Georgia
Georgia vs. Florida prediction: Week 9 college football odds, picks
The top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs battle the Florida Gators on Saturday in Jacksonville.
It’s one of this week’s marquee college football matchups.
I wouldn’t overlook the Gators (5-2) here. The Bulldogs look sluggish, and Graham Mertz has progressed quickly as a passer in Billy Napier’s play-action-heavy offense.
This will be a close game if Florida’s secondary hangs tough against a Brock Bowers-less, Carson Beck-led Bulldogs’ offense.
I expect that to happen and I’m wagering accordingly.
Georgia vs Florida prediction
The Bulldogs don’t look like themselves.
I think the wear and tear is starting to get to them.
After winning consecutive national championships and playing a cupcake schedule this season, it’s hard for these players to get up and dominate each week.
Georgia is 7-0 but 1-6 against the spread (ATS). Aside from throttling Kentucky, 51-13, the Bulldogs have let every opponent keep the game closer than it should’ve been.
Now, their superstar tight end in Bowers is hurt. He’s accounted for more than a quarter of Georgia’s total passing output.
Betting on College Football?
How will Beck respond? He hasn’t been excellent, even with Bowers.
Florida’s defensive metrics aren’t great, and explosive plays have bit the Gators. They’re 10th nationally in Success Rate allowed and dead last in Explosiveness allowed.
But that might not matter Saturday. The Bulldogs’ attack is predicated on shorter plays, ranking 101st in explosive plays. No Bowers hurts their downfield passing attack even more.
Florida’s Austin Armstrong is a great defensive coordinator, and he’ll have his hard-hitting front seven ready to collapse on Georiga’s running game and Beck’s underneath routes.
Georgia’s defense is dominant, but the Bulldogs are a tad vulnerable against the run, ranking sub-50th in Expected Points Added (EPA) per Rush allowed.
If Florida’s explosive running back duo of Montrell Johnson and Trevor Etienne can establish the ground game, it’ll bring Georgia’s defense closer to the line of scrimmage, opening up plenty of play-action looks for Mertz.
And Mertz has been a play-action merchant this year. He’s completing more than 70 percent of his play-action passes for more than nine yards per attempt (YPA). Nine have gone for scores, and zero have been intercepted.
Mertz has put together his best season in Napier’s play-action-heavy system. He’s on pace to post career bests in YPA (8.4), turnover-worthy play rate (0.4 percent) and completion rate (75.6 percent).
With Mertz under center, the Gators rank 23rd nationally in EPA per Pass.
Here’s a nice play-action throw from the South Carolina game.
I like this matchup for the Gators, especially if the Bulldogs continue to sleepwalk without their best player.
And if all else fails, we can always trust Napier as an underdog.
The Florida head coach is 19-6 ATS catching points in his career, dating back to his Louisiana days. He’s also 8-1 ATS as a double-digit ‘dog.
Napier’s teams have covered five straight times as two-touchdown underdogs, including last season against Georgia, losing by 22 as 23-point underdogs.
I expect more of the same Saturday.
Georgia vs Florida pick
Florida +14.5 | Play to +14
Georgia
UCLA softball opens Super Regional series with shutout of Georgia
LOS ANGELES — Maya Brady homered twice and scored three runs to lead the UCLA softball team to an 8-0 victory over Georgia in six innings on Thursday night in the Los Angeles Super Regional at Easton Stadium.
The sixth-seeded Bruins will continue the best-of-three series with Game 2 against the 11th-seeded Bulldogs on Friday at 7 p.m. Game 3, if necessary, would be Saturday.
“I’ll just say this: Game 1 is always the biggest one,” UCLA coach Kelly Inouye-Perez told reporters after the game. “We’ve got to be able to appreciate tonight, get some rest and come back because I guarantee it’ll be a dogfight tomorrow.”
UCLA freshman lefty Kaitlyn Terry pitched a complete six innings and gave up four hits, with three walks and five strikeouts.
Terry said that taking “debbies,” or deep, exaggerated breaths, before each pitch has helped her stay focused through the pressure of postseason.
“It makes me reset everything,” Terry said, “and just makes me like pitch loose because when I pitch tight, it’s just not good. So honestly, I think taking ‘debbies’ is my biggest thing.”
Brady cracked a solo home run over the right field wall in the bottom of the first inning to get UCLA’s offense started early after the defense held the Bulldogs hitless in the top of the frame.
She went deep a second time when she attacked the second pitch she saw in the bottom of the fifth inning for another leadoff solo home run and her 17th overall this season.
“It’s just literally trying to put my team in the best position to get us a dub at the end of the day or at least a little room against a swinging team like (Georgia),” Brady said. “Everything I do is for my teammates.”
