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Michchamp
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Michigan vs. East Carolina, Saturday, September 2, 2023, Noon Eastern, on Peacock
Line: UM -36; o/u 51.5
Sagarin: UM by 31 pts.
HEY, football starts in a couple days! This is our first EVER meeting against Eastern Carolina, and that's probably for the best.
You may be excused for feeling a little confused wondering exactly who our opponent is. Turns out East Carolina is actually in NORTH Carolina, in the Eastern part of the state. Make sense?
It was founded in 1907 as a "teacher training school" so in that way, it's similar to Eastern Michigan. Like a lot of state colleges, it's since grown into a bohemoth, especially after it was incorporated into the UNC system, and is now the 4th largest university in North Carolina, with 22,000 undergrad students, and over 5,000 graduate students. (Michigan has 32,000 and 18,000 respectively)
ECU's mascot is the Pirate(s) and they play in the American Athletic Conference.
From time to time, you may have heard something about ECU Football, a program that's made some noise as a mid-major at times. BUT if you're anything like me, what you've heard is that ECU has been ranked here or there after starting 5-0, or gets mentioned on Sportscenter after upsetting one of their Power 5 neighbors. And if you're even more like me, you've thought to yourself "I wonder if this crappy team is actually good, or whoever they upset is just bad."
WELL let me tell you... and they haven't actually been very good as often as you might remember... they haven't won a conference championship since 2009, when Skip Holtz was their coach (before he left for USF). And the last time they actually finished a season ranked was 1995.
Their notable upsets have been against Va Tech a couple times, UNC, and NC State. But all that was 7-8 years ago now, and from 2016-ish to 2021 they were mediocre until last season, when they bounced back to go 8-5, and win some toilet bowl.
Bush-league, Amateurish Scouting Report
Their coach is in his 4th year there. His name is Mike Houston, and he played college football at some place named Mars Hill University, which I think he might have just made up, guessing that they wouldn't check his resume out. He's gone 22-24 in his 4 years there, though the last two seasons have been much better than the first two.
I looked at their roster & 2 deep. On paper this appears to be a veteran team; only 3 starters are younger than juniors. However, according to MSN Sports their returning production ranks 130th in the country; their starting QB and most of their offensive stars graduated/left at the end of LAST season. They have a new guy named Jerry Rice on the roster, but he's a kicker.
(the OTHER Jerry Rice)
Biggest unknowns (I guess) are: 1) how our Stand-In HC Jesse Minter handles the game; I believe another one of our assistants has been designated the play caller; and 2) Does this ECU team have enough to make it any sort of game, or will they be steamrolled into submission by the end of the 1st half?
So go ahead and make your picks and post some meaningless analysis if you so choose, but as always, save the woofing and barking for other threads.
Line: UM -36; o/u 51.5
Sagarin: UM by 31 pts.
HEY, football starts in a couple days! This is our first EVER meeting against Eastern Carolina, and that's probably for the best.
You may be excused for feeling a little confused wondering exactly who our opponent is. Turns out East Carolina is actually in NORTH Carolina, in the Eastern part of the state. Make sense?
It was founded in 1907 as a "teacher training school" so in that way, it's similar to Eastern Michigan. Like a lot of state colleges, it's since grown into a bohemoth, especially after it was incorporated into the UNC system, and is now the 4th largest university in North Carolina, with 22,000 undergrad students, and over 5,000 graduate students. (Michigan has 32,000 and 18,000 respectively)
ECU's mascot is the Pirate(s) and they play in the American Athletic Conference.
From time to time, you may have heard something about ECU Football, a program that's made some noise as a mid-major at times. BUT if you're anything like me, what you've heard is that ECU has been ranked here or there after starting 5-0, or gets mentioned on Sportscenter after upsetting one of their Power 5 neighbors. And if you're even more like me, you've thought to yourself "I wonder if this crappy team is actually good, or whoever they upset is just bad."
WELL let me tell you... and they haven't actually been very good as often as you might remember... they haven't won a conference championship since 2009, when Skip Holtz was their coach (before he left for USF). And the last time they actually finished a season ranked was 1995.
Their notable upsets have been against Va Tech a couple times, UNC, and NC State. But all that was 7-8 years ago now, and from 2016-ish to 2021 they were mediocre until last season, when they bounced back to go 8-5, and win some toilet bowl.
Bush-league, Amateurish Scouting Report
Their coach is in his 4th year there. His name is Mike Houston, and he played college football at some place named Mars Hill University, which I think he might have just made up, guessing that they wouldn't check his resume out. He's gone 22-24 in his 4 years there, though the last two seasons have been much better than the first two.
I looked at their roster & 2 deep. On paper this appears to be a veteran team; only 3 starters are younger than juniors. However, according to MSN Sports their returning production ranks 130th in the country; their starting QB and most of their offensive stars graduated/left at the end of LAST season. They have a new guy named Jerry Rice on the roster, but he's a kicker.
(the OTHER Jerry Rice)
Biggest unknowns (I guess) are: 1) how our Stand-In HC Jesse Minter handles the game; I believe another one of our assistants has been designated the play caller; and 2) Does this ECU team have enough to make it any sort of game, or will they be steamrolled into submission by the end of the 1st half?
So go ahead and make your picks and post some meaningless analysis if you so choose, but as always, save the woofing and barking for other threads.
