Rex Nelson: Arkansas College Football Picks Week 9

 

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 PageI was glued to the radio Saturday night, hoping that UCA could score late, come from behind and defeat Lamar down in Beaumont, Texas.

I always root for Arkansas teams against out-of-state foes.

But there was another motive. I was 6-0 on the picks to that point on the day and wanted to go 7-0.

I had picked the Bears to win by a score of 28-24.

They actually won 26-24 with a late touchdown.

I guess I was overly optimistic, though, in picking Alabama to defeat Arkansas by a score of 45-10. Those 10 points for the Hogs were nowhere to be found.

It marked the second season in a row for Arkansas to fail to score against Alabama. Nick Saban preaches perfection, and his team came close with no turnovers and no penalties. This is what a college football team should be.

As for the Razorbacks:

– They have been held scoreless for seven consecutive quarters.

– Since scoring on the opening drive against South Carolina, they have been outscored 104-0.

– They have their first five-game losing streak since 1997, which was Danny Ford’s final season as head coach.

– They’re 4-16 all time against No. 1 teams. This is the fifth consecutive season to lose to a No. 1 — three times to Alabama, once to Florida and once to LSU.

– Their defense has not had a single takeaway in three of the four Southeastern Conference games thus far this season.

At least it’s a bye week.

And none of those jokes please about Las Vegas having established Bye as a five-point favorite against the Hogs.

We’re sending out the predictions early this week since Arkansas State has a Tuesday night game.

College football isn’t meant to be played on Tuesday nights, by the way. Just the thought of Tuesday night college football makes me a little ill. I’m a traditionalist.

Oh well.

As noted, we were 7-0 last week, making the record 51-10 for the season.

On to the picks for Week 9 of the college football season:

Louisiana-Lafayette 35, Arkansas State 31 — The Red Wolves have won eight consecutive Sun Belt Conference games since losing the conference opener to Western Kentucky last season. ASU, in fact, has won 16 of its past 17 Sun Belt contests and captured back-to-back conference championships. But these 3-3 Red Wolves have yet to put together a complete game. After losses to Arkansas and Kansas State to start the season, Louisiana-Lafayette has run off four consecutive victories — 70-7 over Nicholls State, 35-30 over Akron, 48-24 over Texas State and 37-20 over Bobby Petrino’s Western Kentucky squad. The Ragin’ Cajuns lead the Sun Belt in scoring offense and rushing offense. Mark Hudspeth has gone 14-4 in conference games since becoming Louisiana-Lafayette’s head coach, and many think he will be the next head coach at Mississippi State. Expect a high-scoring affair tonight in Jonesboro.

On to my Arkansas college football picks Week 9…

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