Week 1 of the 2024 college football begins on Saturday with a notable non-conference SEC vs. ACC matchup featuring two in-state marquee brands, both looking to help their head coaches get over an important hump as Miami and Florida square off in The Swamp.

Mario Cristobal and Billy Napier are both under .500 in their tenures at Miami and Florida, respectively, and each need to make a statement to their fan bases in this Week 1 clash, especially as both look forward to playing very tough schedules going forward, Florida’s arguably the hardest nationally.

What do the analytics say about the game? For that, let’s turn to he SP+ prediction model to get an early look at how Miami and Florida match up in this critical Week 1 game.

In a notable turn, the simulations currently favor the home team, but by the slimmest of margins.

In fact, SP+ predicts that Miami and Florida will effectively play to a 30-30 tie, but that result finally tilts in the Gators’ favor when accounting for their 0.3 point win margin.

The model also gives Florida the close 51 percent chance to win the game outright.

SP+ is a “tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency” that attempts to predict game outcomes by measuring “the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football.”

Miami is a 2.5 point favorite against Florida, according to the lines at FanDuel Sportsbook, which set the total at 54.5 points for the game.

FanDuel set the moneyline odds for Miami at -140 and for Florida at +116.

If you’re using this projection to bet on the game, you should take…

Other analytic tools also notably favor the Gators to hold the fort in The Swamp against the Canes.

That includes College Football Power Index, a computer prediction tool that uses data points from both teams to simulate games 20,000 times and pick winners.

The index suggests that Florida will win the game in 57.3 percent of its simulations, while the Hurricanes come out the winner in the remaining 42.7 percent of sims.

The model is also expecting a very close result, currently speculating that Florida will be 0.5 points better than Miami on any field.

When: Sat., Aug. 31
Time: 3:30 p.m. Eastern
TV: ABC network

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-GAMBLER.

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The Jacksonville Jaguars are already set to face a banged-up Miami Dolphins team in Week 1, and yet another Dolphins weapon has been ruled out this week.

Dolphins wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. will start the season on the Reserve/PUP list, which means he will miss at least the first four games. Beckham is the second big-name veteran the Dolphins placed on the list, following pass-rusher Bradley Chubb.

“We were very hopeful that it would be around week one here, and to be honest with you guys, we put him down,” Dolphins general manager Chris Grier said, via Dolphins On SI. “He did not want to go down. And he is very close. You guys have seen glimpses of him running around outside, doing stuff. He’s very close. But for us, it was a long play. We didn’t want him to rush back, feeling that he had to rush back, and then something happened and set us back.

“So this was more Mike and I sitting down talking with (head athletic trainer Kyle Johnston), the trainers, and we just felt what’s best for him. long haul to help us here win games is to put them down for a little bit right now.”

While Beckham is not Tyreek Hill or Jaylen Waddle at this stage of his career, this does mean the Jaguars have one less weapon to worry about next Sunday.

With the Jaguars’ tough slate over the first month of the season, every advantage they can get Week 1 will matter.

“Treat every day like it’s Sunday so Sunday is not different. We want to wear the same gear, same—look, that’s easy to say, right? But if you can take that approach and the mindset that when Sunday comes, I’m ready to go,” Jaguars defensive coordinator Ryan Nielsen said on Wednesday.

“The indecision and things like that create kind of uneasiness for the player. We want everything to look and sound and everything to be as close as we can to Sunday, so the player shows up, he knows his alignments and assignments and he goes and plays a million miles an hour and plays fast and executes. That’s really important. In this league, you have to execute. Execute, play fast, play hard, play tough, violent, those things like that. We want to do that every single day, so it’s not different on Sunday.”

MIAMI LAKES, FLA. (WSVN) – A missing dog has been returned to his owner, days after he was picked up by a stranger in a Miami Gardens neighborhood.

After 7News posted the surveillance video of Tato, a 2-and-a-half-year-old micro bully, being taken from a busy street on Sunday, somebody saw the story and returned him to his rightful owners.

Tato’s owner, Joammier Callejas, is deaf, but his friend Bernando Marte helps him communicate with others.

Speaking with 7News Wednesday night, Marte said Callejas is happy to have Tato back.

“He loves him very much, and he’s super excited that he’s able to have him back,” said Marte.

7News cameras captured Tato playing with his sister at the barber shop in Miami Lakes where Callejas works.

The happy reunion comes days after video captured a woman picking up Tato and putting him in her car at the corner of Northwest 47th Avenue and 186th Street.

Tato’s sister was behind him, but she turned around and came back home.

Both dogs are said to have gotten out through the front door of the home.

Marte said Callejas hasn’t slept well since Tato was taken.

“A lot of sleepless nights, you know, the heart was broken,” said Marte.

Callejas was afraid he would never see Tato again, as the dog did not have a microchip.

But on Wednesday, Marte said, a young man came knocking on his door.

“We’re not too sure exactly the story, but what we got from it was he found the dog through the girl, and he said, ‘Hey, that’s not your dog,’ and he took the dog and kept it for a couple of days,” said Marte.

Thanks to the surveillance video, the man was able to find the right door to knock on and return the dog.

“He said he went back and watched the news, and he saw the address on the house,” said Marte.

Now, the family is back together again after a grateful act from a stranger.

“It was like tears of joy, you know, happy that he was home,” said Marte.

The family said they plan to microchip Tato on Thursday to make sure he never gets lost again.

Callejas also offered to give the young man a free haircut as a thank-you in returning the dog.

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