Rex Nelson: Arkansas College Football Picks Week 13

 

Each week throughout football season Sporting Life Arkansas excerpts Rex Nelson’s Weekly Arkansas College Football Picks and link to Rex’s Southern Fried Blog for his full predictions. Rex makes his prediction for every four-year college football team in the state. Enjoy.

Rex Nelson Archive PageIt’s going to be cold at War Memorial Stadium on Saturday morning when the Razorback game begins.

With duck season starting and Thanksgiving just a few days away, Arkansans will have plenty of excuses to miss a contest between a 3-7 team and a 4-6 team that are a combined 1-11 in Southeastern Conference play.

I’ll be there. So will my wife and our youngest son. Brenda Scisson has put together quite a Saturday morning brunch menu for the tailgate party we’ll attend.

I’ve never tried to hide my love for War Memorial Stadium. There are so many good memories of the high school and college football games I’ve seen there during the past 50 years. I’ve watched games from the stands. Arkansas games. Arkansas State games. UAPB games. Henderson in a bowl game (the 1975 Bicentennial Bowl, the first and only). Ouachita games. Arkansas Baptist games at the junior college level. Semipro games. High school games in the regular season and high school state championship games. High school all-star games.

I played there as a high school athlete in 1976.

I’ve covered games from the press box as a newspaper reporter and broadcast games on the radio.

Magic can sometimes happen there.

I was at the original Miracle on Markham. I was there again for the second Miracle on Markham. And I was there three years ago when Arkansas beat LSU to earn a spot in the Sugar Bowl.

Yes, I’ll be there Saturday. Stop by before the game, say hello and we’ll share a muffin with you.

Granted, there’s not a lot to get excited about in Arkansas on this fourth Saturday in November with the regular season winding down.

UCA will end a disappointing season with a game at home in Conway against a decent team from Sam Houston State.

UAPB will end an even more disappointing season on the road at Prairie View A&M.

Arkansas State will host an 0-10 squad from Georgia State in front of a bunch of empty seats in Jonesboro.

The best football of the day likely will take place in Arkadelphia as 11-0 Henderson hosts 10-1 St. Cloud State in the first round of the NCAA Division II playoffs.

We were 5-1 on the picks last week.

The record for the season is now 73-15.

On to Arkansas College Football Picks Week 13:

Arkansas 24, Mississippi State 21 — Why not? Why not pick these downtrodden Hogs? A Mississippi State team that’s not all that much better comes to Little Rock this weekend. Arkansas is playing its final home game of the season and should be loose since there’s frankly nothing to lose at this point. It’s Mississippi State that must win its final two games to become bowl eligible. So the pressure is on the Bulldogs. MSU has only managed to defeat Alcorn State from the SWAC, Troy from the Sun Belt, Bowling Green from the MAC and Kentucky (which is from the SEC but might as well be from the Southland Conference when it comes to football). I was there when Bobby Petrino’s first team — which was not a good one — defeated LSU in late November at War Memorial Stadium. So why not?

To see all of the picks for the week from Rex, click here…

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