NCAA football betting players have been watching what has been a strange year in Gainesville, where Florida fell way down the national pecking order, were in the midst of the biggest scandal of the season, and ended with some big changes. It’ll be a tough task for their new leader to turn the program around in one year. To sum up the Gators’ year in a short paragraph, it goes like this: Tim Tebow graduated, and the Gators ended up 79th in offense. They got romped at Alabama, and lost three of their last four games at “The Swamp”. Florida was routed by Florida State, snapping a six-game winning streak against their rivals, and were tangled up in the Cam Newton saga (remember, he went to Florida, allegedly stole a laptop and transferred). Finally, coach Urban Meyer stepped down last week, and the Gators replaced him with Will Muschamp, who was the defensive coordinator and coach-in-waiting at Texas behind Mack Brown. So much more could be written, but those are the main talking points. So, how will Muschamp fair in Gainesville? Well, for starters, he went to Georgia, and he coached at Auburn and LSU, so he knows the SEC. He’s a brilliant defensive mind who has helped mold a number of future NFL picks, particularly in the secondary, and he’s one of the best defensive recruiters in the country. This should serve him nicely in the hotbed of Florida, one of the top recruiting places in the NCAA. Word is that Muschamp is also looking to lure defensive coordinator Kirby Smart from Alabama, and even though the Gators were ninth in total defense, they were always going to take a step back after Charlie Strong took the head job at Louisville. How can Muschamp improve Florida’s football betting odds next year? The first mission will be to fix the offense, and that may require a change in philosophy. With Tebow, the Gators were a spread/zone-read team. John Brantley is obviously not that type of quarterback, and the Gators may have to go to more of a traditional style of offense. Junior backs Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey were either hurt or suspended for most of the year, robbing Florida of their best two playmakers. Another report is that Muschamp is talking to Major Applewhite, the running-backs coach at Texas, and that would be a huge boost for Florida as well. Offensively, the Gators have to find an identity in the post-Tebow era, and we don’t think Trey Burton is the guy to take his place in that spread offense. The one thing we know for sure, is that the Gators will likely be the top story for betting players to watch during the offseason.
