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THE GAME
Honoring a campus tradition that dates back to 1921, the Missouri State Bears (4-2, 2-1 MVFC) will entertain the Western Illinois Leathernecks (2-4, 1-2 MVFC) Saturday (Oct. 20) afternoon at Robert W. Plaster Stadium. The contest will mark the sixth time the Bears and Leathernecks have met on Missouri State's Homecoming, with MSU claiming three of the previous five contests.
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Saturday's game will be broadcast live on
ESPN+, with Don West and Tom Ladd describing the action. The game will also be carried on the
Missouri State Radio Network, as
Art Hains and Dennis Heim will once again have the call.
- After recording their first road victory of the season at Indiana State last Saturday, the Bears received 133 votes in this week's STATS FCS Top 25 balloting and eight votes in the AFCA Coaches Poll.
- The Bears are looking for their fifth homecoming victory in seven years; they are 26-21 in homecoming games since 1971.
- MSU has averaged 33.9 points per game in their last eight homecoming contests, topping the 30-point plateau in seven of those outings.
- MSU has averaged 408.0 yards of total offense during league play, with Peyton Huslig (287.0) ranking second among all Valley players in the same category.
- Huslig moved up to sixth on MSU's career total offense chart last weekend and enters Saturday's game with 4,167 yards in just 17 games with the Bears.
- Missouri State's offensive line has allowed just one sack during the Bears' three MVFC games, while the MSU defense ranks second overall in the conference in team sacks (3.17 per game), led by Matt McClellan's Valley-best 5.5 sacks for the year.
SERIES NOTES
- The Bears and Leathernecks enter Saturday's game with 17 wins apiece (and one tie) in their series that dates back to 1981.
- WIU holds a slight edge against MSU in Springfield, bringing a 9-7-1 series record into Saturday's game.
- The two clubs have combined to score 369 points — an average of 61.5 points per game — in their last six meetings going back to 2010.
- The Bears are 3-2 vs. WIU in Homecoming games, but the Leathernecks spoiled MSU's 2016 Homecoming with a 38-35 decision.
THE BEARS
- The Bears (4-2, 2-1 MVFC) return 36 letterwinners and 15 total starters from last year's 3-8 squad.
- MSU's defense, which welcomed back nine starters, is led by first-team preseason All-MVFC pick Angelo Garbutt and second-team choice Darius Joseph.
- McNeece Egbim paces the Bears with 56 tackles through the first six contests, while Matt McClellan shares the MVFC lead in sacks (5.5).
- MSU shares the MVFC lead in fewest sacks allowed and ranks second in sacks recorded; the Bears defense has recorded 19 sacks on the season, while the MSU offensive line has permitted just six.
- The Bears rank fourth in the league in both total offense (408.0 ypg.) and scoring defense (27.3 ppg.) during Valley play; MSU's offense has converted 50 percent (23-of-46) of its third-down attempts in MVFC play as well.
THE LEATHERNECKS
- Under first-year head coach Jared Elliott (2-4, 1-2 MVFC), WIU is coming off a 34-7 setback to No. 1 North Dakota State, despite out-gaining the Bison by a 296-276 margin.
- Isaiah LeSure finished with a career-high 170 receiving yards on 12 catches against NDSU.
- The Leathernecks rank third overall in the MVFC in passing offense (275.0 ypg.), led by QB Sean McGuire's 258.8 ypg., which ranks second in the league.\
LAST TIME OUT...
Missouri State picked up its first road win of the season with a last-minute touchdown at Indiana State that completed the 29-26 victory last Saturday in Terre Haute.
- Lorenzo Thomas hauled in the go-ahead four-yard TD toss from Peyton Huslig with just 0:16 left in regulation to give the Bears their lone second-half score, as well as the decisive margin.
- MSU's game-winning, 86-yard scoring drive came on the heels of a Bears' defensive stand to hold ISU to a field goal; ISU's drive covered 84 yards to the MSU one-yard line, before a 19-yarder gave the Sycamores a 26-21 lead with 4:04 remaining.
- The Bears' new-look rushing attack featured a pair of newcomers carrying the load, with Donovan Daniels leading MSU with 62 yards on 15 attempts and a pair of scores, while freshman Jeremiah Wilson carried 14 times for 61 yards and his first collegiate touchdown on an 18-yard, second-quarter rush.
