It’s great to be here in the state of Alabama.

We’ll start the week by picking the outcome of the Alabama Crimson Tide and Auburn Tiger games.

What’s that you say?

Auburn has an open date, giving the Tigers two weeks to prepare for Arkansas?

OK, let’s start with Ole Miss at Alabama.

Excuse me?

Say what?

We’re not in Alabama?

We’re in Arkansas?

Never mind.

There I go.

Having fun, along with everyone else, at the expense of John L. Smith.

I should refrain from that. What a nice guy. I enjoyed visiting briefly with him before Monday’s meeting of the Little Rock Touchdown Club. I know I would enjoy having him as a dinner companion.

I was sitting just to Smith’s right when he made the now-famous verbal slip (the story even made The Wall Street Journal this morning). I whispered “Arkansas.”

He didn’t hear me.

Look, I’ve spent decades giving speeches and talking on the radio. It’s easy to make mistakes when speaking. This man was put in a no-win situation. He will be a blip in the history of University of Arkansas football.

Take a deep, deep breath and enjoy the fall weather. This too shall pass.

Let’s repeat a couple of things we’ve said in previous weeks:

1. The best thing Jeff Long can do for the long term is nothing in the short term. Focus on hiring the best coach possible at the end of the season. Another change now would only add to the confusion.

2. Everyone should have realized coming into the season that due to the unusual circumstances, this would be a season to survive, not a season to savor. We have only ourselves to blame for buying into the preseason hype.

There’s good college football being played in Arkansas. It’s just not being played in Fayetteville.

UCA opened Sun Belt Conference play with an important win at home.

UAPB won a second consecutive conference game on the road.

Four of the state’s six Great American Conference teams are undefeated — Henderson is 4-0, Ouachita is 3-0, Harding is 3-0 and Southern Arkansas is 3-0.

We were 6-3 last week on the picks — and should have known better than to pick Arkansas over Rutgers — making the record 28-6 for the season thus far.

On to the picks for Week 5:

Texas A&M 44, Arkansas 31 — The Razorbacks will score lots of points. Unfortunately, the Aggies will score more against a horrible (by SEC standards) Arkansas defense. After having its first game postponed due to a tropical storm (the Aggies were supposed to play Louisiana Tech in Shreveport; that game will now be played Oct. 13), A&M opened at home against Florida. The Aggies fell, 20-17. They’ve since come back with victories of 48-3 over SMU and 70-14 over South Carolina State.

Western Kentucky 32, Arkansas State 30 — It will be a tough Sun Belt Conference opener in Jonesboro on Saturday night for the 2-2 Red Wolves. Western Kentucky opened with a 49-10 victory over Austin Peay and didn’t play that badly in a 35-0 loss to Alabama in Tuscaloosa (17 points closer than the Razorbacks came to beating Alabama). That was followed by two quality victories –32-31 over Kentucky in Lexington and 42-17 at home against Southern Mississippi. After having to play at Oregon and Nebraska in two of its first three games, Arkansas State got a nice break last weekend against lowly Alcorn State, winning 56-0 in Jonesboro. ASU outgained Alcorn, 634-130. Ryan Aplin was 12 of 13 passing for 198 yards and three touchdowns. It should be a fun, close game before hopefully a big crowd in Jonesboro this weekend.

UCA 29, Stephen F. Austin 27 — Last Saturday’s win for UCA was one of the biggest in the history of the program. Sam Houston State came in ranked No. 3 in the FCS and led 20-10 with less than four minutes remaining in the game. First, Bear quarterback Wynrick Smothers scored on a 17-yard run with 3:18 left. He then threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Dominique Croom with just 57 seconds showing on the clock. The Bears are now 3-1 after beating Sam Houston for the first time since 2008. Smothers was 24 of 41 passing for 318 yards and two touchdowns. Croom had seven catches for 113 yards. Stephen F. Austin opened with a 49-14 win over an NCAA Division II foe, Southwestern Oklahoma. SFA has since lost three consecutive games — 52-0 to SMU, 43-35 to Montana State and 41-37 to Texas State.

