T.M. Selection: Central Florida.

I like Central Florida to cover the spread against Florida in this game on Thursday. UCF looked really good near the end of their year winning 5 of their final 6 games. Gus Malzahn did a good job getting them moving in the right direction this year and for the 1st time in a while, UCF actually has a pretty good defense that isn't getting gashed for points all the time. They have given up less than 20 points in 5 of their previous 6 games and their offense has still looked good during that time too. They have scored 28+ in more than half of their previous 5 games and that has been a common theme for them all year. Florida barely made it into this game with a 6-6 record this year and they had to win their final game of the year just to become eligible for a bowl game, and they won that game just by 3 points at home over their rival Florida State. Their coach Dan Mullen has already left the school for another next year and they will just be trying to get by this game and get to next year when Billy Napier takes over the program. I don't think that the Florida players really have any motivation to play hard in this game after a season that was a lot lower than the bar they had set for themselves this year. I think the UCF players will be motivated to try to get a win here and cap off the 1st year of progress that new coach Malzahn has put together in this program. Emory Jones has also entered the transfer portal along with a few other players so Florida will not even be playing this game with all of their top players. I like UCF to cover the spread in this game.

T.M. Prediction: 34-27 Central Florida.