![\"Kyle](\"http:\/\/www.sportscapping.com\/new\/cache\/capper_photos\/366_service_photo.jpg\" "\\"Kyle")
<\/a>Conference USA 2011-2012 Football Previews: East Carolina Pirates East Carolina was an extremely young team in 2010, and they made plenty of silly mistakes. McNeill and his assistants expect an improved team in 2011.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t the offense that was the problem for East Carolina last year. The offense ranked 16th in the nation in scoring per game, and the passing game was the eighth best in the nation. The other side of the ball was a completely different story. The Pirates defense managed to rank dead last in all of college football by allowing a ridiculous 44 points per game in 2010. <\/p>\n Obviously, if East Carolina doesn\u2019t improve defensively it will be tough for them to take much of a step forward.<\/p>\n Dominique Davis is a senior leader at the quarterback spot for the Pirates. Davis ranked seventh in the nation in total offense and he accounted for 46 touchdowns last season. He managed to put up those great numbers despite the fact that it was his first year in the system. <\/p>\n With an extra year of preparation in the spread offense, I fully expect Davis to have a huge year in 2011.<\/p>\n Michael Barbour is one of the best kickers in the nation, and he will be a real weapon for this team. Barbour managed to successfully convert all 16 of his field goal attempts from inside 41 yards last season. He was placed on the Lou Groza Watch List for this year.<\/p>\n While the defense as a whole is bad, the secondary has some solid senior leadership. Emanuel Davis is one of the best cornerbacks in the league. <\/p>\n Bradley Jacobs and Derek Blacknall form a nice duo at the safety position.<\/p>\n The single biggest weakness for this East Carolina team is clearly their rushing defense. Never was this more evident than when the Navy option attack chewed up this defense as the Midshipmen scored an amazing 76 points. The front four isn\u2019t able to get a push off the ball, and that puts a lot of pressure on the rest of the defense.<\/p>\n East Carolina is switching to a 3-4 defense in 2011, but with a lot of question marks at the linebacker spot I\u2019m not sure how that will work out. [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n There is no real leader in the linebacker unit, and just about all of these guys are untested and inexperienced.<\/p>\n The Pirates love to air it out, but losing Dwayne Harris really hurt their receiving unit. Lance Lewis will be a reliable target on the outside, but depth could be a bit of an issue. <\/p>\n East Carolina\u2019s spread offense relies heavily on receivers, so they\u2019ll need some young guys to step up.<\/p>\n East Carolina should improve a bit on defense, but I still think they\u2019ll be one of the worst defenses in the nation. The offense will continue to pile up the points, but without the ability to stop the run they\u2019ll likely lose to most of their quality opponents. <\/p>\n The Pirates have a tougher schedule than last year, which means they are liable to miss out on a seventh consecutive bowl berth. Home contests against UCF and Southern Mississippi in November will give the Pirates a chance to factor into the Conference USA East standings. <\/p>\n The Pirates won\u2019t be an easy team to beat this year, but the tough schedule and the weak defense will likely keep them under .500.<\/p>\n 2011 East Carolina Pirates Schedule<\/strong><\/p>\n 9\/3\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\t @SOCAR College football preview guide for the 2011 Conference USA East Carolina Pirates CFB betting season. Kyle Hunter weighs in with his ncaa football predictions, and BCS championship handicapping analysis\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":29868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[50358,44530,49957,50359,16468,14800,394,50438,50439,33860,50440,50437],"class_list":["post-40414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ncaa-football","tag-2011-conference-usa-football-previews","tag-2012-bcs-lines","tag-bcs-sportsbook-odds","tag-conference-usa-football-predictions","tag-conference-usa-odds","tag-conference-usa-picks","tag-ecu","tag-ecu-football-predictions","tag-ecu-gambling-odds","tag-ecu-pirates","tag-ecu-schedule","tag-pirates-bcs-futures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40414"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40421,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40414\/revisions\/40421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nHead Coach: Ruffin McNeill
\n2010 Record: 6-7
\nEast Carolina Gambling Odds from BetOnline to win BCS: +1,500 (Part of Field)
\nEast Carolina Odds from 5Dimes to win Conference USA Championship: +2,000
\nEast Carolina Odds from 5Dimes to win Conference USA East Division: +750<\/strong>
\n ECU Team Page – Players Stats – Roster – 2011 Schedule –><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n**BETONLINE – THE BEST SPORTSBOOK FOR NCAA FOOTBALL BETTING! \u2013 CLICK HERE NOW + BET TODAY!**<\/a><\/h3>\n
Team Strengths:<\/h3>\n
Team Weaknesses:<\/h3>\n
2011-2012 East Carolina Football Prediction: 5-7<\/h3>\n
\n9\/10\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\tVATCH
\n9\/24\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\tUAB
\n10\/1\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\tNCAR
\n10\/8\/11\t 7:00 PM ET\t @HOU
\n10\/15\/11 12:00 PM ET\t @MEM
\n10\/22\/11 3:30 PM ET\t @NAVY
\n10\/29\/11 12:00 PM ET\tTULNE
\n11\/5\/11\t 12:00 PM ET\tSOMIS
\n11\/12\/11 8:00 PM ET\t @UTEP
\n11\/19\/11 12:00 PM ET\tCENFL
\n11\/26\/11 12:00 PM ET\t @MARSH<\/p>\nClick here to check out MORE 2011 college football previews for the 2011-2012 NCAA Football Season!<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"