Tennessee State 17, UAPB 13 — On Thursday night of last week, UAPB went to 3-1 overall and 2-1 in the SWAC with a 24-21 victory over Alabama State in Montgomery. The game was televised nationally by ESPNU. Alabama State missed a field goal attempt in the final minute that could have sent the game to overtime. It was the Golden Lions’ second road conference victory in a six-day period. Ben Anderson passed for 220 yards, and Justin Billings rushed for 127 yards. UAPB goes on the road for a third consecutive game as Tennessee State celebrates its homecoming in Nashville. Tennessee State is 4-0 with victories of 17-14 over Florida A&M, 38-12 over Jackson State, 34-14 over Austin Peay and 21-14 over Bethune-Cookman.

Ouachita 28, Southeastern Oklahoma 24 — Ouachita moved up to No. 12 nationally in NCAA Division II following a 31-24 victory over Arkansas Tech in Arkadelphia. But injuries already are adding up for the 3-0 Tigers, the defending Great American Conference champion. Ouachita lost its starting quarterback, GAC 2011 Offensive Player of the Year Casey Cooper, in the first game. Last Saturday, quarterback Benson Jordan injured his shoulder. The Tigers’ defense is improved over last season, however. Southeastern Oklahoma opened the season with a nonconference victory over Texas A&M-Commerce but has since dropped two consecutive conference games — 31-24 to Southern Arkansas and 56-20 to Henderson.

Henderson 52, Southwestern Oklahoma 35 — The Reddie offense just outscores folks. Henderson is now ranked No. 17 in NCAA Division II. In last Saturday’s 56-20 victory over Southeastern Oklahoma at Arkadelphia, Reddie quarterback Kevin Rodgers was 15 of 28 passing for 269 yards and two touchdowns. Southwestern Oklahoma is 1-2 overall and 1-1 in conference play. Southwestern will score some points, but it won’t be enough to match Henderson’s output.

Harding 33, East Central Oklahoma 22 — The Bisons, who have won three consecutive road games, are not yet nationally ranked. But they should be. They have the best ground game in Division II. In a 42-13 win over Southern Nazarene last Saturday, Harding rushed for 441 yards on a school-record 79 running plays. Harding is 3-0 for the first time since 2004. East Central is 2-2 overall and 1-1 in the GAC, having defeated UAM, 31-17, last weekend.

Southern Arkansas 19, UAM 17 — The 3-0 Muleriders have been a pleasant surprise. They posted a 35-34 victory over Southwestern Oklahoma last Saturday. Mulerider quarterback Tyler Sykora is the real deal. He was 24 of 36 passing for 281 yards and five touchdowns against Southwestern Oklahoma. UAM dropped to 1-3 with its loss to East Central Oklahoma in Ada.

Arkansas Tech 35, Northwestern Oklahoma 16 — The Wonder Boys looked much better in their 31-24 loss to Ouachita than they had looked the week before in a 73-34 loss to Henderson. Tech is 1-3, but there’s a bright side. That’s the fact that the Wonder Boys have scored a combined 58 points the past two weeks against the No. 17 and No. 12 teams in the country. It will pay off this week against an 0-4 Northwestern Oklahoma team.

What’s left to say at this point?

I’m drawn back to a piece Danny West wrote from Fayetteville in the wake of the University of Arkansas’ loss to Louisiana-Monroe.

The points he made at that time rang even more true after the Razorbacks were humiliated by Alabama.

To wit: “So how did this happen? Simple. Arkansas wasn’t prepared, and it wasn’t prepared because Bobby Petrino wasn’t the one directing practice all week, the week before and the four weeks before that.

“I remember one day during two-a-days when John L. had the marching band come down to the intramural fields to greet the players with the fight song as they ran off the bus. Cute. But cute doesn’t win.

“I remember another time, at media day, when media members didn’t receive a card with a list of our interviews, or even a chair to sit in while interviewing the players inside the Broyles Center. Those were small things that we had always received.

“Trey (Biddy) told me then, ‘I just have a bad feeling that the small things, the attention to detail, has left now that Bobby’s no longer in charge. Everyone’s just a little too nice around here right now.’

“Another time at practice, one of the assistant coaches had to wait for the ball boy to run and get a bag of footballs before practice could resume. Think those things would have happened under Bobby Petrino? Not a chance, and I’d pray for the poor soul who was responsible if they did happen. The man had everything under control at all times. No distractions, 100 percent focus on every small detail.”

Yes, the little things matter.

The man I considered my football guru, the late Buddy Benson, always said, “There’s a fine line between a winner and a loser.”

