The South Florida Bulls (1-3) will take on the East Carolina Pirates (2-2) on Saturday/ This game has been moved from Orlando, Florida to Boca Raton due to Hurricane Ian. Last season East Carolin beat USF 29-14 as a 9.5-point home favorite.
East Carolina was picked to finish sixth in the AAC this season, behind Houston, Cincinnati, UCF, SMU, and Memphis. The Pirates went 7-5 last season and brought back eight starters on defense and seven on offense. Through the first four games of this season, East Carolina is 2-2 and 0-1 in the conference after losing to Navy 23-20 last week. In the non-conference play, the Pirates were edged by #13 NC State 21-20 and got wins over Old Dominion 39-21 and Campbell 49-10.
??????? “It's not a serious injury, but it certainly hurt us tonight.” ECU Football HC Mike Houston on the injury to Keaton Mitchell
????? Join the 5th Quarter Call-In Show NOW!
LISTEN, STREAM, WATCH
?? 92.7FM, 104.1FM
?? https://t.co/Z5O9agutyx
?? https://t.co/CcHzHK3f8Y pic.twitter.com/ZpSJ9FbKcr— Pirate Radio ?? (@PR927FM) September 25, 2022
The Pirates are 34th in the nation averaging 464 yards per game, and 64th averaging 32 ppg. Quarterback Holton Ahlers leads the offense and has completed 66.4% of his passes for 1,067 yards with nine touchdowns and three interceptions. The Pirates also have one of the top running backs in the AAC in Keaton Mitchell, who has rushed for 8.4 yards per attempt and three touchdowns. Mitchell had to leave the game against Navy last week after just five carries but was able to walk off the field on his own power. At the time of publishing this article, Mitchell's status for Saturday was unclear. The backup running back for ECU is Rahjai Harris, who only averages 3.5 yards per attempt but has four touchdowns.
The Pirates have allowed just 18.8 ppg which is 33rd in the nation, and are 47th limiting the opposition to 349.5 total yards on the defensive end.