The Florida Gators travel to take on Mississippi State on Saturday night. The contest will feature Gators head coach Dan Mullen taking on his former team. This is the Gators first meeting with the Bulldogs since 2010.

Betting lines for the SEC contest were released. According to VegasInsider.com, Florida opened as an 8.5-point underdog. However, that line has now moved down to 7.5-point underdogs. The Gators are 3-1 on the season and 1-1 in SEC play. Mississippi State is also 3-1 on the season, but 0-1 in the SEC.

Florida holds an all-time record of 33-19-2 over Mississippi State, with the Gators losing the last meeting 10-7 under Urban Meyer. The Gators and Bulldogs will kickoff at 6:00 p.m. ET, and the game will be televised live on ESPN.

***Game Notes***

• The Gators lead the nation with 14 takeaways, and they are the only SEC team with double-digit takeaways. Florida had 17 takeaways all of last season, which ranked tied for 81st nationally.

• The Gators have scored 43 points off turnovers; they only totaled 44 points off turnvoers in 2017.

• Florida’s ability to force turnovers this year has it ranked second nationally in turnover margin (+10). Only Kansas (+12) has a better margin, and only three other teams have a margin better than +6.

• Following 2008, when it set a school record with an insane +24 turnover margin, UF has only been higher than 33rd in turnover margin three times (2009: +7, 20th; 2012: +15, t-7th; 2015: +8, t-22nd).

• Fumbles have been Florida’s primary source for takeaways, as its 10 fumble recoveries lead the FBS by three, and its eight forced fumbles are tied for fourth. • Jachai Polite is tied with Oregon’s Justin Hollins for the national lead in forced fumbles (three). Polite joins Marcus Maye (5 - 2015), Dante Fowler, Jr. (3 - 2013), and Loucheiz Purifoy (3 - 2012) as the only Gators since the start of the 2011 season with three in a season.

• Florida had three forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries for the entire 2017 season, ranking 129th and 125th, respectively, among FBS teams a year ago.

• Feleipe Franks ranks tied for seventh in the FBS with 12 passing touchdowns (three more than he had in all of 2017); he’s also thrown just two interceptions.

• Among the 36 FBS quarterbacks with at least eight passing touchdowns this season, Franks ranks 10th in touchdown-to-interception ratio (6.0 / 12-2).

• With three touchdown passes last Saturday, Franks became the first Gator since Jeff Driskel (2014) to throw three touchdowns multiple times in a season.

• The Gators have not finished in the top 100 in scoring offense since 2014, have not finished higher than 96th in total offense since 2010 (when they were 83rd), and their only passing offense to rank higher than 85th after the 2009 season checked in at 79th (2016).

• Florida appears to have the perfect man for the job of reviving its offense, though. Mississippi State ranked 42nd (420.4 yards per game) among FBS teams in total offense from 2009-17. The nine seasons before Mullen’s arrival, the Bulldogs were 114th (313.3 yards).

• Mullen inherited the 114th-ranked total offense (276.0 yards per game) and 106th-ranked rushing offense (101.7) in Starkville, but Mississippi State finished the 2009 season ranked 69th in total offense (367.7) and 9th in rushing offense (224.58)--two huge upticks.