Brady came up with big defensive plays at shortstop throughout the game as well. She made a catch along the third base line to force Georgia’s Jaydyn Goodwin to foul out to end the top of the second inning and turned a quick double play at second base in the fourth.
Inouye-Perez compared Brady’s ability to make plays in the infield to Chicago Cubs shortstop Dansby Swanson.
“She’s smooth like that,” Inouye-Perez said. “I wanted her at shortstop this year – I wanted her with the young pitching staff to be on the field so that she could communicate and keep the team together. And she has done a phenomenal job.”
Jadelyn Allchin stretched out for a diving catch in left field at the top of the second inning to prevent Sara Mosley from getting on base. UCLA’s outfield played deep all evening against a Georgia offense that features two players who each have 20 home runs this season – No. 4 hitter Mosley and No. 3 hitter Jayda Kearny.
Kearny recorded one hit and Mosley had none on Friday night.
“Momentum is a big deal. We had it at a point in the season and we’ve been battling to get it back for a long time,” Georgia coach Tony Baldwin told reporters. “I like our team, I like our people, I love going to work with them, I love competing with them. We just haven’t been consistent enough to get the ball rolling with momentum on our side.”
Thessa Malau’ulu and Janelle Meoño both grounded out in the bottom of the third inning to bring the top of the batting order back out and also give Brady a chance to get her second big hit of the game.
Brady doubled, then Allchin laced a single down the first base line to score the Pac-12 Player of the Year. The Bruins were able to load the bases when Sharlize Palacios and Megan Grant were both walked, but Jordan Woolery struck out swinging to leave all three runners stranded.
UCLA’s third home run of the evening came in the bottom of the evening and gave the Bruins a 6-0 advantage. Allchin singled and Palacios reached first on an HBP. Gabriela Jaquez, who also plays on UCLA’s women’s basketball team, came in to pinch run for Palacios.
Megan Grant grounded out to move the runners over and Woolery homered to bring them both in.
Savannah Pola ended the game when she singled to right field to push pinch runner Taylor Stephens and Allchin across home plate in the sixth inning.
“We know what Maya Brady can do and she continues to do it and it’s so impressive to watch,” Inouye-Perez said, “but we’re at our best when the bottom half is taking care of it.”
Two homers and a web gem 😮💨
All in a day’s work for @UCLASoftball’s Maya Brady.#RoadToWCWS pic.twitter.com/JSEr9Sl6vC
— NCAA Softball (@NCAASoftball) May 24, 2024
A @jordanwooleryy 3 from way downtown!
𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐆.
📺: ESPN2
📲: https://t.co/T5Ovxk6xCw#GoBruins | #LevelUp pic.twitter.com/jqKGAScoY3— UCLA Softball (@UCLASoftball) May 24, 2024
WALK IT OFF AGAIN, SAVI!!!
ONE WIN AWAY!!!#GoBruins | @savannahpola pic.twitter.com/cc2uWn7bg7
— UCLA Softball (@UCLASoftball) May 24, 2024
Georgia
Prosecutors appeal dismissal of some charges against Trump in Georgia election interference case
ATLANTA — A Georgia prosecutor on Thursday appealed a ruling dismissing some of the criminal charges against former President Donald Trump and other defendants in an election interference case.
The notice of appeal filed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis does not say why an appeals court should reverse the March dismissal. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee quashed six counts in the indictment, including three against Trump, saying the counts did not allege sufficient detail regarding the nature of the violations.
The ruling was a setback Willis, though it left much of the sweeping indictment intact.
Willis’ notice of cross appeal said state law allows prosecutors to file their own appeals ahead of trial when defendants have previously appealed a pre-trial ruling.
Trump and the other defendants have asked an appeals court to reverse McAfee’s ruling not to disqualify Willis from the case over a romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade. A Georgia appeals court earlier this month agreed to take up the issue.
Trump and 18 others were indicted in August, accused of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to illegally try to overturn his narrow 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia.
All of the defendants were charged with violating Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, law, an expansive anti-racketeering statute. Four people charged in the case have pleaded guilty after reaching deals with prosecutors. Trump and the others have pleaded not guilty.
The six dismissed counts charge the defendants with soliciting public officers to violate their oaths. One count stems from a phone call Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, on Jan. 2, 2021, in which Trump urged Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes.”
Another of the dismissed counts accuses Trump of soliciting then-Georgia House Speaker David Ralston to violate his oath of office by calling a special session of the legislature to unlawfully appoint presidential electors.
But the judge left in place other counts — including 10 facing Trump — and also said prosecutors could seek a new indictment to try to reinstate the ones he dismissed.
Georgia
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