ATHENS — Georgia football has opened as a 31 1/2-point favorite over Arkansas Sate in next Saturday’s noon game at Sanford Stadium, according to VegasInsider.com.

The Red Wolves are 1-1 this season, losing o SMU 37-30  in their opener before beating UNLV on the road Saturday, 43-17.

The No. 3 ranked Bulldogs are 2-0 on the strength of a 30-6 road win at Vanderbilt and 63-17 victory over FCS Murray State on Saturday.

Coach Kirby Smart was clear that UGA remains a work in progress after two games.

“We’ve got a lot of things we can improve on, we’ve go to tackle better, (and) organizationally, with substitutions, we’ve got to do a better job,” said Smart, whose team drew a flag for an illegal formation and called timeout to avoid a substitution infraction.

“We’ve got to manage better as coaches, but I was pleased with the progress the team made,” he said, “particularly, we wanted to throw the ball better, and we were able to have timing in the passing game and throw the ball better.”

Arkansas State is an FBS school, so it should be a step up from FCS Murray State, as hard as the Racers played.

The Red Wolves have played in the Sun Belt Conference since 2001.

This will be Georgia’s third all-time meeting with Arkansas State. The Bulldogs beat the Red Wolves 38-7 in 1997, and 45-17 in 2001.

It’s the final warmup for the Bulldogs before No. 7-ranked Notre Dame comes to Sanford Stadium for a Sept. 21 showdown.

Here are lines on other games involving SEC teams, per VegasInsider.com:

SEC GAMES

Mississippi State -9 over Kansas State

Alabama -21 over South Carolina

Arkansas -13 1/2  over Colorado State

Auburn -34 1/2 over Kent State

Florida  -9 1/2 over Kentucky