Florida Atlantic at Florida - 9/4/21 College Football Picks and Prediction

The 13th ranked Florida Gators finished last season with an overall record of 8-4 however, finished the season losing three straight games, including a 52-46 loss in the SEC Championship vs. Alabama and a 55-20 loss to Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl. Offensively, Florida averaged 39.8 ppg on 509.8 total yards per game (378.6 passing yds/g; 131.2 rushing yds/g) however, it will be hard to repeat those numbers with Kyle Trask, Kyle Pitts, & Kadarius Toney no longer with the Gators. Florida will have QB Emory Jones under center this season who is more of a dual-threat QB and will have Jacob Copeland (23 rec, 435 yards, 3 TD), Justin Shorter (25 rec, 268 yards, 3 TD), & Kemore Gamble (10 rec, 160 yards, 3 TD) as his main receiving threats. Leading the way for the Owls backfield will be Dameon Pierce who had 503 yards & 4 TD’s on 106 carries.

Defensively, Florida allowed their opponents to average 30.8 ppg on 428.0 total yards per game (257.5 passing yds/g; 170.5 rushing yds/g). Florida will need to hope that new defensive coordinator, Todd Grantham, can improve a secondary that ranked 100th in passing defense last season, however, the Gators does have some solid experience in the front seven led by LB’s Ventrell Miller & Brenton Cox.

The Owls are 9-3 ATS in their last 12 road games and 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games as an underdog. The Gators are 6-2 ATS in their last 8 games in September and 3-1-1 ATS in their last 5 home games.

Florida is primed to have a good season, however, it’s going to be interesting to see how they look on the offensive end after losing so many impactful players. Florida Atlantic will have to hope that Miami transfer, N’Kosi Perry, can help a passing offense that really struggled last season, however, Florida Atlantic should have a decent rushing attack after returning basically everyone that helped the Owls rank 48th in rushing offense. Florida is going to win this game, however, Willie Taggert has done a great job with the Owls, especially on the defense end, and between the fact that I think we see the Owls burn some clock with their rushing attack and that their defense gives the Gators unproven offense a bit of trouble, I think Florida Atlantic does enough with the points in this one to cover. Good Luck!