In some places the Tampa Bay Vipers are considered one of the favorites to capture the XFL championship. BetAnySports happens to be one of those places. And so it is with a great deal of anticipation that they take the field for their opener in the new league.

And they'll be doing it on a big stage, as they'll tackle the New York Guardians at MetLife Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Fox will televise the festivities. And kickoff is scheduled for 5 PM ET.

The Tampa Bay area is one of the smaller markets in this league, but if past history tells us anything, it's that this team can succeed, for as long as the league lasts. The Tampa Bay Bandits may have been the model franchise in the USFL, despite the presence of the Buccaneers in the same stadium.

On the field there are some intriguing possibilities. The cerebral Marc Trestman is a former head coach with the Chicago Bears who was also a Grey Cup winner in the Canadian Football League. He is a proponent of the passing game, and a long-time quarterback coach. Let's see what he can do with Aaron Murray, the Georgia product who threw for three touchdowns in six games during his time in the Alliance of American Football.

Going into the opening weekend, they were priced at +400 to win the title at BetAnySports, where they are also road favorites in the XFL football betting odds:

Tampa Bay Vipers      -4
New York Guardians +4

Over 52 points -110
Under 52 points -110

Kevin Gilbride was a two-time Super Bowl winner as offensive coordinator for the New York Giants, but perhaps he is best known by fans of NFL Films for his sideline flareup with Buddy Ryan (then the D-coordinator) when he was handling the offense of the Houston Oilers. Gilbride also compiled a 6-16 mark as head coach of the San Diego Chargers.

One of the reasons Gilbride came out of semi-retirement to take the XFL job as coach of the Guardians was that he's got more authority than he'd had previously. "So here comes this chance to be a head coach and general manager," he said, "and have a very strong imprint on the development of the franchise that I was going to be associated with."

Because of this higher level of control, you're likely to see something much more geared to the pass from Gilbride, who followed Tom Coughlin's wishes with the Giants and emphasized the run quite a bit.

Can Matt McGloin prove to be a worthy trigger man? The Penn State grad, who began his college career as a walk-on, hasn't played in an NFL game since 2016. He has been in some camps, but was cut by Kansas City and Philadelphia. At 30 years of age, he's not one of those guys who is playing in the league specifically for the chance to get back in the NFL. If that opportunity comes, fine.

Actually, he's prepping for what he hopes might be a broadcasting career. But at the same time, he's seen what happened for other veterans like Matt Moore and Josh McCown when they were brought out of retirement by the Eagles and Chiefs, respectively.

And in case he fails, Gilbride can turn to Luis Perez, who turned a few heads when he played in the AAF last season. And you just know that when Gilbride looks at 240-pound running back Tim Cook, he's thinking of how he's going to use him like he did with Brandon Jacobs with the Giants.

Mekale McKay is a very interesting proposition at receiver for the Guardians. He's tall (6-4) with great jumping ability, and he gives Gilbride's offense the possibility for more big plays. In college he averaged 19.7 yards per catch (playing at Arkansas and Cincinnati) and then put up 17 yards per reception with San Antonio in the AAF.

We're not all that crazy about Murray, who is rather a stationary pocket passer. But he was a big-time QB at a big-time school, and Trestman can probably do something with him. He can also be expected to make a lot of use of Quinton Flowers, the former quarterback for Tampa-based South Florida, who can see time at running back and wide receiver and may be a real threat when it comes to the "double forward pass", which is legal in the XFL, as long as the first pass was caught behind the line of scrimmage.

Is there a home field edge? That would be hard to say in what will be a stadium that will look especially cavernous with a small crowd. And you're really not operating with a lot of information in terms of the differences between these teams. But these are two coaches who think "offense," and passing, and this league has installed rules variations that very much promote scoring. The forecast winds appear to be agreeable (about 4-5 MPH). So we're going OVER the total in this matchup.

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