State of the Hogs: Lacking fire

Arkansas quarterback Nick Starkel takes a snap during a game against San Jose State on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019, in Fayetteville.

— Chad Morris may not have called the right fourth down plays, but he called one thing exactly right after San Jose State defeated Arkansas 31-24 on Saturday night.

Of the Spartans, the Arkansas coach said, “For three quarters, they looked like the SEC team.”

The Razorbacks did not, especially after tying the score at 24-24 with 2:56 to play.

That’s when San Jose State re-found its offensive mojo for the game-winning drive, a five-play march for 75 yards. The finish was the only score by a running back on the night, a 19-yard dash by Dejon Packer through the heart of the UA defense with 1:13 left.

Favored by three touchdowns against a team that had only won four of 27 games under coach Brent Brennan, the Hogs showed nothing for the better part of three quarters.

Arkansas started the game with absolutely no fire. In fact, the first heat that had anything to do with the home team was with the band at intermission when the twirlers in the band set their batons afire.

The Spartans sailed to a 24-7 halftime lead, but they seemed to ease off the throttle even as they went to the locker room. They took a knee with three seconds left in the half on a snap from the UA 44.

Were they setting themselves up for an epic collapse? There was no hint of it in the third quarter with the Hogs only managing a 48-yard field goal with 5:01 left.

The Hogs scored touchdowns on two consecutive drives in the fourth quarter to pull even. That’s when the Spartans decided to go back to their down-the-field passing. After a sweep made 7 yards, they got 12, 18 and 14 yards on three straight throws to move into field goal range. They finished the job without the need of a kick.

“As bad as we played, I thought we were fixing to win it,” Morris said. “We couldn’t finish it.”

The Arkansas offensive line did not move the three-man up San Jose State defensive front. It was especially noticeable on two failed fourth-down runs, one of them a simple sneak by quarterback Nick Starkel.

The Hogs were no better in the defensive front. There was no pressure on SJSU quarterback Josh Love. His receivers had time to run deep slants in front of the UA safeties.

Love passed for 240 yards in the first half, completing 18 of 26. The Spartans did get one break, a mistake by the officials on a flea flicker, a pass interference penalty. The spot on one of the failed fourth downs was suspicious, too.

The first failed fourth down came at the San Jose State 4-yard line with 6:49 left in the first quarter. The Hogs trailed 7-0 at that point. Devwah Whaley lost two yards when he needed three. Starkel was a six inches short on fourth-and-1 at the SJSU 22 with 8:21 left in the second quarter.

But the Hogs were worse than the officials and it wasn’t close. Starkel had three passes deflected by pass rushers, although most of them weren’t on top of him. He missed receivers. The Spartans intercepted five Starkel passes, but two more could have been picked off.

His five interceptions were the most since Wade Hill threw five in the 1991 Independence Bowl against Georgia.

“He forced some things,” Morris said. “In the red zone, you have to play within the system. You take what they give you. He forced some and that’s uncharacteristic of him.”

Starkel did force a throw in the red zone in the opener late in the first half that was intercepted. He’d thrown 59 passes the previous two weeks without an interception.

“It was bad quarterback play,” said Starkel, who repeated the Morris assessment of his play.

“I let everyone down. I let my coaches down, my teammates and my family.”

There was not as much creativity in the offense that was evident over the course of the first three games. Meanwhile the Spartans looked both creative and crisp. Coming off an open date, almost all of their plays in the first half looked slick and worked.

Love completed 32 of 49 passes for 402 yards. He was sacked only once and rarely pressured.

“They did whatever they wanted,” Morris said.

Asked later about the overall play of the defense and the plays the Spartans made in space, he said, “I didn’t think we could get any pressure. (Love) could sit back there all day and eat a sandwich.”

Wide receiver Tre Walker, coming off an injury, toasted the Arkansas corners for 12 catches and 161 yards.

Love hit Walker on curls, deep slants and back shoulder strikes. Jarques McClellion and LaDarrius Bishop were no match for Walker. Bishop started for the injured Montaric Brown.

“He’s a great receiver, but my goodness,” Morris said of Walker.

Morris did not think the Hogs were ready to play. Did they celebrate too much the previous week after a great fourth quarter against Colorado State? Were they looking ahead to Texas A&M?

The Arkansas roster now is full of Texas players. Morris graduated from A&M.

“I was a little concerned in pregame,” Morris said. “We were too loose and too giddy.

“I made the comment (in the locker room before the game) that we are not good enough to just show up. We didn’t play well in one phase.”

Starkel thought his focus was there at the start, but he did not look like the same quarterback who threw for 305 yards against Colorado State.

But the telltale sign was the lack of a solid running game. Rakeem Boyd made 91 on 18 carries, but his long was just 18 yards.

“I’m very disappointed in the lack of a short-yardage conversion,” Morris said. “That stalled drives.”

Morris called the failed fourth down plays “a gut check. We gotta be able to knock the pile back. When we go for it on fourth down, we gotta go get it.”

So the Hogs are back in the same kind of hole they faced when they lost at Colorado State last year, then were smacked by North Texas. The difference is that San Jose State hasn’t been as good as either team.

Without question, Morris was upset when he entered the interview room. On a night when they hosted recruiting groups estimated at 350, it was not a good night.

“We were out played, out coached and it’s very disappointing,” Morris said.

Later, Morris said the Hogs “got what we deserved. We had five turnovers and let them throw for 402. We let them go down the field like it was nothing. It was unacceptable.”

Morris said the blame starts with himself and that “every coach on our staff will be held accountable.” He called it “gut check” time.

“We are going to find out a lot about ourselves,” Morris said.

Four players came to the interview room. They all said the mentality is to “push the reset button.”

Linebacker Bumper Pool said it would be a similar week that followed the loss at Ole Miss.

“Our culture is different,” Pool said. “It’s going to be like what we said after Ole Miss. We are not going to quit.”

Starkel said, “It’s gut check time. This week is going to be big. At the end of the day, I wasn’t good enough today, but that doesn’t mean my teammates don’t believe in me.”

The Hogs have not won an SEC game under Morris and they’ve also lost to Colorado State, North Texas and San Jose State. There is not much belief anywhere. There were boos during the first half as the Spartans played throw and catch.

There were a few more in the closing seconds as the west stands emptied.

What’s next? The only good news is that a few of the walking wounded may return. Offensive tackle Colton Jackson and wide receiver Treylon Burks should play against A&M after sitting out this week in “concussion protocol.”

There is little doubt that Starkel will get the nod again as the starter in an interesting matchup against his former team. He dodged the questions about that scenario in the interview room and isn’t likely to be in front of media this week.

It’s not playing the Aggies that is on his mind now. It’s about playing within the system.

Starkel had a simple answer. He said, “It’s reset and respond.”

There will probably be some heat around the Arkansas program this week and it won’t be on the twirler’s batons.