The USF Bulls and East Carolina Pirates clash Saturday in week 5 AAC college football action from Raymond James Stadium.
The East Carolina Pirates will look to rebound from a 23-20 OT loss to Navy as 16-point favorites last time out to fall to 2-2 on the year. Holton Ahlers has thrown for 1,067 yards, 9 touchdowns and 3 interceptions on 66.4% passing while Keaton Mitchell leads ECU’s ground attack with 386 rushing yards and 3 TDs while Rahjai Harris has 198 rushing yards and 4 scores. Isaiah Winstead has a team-high 28 grabs for 403 yards while C.J. Johnson has 223 receiving yards and Jaylen Johnson and Ryan Jones each have 100+ receiving yards as well this season. On defense, Teagan Wilk has a team-high 25 total tackles with a team-high 17 solo tackles while Shaundre Mims has 1.5 sacks and the ECU defense has 3 interceptions.
The USF Bulls will try to rebound from a 41-3 loss to Louisville that dropped the Bulls to 1-3 on the year. Gerry Bohanon’s thrown for 569 yards and 6 interceptions on 53.4% passing while Brian Battle leads USF on the ground with 295 rushing yards in addition to 3 scores. Jaren Mangham and Michel Dukes have combined for 6 rushing TDs as well this season. Xavier Weaver leads USF’s receiving group with 20 grabs for 252 yards as well this season. On defense, three Bulls share the team-high with 23 total while USF’s defense as a whole has combined for 6 sacks and 4 interceptions so far this season.
East Carolina is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 road games and 5-0-1 ATS in their last 6 games following a win while the under is 6-2 in their last 8 conference games. USF is 14-2 ATS in their last 16 games following an ATS loss and 5-2 ATS in their last 7 conference games while the over is 10-1 in their last 11 home games.
I get the case to be made for USF getting points at home, as this has been an improved USF team talent-wise compared to the last couple of seasons. However, East Carolina has a history going back to last year of performing fairly well on the road and they’ve had the upper hand on USF going back a couple of meetings now. I just trust East Carolina a bit more than I do USF right now, so give me the Pirates in a double-digit road win, something in the ballpark of 34-20.