Obviously, the little things aren’t being taken care of in Fayetteville.

Of course, Petrino had to go. In my mind, that’s not even open to debate. As I noted last week on the Southern Fried blog, we should have understood coming in that this is a season to survive, not a season to savor.

Too many of us bought into the preseason hype. Even a Petrino-led team would have been challenged by the lack of talent on the Razorback defense.

The out-of-state correspondent I quoted last week — who has followed the Hogs since birth — checked in again this week.

“Disgust with the current coaching staff should be tempered somewhat by pity for the players,” he wrote. “Tyler Wilson was right. Many did seem to quit against Bama. But it’s almost forgivable, given the bill of goods sold these kids. They came to play for a whole other program and were then subjected not to a more typical, comes-with-the-territory coaching change — an adios for a better job — but a shock to the system.

“Imagine: The man they respected/feared/trusted, the coach any young player would naturally want to please in that father-son way of coach-player, the man who was The Man embarrassed the hell out of himself and them.

“Most kids that age hunger for adult leadership and a sense of authority even as they think they want to revolt against it. When the authority disappears, they are lost. These players had to witness the public humiliation of their authority figure. How do you get past that quickly?

“Talk of an SEC title? Whispers of a national championship run? A Top 10 ranking? That’s a lot of pressure for a crew suddenly steering without a rudder. Throw in a head coach who is the polar opposite of the offensive genius and disciplinarian they came to play for, and who was surely found out within weeks of his hire as an empty headset, and combine that with a staff loyal mainly to future employment . . .”

His conclusion? It’s a sad time to be a Razorback player.

“I feel sorry for them,” he writes. “Their heads are spinning already from a crazy offseason, just months removed from all that. Now they find themselves being bludgeoned by Alabama on national television without their best player/coach on the field and with knowledge that little help will arrive from the sidelines. Having played on teams that were poorly coached, I can attest to that feeling of being lost at sea and on your own out there. It ain’t fun.”

No, it isn’t.

So where does the Arkansas program go from here?

Our correspondent writes: “The state’s inferiority complex — let’s be honest, we have one — will now manifest itself in outrage and anger, demand for something being done yesterday. Like firing the lot of them on The Hill, starting with Jeff Long and ending with the water boy. But all that would accomplish is scaring off potential head coaches. Who would want to work for an athletic director who is so easily bullied by the fans?

“The best thing Long can do long term is nothing in the short term. He has made his stand for principle. Like it or not, you have to admire him for it. The alternative would have been so much easier and, by now, excused and accepted by a majority of the fan base and a sports culture that understands that victories rule all.

“This won’t be easy, but Long has to suffer through this. It’s his Passion. In the meantime, he could busy himself with ignoring what’s happening on the field and concentrate on securing the money to afford a head coach, the man who can and would clean up this mess and turn it around quickly. Because, as bad as things look now, the right head coach can make a difference. That we know.”

We were 6-1 on the picks last week, making us 22-3 on the season.

Let’s move on to the picks for Week 4:

Arkansas 24, Rutgers 23 — I’m not sure why I’m doing this. I guess I think, as I write this, that Tyler Wilson will play. Without Wilson’s leadership on the field, Arkansas will be lucky to make it to a bowl game. There’s some athletic talent on this Razorback team, but I wonder how much heart there is after watching key players quit on the field during last week’s second half.

Arkansas State 42, Alcorn State 10 — After trips to Oregon and Nebraska, the Red Wolves get a well-deserved break when Alcorn State comes calling from the SWAC. The Arkansas State defense is still showing its youth. Remember, it returned just three starters from last year. Bo Pellini wasn’t on the sideline during the second half of last week’s game with the Huskers, but it didn’t matter as Nebraska coasted to victory. The Red Wolves finished the game with 286 yards of offense, but just 89 yards of that came in the second half of the 42-13 loss. Alcorn State is 1-2 following a 24-6 loss to UAPB.

Alabama State 21, UAPB 19 — The Golden Lions go to Montgomery, Ala., for a Thursday night game that a national television audience will be able to watch on ESPNU. The Golden Lions moved to 2-1 overall and 1-1 in the SWAC with their win over Alcorn State. Ben Anderson ran for a touchdown and passed for another in that game. Alabama State lost its opener, 38-28, to Bethune-Cookman in a game played at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando but has since come back with victories of 29-7 over Mississippi Valley State and 19-18 over Grambling. We’ll go with the home team in a tight game.

