Saturday night College Football and we will see the East Carolina Pirates take on the South Carolina Gamecocks at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia, South Carolina. The game has a start time of 7:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on ESPN U. Current Vegas odds have the Gamecocks listed as 15.5 point favorites, while the total is set at 64.5.
Analysis: The East Carolina Pirates went 10-3 in their last year in Conference USA, which ended in a 37-20 rout of Ohio in the Beef ‘O’ Brady’s Bowl. Now the Pirates will take their fun uptempo offensive talents to the American Athletic Conference in hopes of building on the last 2 years that saw them win 18 games. The Pirates started off the year in fine fashion as they whipped North Carolina Central to the tune of 52-7, while outgaining them by 408 yards in the contest. The Pirates main strength is an offense that will be one of the better in the nation this year and they showed that right off the bat by putting up 582 yards of total offense, including 374 yards through the air. Shane Carden is one of the best QB’s in Conference USA and he had a solid game, throwing for 283 yards and 3 TDs on 26 of 37 passing. WR Isaiah Jones also had a big game with 10 catches for 150 yards and a TD. The defense for the Pirates was very good as they allowed just 174 yards overall, including 104 yards through the air to NCCU.
The South Carolina Gamecocks had a very good 11-2 season last year, which ended with a 10 point win over Wisconsin in the Capital One Bowl. This year they have back 58 lettermen, including 14 starters and are still a threat to get to the SEC championship game, despite that opening loss. The season has not started like Spurrier wanted as they were blasted by Texas A&M 52-28 in their opening game last week. The Gamecocks were outgained by 247 yards and their defense allowed 680 yards of offense. Shocking for sure. They were expected to be a bit down on that side of the ball with the losses they had, but not to that extent. They just had no answer for Henny Hill and that A&M offense. Their own offense wasn’t all that bad as they did score 28 points 433 yards, including 366 yards through the Air. Dylan Thompson could have been more accurate as he completed just 50% of his passes, but did throw for 4 TDs and had just 1 INT.
Pick: Boy I would love to go with the Gamecocks here as they should be in full bounce back mode after getting crushed by A&M and then having a couple of extra days to think it over. I won’t go with them but I will look to the UNDER. If anything I expect that defense to bounce back with a very strong effort after getting torched by Kenny Hill last week. Yes they will face another high powered uptempo offense, but I still see them having a much better showing than in that one. I also look for Spurrier to take the air out of the ball a bit here. That should also help their defense and keep the scoring down. Playing games in the 60s is not the style of play that South Carolina wants and after playing one that hit 80 points last week I look for them to play this one in the 50’s at best.
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College Football Free Picks: East Carolina vs South Carolina
What college football bettors need to know about betting East Carolina Pirates vs South Carolina Gamecocks on Saturday (9/06/14) - a free pick from Pregame.com's Bryan Leonard with added insight from Brady Kannon.