The Game
The
Missouri State Bears will embark on their second straight road trip to open the 2019 season Saturday (Sept. 14) when they travel to New Orleans for a 7 p.m., non-conference contest against the
Tulane Green Wave at Yulman Stadium.
The contest will be broadcast live
ESPN3, with Joel Meyers and Jay Sonnhalter 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.
- The Bears will be gunning for their first win over an FBS opponent since opening the 1990 season with a 31-24 decision over UNLV.
- Missouri State enters Saturday's game in search of its first win of the 2019 season after dropping a 37-23 contest in its season opener at Northern Arizona on Aug. 29.
- MSU has averaged 30.0 points over its last two games against NCAA Division I FBS competition; the Bears racked up 43 points in their 2017 season opener at Mizzou, which represents the program's best single-game offensive performance vs. an FBS school.
Series Notes
- The Bears and Green Wave will be meeting for the first time on the grid iron Saturday.
- MSU brings a 1-9 all-time mark against the American Athletic Conference, with their last such meeting coming on Sept. 5, 2015 at Memphis--a 63-7 setback at the Liberty Bowl.
- The Bears are 5-12-1 all-time against teams from the state of Louisiana; MSU was victorious in its last trip to the Pelican State, topping Northwestern State by a 34-27 score in Natchitoches on Aug. 28, 2014.
The Bears
- MSU was tabbed for 10th place in the Missouri Valley Football Conference's annual preseason poll.
- The Bears return 44 letterwinners and 13 total starters from last year's 4-7 squad.
- Missouri State's rushing defense held Northern Arizona to just 2.4 yards per carry in last week's season opener; for the game, the Bears allowed just 88 yards on 36 carries.
- Against 36 NAU rushing plays, the Bears' defense recorded 11 tackles for loss, totaling 31 yards, without the benefit of a sack.
- Senior wide receiver Tyler Currie picked up the 2019 season where he left off his junior season; the standout wideout hauled in a game-high six receptions for 89 yards and a touchdown in MSU's season opener at Northern Arizona; he averaged 14.8 yards per reception with a long of 30 yards; Currie led the Bears with 35 receptions for 548 yards and 5 touchdowns a year ago.
- Led by preseason all-league selection Tyler Currie, the Bears offense brings back six starters, including senior quarterback Peyton Huslig, who passed for 2,113 yards last fall to rank fifth all time on MSU's single-season passing chart.
- Bears senior long snapper Chandler Collins was named to STATS Inc.'s 2019 FCS Preseason All-America squad, picking up third-team honors.
- MSU's defense will welcome back seven starters, led by two-time All-MVFC linebacker Angelo Garbutt and preseason all-conference picks McNeece Egbim and Matt McClellan.
- MSU is 469-510-3 all-time as a program and 12-33 under fifth-year head coach Dave Steckel.
The Green Wave
- The Green Wave enter Saturday's contest with a 1-1 mark on the season, including a season-opening win over FIU (Aug. 29) and a road setback to Auburn (Sept. 7).
- Tulane has rushed for at least 100 yards in 42 consecutive games dating back to the end of the 2015 season.
- Under the direction of fourth-year head coach Willie Fritz, the Green Wave welcomed back 17 total starters from last year's 7-6 squad that shared the American Athletic West Division title.
- Senior quarterback Justin McMillan returns to lead the Green Wave offense after posting a 5-1 record as a starter in 2018, finishing the year with 1,304 passing yards, 10 touchdowns and just four interceptions.
- McMillan accounted for three touchdowns (two passing and one rushing) against FIU; he also finished with 250 yards of total offense (199 yards passing and 51 yards rushing).
- Senior receiver Darnell Mooney enters Saturday's game just 10 receiving yards away from the 2,000-yard plateau for his Tulane career.
Bears Look to Step Up Against Tulane
Missouri State enters Saturday's game looking to continue the Missouri Valley Football Conference's recent successes against Division I FBS opponents. Thanks to Southern Illinois win at UMass last Saturday, the MVFC now has had at least one FBS win in each of the last 10 seasons. The Conference has 46 FBS wins in its history.
Since joining the FCS ranks in 1982, the Bears are just 1-34 against Football Bowl Subdivision opposition, but have been competitive in a number of recent meetings. MSU has averaged 30.0 points per outing over its last two contests against FBS competition. Two years ago, the Bears racked up their best offensive showing against an FBS foe in a 72-43 setback to Missouri. The Bears also led Oregon 7-0 in 2011, and were tied with both Kansas State (2012) and Iowa (2013) in the second half before succumbing in each game. The Bears' lone win over an FBS opponent came on Sept. 1, 1990 with a 31-24 victory at UNLV.
Â
Opening Act
Missouri State opened the 2019 campaign with a 37-23 setback at Northern Arizona (Aug. 29), despite a strong effort by its defense, as well as a second-half surge led by quarterback
Peyton Huslig's 289 total passing yards.
- Huslig completed 20-of-35 passes for 289 yards and a pair of touchdowns, while his prime target—fellow senior Tyler Currie—led the Bears with six catches for 89 yards and a touchdown.
