Hogs humiliated at home by San Jose State, 31-24

Its getting really old discussing which Razorback defeat marks the worst loss in school history, but we have yet another candidate following another humiliation in Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium...this time at the hands of the San Jose State Spartans by a score of 31-24.

Arkansas waited until after halftime to even kind of show up (if you want to call it that). Arkansas coach Chad Morris said after the game that he was concerned with the pregame as the players, "Were a little too loose." He added that, "I thought we were a little too giddy, and I made comment of that." Arkansas tied the game 24-24 after falling behind 24-7 at the break, and there was a sense from those still in attendance that Arkansas might actually pull it out after all that. Nope.

"His guys out-played us, they out coached us, and was very disappointed in the effort we showed tonight," Morris said after the game. "Everyone's going to be held accountable, from me down. I'm going to hold every coach, every player, every staff member's going to be held accountable."

San Jose State had to have it and marched 75 yards in five plays through that Swiss cheese defense in just a minute and 43 seconds to go up seven points, 31-24. Easy. But they made the mistake of leaving too much time on the clock -- 1:13 remaining and an Arkansas timeout. That was just enough time for Nick Starkel to hurl his fifth interception of the evening on a bomb that was well under thrown. Ballgame.

"I let everybody down," Starkel said afterwards. "I felt like I tried to force the ball a little bit. Definitely wasn't taking what the defense gave us."

Arkansas failed to get any pressure on San Jose State quarterback Josh Love, who went 32 of 49 passing for 402 yards and a pair of touchdowns -- and that includes a 50-yard bomb on the first play of the game to set the tone. On the other side, not only did Starkel struggle with accuracy, the Razorback offensive line constantly collapsed around him and failed to open running lanes for Rakeem Boyd (18 carries for 91 yards) and Devwah Whaley (12 carries for 32 yards). On top of that, Arkansas could not convert two fourth-and-shorts in the first half.

Why go for it there at the 4-yard line? Was everything on the line on the second drive of the game? With the personnel on the field everyone knew it was a run, and Whaley got stuffed for minus-2...and why wasn’t Boyd in there? That question is getting asked way too often when Arkansas is in the red zone these past four weeks. Arkansas later went for it on fourth down again with 8:21 to go before half time and failed to convert for the second time -- this one on a QB sneak by Starkel at the SJSU 23-yard line -- costing them a total of six points.

I've said all offseason that the healthy way to look at this year is to watch a young team grow, take their lumps and hope to get to a bowl game. Strike that because there is no healthy way to look at this season anymore. For all the work done in the offseason to bring in better players, more speed and better quarterbacks, they are still dropping games to opponents who have no business being on the field with a program that has the support and prestige that the University of Arkansas has (or maybe had...).

Throw out the rebuild excuse, throw out the excuse that this is a young team. There is absolutely no reason ever for this university to lose to any Mountain West team ever, much less a team that is coming off a 34-17 home loss to Tulsa after a 1-11 record last season. This is Year 2, not Year 1, on top of that. This wasn't North Texas...which again has no business beating Arkansas but was at least a good enough team last season.

The approach to this game was like Arkansas had already arrived. This was a warmup game before the schedule hits the fan next week, and folks it is about to do just that. Texas A&M is next, then a trip to Kentucky...then it's freaking Auburn, Alabama and Mississippi State. Get some of that.

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So throw San Jose State into the conversation with the Citadel in 1991, Louisiana-Monroe in 2012, Toledo in 2015, Colorado State in 2018 and North Texas in 2018 for the worst losses in Razorback history...not including any 52-0 losses to good football teams. This has been the worst seven and-a-half years in Razorback football history. Arkansas fans deserve better, and that couldn't be more understated. It's sad.

"We didn't deserve to win this football game," Morris said. "You probably saw the same game I did. I thought they did whatever they wanted to do as far as throwing the football."