UCA 31, Sam Houston State 28 — The Bears picked on an NAIA school, Bacone College out of Oklahoma, in Conway last week. UCA is 2-1 after that 70-3 victory. Things get much tougher this week as Southland Conference play begins before a home crowd in Conway and a regional television audience. Sam Houston State is 1-1, opening the season at home with a 54-7 win over Incarnate Word out of San Antonio and following that victory with a 48-23 loss to Baylor in Waco.

Henderson 49, Southeastern Oklahoma 29 — The 3-0 Reddies, now ranked No. 24 nationally in NCAA Division II, are on a roll. The Reddies, who are off to a 3-0 start for the first time since 1981, went on the road last Saturday and destroyed Arkansas Tech, 73-34. Henderson led 56-27 at halftime — the most points ever scored by a Henderson team in a half. The Reddies returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and never slowed down, finishing the night with 581 yards of offense. Southeastern Oklahoma is 1-1 after a 31-24 loss to Southern Arkansas in Durant. The Reddies win big yet again.

Ouachita 37, Arkansas Tech 27 — Ouachita moved up to No. 13 nationally despite an open date. The Tigers have outscored their first two opponents by a combined count of 86-3 with wins of 55-3 over Northwestern Oklahoma and 31-0 over Stillman College. Now begins a stretch of eight consecutive Saturdays of conference contests as Ouachita attempts to repeat as Great American Conference champion.

Southwestern Oklahoma 14, Southern Arkansas 13 — The Muleriders are off to a 2-0 start following victories over Texas College and Southeastern Oklahoma. Southwestern started the season with a 49-14 loss to an FCS foe, Stephen F. Austin, but came back in its conference opener to upset East Central Oklahoma, 13-10. This should be a close game in Magnolia.

Harding 59, Southern Nazarene 15 — Ouachita and Henderson are nationally ranked. Harding should be. The Bisons began the season by shocking North Alabama on the road, 31-10, and followed that up with a 52-7 victory over UAM in Monticello. Southern Nazarene has lost 63-21 to Henderson, 37-15 to East Central and 17-7 to a school out of Kansas known as Friends. The Bisons cruise to an easy victory.

East Central 30, UAM 20 — The Boll Weevils were thoroughly outclassed against Harding. East Central, picked to finish second in the GAC, will be seeking to make amends for its loss to Southwestern Oklahoma.

My oh my.

What a difference a week makes.

A week ago, you were looking forward to that Alabama-Arkansas game, weren’t you?

ESPN College GameDay was going to be in Fayetteville, giving the Razorbacks the “national respect” that Hog fans always whine is lacking.

A huge audience was going to tune into CBS for the network’s first SEC telecast of the season, one pitting a pair of Top 10 teams.

Razorback rooters dreamed of a stunning victory with the students tearing down the goal posts and depositing them in the middle of Dickson Street, just as they did following the 1999 victory over Tennessee (has it really been 13 years?).

That all changed Saturday night at War Memorial Stadium.

Admit it.

Now you’re dreading Saturday’s game, aren’t you? You’ll still be there. Or at least you’ll watch on TV. But you fear there’s a beatdown coming, right?

Perhaps we should have seen this coming.

Perhaps we should have realized that we were in a holding pattern, that this was a season to survive, not one to savor.

Perhaps we should have understood that, despite the returning talent, everything changed when that Harley crashed back in the spring.

A good friend, who has followed the Razorbacks his entire life and now lives in another state, put it much better than I could in an email to me earlier this week.

Here’s what he wrote: “If I were a public defender assigned to mount a defense for John L. Smith two games into this season — an assignment no one would volunteer for — I’d say this: He was put, or put himself, into an impossible spot. Short of inheriting a team in midseason, no head coach is forced to retain each and every assistant from a previous regime.

“Because he didn’t hire these folks, but inherited them, and was effectively told not to mess with them or screw things up, he has no sway over the staff and probably very little input.

“Paul Haynes has defense. Paul Petrino has offense.

“John L. wears a headset and watches from the sidelines. He’s the coaching equivalent of a third-string quarterback with a clipboard. So not only are the players not his, but the coaches aren’t, either. And everybody knows that John L. has a 10-month contract. He has no authority. None. The players know this, the other coaches know this, so they’re out for themselves, understanding that in less than a year John L. will be gone, and many of them will, too.

