It was a brutal start to the season for the East Carolina Pirates. East Carolina is looking to right the ship after back-to-back 3-9 seasons under Scottie Montgomery, but the Pirates loss to North Carolina A&T is the school’s second straight loss to an FCS opponent to start the year. However, now all the expectations are off coming into this Week 2 meeting with the North Carolina Tar Heels, and that means ECU has nothing to lose.
This matchup in Week 2 will take place on Saturday, September 8, 2018, at 3:30 p.m. ET at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium in Greenville, North Carolina.
College Football Odds at BookMaker.eu
North Carolina -17
East Carolina +17
Over/Under 60
Odds Analysis
East Carolina crushed North Carolina the last two times these teams played. The Pirates hammered the Tar Heels 55-31 back in 2014, and they crushed them again by a score of 70-41 in 2015. Both of those wins were easy covers per the CFB betting odds, but this is a much different East Carolina team.
Sharps seem to agree. North Carolina was originally a two-touchdown favorite on the CFB betting line. However, the Tar Heels are now up to -17 as of Wednesday afternoon. The total has seen no such movement though, remaining dead set at 60 since it opened.
Player to Watch
It seems like East Carolina will always have a great receiver, even if the offense struggles. Justin Hardy went down as the leading receiver in school history in the early part of the decade, and Zay Jones set the single-season reception record back in 2016. Last year, it was Trevon Brown’s turn, and he put up some big numbers on his way to all-AAC honors.
Brown hauled in 80 catches for 1,069 yards with seven touchdowns in 2017. He was one of the few bright spots on a team that failed to make a bowl for the third straight season, and big things are expected of him in 2018.
He didn’t get off to a great start in the season opener against the Aggies, but neither did the Pirates. New quarterback Reid Herring threw a lot of short passes, averaging less than six yards per attempt on the day, and he didn’t give Brown a lot of chances to make plays.
Player to Watch
With Chazz Surratt currently serving a four-game suspension, Nathan Elliott must play better than what we saw from him against Cal. Elliott killed the Tar Heels by making costly mistakes, throwing four interceptions on the day. Two of those led to touchdowns for Cal, and the other two led to the field position being flipped in favor of the Golden Bears.
Elliott has struggled with accuracy during his time at Chapel Hill. Last season, he threw for 10 touchdowns and five interceptions, but he completed just 51.5 percent of his passes. That’s almost inexcusable considering how quarterback friendly Larry Fedora’s offenses are, and it’s not like Elliott was throwing a number of deep balls either. He averaged less than 6.5 yards per pass last year, and he averaged under four yards a throw against Cal.
Free ATS Pick
The under might see some action closer to kickoff, but I like East Carolina quite a bit in this one. The Pirates have an underrated home crowd, and they will pack the stadium to see their in-state big brother. North Carolina was abysmal on offense against Cal, and the only reason the final score was 24-17 was due to garbage time scores. The Tar Heels still have a number of players suspended for selling Jordan brand gear, and that will hurt their depth as the game goes on.
I think East Carolina has a great chance of covering, and I’ll even put a little on the moneyline here.
College Football Odds: North Carolina 27, East Carolina 24
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