AAC: East Carolina vs UCF 10/22/22 College Football Picks, Predictions, Odds

The East Carolina Pirates and UCF Knights clash Saturday in a week 8 AAC college football matchup from Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

The UCF Knights will look to build on their four-game win streak, improving to 5-1 on the year after a 70-13 rout of Temple last time out. John Rhys Plumlee has thrown for 1,516 yards, 11 touchdowns and 3 interceptions on 63.7% passing while also leading UCF in rushing with 468 yards along with 7 touchdowns. Isaiah Bowser has 315 rushing yards with a team-high 9 touchdowns and Johnny Richardson also has 270 rushing yards as well this season. RJ Harvey’s also chipped in 265 rushing yards and Javon Baker leads UCF’s receivers with 25 grabs for 403 yards along with a pair of touchdowns while Ryan O’Keefe has a team-high 28 catches for 364 yards and 4 touchdowns. On defense, Jason Johnson has a team-high 50 total tackles while Tre’Mon Morris-Brash has a team-high 3 sacks.

The East Carolina Pirates will try to find some consistency after alternating wins and losses in each of their last five games after a 47-45 win over Memphis in OT last time out. Holton Ahlers has thrown for 2,124 yards, 17 touchdowns and 5 interceptions on 68.5% passing while Keaton Mitchell leads ECU’s ground attack with 582 rushing yards and 6 TDs while Rahjai Harris has 238 rushing yards and 5 scores. Isaiah Winstead has a team-high 52 grabs for 719 yards and 3 TDs while C.J. Johnson has 517 receiving yards with a team-high 7 touchdowns. Ryan Jones has 304 receiving yards with 4 TDs as well this season. On defense, Gerard Stringer has a team-high 39 total tackles while the ECU defense as a unit has 17 sacks and 5 interceptions.

UCF is 8-18 ATS in their last 26 conference games and 5-2 ATS in their last 7 games in October while the under is 5-1 in their last 6 games following a win. East Carolina is 1-5 ATS in their last 6 conference games and 20-42-1 ATS in their last 63 games against a team with a winning record while the over is 11-4 in their last 15 games against a team with a winning record.

I get the case to be made for ECU as a home underdog here, but the problem for me with the Pirates has simply been a lack of consistency. The Knights on the other hand, have picked up their play in recent weeks and are looking more and more like the team that a lot of folks projected to be the team to beat in the AAC before the season started. I’ll lay it and play it with UCF here as I see the Knights winning this one by a touchdown.