Rex Nelson: Week 10 College Football Picks

Each week throughout football season Sporting Life Arkansas excerpts Rex Nelson’s Weekly Arkansas College Football Picks and links to Rex’s Southern Fried Blog for his full predictions. Rex makes his prediction for every NCAA Division I and Division II college football team in the state. Here are the week 10 college football picks. Enjoy.

Arkansas, Arkansas State and UCA all won on the same Saturday.

It was, in other words, a good Saturday for most college football fans in the state.

Alex Collins stole the show before a sparse homecoming crowd in Fayetteville as he rushed for 173 yards and a career-best five touchdowns in Arkansas’ 63-28 victory over Tennessee-Martin. Collins averaged 10.8 yards per carry and became only the third Razorback to score five touchdowns in a game. He became the fifth Hog to reach 3,000 career rushing yards. And apparently he wasn’t in hot water with his coach for being late to breakfast this time around. Maybe he borrowed an alarm clock from Ryan Mallett.

Quarterback Brandon Allen moved past Casey Dick and Matt Jones into fourth on the school’s career passing list. Allen now how 6,057 passing yards. He received the Crip Hall Award as the outstanding senior in the homecoming game as he went 14 of 19 through the air for 265 yards and two touchdowns. Little brother Austin Allen threw his first college touchdown pass, which went for 35 yards to Jeremy Sprinkle.

One cause for concern going into Saturday’s game against Ole Miss at Oxford is that the Hogs gave up 519 yards to the FCS opponent.

We were 8-2 on the picks last week. The record for the season is now 59-15.

Let’s get to the Week 10 college football picks:

Ole Miss 35, Arkansas 31 — The Rebels improved to 7-2 overall and 4-1 in the Southeastern Conference with a 27-19 victory at Auburn. The Gus Bus has a flat. The Tigers fell to 4-4 overall and 1-4 in the SEC. Ole Miss, the only team to beat Alabama thus far this season, can still capture the SEC West by winning out. If you’re wondering, Ole Miss and LSU play in Oxford on Nov. 21. The Hogs’ game at Oxford is the CBS afternoon game, the appetizer for LSU’s visit to Alabama that will be shown in prime time on the network. Ole Miss started the season 4-0, including that 43-37 victory in Tuscaloosa on Sept. 19. Reality hit with a 38-10 loss at Florida on Oct. 3 and a 37-24 loss at Memphis on Oct. 17 (an easy victory over New Mexico State was sandwiched between those two games). After the nonconference loss to Memphis, the Rebels have bounced back with SEC wins over Texas A&M (23-3) and Auburn. Expect this to be a close game. We’ll give the slight edge to the home team.

Appalachian State 30, Arkansas State 28 — The Red Wolves get more national television exposure — this time on ESPNU — with a Thursday night game at Appalachian State. It’s a battle for the Sun Belt Conference lead. Both teams are 4-0 in conference play. ASU improved to 5-3 overall in Jonesboro on Saturday night with a 48-34 victory over a Georgia State team that has won just one conference game in three seasons. Georgia State came into the game at 2-4 but led 27-20 at the half. The Red Wolves woke up in the second half and outscored their opponent 21-0 in the fourth quarter. Fredi Knighten was 21 of 29 passing for ASU for a season-high 224 yards. The Mountaineers beat Troy in triple overtime Saturday, 44-41, for their 10th consecutive Sun Belt win. They are 10-2 in conference play since joining the Sun Belt last season. Appalachian State is 7-1 overall this season.

UCA 27, Stephen F. Austin 24 — The Bears stayed alive in the Southland Conference race with a 21-16 homecoming victory over Southeastern Louisiana to go to 5-3 overall and 5-1 in conference play. Unfortunately for UCA, McNeese survived a scare against Abilene Christian and won 15-13 to stay alone atop the conference standings at 7-0. Blake Veasley and Dominique Thomas combined for 272 rushing yards for the Bears. Veasley, who has emerged as a star for UCA the past two weeks, had 192 of those yards. This Saturday afternoon sees the Lumberjacks of Stephen F. Austin come to Conway. The visitors, led by former Bear head coach Clint Conque, are 3-5 overall and 3-3 in conference play. UCA needs to win its final three games to have a chance at making the FCS playoffs.

The complete Week 10 College Football Picks are here.