Arkansas’ first trip to Little Rock this season could have been a record-breaking homecoming for Heisman Trophy candidate Darren McFadden and a quality tuneup for next week’s SEC West showdown with Auburn.

Instead, McFadden was slowed by a rib injury and denied the Arkansas career rushing record, and the Razorbacks got sloppy in a 34-15 victory over a Tennessee-Chattanooga team that entered Saturday’s game as a huge underdog.

Arkansas (3-2 ) had three turnovers, gave the Mocs a gift safety on the first snap of the game and never settled into an offensive rhythm on a strange evening before a crowd of 54, 836 at War Memorial Stadium.

“That was ugly,” Arkansas Coach Houston Nutt said. “I thought we were so ready to play. Our guys were so excited about being down here. Boy, whew, we were so ugly that first half.”

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The weirdness began during the pregame warmup, as a plane buzzed War Memorial Stadium trailing a banner that read: “There’s Nuttin’ like being 0-2 in the SEC.”

It continued when center Jonathan Luigs sent his first snap whizzing over the head of Casey Dick and into the end zone, where Dick was sacked for a safety, giving the Mocs (1-4 ) of the Football Championship Subdivision a 2-0 lead.

McFadden took a shot to the ribs early in the game that probably affected his ball security and kept him from playing in the late stages, when he could have made a run at Ben Cowins’ career rushing record of 3, 570 yards. McFadden still broke a record, with his 122 rushing yards accounting for his school-record 17 th 100-yard rushing game.

McFadden is now 31 yards short of Cowins’ career rushing mark.

“We wanted to get that record here in Little Rock, but it just didn’t work out that way,” Nutt said.

McFadden said the Razorbacks didn’t show the fire they typically play with in Little Rock.

“It was real frustrating being out there, with them so close to us and we knew they weren’t supposed to be at the time.”

Felix Jones was the more electrifying Arkansas back on Saturday, blasting his way to 141 yards and 2 touchdowns on 13 carries. He and McFadden broke the 100-yard rushing mark together for the eighth time in their careers.

Arkansas held a 373-172 edge in total yards and limited the Mocs to 11 passing yards and 1 of 16 third-down conversions, but the dominance over the lower-rung team didn’t reflect on the scoreboard.

“There was no intimidation on our sideline,” Tennessee-Chattanooga Coach Rodney Allison said. “I don’t think any coach in the country is into morale-building games, but I thought that was.”

Hurting the Arkansas cause were two McFadden fumbles, an interception thrown by Dick, the gift safety and a failed fourth-and-1 run in the third quarter when Nutt was trying to give his team a spark.

The Razorbacks had possession in Mocs territory on their first six possessions of the second half and on eight of nine possessions overall in the half, but scored just 17 second-half points.

Arkansas led 24-9 late in the third quarter when Chattanooga reserve tailback Bryan Fitzgerald ran up the middle, juked safety Kevin Woods and raced 65 yards for a touchdown. The two-point conversion failed and Arkansas held a 24-15 lead, but its frustration was evident.

The Razorbacks bounced back immediately, however, moving 68 yards to score on Jones’ 1-yard run over the left side, one play after a 9-yard gain wrapped up the evening for McFadden on the first play of the fourth quarter.

As crisp and clean as Arkansas looked last week in its 66-7 victory over North Texas, its performance was the polar opposite against Chattanooga.

High humidity and slick footballs, lack of focus and slapdash ball security all killed the Razorbacks’ buzz in the first half.

“I just got through telling our guys, you just can’t throw your helmets out here and be happy and think everything’s going to go perfectly like it did against North Texas,” Nutt said.

“We just have to take this as a bigtime lesson and get right back into the SEC.”

Arkansas cornerback Jerell Norton followed up his 100-yard interception return last week with another quality game. The sophomore cornerback had a first-quarter interception at the Chattanooga 45 that set up a McFadden 2-yard touchdown run and gave the Hogs the lead for good at 7-2 with 8: 43 left in the first quarter.

Norton returned a punt 45 yards a few moments later, setting the Razorbacks up at the Mocs’ 23, but McFadden fumbled away on the next play after an 8-yard gain.

The Razorbacks increased their lead on their fourth possession, a swift 82-yard drive that featured three plays of 10 yards or longer. Jones had a 33-yard run over right guard to move into Chattanooga territory, then McFadden took a stretch play 10 yards.

On the next play, Dick rolled right on a bootleg and hit Peyton Hillis on an intermediate crossing route. Hillis hugged the right sideline and leaped over defenders to score the 24-yard touchdown.

Arkansas made use of the two-minute offense on its final first-half drive, working for 26 yards, including a 20-yard throw from Dick to London Crawford, to set up Alex Tejada’s career-best 47-yard field goal.