- Missouri State was 8-of-10 on third down in the opening half and racked up 15 first downs, with 238 yards of total offense in the opening stanza.
- Matt McClellan recorded another sack in the win, marking his sixth consecutive game with at least an assist on a sack to start his MSU career.
- Titus Wall and Angelo Garbutt logged 11-tackle performances to lead the defense, marking Garbutt's second double-digit tackle effort in a row.
HOMECOMING TRIPLE DOSE
Missouri State's return to Plaster Stadium this weekend will mark the club's third-straight homecoming game this October. The Bears began the month as South Dakota's homecoming foe on Dakota Days, and then played spoiler last week in Terre Haute for Indiana State's homecoming game.
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Saturday's game will mark the sixth homecoming matchup for MSU vs. Western Illinois, with the Bears winning three of the five previous meetings. WIU claimed a 38-35 decision to spoil the Bears' 2016 homecoming contest, after MSU secured homecoming wins in 2010 (31-28) and 2012 (42-3) over the Leathernecks.
MSU will be looking to claim its fifth homecoming victory in the last seven years. MSU has won seven of its last 11 homecoming games, a campus tradition in Springfield that dates to 1921. MSU is 26-21 in homecoming games since 1971. In their last 10 homecoming games, the Bears have averaged 35.7 points and over 434 yards of total offense per outing.
OFF TO THE RACES
The Bears are off to a 4-2 start for the first time since 2007. Coach
Dave Steckel's troops start a two-game home stand this weekend in hopes of extended their good fortune to 5-2 for the first time since 2004.
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This season, the Bears have also been fast starters on the field, putting up points in the first quarter in five straight games while scoring the game's first points three times in the last four contests.
FRESH-LOOK LINEUP POWERS GROUND GAME
Missouri State's ground attack got a lift from some maroon rookies in Saturday's win at Indiana State with
Donovan Daniels and
Jeremiah Wilson performing the bulk of the heavy lifting. Daniels had 62 yards on 15 carries with a pair of first-half touchdowns of one and 10 yards, while Wilson carried 14 times for 62 yards with a team-best 18-yard run on the day.
THOMAS TO THE RESCUE
Lorenzo Thomas' touchdown reception in the corner of the end zone with 16 seconds remaining in Saturday's win at Indiana State marked his first career TD grab as a Bear. The sophomore from Jasper, Texas, snagged 15 receptions as a true freshman in 2017 and has a team-high 21 catches this year, the last of which represented the game-winner in Terre Haute.
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MAROON AND WHITE SPECIAL
MSU special teams have been a consistent force for the Bears during the
Dave Steckel era, with the Bears ranking among the top five among all MVFC units in both punt average and punt return average each of the last three seasons.
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The 2018 campaign has been no different, as Missouri State entered the week ranked fifth nationally in net punting (40.5) and second in punt return defense (-0.38). Missouri State's
Brendan Withrow ranks 35th nationally in punting average with 41.1 yards per attempt, including 10 of his 28 attempts downed inside the 20. Furthermore, the Bears' kickoff return unit has averaged 21.75 yards per attempt, which is good for 44th nationally.
Last fall, MSU ranked second in punt return average (13.0), and fourth in net punt average (37.5), thanks to the leg of Withrow, who ranked 35th nationally with an average of 41.0 yards per punt. Additionally, the Bears kickoff return unit averaged 22.2 yards per return to rank third in the MVFC, behind all-time return leader
Deion Holliman's third-consecutive All-MVFC performance.
SECOND-QUARTER SURGE
The Bears continue to dominate the second quarter, having outscored their opponents by a 76-19 margin in the 15 minutes before halftime this season. MSU has also converted 16-of-26 third downs in the second quarter, by far the team's most productive period, which translates to a 61.5 percent success rate before the intermission.
In particular, the Bears' 28 points in the second quarter against Lincoln (Sept. 6) matched the program record for offensive production in the second period, previously set on Sept. 9, 2006 vs. Southwest Baptist. The Bears posted 150 yards of total offense in the quarter to go with eight first downs and a conversion on their only third down of the period. MSU's high-scoring quarter featured three rushing TD's — two by
Jason Randall — and a 27-yard fumble recovery by
Darius Joseph.
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