Liberty Bowl Mark's Free Pick College Football Arkansas Razorbacks-East Carolina Pirates: 1/2/10

Written by Mark | 01 January 2010

Liberty Bowl-College Football 1/2/10

Arkansas Razorbacks (7-5) (SEC)-East Carolina Pirates (9-4) (CUSA)

By Mark • Saturday January 2nd, 2009 5:30 PM EST
Line-Arkansas -8

East Carolina doesn’t have a lot of numbers that stand out offensively, but having watched plenty of their games this year I can say they move the ball when needed and are deceptively dangerous. The Pirates 368 yards of O has them sitting at 69^th and although their 28 points isn’t much better at 59^th, it is nice scoring for their production. It also doesn’t tell you that ECU has won four straight to finish the year and win the CUSA Title while putting 144 points on the board. The Pirates are somewhat balanced in that they run almost as much as they pass so defense’s can’t sit on any one part of their attack. East Carolina’s defense has made the efforts of the offense stand up even though they to do not stand out with the 76^th unit that allows 386 yards but only 22 points which is 38^th. They can be thrown on but defend the run well and at times are a bend but don’t break but do what it takes to win.

My opinion of Arkansas is that the best defense is a good offense and I say that because they only win when they’re lighting up the scoreboard which was a common theme this year. The Razorbacks were all about Ryan Mallet and the air attack that produced over 300 yards per game. Not surprisingly, Arkansas was a frequent visitor to the end zone averaging 37 points. It would serve them well to develop some semblance of a running game to burn the clock and keep their Swiss cheese defense off the field as much as possible. The Arkansas D did not do anything particularly well allowing over 400 yards per outing. They were poor against the pass and bad against the run and when adding all the numbers up, the 26 points this unit gave up doesn’t seem bad.

ECU is 8-3 against the spread in their past 11 as an underdog of 3.5-10 points and 9-4 against the number in their last 13 as an underdog. Arkansas is 4-1 against the spread in their past 5 as a favorite of 3.5-10 points and 4-1 against the number in the past 5 as a favorite.

Arkansas definitely has the offensive edge and if they can turn this into a track meet they have the ability to win going away. East Carolina doesn’t have a flashy attack but they have the good fortune of facing off against the porous Razorbacks D.

The Pirates have pulled upsets in the past with many of the same players and I see no reason why they can’t stay reasonably close here. ECU probably isn’t the popular choice but this isn’t a bad team…