“That said, I still think Jeff Long made the best long-term decision for the program when he didn’t try to replace Petrino immediately with a permanent coach. I don’t remember who was on the market at the time, but I don’t remember much.

“There’s no way out of this mess immediately, but there is a way through it. And that’s to get past this season and make a major hire ASAP when the LSU game is over.”

Amen, brother.

So we learned on Thursday of last week that Arkansas had gone from having a head coach who was morally bankrupt to one who was literally bankrupt.

And then the week got worse from there for Razorback fans.

We were 8-2 on the picks, making us 16-2 on the year.

Let’s get to the selections for Week 3:

Alabama 32, Arkansas 17 — Urged on by more than 70,000 fanatics in Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, Arkansas will play much better than it played last week. Of course, the Hogs couldn’t play much worse, could they? It’s going to be a loss, but it’s not going to be as bad as you think. There’s relief down the line — Arkansas will be playing Auburn soon.

Nebraska 41, Arkansas State 20 — The Red Wolves were not as impressive as many Arkansans had hoped in either their loss to Oregon or their close win over a truly woeful Memphis team. Coach Gus Malzahn has said he wants to play only one “money game” each year. Unfortunately, he is stuck with two this season. Nebraska is angry following its 36-30 loss to UCLA on Fox (the Huskers had opened the season with a 49-20 win over Southern Mississippi). An ASU defense that returned only three starters from last year will experience plenty of headaches in Lincoln on Saturday morning (it’s an early start on ESPN2). With the game kicking off at 11 a.m., you should be able to watch both Arkansas State and Arkansas lose on national TV Saturday without missing a play of either contest. Things will improve quickly for the Red Wolves since Alcorn State comes to Jonesboro a week later.

UCA 50, Bacone 11 — Pass the Bacone and eggs, please. I’m not sure what the Bears are doing playing this tiny NAIA school out of Oklahoma, but it should be nothing more than a scrimmage in Conway for a talented UCA squad. UCA evened its record at 1-1 last Saturday with a 42-20 win over Murray State on the road. Junior quarterback Wynrick Smothers (I told you he’s the real deal after watching him play in the opener at Ole Miss) threw five touchdown passes to five receivers. He was 31 of 41 passing for 358 yards. Senior Jesse Grandy caught caught six passes for 73 yards and returned a punt 72 yards for a touchdown.

UAPB 14, Alcorn State 12 — I find games in the SWAC, where the quality of play has deteriorated steadily for years, almost impossible to pick. Teams are up one week and down the next. No one in the conference is consistent. I guess, in a way, that makes it exciting. And the bands are great. UAPB fell to 1-1 last weekend with a 14-10 loss to Alabama A&M in Pine Bluff. The Golden Lions’ final five trips into the red zone resulted in just three points. Alcorn State started the season with a 22-21 conference victory over Grambling in Shreveport but was destroyed last weekend in Harrisonburg, Va., by James Madison University, 42-3. Don’t mess with those dead presidents.

Henderson 37, Arkansas Tech 27 — Henderson-Tech is one of this state’s oldest rivalries, and I plan to be in Russellville on Saturday night to see it (C.J.’s or Whatta-Burger before the game?). The Reddies have been impressive in their first two games. Playing last Saturday in southern Illinois against outmatched McKendree, Henderson went to 2-0 with a 47-24 win. Quarterback Kevin Rodgers threw for a school-record 442 yards and seven touchdowns. Henderson had 520 yards of offense in that game. Two days earlier, Tech had fallen to 1-1 with a 27-19 loss to Missouri S&T in Russellville. These Wonder Boys are better than the 2-8 squad of a year ago, but I’m not sure they can hang with the Reddies. Henderson head coach Scott Maxfield might just be on the way to restoring the Sporty Carpenter glory days.

Harding 30, UAM 24 — Harding started the season a week later than most college teams, but what a start it was. The Bisons shocked traditional NCAA Division II powerhouse North Alabama, 31-10, in Florence. It was North Alabama’s first regular-season nonconference loss since the 2002 season opener at Samford. The Bisons outgained UNA 430-192 with 282 of those yards coming on the ground. The 1-1 Boll Weevils gave FCS Northwestern State of Louisiana all it wanted in Natchitoches before falling by seven points, 31-24. In their second year under head coach Hud Jackson, the Boll Weevils are much improved. They’ll give the Bisons a battle in what should be a fun game to watch in Monticello.

