Rex Nelson: Arkansas College Football Picks – Week 3

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 on every four-year college football team in the state. Enjoy.

A 31-21 victory.

You know what one former Razorback head football coach would say: “All wins are precious.”

Or to quote another former Razorback coach: “Smile!”

Yes, I know. It was Samford, not Stanford.

No one ever said things would come easily in 2013.

There were some highlights:

– Two 100-yard rushers in each of the first two games for the first time in school history.

– Alex Collins becoming the first Arkansas freshman to top 100 rushing yards in his first two games while also inventing the War Memorial Leap (take that, Lambeau Leap).

– The longest field goal by a Razorback kicker since 1988. Zach Hocker put it through from 53 yards, the longest since Kendall Trainor’s 58-yard field goal against Miami a quarter of a century ago.

– 333 rushing yards as the Razorbacks topped the 300-yard mark for the first time since 2010.

The Hogs are now 149-54-2 at War Memorial Stadium. Not bad for road games, huh?

There was a Liberty Bowl representative at the game. If Arkansas can get to 6-6, that representative said he would promise an invitation to the bowl game and a high of at least 27 degrees on New Year’s Eve in Memphis.

We were 7-2 on the picks last week and now stand at 10-2 on the year. Two of the Great American Conference teams — Southern Arkansas University and Harding University — let us down on Thursday night of last week. Both squads had been picked to finish near the top of the GAC rankings as they came off outstanding 2012 seasons. Harding was 9-2 last year, and SAU was 8-3. But Harding fell to Southwestern Oklahoma, 27-23, and Southern Arkansas fell to Southeastern Oklahoma, 56-50. We had predicted that both of the Arkansas schools would go on the road and win close games. Instead, they lost close games.

On to the picks Arkansas College Football Picks – Week 3 – click here for them.