A bowl game that underwent a significant 11th-hour reversal will kick off when the No. 17 Wake Forest Demon Deacons and Rutgers Scarlet Knights square off in the 2021 Gator Bowl on Friday at TIAA Bank Field in Jacksonville, Fla. The Scarlet Knights (5-7) were not originally selected for a bowl game, but after Texas A&M pulled out of the Gator Bowl, citing a breakout of COVID-19 cases on the team, Rutgers replaced the Aggies in the game. 

Meanwhile the Demon Deacons (10-3) have won at least 10 games for just the second time in program history.

Kickoff is 11 a.m. ET. The Demon Deacons are 17-point favorites in the latest Wake Forest vs. Rutgers odds, while the Over/Under for total points scored is 62.5. (See the latest college football lines for all of this week's games on our college football odds page.)

Before you make any Rutgers vs. Wake Forest picks and Gator Bowl predictions, see what the SportsLine Projection Model has to say.

The SportsLine Projection Model simulates every FBS college football game 10,000 times. Over the past five-plus years, the proprietary computer model has generated a stunning profit of almost $3,600 for $100 players on its top-rated college football picks against the spread. It also enters the third week of the 2021-22 college football bowl season on a 43-30 run on all top-rated college football side picks. Anyone who has followed it has seen HUGE returns.

The model knows that Wake Forest has one of the most prolific offenses in the country. The Demon Deacons average 41.2 points per game, which ranks second in the ACC and fifth in the country. They also average 469.1 total yards per game, which is 10th in the nation. That bodes well against a Rutgers defense that gave up 391.8 total yards per game, which was 11th in the Big Ten and 77th in the FBS.

The model also knows that coach Greg Schiano knows how to motivate Rutgers for a bowl game. During his first stint as head coach in Piscataway (2001-11), he led the Scarlet Knights to six bowl games, going 5-1. The team won its last five bowl games under Schiano, winning by an average of 18.0 points a game.

Now the model has simulated Wake Forest vs. Rutgers and the Gator Bowl 10,000 times, and the results are in. We can tell you that the model is leaning Under the total, and it says one side of the spread hits in over 50 percent of simulations. You absolutely need to see it before locking in your own picks.

Who wins the Gator Bowl between Rutgers and Wake Forest? And which side of the spread has all the value? ... Join SportsLine right now to see which side of the Wake Forest vs. Rutgers spread you need to jump on Friday, all from the computer model that has crushed its college football picks!