- With his big second half, Huslig recorded his ninth 200-yard game as a Bear. His two scoring passes—the 23rd and 24th of his career—moved him into a tie with Jay Rodgers for eighth on MSU's all-time TD pass chart. Huslig (4,383) also passed Kierra Harris (4,284) for the No. 4 spot on the Bears' career passing yardage list.
- Eight Bears made their first starts in Maroon and White, including four of MSU's five offensive line starters (Ian Fitzgerald, Derek Kohler, Daniel Allen and Landon Bebee), running back Donovan Daniels, defensive end Anthony Payne, cornerback Nick Hessefort and linebacker Paris Jackson.
- Jackson and Matt McClellan each logged career highs with seven tackles apiece.
- Parker Lacina converted a career-best three field goal tries, including a career-long 45-yarder to match the fourth-best single-game performance by a Bears kicker.
- Brendan Withrow's 64-yard punt in the first quarter represented the second-longest of his Bears career, trailing only his 70-yard boot in the 2017 season opener at Missouri; Withrow also booted a 63-yarder in last year's season opener at Oklahoma State.
Leading the Sleuth
A pair of repeat selections as team captains in senior quarterback
Peyton Huslig and senior linebacker
McNeece Egbim will help steer the Bears during the 2019 season. Huslig and Egbim filled the same roles last fall for MSU. Additionally, junior safety
Titus Wall was chosen by his teammates for a team captain role and will help lead the Bears defense this fall.
Â
Huslig Climbing the Charts
Peyton Huslig notched his ninth 200-yard passing day as a Bear in MSU's season opener at NAU (Aug. 29), completing 20-of-35 pass attempts for 289 yards and two touchdowns. The senior from Andover, Kan., eclipsed several statistical milestones in 2018, including topping 4,000 career passing yards, 5,000 career yards of total offense and 2,000 passing yards for the season. The dual-threat signal caller ranked second on MSU's single-season plays list (453) — just 10 shy of the club's single-season record — and seventh on the single-season total offense list (2,479) and sixth on the Bears' passing yards list (2,113). For his 23-game career, he also ranks fourth on both the Bears' career passing yardage (4,383) and total offense (5,373) charts.
Huslig accounted for 419 yards of total offense, including a career-high 404 passing yards against Southern Illinois (Oct. 27). Both efforts ranked No. 3 all-time in Bears' single-game history and represent the best numbers by a Bears QB since A.J. Porter's 460 passing yards and 426 total offensive yards against Illinois State in 2003.
Huslig's four TD passes against the Salukis tied the junior for the fifth-best total by a Bears signal-caller, and most since
Brodie Lambert's five touchdown tosses against WIU in 2015. Huslig's 27 completions and 46 pass attempts in the SIU game also ranked seventh and fifth, respectively, all-time on the MSU single-game list.
Maroon and White Special
MSU special teams have been a consistent force 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 three of the last seasons.
The 2018 campaign was no different, as MSU finished the season fifth nationally in net punting (39.3) and fourth among all FCS schools in punt return defense (2.2). Missouri State's
Brendan Withrow ranked 40th nationally in punting average with 41.0 yards per attempt, including 22 of his 62 attempts downed inside the 20. Withrow's career punt average of 40.9 yards per kick rates fourth on the Bears' career chart entering the 2019 season.
Â
Cole Train Rolls Into Third NFL Campaign
Former Bear linebacker
Dylan Cole became the most-recent Missouri State product to earn a spot on a National Football League roster in September 2017, when the Houston Texans announced the free agent signee as a member of the club's initial 53-man roster. Now entering his third pro season with Houston, Cole appeared in 12 games for the Texans as a rookie, logging 32 tackles, 1.0 sack and a pair of interceptions, before an injury-riddled fall abbreviated his sophomore NFL campaign last fall.
A consensus first-team FCS All-America selection for the Bears as a senior, Cole averaged 12.9 tackles per game in 2016 to lead all FCS players. The Rogersville, Mo., product recorded at least 13 tackles in nine different games as a senior, including 19 in the Bears' win over Southern Illinois.
The All-MVFC first-team selection racked up 85 solo tackles, eight tackles for loss, two interceptions, four pass breakups and three forced fumbles. Cole finished third in the 2016 Buck Buchanan Award voting as the top defensive player in the FCS ranks, played in the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl and earned CoSIDA Academic All-District honors as well as MVFC Scholar-Athlete Team laurels.
Honoring No. 20
For the third straight season, Missouri State's players will be honoring former teammate
Richard Nelson with his number "20" on their helmets.
Nelson was shot and killed in his hometown of Las Vegas, Nev., on Jan. 14, 2017, while attempting to intervene in an attack on his sister. Nelson, who was just 18 years old, was a tailback on the team and redshirted during his first and only with the Bears in 2016. He was a graduate of Chaparral High School in Las Vegas.
The team also has a standing memorial to Nelson in the MSU Football facility with the words "Always A Bear" over a large photo of Nelson.
