Rutgers vs. Wake Forest: Reviewing Betting Line, Spread, & Total for Gator Bowl

Who would have thought that we would be reviewing some more betting trends and lines for Rutgers football after a loss to Maryland in the final week of the season? Well, here we are.

Rutgers is down in Jacksonville preparing to take on Wake Forest in the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl on New Year’s Eve. What a world this is. What is the line you ask? First, it should not be important to fans. The Scarlet Knights are in an unexpected bowl game and all is well. With that being said, Rutgers is a big underdog.

Wake Forest will enter the Gator Bowl as a 16.5point favorite, according to DraftKings (Note that if you are in New Jersey the line won’t show, and depending on your location it might default to showing you a New Jersey sports book.)

Draft Kings

The line opened at 13.5 points but recent money has been on the Demon Deacons. The total is set at 63 at the moment.

Trends aside, Rutgers just learned last week that they would be playing in this game. The team had to get together after a month to quickly prepare to travel to Florida and play a bowl game. Wake Forest, on the other hand, has been preparing for this past month for Texas A&M.

Rutgers saw key players like Bo Melton, Olakunle Fatukasi, and Isaih Pacheco declare for the NFL Draft and it hasn’t been confirmed if they will be available for this contest. On the other side, Wake Forest will be without Jaquarii Roberson, one of their two top receiving targets, after he decided to declare for the draft. Outside of Roberson, the Demon Deacons expect to be at full strength. This includes quarterback Sam Hartman.

Wake Forest was one of the most explosive offenses in the league. They scored 41.2 points per game. This immediately looks bad for Rutgers as their offense struggled from start to finish. Hartman has a chance to go over 4,000 yards and reach 40 touchdowns in this game.

As for the total, 62 is a lot of points for one team to carry the load. The Scarlet Knights totaled 313.5 yards per game this season, which was 118th in the country. If they are missing some key offensive weapons, it does not look like they will light up the scoreboard. Quite the opposite actually. The Scarlet Knights will need to slow the game down significantly if they want to hang around.

The Demon Deacons display a fast-paced style of play that allows them to get as many possessions as possible per game.

If you are a Rutgers’ fan, the party starts early on New Year’s Eve. It’s a holiday, it’s 11 a.m. — take a chance on your Knights. If you are watching for leisure, Wake Forest seems like the pick here.