Week 6 college football and the SMU Mustangs will travel to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in Greenville, North Carolina to take on the East Carolina Pirates. The game has a start time of 12:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on ESPN U. Current Vegas odds have the Pirates listed as 41 point favorites, while the total is set at 58.5.
Analysis: The SMU Mustangs are in the midst of a terrible start to their season. The Mustangs have not only lost all games they have played, but they have been outscored by 45, 37, 52 and 56 points in those games. This is a bad team this year and maybe June Jones saw it coming and that is why he resigned as their coach. Maybe they have a chance to cover this one as they are 5-1 ATS after playing TCU. Not sure about that though as they have score a mere 12 points through 4 games. That just won’t get it done vs the high powered ECU offense, especially with a defense that ranks 127th in the nation in yards allowed (551 ypg) and dead last in the nation in points allowed (50.5 ppg).
The ECU Pirates have had a nice 3-1 start to their year and vs a tough schedule, which is why they have cracked the top 25 this year. After nearly taking down South Carolina on the road a few weeks ago, they went into Blacksburg and shocked the Hokies, before coming home to beat North Carolina by a 70-41 score. The Pirates are 4-0 ATS this year, but are also just 1-6 ATS their last 7 games with rest. The Offense is led by Shane Carden, who is making his own case for the Heisman this year. So far through 4 games Shane has thrown for 1469 yards with 11 TDs and just 3 INTs. The Pirate offense overall is 7th in total offense (581.6 ypg), 6th in passing (392 ypg) and 13th in scoring (43.2 ppg). The defense has been average at best as they come in ranked 45th in yards allowed (360.8 ypg) and 67th in points allowed (25.5 ppg).
Pick: I will look to the Over in this one. SMU is allowing 50 ppg and ECU put up 70 on North Carolina. They may get the over on their own in this one. This will be a stat building game for Shane Carden, who needs to continue to put up huge numbers if he wants to make a run at the Heisman trophy. I also feel that SMU has a shot at getting at least 10 points in this one vs a ECU defense that isn’t great. 10 points would be golden from SMU as I don’t see how ECU is held to less than 50 points.
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College Football Free Picks: Virginia Tech vs North Carolina
What college football bettors need to know about betting Virginia Tech vs North Carolina on Saturday (10/04/14) - a free pick from Pregame.com's Ken Thomson with added insight from Dave Cokin.