East Carolina (7-5) of C-USA and the University of South Florida Bulls (8-4) of the Big East Conference will square off in the inaugural Papajohns.com Bowl Saturday, Dec. 23 beginning at 1 p.m. (EST) at Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala.
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ECU, winners of five of their last six and six of their last eight games, will look to make it two in a row after handing North Carolina State a 21-16 loss on Nov 25. The Bulls, who earned a fourth-place league finish in the Big East this season, have won three of their last four and five of the last seven which included a 24-19 triumph at No. 7 West Virginia in their regular season finale Nov. 25.
The Bulls are led by quarterback Matt Grothe, the Big East freshman of the year. He passed for 2,495 yards and 14 touchdowns and ran for 607 yards and nine touchdowns. East Carolina counters South Florida's athletic youngster with veteran James Pinkney, whose 37 consecutive starts ranks fifth among active Division I-A quarterbacks.
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The Pirates are slight underdogs but don't seem to mind that status. "We love going against someone who's supposed to be a big, bad dog," Pirates senior cornerback Kasey Ross said. "We just look at it as another big challenge for everybody to come step up and show the nation that we're for real."
South Florida is favored by a minus 5-point chalk with the total set at 43. The Bulls were impressive winning against the spread in 7-of-11 games, but the Pirates were one of the best nationally in covering the spread by cashing ten times for their backers. Currently side bet trend is on the side of USF with 90% of the public putting its money on the Bulls.
The UNDER was the most successful totals bet in the combined records of USF and ECU with 15-of-22 games cashing below the set total. In spite of the numbers, the 68% of the betting public is putting its money on the OVER 43 in this game.
