North Carolina State Wolfpack vs East Carolina Pirates Prediction, Picks and Game Preview - 09/03/2022

Game Time: 12:00 pm ET, Saturday, September 3, 2022

Venue:  Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium, Greenville, NC

Where to Watch:  ESPN

DraftKings:  Point Spread:  NC State -11, ECU +11; Over/Under:  55 points

Bet365:  Point Spread:  NC State -11, ECU +11; Over/Under:  55 points

BetMGM:  Point Spread:  NC State -11, ECU +11; Over/Under:  55.5 points

 

North Carolina State Wolfpack:  0-0 (ACC Atlantic)

East Carolina Pirates:  0-0 (AAC)

 

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North Carolina State Wolfpack:  N/A

East Carolina Pirates:  N/A

 

NC State is playing their season opener here on Saturday and this will also be their first road game of the college football season. They finished last season with a 9-3 record overall and were 2-3 in their road games. They were also 6-2 in their conference games and finished 2nd place in the ACC Atlantic. They did not end their season with a Bowl appearance as they did become eligible for the Holiday Bowl against UCLA but a covid-19 outbreak at the school led to the game getting canceled. Their offense was averaging 415 YPG and 33.1 PPG while their defense was allowing 331.7 YPG and 19.7 PPG against them. Devin Leary led the team in passing with 3,433 passing yards, Zonovan Knight led the team in rushing with 753 rushing yards, and Emeka Emezie led the team in receiving with 802 receiving yards. 

 

 

 

ECU is playing their season opener here on Saturday and this will also be their first home game on the college football schedule this season. They finished last season with a 7-5 record overall and were 4-2 in their home games. They were also 5-3 with their conference record and finished in 4th place in the AAC. They did not end their season with a Bowl game as they did become eligible for the Military Bowl against Boston College but a covid-19 outbreak led to the game getting canceled. Their offense was averaging 433.2 YPG and 29.7 PPG while their defense was allowing 394.9 YPG and 26.2 PPG against them. Holton Ahlers led the team in passing with 3,126 passing yards, Keaton Mitchell led the team in rushing with 1,132 rushing yards, and Tyler Snead led the team in receiving with 855 receiving yards. 

The current betting odds have NC State listed as an 11 point favorite in this game according to Draftkings Sportsbook. NC State had a very good season last year and they will be looking to improve off of a promising season by following up with an even better season. They had a great offense all year, moving the ball very well in their games while scoring a lot of points in those, but they also had a great defense that did not allow many yards per game or points, and that is going to be key for them all season with some of the offenses they are going to face this year. ECU also had a pretty good season, finishing just 7-5 but they did perform well in their home games and in the conference. They also had a good offense like NC State but, their defense allowed a lot of yards in their games all year and that led to them allowing a lot of points as well, that is going to be an issue with a good offense like this. NC State had a great offense last season but they also had a lot of their key offensive contributors, such as their starting QB, return to the team for this season and they should only see improvement this season as they look to build off of that great year. NC State is just on another level compared to ECU and they will be able to score a lot of points on this bad defense while ECU struggles to score on this good defense. The best way to place a bet here is on NC State to cover the spread in this game.

 

North Carolina State East Carolina Prediction:  Our NCAAF Pick for Saturday, September 3, 2022 (12:00 pm ET start time) is NC State 45 ECU 17.

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North Carolina State Wolfpack: 15-9 ATS in all games. 14-7 ATS in games played on a grass field. 28-18 UNDER as a favorite of 3.5 to 10 points.

East Carolina Pirates: 30-41 ATS as a home underdog. 15-9 UNDER in a home game where the total is between 52.5 and 56. 8-4 UNDER in games played on a grass field.

 

 

North Carolina State Wolfpack:  C. Toudle (WR) Prob Sat - Shoulder.

East Carolina Pirates:  C. Johnson (WR) Out indefinitely - Suspension.

 

 

“Yeah, we’ve had some tough things happen. And I think adversity creates opportunities. Nobody likes feeling like you got the raw deal, which several of our teams have probably felt that way.” - Dave Doeren on the adversity the school has had to face in a lot of their different sports programs.

 

 

“Now it’s real. You know, you talk about how we are opening with this team, or we gotta play this team this year but when you see it and put it up there – we’ve got it up on a board outside of our locker-room so the kids see it every day, it just makes it real.” - Mike Houston back in June on the football schedule being released.

 

 

 

WR Carter, Devin

WR Rooks, Porter 

WR Thomas, Thayer 

TE Pennix, Trent

TE Toudle, Christopher

QB Leary, Devin

RB Houston, Jordan 

 

WR Johnson, Jaylen

WR Winstead, Isaiah

WR Hatfield, Jsi 

TE Jones, Ryan

QB Ahlers, Holton 

RB Mitchell, Keaton 

 

 

Passing: N/A

Rushing: N/A

Receiving: N/A

Touchdowns: N/A

 

Passing: N/A

Rushing: N/A

Receiving: N/A

Touchdowns: N/A

 

Coaches:

North Carolina State Wolfpack: Dave Doeren (10th season)

East Carolina Pirates: Mike Houston (4th season)