By james art 
The Texas Longhorns are in their second bye week of the regular season on Saturday before returning to SEC play against the Florida Gators on Nov. 9.
Texas (7-1, 3-1) held then-No. 25 Vanderbilt in a 27-24 win last week for a comeback win after losing to the Georgia Bulldogs at home on Oct. 19. Even with the win, the Longhorns fell one spot to No. 6 in the AP poll.
Regardless, DraftKings still has Texas as a significant home favorite against Florida for the first-ever matchup between the two teams as SEC foes, as the sportsbook currently has the Longhorns as a 17-point favorite over the Gators.
Texas leads the all-time series 2-0-1, although the last meeting between the programs occurred in 1940, when the Longhorns defeated Florida in Gainesville, 26-0.
The Gators (4-3, 2-2) have had their struggles this season, but have found some momentum under true freshman quarterback DJ Lagway. Florida is coming off a convincing 48-20 victory over the Kentucky Wildcats two weeks ago. The Gators will visit No. 2 Georgia on Saturday as 14.5-point underdogs on the road.
A native of Willis, Texas, Lagway will return to his home state to face the Longhorns in Austin. A five-star quarterback in the class of 2024, Lagway remained loyal to head coach Billy Napier and the Gators. He is the starter for the rest of the season after Graham Mertz suffered a torn ACL in the loss to the Tennessee Volunteers on Oct. 12.
This season, Laguay completed 54 of 86 passes for 1,024 yards, five touchdowns and five interceptions.
Texas and Florida will kick off from Austin at 11 a.m. CT on ABC.
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