Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (6-6) vs UCF Knights (6-6)
What you need to know: These are two of the wildest teams in the sport. For 2/3rds of the season Georgia Tech alternated wins and losses with no regard for their opponent, they beat good opponents and lost to bad ones, truly an entertaining chaos team. Alas Georgia Tech eventually leveled out, beating the worst 2 teams in their last 4 and losing to Clemson/Georgia (only by 8 to Georgia though). UCF is a program that’s changed a lot in recent years, this includes their name by the way. Don’t ever refer to them as the Golden Knights or as Central Florida anymore, they want nothing to do with those names. On the field they had some growing pains in their first Big 12 season. The Knights lost their first 5 Big 12 games, a stretch that includes some low points such as blowing a 35-7 lead against Baylor at home and being blown out by Kansas, but they nearly upset Oklahoma too. UCF finished very strong winning 3 of their last 4, the only loss was on the road to Texas Tech where a blocked PAT was the difference. UCF also absolutely blasted Big 12 championship game participant Oklahoma State 45-3 in one of the most random results of the season. One thing to note is that UCF looked better overall when QB John Rhys Plumlee played, and he’s expected to play in this game. This bowl was a lot more fun back when it was the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl.
Previous Meetings: Georgia Tech/UCF have faced off 5 times with Georgia Tech holding a 3-2 edge. No surprise, Georgia Tech won the first 3 meetings all of which occured 2000 and earlier, UCF won the 2 most recent matchups, including last year’s 27-10 win for UCF. Somehow despite Covid going on these two managed to keep their non conference matchup in 2020, a 49-21 UCF win.
Motivation Edge: Georgia Tech is making their first bowl appearance since 2018 so needless to say the Yellow Jackets are very excited to be here. UCF on the other hand will almost certainly bring a massive crowd to this game so their players will be juiced. UCF always seems to feel like they need to prove a point when they face regional foes, and they love winning in South Florida’s home environment. Both teams are excited for this and I don’t give the edge to either.
Best Bet: Over 64.5 – both teams are exciting offensively but not great on defense so this feels like the best move. Whatever you do, don’t bet the spread unless you feel like playing a lottery because thes
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