FIRST AND TEN
- The Missouri State Bears return to Robert W. Plaster Stadium Saturday in search of their third consecutive victory with a 2 p.m. game against the No. 25 UNI Panthers
- Saturday's game will mark the final home game of the season and of the careers of 16 Missouri State seniors and the Bears will be seeking their first Senior Day victory since 2010
- UNI brings an 11-game win streak versus the Bears into Saturday's game; the Panthers, who hold a 32-5 overall edge in the series, have beaten MSU by an average of 24 points per outing during the course of the streak
- MSU's two-game win streak is its first since Sept. 2016 when it opened the season with back-to-back wins over Southwestern College and Murray State; the Bears have not won three MVFC games in a row since the 2013 season, when they posted four straight victories from Oct. 19-Nov. 9
- MSU's offense has scored 30 points in four consecutive games for the first time since their four-game win streak in November 2013, when the Bears averaged 39.8 points per outing
- The Bears have also topped the 400-yard mark for total offense in four straight games for the first time since 2010, when they logged seven such performances in a row from Sept. 11 through Oct. 30; MSU is averaging 411.7 yards of offense during MVFC, which is good for the fourth-best figure in the league
- Missouri State leads the Valley in rushing during conference play with an average of 206.5 yards per contest; Peyton Huslig's average of 80.0 rushing yards ranks fourth, while his 264.0 yards of total offense per league outing is fifth among all MVFC players
- Deion Holliman leads the Valley and ranks 13th among all FCS players in combined kick return yardage (691); the MVFC's career record holder for KR yardage also rates eighth nationally in punt return average (13.2) after bringing back his third career punt for a touchdown vs. South Dakota State (Oct. 21)
- Malik Earl passed a pair of Bears (Chance Thurman and Jermaine Saffold) to move up to third on MSU's career receptions list last Saturday with his third 100-yard receiving game of the season; he enters Saturday's game just 10 receptions away from Clay Harbor's MSU record of 150 career catches
- Colby Isbell's 4.0 sacks in conference play rank second among all MVFC defenders, while his 10.0 TFLs on the year rank fifth overall; Isbell brings a string of 35 consecutive starts into his final home game as a Bear as well
GAME PREVIEW
With their sights set on a third consecutive victory, the
Missouri State Bears (3-6, 2-4 MVFC) return to Robert W. Plaster Stadium Saturday to take on the No. 25
UNI Panthers and celebrate the team's senior day.
Head coach
Dave Steckel's club brings a two-game win streak into the showdown with UNI, the second-longest win streak in the Missouri Valley Football Conference. MSU is coming off a 36-28 road win at Southern Illinois for the Bears' first victory away from Springfield this fall. Missouri State responded to a big second-half rally by Southern Illinois to score the final nine points of a back-and-forth battle.
Peyton Huslig's 26-yard scoring pass to
Erik Furmanek—the senior tight end's second touchdown of the game—proved to be the decisive blow with just over eight minutes to play, as the Missouri State defense held the SIU offense in check for the remainder of the game.
Ranked 25th in this week's STATS FCS Top 25 poll, UNI comes to town on the heels of a 34-29 home win over No. 6 South Dakota, a game in which the Panthers forced three turnovers in the final period to secure the upset. Junior quarterback Eli Dunne passed for 228 yards on 14-of-24 passing, with both of his touchdown tosses going to freshman Isaiah Weston.
UNI has dominated the series in recent years, claiming wins in each of the two squads' last 11 meetings. The Panthers have averaged 36.8 points while allowing just 12.2 points per game over the course of their win streak vs. the Bears.
METEORIC MALIK
Senior wide receiver
Malik Earl registered a day to remember in the Bears' setback at Western Illinois (Oct. 14), breaking a Missouri State program record with his 14 receptions against the Leathernecks. The Oklahoma City native eclipsed Jeff Hewitt's single-game Bears record of 13 catches, set on Oct. 7, 2000 at Indiana State, and matched the fourth-best single-game reception effort in MVFC history. Earl, who also rushed for a 30-yard touchdown to help stake the Bears to a 21-13 halftime lead, finished his day with 145 receiving yards.
