Former Hog assistant Alex Wood's Rattlers squad flames out

Florida A&M head coach Alex Wood talks to quarterback Vincent Jeffries, 1, in between plays during the second quarter of an NCAA college football game against Arkansas on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2017, in Little Rock, Ark.. Arkansas went on to beat Florida A&M 49-7. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson)

— Former Arkansas assistant coach Alex Wood brought his team into War Memorial for a much-needed, six-figure paycheck and hoped his program could put forth a competitive effort.

Florida A&M did so in the first quarter, but a 7-0 deficit turned into a 21-point hole by halftime and ended with the Razorbacks routing the Rattlers 49-7 before an announced crowd of 36,055 fans.

Arkansas (1-0) rolled up 415 yards total offense while limiting Florida A&M (1-1) to just 96 yards in the first half, 175 overall and just five first downs.

“Obviously we are disappointed,” said Wood, a quarterback coach under former Razorback head coach Houston Nutt. “This is not the outcome that we traveled here for, obviously. But I thought our kids played hard. We didn’t generate enough offense to make this more competitive.”

Arkansas quarterback Austin Allen was 14 of 19 passing for 135 yards and a touchdown, but was picked off on the second series of the night in what was a close game early.

The Rattlers had just one turnover of their own, but Gabe Richardson’s hit forced a fumble that Henre’ Toliver scooped up and returned 18 yards to put Arkansas up 28-0 just over a minute into the second half.

Florida A&M’s offense spent a substantial amount of time on its own end of the field.

“We didn’t turn the ball over excessively and we got a turnover so that was good,” Wood said. “We needed to get better field position through our special teams. We were a little rough with that early in the game.

Florida A&M played without starting quarterback Ryan Stanley, starting tailback Darius Bowers and starting defensive end Calvin Darville.

They were all injured in Florida A&M’s 29-7 win over Texas Southern.

“(Stanley’s) toe thing is a little more severe than we had anticipated coming out of the opening ballgame,” Wood said. “He should be okay hopefully by Tennessee State.”

Florida A&M bused 10 hours on Wednesday for the game, but that is not an excuse according to Rattler defensive back Terry Jefferson.

“We are not using no excuses for anything,” Jefferson said. “Whoever it was, we are not going to use the excuse that the bus drive was long or whatever. We had to come out there and play a game just like they had to come out there and play a game.”

Jefferson echoed those same type sentiments about the injured players.

“I just felt like my team came out there and played hard,” Jefferson said. “We came out there and made a couple of plays to start off the game and got some momentum. I wish we had carried that out through the duration of the game, but unfortunately we weren’t able to.

Florida A&M won’t play again until it battles Tennessee State at Tampa Bay’s Raymond James Stadium on Sept. 16.

“We need this time,” Wood said. “We are going to take a week off and get ready for Tennessee State and then travel to Tampa and play at Raymond James (Stadium)."

Florida A&M was penalized a timeout to start each quarter because their white uniforms with white numerals were not up to par with NCAA rules.

“I guess they have changed the rule this year on the color scheme of the numbers and the jerseys so it is not legal,” Wood said. “I guess you can’t see them electronically video-wise. So I didn’t know about that.”

Linebacker Jakaris Wilson thought his team played hard despite the score.

“I felt like we went out as a team and played our hearts out,” Wilson said. “We didn’t get what we wanted to get done, but we kept pushing as a defense and an offense. We have got to take it one day at a time, go over film, practice harder and we will be all right.”