College Football Betting: Tulsa vs East Carolina Predictions

The 2010 college football betting opening weekend will feature the rematch of the 2008 Conference USA Championship game as the back-to-back defending champion East Carolina Pirates will host the Tulsa Golden Hurricane. Kick-off is set for 2:00pm EST and the game can be seen on ESPN2. Online sportsbooks opened with Tulsa as an 7-point favorite in college football predictions with an over/under total of 57. Tulsa head coach Todd Graham went 10-4 and 11-3 in his first two seasons before stepping back to 5-7 in college football odds last year. But with 9 starters returning on offense led by junior QB GJ Kinne the Golden Hurricane is primed for a return to contention in CUSA.

Kinne passed for 2,732 yards and 22 TD’s last year and top target Damaris Johnson, a junior wideout, returns as well after amassing 1,131 yards in 2009. The offense had averaged over 41 points per game in college football predictions for Graham’s first 2 years before falling to 29 PPG last year and improvement is expected. The defense allowed 27 PPG in 2009 but lost 6 starters. Tulsa has covered just 6 out of 15 games in college football betting odds as a road favorite since 2007 and has covered just 9 out of 26 CUSA games in that span.

East Carolina lost head coach and program architect Skip Holtz to South Florida as well as 33 lettermen and 13 starters. New coach Ruffin McNeill steps into a very difficult situation as the new head man and alumnus. The Pirates are coming off 4 consecutive bowl seasons and improved each year under Holtz. McNeil was previously a respected defensive coordinator at Texas Tech and he will need all of his skills for this year as ECU returns just 2 defensive starters. Last year ECU defeated Tulsa 44-17 for an easy payout as 13-point road college football betting favorites.