FAYETTEVILLE — One week ago, Arkansas coach Chad Morris said momentum was wearing a Razorbacks jersey after a fourth-quarter flurry led to a 21-point win over Colorado State.
Saturday night, momentum removed its Arkansas jersey and tossed it aside.
Another porous defensive effort from the Razorbacks - 503 yards allowed - combined with five interceptions from quarterback Nick Starkel and two crucial turnovers on downs added up to the most embarrassing loss of the Morris era. San Jose State, which entered the game with a 4-23 record under coach Brent Brennan, secured a program-defining 31-24 win in Razorback Stadium.
Morris spoke with anger in his voice about his team's performance, which he labeled as "very disappointing." Every coach, player and staff member will be held accountable, he said.
"For three quarters they were the SEC football team. They took it to us," he added, pointedly. "From the very first play they had us on our heels. Extremely disappointing. ... Totally unacceptable. It’s completely unacceptable. You get what you deserve in life and we didn’t deserve to win this football game."
The Razorbacks trailed by as many as 17 points late in the first half after Spartans quarterback Josh Love connected with Isaiah Holiness for a 26-yard touchdown one minute before halftime. Love, who had thrown for 413 yards in the team's first two games of the season, totaled 402 yards through the air and a pair of touchdowns, completing 32 of 49 passes.
His top target was receiver Tre Walker, who finished with a game-high 12 catches for 161 yards. He and Love hooked up twice on San Jose State's game-winning scoring drive late in the fourth quarter for 30 yards, setting up DeJon Packer's go-ahead 19-yard score.
"I thought they did whatever they wanted to do as far as throwing the football," Morris said of the Spartans. "We knew that (Walker) was coming back. He had been out the first two weeks. We knew that he was a great receiver, but my goodness, the guy had (161) yards receiving. They were … third down, even though the second half we were better, but the first half our third-down conversion rate, we were letting these guys convert third downs on us.
"The bottom line is they out-played us. They out-played us. Give those guys credit. The Love kid had a career night."
Arkansas' defense, which was picked apart in the first half to the tune of 7.8 yards per play, appeared to settle in a bit in the second half. On San Jose State's six second-half possessions, it punted four times and turned the ball over on downs once. But when the Razorbacks had to have a stop with under three minutes to play, moments after Trey Knox's eight-yard touchdown catch to tie the game 24-24, they folded.
The Spartans marched down the field, chewing up 75 yards on five plays to take the lead for good.
"They just made a couple of plays," Arkansas linebacker Bumper Pool said postgame. "I thought for the most part we responded in the second half. They just made plays and we started off slow. ... Obviously, we didn’t do good in the first half and it hurts."
Starkel's performance was one he will soon want to forget.
He became the first Arkansas quarterback in nearly three decades to throw five interceptions in a game, and bypassed his previous career-high for picks in a game midway through the third quarter. He threw three interceptions on consecutive drives to end the first half and open the third quarter.
Starkel, who choked up a number of times in his postgame press conference, said he forced too many throws and did not take what the defense gave him. Morris said he never thought about pulling his starter in favor of Ben Hicks or another backup.
"It was just bad quarterback play, and I feel like I let everybody down and I let my teammates down, my brothers, my family, these coaches that worked so hard to prepare us, get us in the right calls. I just let them down," he added. "I've got to refocus. I lacked focus this week, I think, and it won't happen again."
Starkel completed 28 of 50 pass attempts for 356 yards and three touchdowns - one to Knox, Mike Woods and Tyson Morris - but Morris added Arkansas relied too heavily on its passing game due to an inability to establish the run. The Razorbacks gained only 131 yards on the ground, led by Rakeem Boyd's 91.
"We have to play within the system," Morris added. "That’s first and foremost. We have to play within the system, we have to take what they give us, and we can’t force everything. I thought he pressed a little bit. That was uncharacteristic. He didn’t do that the week before.
"But it wasn’t just that. We’ve got to keep him clean, too. We have to be effective running the football. We threw the ball 50 times, and that’s entirely too many."
Woods, Pool and Starkel each spoke about hitting the reset button ahead of Arkansas' trip to Arlington, Texas, next weekend to face top-25 Texas A&M, which fell at home to No. 8 Auburn on Saturday. The Razorbacks will need to do much more than that to prevent their projected slide in Southeastern Conference play.
"We’re not good enough," said Morris, who added he didn't like a few of his players' mentality in pre-game warmups. "We’re not good enough to be able come out and just walk out on the field with a Razorback logo on your helmet and expect you’re going to win.
"You’ve got to show up and play, and we didn’t show up and play - in no phase of it."