Kentucky vs East Carolina, Prediction, 2009 Auto Zone Liberty Bowl. This will not be a popular opinion to post on an SEC blog.  I feel this is the perfect example of there being too many bowl games.  I understand and respect the fact that Kentucky plays a much harder schedule than East Carolina does.  Believe me, from top to bottom Conference USA would never compete with the SEC, this is a given.  Going 6-6 should merit a bowl berth unless you beat a few teams that were ranked in the top 10.  Kentucky did not accomplish that.  East Carolina belongs in a bowl game this year with victories over Virginia Tech and West Virginia on their resume.  They are their conference champion and beat next best Tulsa to back that up.  The weirdest thing about what I have written so far is that all things point to me picking East Carolina.  Not so fast.

Kentucky would have a legitimate shot of winning this game if Randall Cobb were starting at quarterback. Unfortunately Cobb had knee surgery on December 2nd.  Going back to Mike Hartline, who was benched as the starter for his struggles against Florida and Mississippi State, is not going to make much sense.  When you bench a quarterback and look toward your future by putting a new person into that position, you are basically giving up on your original plan and going back to the drawing board.  Hartline, the rest of the offense, the cheerleaders and the booster club all know this is desperation by Brooks.  It could pay off, but mentally, I would guess Hartline will be playing scared.

On the other hand, the East Carolina Pirates are very middle of the road offensively.  When they have the ball, they put up 336 yards per game (83rd nationally).  Quarterback Patrick Pinkney threw for 2,379 yards, 12 TD and 7 INT this season.  His completion percentage was a very lofty 62.7%, throwing a bunch of short routes.  My key to this game is Norman Whitley.  Skip Holtz knows he has a tough running back in Whitley.  He only had 667 yards and four TD this season, but Holtz is a good enough coach to know where the cracks in a defense are.  I am predicting Whitley to have at least 100 total yards in the game and be the difference.  East Carolina wins the 2008 Auto Zone Liberty Bowl.

Auto Zone Liberty Bowl    1/2/09    ESPN   5PM ESTKentucky (6-6) vs East Carolina (9-4)