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FAYETTEVILLE — After leading Arkansas to a win in his first start, Nick Starkel came crashing back down to Earth against San Jose State.

The Texas A&M transfer threw for 356 yards and three touchdowns in the Razorbacks’ embarrassing 31-24 loss to the Spartans, but his performance was marred by needing 50 attempts and throwing five interceptions.

It was the most interceptions ever thrown by an Arkansas quarterback in a home game and the most in any game since Wade Hill threw five against Georgia in the 1991 Independence Bowl. Only Joe Ferguson, who had six at Texas A&M in 1972, has thrown more. (Lamar McHan had a five-interception performance at SMU in 1951, matching the total by Starkel and Hill for the second most.)

“I feel like I let everybody down,” an emotional Starkel said afterward. “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.”

Three of the interceptions came on consecutive drives spanning halftime, as he threw one near the end of the second quarter and two more during the third quarter.

Even as the turnovers started piling up, though, head coach Chad Morris said he never considered making a change at quarterback. Ben Hicks, the starter of the first two games of the season, remained on the sideline, as did redshirt freshman John Stephen Jones and true freshman K.J. Jefferson.

Instead, Morris stuck with Starkel, who completed just 28 of 50 passes (56 percent). It was the seventh-most attempts in school history and most since Brandon Allen threw 53 in a loss to Toledo in 2015.

“We have to play within the system, that’s first and foremost,” Morris said. “We have to take what they give us and we can’t force everything. I thought he forced some balls, I thought he pressed a little bit. That was uncharacteristic. He didn’t do that the week before.”

Starkel echoed those thoughts and took full responsibility for his performance when asked about it afterward.

“I felt like I tried to force the ball a little bit,” Starkel said. “Definitely wasn’t just taking what the defense is giving us. It was just bad quarterback play.”

While poor decision making played a key role in most of Starkel’s struggles, Morris spread the blame around the team. The Razorbacks failed to convert a pair of critical fourth-and-short plays on the ground and the Spartans got into their backfield multiple times, resulting in four tackles for loss and five quarterback hurries.

“We’ve got to keep him clean, too,” Morris said. “We have to be effective running the football. We threw the ball 50 times and that’s entirely too many.”

Despite the mid-game lull, it seemed like sticking with Starkel paid off when he led Arkansas on a 17-point comeback to tie the game.

He completed a 30-yard touchdown pass to Tyson Morris and hit Mike Woods for a 40-yard gain that set up a game-tying 8-yard touchdown pass to Trey Knox on third-and-goal.

The only mistake was leaving San Jose State about three minutes to respond with a score of its own. Even then, the Razorbacks had more than a minute to get in the end zone and force overtime.

“We work two-minute offense every week,” Morris said. “I thought we had one timeout, 1:13 (left), we've done this every week before, let's go.”

Arkansas took a shot on its first play of the drive and Woods got by his defender on the go route, but Starkel didn’t get enough air under it and San Jose State intercepted it to seal the upset.

“I thought Mike was open,” Morris said. “We had a chance to get the ball over the top, but we just didn't. We just didn't make it happen.”

It won’t get any easier for the Razorbacks the rest of the season, as they begin a stretch of five straight SEC games at 11 a.m. Saturday with a matchup against Texas A&M. That also happens to be Starkel’s former team.

“At the end of the day, I wasn't good enough tonight, but it doesn't mean my teammates don't believe in me,” Starkel said. “If I've got the ball in my hand I'm going to keep fighting.

“I’m not going to let missing a throw here or throwing a pick there determine how I play the next play. I'm going to go out swinging if I'm going to go out.”