East Carolina

I just did some superficial scouting of Kentucky's Liberty Bowl opponent. Here are my initial thoughts.

First, East Carolina must be located somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. And as an aside, I suppose West Carolina is somewhere in Tennessee.

I am very happy to report that the Pirates do NOT have a running quarterback. That's always good news. They haven't put up very high point totals- but neither had Tennessee or Vandy before they played UK.

No opponents in common with the Cats, so no help there. But they did crush West Virginia and Memphis, so they must be a lot better than Louisville.

I believe the Kentucky defense that showed up against Louisville, Alabama, and large chunks of the first 7 games can handle East Carolina's offense. A lesser performance is trouble.

The Kentucky offense that showed up in, well, ummmm... Did the Kentucky offense ever show up?

I may make a score prediction closer to game-time. For now I'll settle for a point-spread prediction. I'd say East Carolina will be favored by 5 1/2.

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Two minutes later- It occurred to me that there is probably a spread available already, so I looked. Vegasinsider.com says UK is a 2 1/2 point favorite. I still think it will float closer to my line. But looking at the initial line I suppose it will probably not drift back to more than about even.
The over/under is 42. My initial impulse would be to take the under.
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