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 four-year college football team in the state. Enjoy.
Well, we started 2014 just where we left off in 2013. Another Razorback loss.
Arkansas’ losing streak is now 10 games, the longest in school history. Prior to this streak, the longest losing streak was seven games in 1990 (the Jack Crowe era) and seven games in 1952-53 (the end of the Otis Douglas era and the start of the Bowden Wyatt era). The 45-21 loss to Auburn marked the 13th consecutive conference loss, that obviously another school record.
Arkansas is 0-9 against ranked teams since the start of the 2012 season (curses, Bobby Petrino; you almost killed a program with your affair). For the first time in nine seasons as a head coach, Bret Bielema lost an opener.
Native Arkansan Gus Malzahn, by the way, is 30-3 at Jordan-Hare Stadium as either the offensive coordinator or head coach at Auburn. And to think that they called him “high school” during his one season at Arkansas.
At least there will finally be a victory this Saturday afternoon in front of a lot of hot fans and quite a few empty seats at Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium.
Arkansas State, which looked solid in the second half of its season-opening victory over Montana State, travels to Tennessee this week.
All in all, though, it’s a sorry week for SEC football.
The only conference game is Ole Miss at Vanderbilt, not exactly must-see TV. There will, however, be a lot of starched pink shirts and BMWs in the parking lot as the frat boys turn out from both schools.
The rest of the schedule consists of:
Florida Atlantic at Alabama
San Jose State at Auburn
Ohio at Kentucky
Sam Houston State at LSU
UAB at Mississippi State
Missouri at Toledo
East Carolina at South Carolina
Lamar at Texas A&M
Are you kidding?
I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to go to Conway and watch the UCA Bears, who played well in a 42-35 loss at Texas Tech last Saturday.
Last week’s record was 4-0.
On to the picks for Week 2:
Arkansas 49, Nicholls State 15 — Yes, this is an improved Arkansas team. But you could be improved and still go 4-8. Auburn outgained an Arkansas squad that still can’t tackle 267-61 in the second half last Saturday. The Hogs had just two rushing yards in that second half. Auburn had both a 150-yard rusher and a 150-yard receiver for the first time in 13 years. This Razorback defense helps other schools set offensive records. It was the 11th consecutive game in which Auburn scored 30 or more points. Meanwhile, Nicholls State lost last week to Air Force, 44-16. I’ll likely pick the Henderson Reddies against Nicholls State next week. I wonder when was the last time Arkansas and Henderson played the same opponent on consecutive weekends.
Tennessee 37, Arkansas State 24 — The Red Wolves struggled for a half to start the Blake Anderson era in front of 26,143 spectators in Jonesboro before rolling to a 37-10 victory. It was the eighth consecutive ASU win over an FCS opponent. In his first career start at quarterback, Fredi Knighten out of Pulaski Academy had 368 total yards — 219 passing, 104 rushing and 45 receiving. Montana State, which trailed only 13-10 in the third quarter, came in ranked No. 18 in the FCS and has been ranked for more than 60 consecutive weeks. After cutting the Red Wolf lead to three points, the Bobcats punted five times and turned it over twice as the ASU defense took charge. Tennessee, coming off four consecutive losing seasons, had its first sellout in seven years and beat Utah State, 38-7, in a rare Sunday night came. Expect ASU to make it competitive for three quarters or so in Knoxville on Saturday.
UCA 29, Tennessee-Martin 20 — The Bears played well in Steve Campbell’s first game as the UCA head coach. In fact, the Bears had a 16-7 lead at one point and trailed just 21-16 at the half. UCA cut the Red Raider lead to seven points with 2:57 left in the game and tried an onside kick, but Tech recovered the kick and ran out the clock. Tennessee-Martin did not play quite as well against its FBS opponent. Kentucky scored on almost every possession in a 59-14 rout and outgained Tennessee-Martin, 656-398.
For Rex’s complete Arkansas College Football Picks this week, click here.