Southeastern Oklahoma 29, Southern Arkansas 28 — The Muleriders also are improved this season, but it’s hard to tell just how much given the quality of competition in their first game. Playing at a high school stadium in Tyler, the Muledriders beat Texas College (a joke of a college football program), 56-0. Tyler Sykora passed for 337 yards and four touchdowns for SAU. Southeastern opened its season with an impressive 31-6 victory at Texas A&M-Commerce, snapping a losing streak that covered the final eight games of the 2011 season. The Savage Storm has had two weeks to prepare for the Muleriders. It will be a close game. We’ll give a slight edge to the home team.

The college football season is off and running.

The John L. Smith era at the University of Arkansas began with fans grumbling about the defense, but what a difference two decades makes.

Consider this: Twenty years ago, Arkansas lost its opener in Fayetteville on Labor Day weekend to The Citadel, and Jack Crowe was fired the next day as head coach.

The attendance at the game was 35,868.

Now, Arkansas is 1-0 and in the Top 10. Attendance on Saturday against Crowe’s Jacksonville State team was 71,062.

So attendance for a first game on Labor Day weekend has doubled in two decades. It shows how college football has grown as a business since the early 1990s.

With that growth, however, comes donor expectations and increased pressure on head coaches. Smith is no rookie. He understands that his team is expected to show improvement on defense and win easily Saturday night in Little Rock against Louisiana-Monroe.

Arkansas had 564 yards of offense and 25 first downs in its 49-24 victory over Jacksonville State. But the Gamecocks also had some offensive success with 322 yards of offense and 20 first downs. Tyler Wilson was as good as expected at quarterback for Arkansas, going 19 of 27 through the air for 367 yards and three touchdowns. He set the school record for passing yards in a season opener.

It’s interesting to note that the last Razorback head coach to lose his opener was the man who fired Crowe, Frank Broyles, in 1958. Broyles’ Razorbacks fell to Baylor, 12-0.

On the West Coast, meanwhile, it was baptism by fire for Arkansas State University’s Gus Malzahn in his first game as a college head coach. Oregon had a 50-3 lead before the Red Wolves knew what hit.

ASU gave up 424 yards of offense in the first half.

The Red Wolves narrowed the final margin to 23 points at 57-34 after Oregon put in the subs. ASU’s defense returns just three starters from last season, and it showed.

Things should get much easier this week for the home opener in Jonesboro against a Memphis team that’s FBS in name only. The Tigers are really, really bad.

I was in Oxford last Saturday night and saw UCA play well for three quarters against Ole Miss before being overwhelmed at the end. It was quiet in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium at halftime as the Bears led by six points, 20-14.

Wynrick Smothers is the real deal at quarterback for UCA. He was 25 of 32 passing for 247 yards and two touchdowns. The Bears finished the night with 347 yards of offense.

UCA’s opponent this week, Murray State, was taking a much worse beating at Florida State last Saturday.

We were 8-0 on picks in Week 1.

Let’s get to Week 2:

Arkansas 44, Louisiana Monroe 17 — The recipe is the same as it was going into the first game of the season — record a solid victory, rest the starters in the second half, don’t get anybody hurt, get ready for Alabama. The players should try to have some fun Saturday night at War Memorial Stadium. Based on Alabama’s opening-game performance against Michigan, the afternoon of Sept. 15 in Fayetteville might not be much fun at all.

Arkansas State 37, Memphis 19 — An FBS team such as Memphis has no business losing at home to Tennessee-Martin. Should they not just drop football at Memphis and concentrate on basketball, something they know a little something about? John Thompson’s young Red Wolf defense will give up points. But the ASU offense — which finished with 540 yards against Oregon — should score plenty of points of its own in front of what’s expected to be a big crowd in Jonesboro.

UCA 24, Murray State 22 — The Racers opened their 88th season of football last Saturday with a 69-3 loss to Florida State in Tallahassee. Murray State does have a quarterback, Casey Brockman, who’s one of the 20 players on the Walter Payton Award watch list. He threw for 3,276 yards and 25 touchdowns last season. Coach Chris Hatcher has produced winning records in each of his first two years at Murray State. After seeing the Bears last weekend, we’ll go with UCA in a close road victory.

