Rex Nelson: Week 2 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 2 college football picks. Enjoy.

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Rex Nelson Archive PageWhat a fun week of college football.

Upsets galore.

Near upsets.

Overtime games.

LSU cheap shots.

What more could you ask for?

On a beautiful Labor Day weekend in Fayetteville, the Hogs survived — and we do mean survived — with a 21-20 victory over Louisiana Tech.

Considering how the folks in Starkville are feeling right now after Mississippi State’s loss to South Alabama (a team that was playing the Henderson Reddies just a few years ago), maybe Razorback fans should not feel so badly about their team’s performance.

There’s cause for concern, however, when the offense produces only 106 rushing yards with 96 of those yards coming from Rawleigh Williams.

In his first start as a Razorback quarterback, Austin Allen was 20 of 29 through the air for 191 yards and two touchdowns. He did throw two interceptions. And Louisiana Tech outgained Arkansas through the air, 212 yards to 191 yards.

Looking for bright spots?

How about the defense against the run? For the fourth time in the past five games, Arkansas held an opponent to fewer than 100 rushing yards. Louisiana Tech had 79.

We were 9-1 on picks in Week One, missing only the Southern Arkansas-Southwestern Oklahoma game as the Muleriders overcame a 17-point deficit on the road.

Let’s get to the picks for Week 2:

TCU 40, Arkansas 38 — Only half of the SEC teams that played nonconference opponents won. It would have been less than half had Tennessee, ranked No. 9 in the preseason, not overcome a 10-point halftime deficit to beat Appalachian State in overtime, 20-13. LSU lost to Wisconsin at Lambeau Field (and Les Miles is right back on the hot seat), Southern Mississippi scored 34 unanswered points to beat Kentucky in Lexington (is it basketball season yet?) and West Virginia broke a five-game losing streak to SEC teams with a 26-11 win over Missouri, where the football program is in a downward spiral. So Arkansas was not alone in the conference in leaving its fans a bit disappointed. Among Big 12 teams, the Horned Frogs struggled in Fort Worth on Saturday night before finally putting away South Dakota State. TCU gave up 41 points and 461 yards to South Dakota State, leading head coach Gary Patterson to say: “Hopefully we’ll do a lot better job as a coaching staff on getting them in position against Arkansas. If not, they’ll have 1,000 yards and 1,000 points.” Arkansas will fall short of scoring 1,000 points, but it should be an entertaining game.

Auburn 46, Arkansas State 28 — On Friday night in Jonesboro, Arkansas State was whipped in just about every phase of the game in a 31-10 loss to Toledo. That makes the Red Wolves 0-3 against Toledo since early last year. Toledo won the 2015 GoDaddy Bowl, 63-44, and then came back in the fall to win by a final score of 37-7 in Toledo. Most folks thought Clemson would rout Auburn, but the Tigers looked pretty good at home — at least on defense — before falling 19-13. Gus Malzahn is working overtime this week to make sure his offense, which used three quarterbacks against Clemson, is firing on all cylinders against the school that gave him his first college head coaching job.

Samford 29, UCA 27 — This is the same school from Birmingham, Ala., that led Arkansas at War Memorial Stadium at the end of the third quarter three years ago before falling to Bret Bielema’s first team. In fact, Saturday’s win against Louisiana Tech marked the first time since that game for Arkansas to win after trailing at the conclusion of three quarters. Samford opened the season with a 77-7 win over Mars Hill. Samford won last year against UCA , 44-16, in Birmingham. Saturday’s game in Conway should be closer. The Bears opened the season with a 56-13 Southland Conference win over Houston Baptist. UCA scored on three of its first four possessions and then blocked a field goal that was returned for a touchdown to make it 28-0. The Bears never slowed down after that.

To see all of the other picks, click here.

week 2 college football picks

 

 

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