The East Carolina Pirates and the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers meet in the Birmingham Bowl in college football action from Protective Stadium.

The East Carolina Pirates enter this game on behalf of the AAC after finishing at 7-5 in the regular season. Holton Ahlers has thrown for 3,408 yards, 23 touchdowns and 5 interceptions on 67.1% passing while Keaton Mitchell leads ECU’s ground attack with 1,325 rushing yards and 13 TDs while Marlon Gunn Jr. also has 344 rushing yards as well for the Pirates on the year. Isaiah Winstead has a team-high 82 grabs for 1,013 yards and 4 TDs while C.J. Johnson has 933 receiving yards with a team-high 9 touchdowns. Ryan Jones has 413 receiving yards with 4 TDs as well this season. On defense, Julius Wood has a team-high 82 total tackles while the ECU defense as a unit has 23 sacks and 11 interceptions.

The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers will enter repping the Sun Belt, finishing at 9-3 in the regular season. Grayson McCall has thrown for 2,314 yards, 21 touchdowns and an interception with a 68.9% completion percentage but has since announced he is entering the transfer portal and won’t play here. CJ Beasley has a team-high 704 rushing yards with 4 touchdowns while Reese White has 487 rushing yards and 4 TDs as well this season. Sam Pinckney has a team-high 67 catches for 917 receiving yards while Jared Brown has 782 receiving yards and a team-high 6 touchdowns with 47 receptions. Tyson Mobley also has 478 receiving yards and 5 TDs this season. On defense, Charles Arnold Jr. and Lance Boykin each have a pair of interceptions. JT Killen has 90 total tackles and as a unit, Coastal Carolina has 34 sacks and 9 interceptions this season.

East Carolina is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 non-conference games and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games in December while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 games following a win. Coastal Carolina is 2-6 ATS in their last 8 games overall and 0-4 ATS in their last 4 games in December while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 games in December.

I get the case to be made for Coastal as this is a team that thrives in the underdog roie. However, news has come out that Grayson McCall, the Chants’ starting QB has entered the transfer portal and we saw how much this Coastal team struggled when McCall was out of the lineup with his injury. This East Carolina team came on strong offensively down the stretch and I think they get a convincing win in this bowl game so give me the Pirates by double-digits.