Texas Longhorns open as heavy favorites against the Florida Gators

The Texas Longhorns have their second bye week of the regular season on Saturday before returning to SEC play on November 9th against the Florida Gators.

Texas (7-1, 3-1) held off then-No. 25 Vanderbilt secured another win last week with a 27-24 win after losing at home to the Georgia Bulldogs on October 19th. Despite the win, the Longhorns fell one spot to No. 6 in the AP poll.

Regardless, DraftKings still has Texas as the heavy home favorite against Florida for the two teams' first-ever meeting as SEC opponents, as sportsbooks currently have the Longhorns as a 17-point favorite over the Gators.

Texas leads the all-time series at 2-0-1, although the last time the programs met was in 1940, when the Longhorns beat Florida 26-0 in Gainesville.

This season, the Gators (4-3, 2-2) had their struggles but found some momentum under true freshman quarterback DJ Lagway. Florida earned a convincing 48-20 win over the Kentucky Wildcats two weeks ago. The Gators will visit No. 2 Georgia on Saturday as 14.5-point underdogs.

A native of Willis, Texas, Lagway will return to his home state to face the Longhorns in Austin. A five-star quarterback recruit in the 2024 class, Lagway remained loyal to head coach Billy Napier and the Gators. He is the starter for the remainder of the season after Graham Mertz suffered a torn ACL in the loss to the Tennessee Volunteers on October 12th.

This season, Lagway has completed 54 of 86 passes for 1,024 yards, five touchdowns and five interceptions.

Texas and Florida start at 11 a.m. CT on ABC in Austin.

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