With four catches for 119 yards at Southern Illinois (Nov. 4)—his third 100-yard game of the season—Earl moved past two players into third place on the Bears' career receptions chart with 140, just 10 catches shy of Clay Harbor's school record.
Earl (1,898 yards) also enters the weekend just eight yards away from Harbor (1,906) in the No. 6 position on MSU's all-time receiving yardage chart and 323 yards away from Jermaine Saffold's school record of 2,221 yards.
SENIOR SENDOFF
Missouri State will close out the home portion of its 2017 season Saturday, marking the final home contests in the careers of 16 MSU seniors. This year's class features All-MVFC performers in
Calan Crowder,
Malik Earl,
Erik Furmanek and
Deion Holliman, as well as former Freshman All-Americans
Cecil Bratton and
Colby Isbell. Nine of the 16 seniors are expected to earn their fourth letters with the Bears this fall, including
Kurran Blamey,
Darius Daniel,
Eric Greely and
Adam St. Peter, in addition to Crowder, Earl, Furmanek, Holliman and Isbell.
GOING STREAKING
With their 36-28 win at Southern Illinois Saturday, the Bears have won back-to-back games for the first time since opening the 2016 season with wins over Southwestern College (Sept. 1) and Murray State (Sept. 10). MSU's victory also marked its first road win of the season and the Bears' first in Valley play since knocking off Indiana State in Terre Haute on Oct. 1, 2016.
MSU will be shooting for its first three-game win streak since November 2013 Saturday against UNI. The Bears will also be trying to stop an 11-game slide in their series with UNI. That streak, which dates back to 2006, has seen the Panthers go 5-0 against MSU in Springfield, averaging 34.6 points, while allowing just 8.2 per outing in the process.
MAROON AND WHITE SPECIAL
Missouri State return specialist
Matt Rush became the third Bear this season to be named a Missouri Valley Football Conference Special Teams Player of the Week, the league office announced Sunday.
In his first career appearance as MSU's primary kick returner, Rush totaled 134 total yards on his four returns to help the Bears to their first road win of the season Saturday at Southern Illinois. The junior from Springfield countered an early SIU touchdown with a 72-yard return on the ensuing kickoff to set up a short scoring drive that helped spur a 24-point first-quarter outburst by MSU. Rush also added returns of 19, 21 and 22 yards for the Bears, who pulled out the 36-28 victory to notch their first two-game win streak since September 2016.
The Valley honor is the first of Rush's MSU career and he joins two-time honoree
Deion Holliman (Sept. 17 and Oct. 1) and kicker
Zach Drake (Oct. 29) on the list of Bears special teamers to be cited by the MVFC this fall. MSU special teams have been solid throughout the year, with the Bears' punt return unit turning in the No. 2 overall average of 14.2 yards per return, and their kickoff return unit rating fourth (22.6) in the league. Additionally, punter
Brendan Withrow ranks 44th nationally with an average of 40.6 yards per punt, and Drake has converted his last 23 field goal/PAT tries.
OFFENSE ROLLS ON
Over their last four contests, the Bears have totaled 1,925 yards of offense—an average of 481.3 per game—while topping the 30-point plateau in each outing. MSU has scored at a 38.8 point per game clip, marking its best four-game showing since October 2010, when the Bears averaged 42.0 points per outing over a six-game stretch from Sept. 25 through Oct. 30.
Since opening MVFC play, the Bears have fashioned the top rushing attack in the league, averaging 206.5 yards per contest. MSU is averaging 411.7 yards of total offense during MVFC play, which is good for the fourth-best figure in the league.
Peyton Huslig's average of 80.0 rushing yards ranks fourth in the circuit, while his 264.0 yards of total offense per league outing is fifth among all MVFC players.
