekend. The Longhorns scored one touchdown but needed to recover the onside kick to have any chance. Texas Tech bobbled the onside kick, the Longhorns recovered. They scored again, tied the game at 56 with a 2-point conversion, and then won in overtime. Texas might be ranked No. 9, but it didn’t look like a very good team. TCU is coming off a bad loss to Iowa State. Nevertheless, the Horned Frogs came very close to winning in a game filled with crazy plays and some weird turnovers. TCU might not win, but it has a very decent chance of keeping this game close, given how weak Texas’s defense was a week ago.
Texas A&M Aggies at Alabama Crimson Tide
Odds: Alabama -17
The Texas A&M Aggies barely beat a bad Vanderbilt team at home, 17-12. The Aggies’ offense needed to be a lot better this year in order to compete with the Alabamas and LSUs of the SEC. However, it looked terrible against Vanderbilt. Alabama, meanwhile, had two receivers – Jaylen Waddle and DeVonta Smith – who both caught eight passes against Missouri, combining for 223 yards and two touchdowns. Texas A&M faces the very difficult challenge of trying to contain Alabama’s passing game while also creating enough offense to have a realistic chance of winning. If A&M doesn’t make major improvements from its ugly win over Vanderbilt, this game will be ugly for the Aggies on the scoreboard. Take the Crimson Tide on the sportsbook line.