Missouri S&T 17, Arkansas Tech 15 — In the lone Thursday night game involving an Arkansas team, the Wonder Boys host a squad out of Rolla, Mo., that rolled up a 55-14 win over Oklahoma Panhandle State in Week 1. Tech won its opener, 16-14, against Bacone College, an NAIA school out of Oklahoma. The Wonder Boys should be much improved from the team that went 2-8 a year ago. Missouri S&T is picked to finish third in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The Miners were 6-5 in 2011 and have 21 seniors on the roster.

Alabama A&M 27, UAPB 20 — As we noted last week, on paper this looks to be Monte Coleman’s most talented team at UAPB. But the FCS Golden Lions struggled to beat an NAIA team, Langston, last Saturday in the Delta Classic at War Memorial Stadium. At least they didn’t lose to Langston like last year. UAPB recovered a fumble late, and junior college transfer Tyler Strickland kicked a 27-yard field goal as time expired to give the Golden Lions a 17-14 victory. It was UAPB’s first win in a season opener since 2004. Alabama A&M went 8-4 a year ago, losing by a point to Grambling in the SWAC championship game at Legion Field in Birmingham. A&M was back at Legion Field for the 2012 opener, defeating in-state rival Tuskegee, 7-6.

Henderson 47, McKendree 18 — The Reddies are loaded. They opened the season with a 63-21 win over Southern Nazarene. Sophomore quarterback Kevin Rodgers was 22 of 30 passing for 360 yards as Henderson scored on five of its first six drives. The Reddies finished the game with 564 yards of offense. McKendree, which is in Illinois, lost its opener, 23-13, to Tiffin University of Ohio. Making the transition from NAIA to NCAA Division II, McKendree was 2-8 last season. The Bearcats are picked to finish sixth out of nine teams in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.

Ouachita 39, Stillman 28 —  Ouachita was as impressive in Week 1 as its crosstown rival, posting a 55-3 win over Northwestern Oklahoma, a future Great American Conference opponent. The Tigers lost 2011 GAC Offensive Player of the Year Casey Cooper to a knee injury on the first drive, but redshirt sophomore quarterback Benson Jordan from Lake Hamilton (grandson of the late Hall of Famer Buddy Benson) came in to complete 11 of his 15 passes for 186 yards. Ouachita outgained the Rangers 454-114. Stillman, an HBCU in Tuscaloosa, came from behind to defeat Central State of Ohio in its opener. Yes, Ouachita finds itself playing in Tuscaloosa on the same day as a Crimson Tide home game. Expect traffic jams.

Southern Arkansas 40, Texas College 10 — The Muleriders start the season a week later than most college teams. They’ll play on a high school field in Tyler, Texas, against the always-awful Steers of Texas College. It will be the third game of the season for Texas College, which already has lost 46-10 to the University of Saint Francis from Indiana and 19-12 to the University of the Incarnate Word from San Antonio.

North Alabama 30, Harding 21 — The Bisons also start the season a week late. Unfortunately, they don’t get to start against Texas College. Instead, Harding must go on the road to play former Gulf South Conference opponent North Alabama. Coach Terry Bowden — known locally around Alabama as Tater Tot — has departed North Alabama to coach the Akron Zips. Bobby Wallace, who led North Alabama to three consecutive national titles in the 1990s before going to Temple, has come out of retirement to coach the Lions. Wallace’s teams went 41-1 at the Florence school from 1993-95, making him the first college coach to win 40 games or more in three seasons. The Lions struggled last week in a 31-30 road win in Birmingham against Miles College, but North Alabama hasn’t lost a regular-season game to a non-GSC school since Aug. 29, 2002. The last time the Lions lost a regular-season home game to a non-GSC school was 1999.

Northwestern State 36, UAM 14 — What a difference a week makes. Last weekend, Northwestern was playing Tommy Tuberville’s Texas Tech Red Raiders, losing 44-6 in Lubbock. The Demons host UAM on Saturday. Last week, UAM was playing what was basically an intramural team, a largely online school from Memphis called College of Faith. It happens to field a football team. The Weevils won, 78-0. It’s hard to believe they’re allowed to count it as a varsity game, but so be it. UAM is 1-0, Northwestern is 0-1. Expect both teams to be 1-1 after this week.