It’s October, yet Alex Collins continues to roll.

Over the weekend, the Arkansas running back racked up 154 yards rushing and two touchdowns to help his team top Tennessee, 24-20, and snap a three-game losing skid in the process.

For the fourth time in five games, Collins eclipsed 100 yards. That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, even to fans of the Razorbacks. But three of those performances came in the month of September, when Collins has always shined.

The last came right at the start of October, yet Collins continued on his pace.

It’s a bit puzzling, to say the least, but Collins has failed to sustain his success churning out 100-yard games when the month changes from September to October.

In two seasons at Arkansas, Collins has pieced together back-to-back 1,000-yard campaigns. As a freshman in 2013, Collins finished the season with 1,026 yards rushing and four 100-yard performances. All four came in either late August or September, and from October on he averaged just over 61 yards per contest.

That trend carried over into 2014. Despite a second consecutive season in which he topped 1,000 yards on the ground (1,100, to be exact), the Arkansas ballcarrier totaled 621 yards through the first five games of the season before his yards per game average dissipated down to below 60.

It’s uncanny to try and calculate what changes when the weather changes down in Fayetteville, Ark. Obviously, the caliber of opponent is much different as Arkansas dips into its SEC schedule late in September and into October. However, two of Collins’ 100-yard games have come against SEC foes. Both of which were Texas A&M, which finished 2013 and 2014 with the No. 118 and No. 114 rush defense in the nation, respectively, those seasons.

But it’s almost inexplicable to try and figure out why Collins averaged nearly 122 yards per game in the five contests spanning from August to September in both 2013 and 2014 only to see it drop down to 60.5 yards per game in the latter portion of the season.

In need of a win on Saturday, Collins overcame his demons to pile up 154 yards and two trips to the end zone against Tennessee. It was his 10th career game in which he surpassed 100 yards rushing, and of course, the first time ever in the month of October.

The effort pushed Collins into eighth place on Arkansas’ all-time rushing list with 2,628 yards.

More importantly than overcoming his late-season woes, Collins played a pivotal role in Arkansas’ ability to dominate the time of possession battle in the second half against Tennessee. Overall, the Razorbacks nearly held onto the rock 11 more minutes in the contest.

A theme after the Arkansas win was “finishing” as the team has dropped three in a row and coughed up two-touchdown leads in each of those games.

Just as it was for his team, finishing was key for Collins. Arkansas needed to finish a game, and it finally did against the Vols with a dominant running game and outstanding success on third down.

Collins needs to learn how to finish a season. He took one step in the right direction by coming through when his teammates were counting on him to be the productive running back he’s proven so many times before, regardless of the date on the calendar.