Thursday, May 24th, 2012
The East Carolina Pirates will hit the highway in Conference USA action when they face the Memphis Tigers in a college football game on Tuesday night. Kick off time in Memphis is scheduled for 8PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by ESPN2. The LVSC college football odds makers have set the opening point spread in this contest and the East Carolina Pirates opened as a 7-½ point favorite. The early money from the college football betting public has been Memphis Tigers money, as the East Carolina Pirates are currently a 4-point favorite. College football money line players can make a play on the favored East Carolina Pirates at –175 with the home underdog Memphis Tigers returning +155 to win straight up without the points on their side.
East Carolina is 4-3 on the season coming off a 49-13 home victory against Rice. East Carolina is 1-3 this season on the road with losses at West Virginia, North Carolina and SMU with their only victory coming at Marshall 27-17. The problems have come with the passing offense as the Pirates only average 198 yards passing per game ranking 9th in Conference USA. The Pirates have only 7 touchdown passes in their 7 games on the season. Senior quarterback Patrick Pinkney has hit on just 57% of his passes with 7 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. Pinkney is coming off a 3 touchdown performance last week but it was to lowly Rice and it was a game where the Pirates quarterback had 2 interceptions. The Pirates ground game has only produced a 3.7 yards per carry average on the season. East Carolina is 4th in total defense in Conference USA surrendering 5.4 yards per play and 352 yards per game average. The Memphis Tigers are 2-5 on the season and coming off a 36-16 road loss at Southern Mississippi. Memphis has 1 win at home against a Conference USA opponent beating an improving UTEP Miners squad 35-20. Junior quarterback Will Hudgens has played the last two games for the Memphis Tigers as starting quarterback Tyler Bass is having season ending surgery suffered in a game October 3rd against South Florida. Hudgens in his two starts has hit on 60% of his passes for 4 touchdowns and 3 interceptions. Hudgens was under center during the Tigers 35-20 home win to UTEP with 3 touchdown passes and an interception. Hudgens was third on the Tigers depth chart as Arkelon Hall started the season as the team’s number one quarterback who was removed from the starters role after week 2 in a 31-14 loss at Middle Tennessee State. Senior running back Curtis Steele leads the team on the ground with 95 carries for 5.4 yards per carry average. Steele has picked it up the past two games with 240 yards rushing two weeks ago to UTEP and 136 yards a week ago against Southern Mississippi. Memphis is 7th in Conference USA on the defensive side of the ball allowing 405 yards per game and 6.0 yards per play against. Memphis only averages 21 points per game ranking 100th in the nation. East Carolina has dominated Memphis the past three seasons winning all 3 games by 15 points or more.
For the Latest CFB Odds Please Visit our CFB Odds Page
CFB Trend: East Carolina Pirates are 5-0 ATS in their past 5 meetings
The Wagerline consensus has 69.3% of the CFB bettors on East Carolina –4
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