The Game
The
Missouri State Bears open their 78th season at Robert W. Plaster Stadium Saturday (Sept. 21) afternoon with a 2 p.m. non-conference game against the No. 6
Kennesaw State Owls on Family Weekend.
The Bears are in search of their first win of the 2019 campaign and host a national top 10 program for the second year in a row. Last season, coach
Dave Steckel's squad topped No. 9 Illinois State, 24-21, at Plaster and later fell to top-ranked North Dakota State on senior day.
The contest will be broadcast live locally on
KOZL-TV and online through
ESPN+, with Don West and Dan Lucy 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.
- Missouri State holds an all-time mark of 215-171-12 (.555) at Plaster Stadium.
- The Bears are 68-35-4 in home openers, including a 27-8-2 mark in such games as a Division I program and 4-0 under Steckel, who has logged a 6-8 mark in non-MVFC action as MSU's head coach.
- 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, and a 58-6 road tilt against FBS foe Tulane last Saturday.
- The Bears will also be looking for their seventh consecutive non-conference home win as part of a streak that dates back to Sept. 2014.
Series Notes
- The Bears and Owls will be meeting for the first time on the gridiron Saturday.
- MSU brings a 1-2 all-time mark against the Big South Conference, with their last such meeting coming on Sept. 7, 2002 at Hampton — a 28-26 road win over the Pirates.
- Saturday's game also marks the Bears' first-ever contest against a team from the state of Georgia.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- In last week's loss at Tulane, Missouri State redshirt freshman DJ Frost caught a touchdown pass for the second straight contest, hauling in an 11-yard pass from Huslig in the second quarter in New Orleans.
- The Bears also got a great effort from Egbim, who registered a game-high eight tackles in his 20th straight start at linebacker.
- MSU is 469-511-3 all-time as a program and 12-34 under fifth-year head coach Dave Steckel.
The Owls
- Kennesaw State head coach Brian Bohannon returns 11 starters from an 11-2 team that advanced to the Division I FCS playoffs last season.
- In last week's 42-7 home win, the Owls rushed 64 times for 481 yards and passed just six times.
- The upstart Kennesaw State squad (2-1) features versatile quarterback Daniel David, who leads the Owls in rushing and passing through the club's first three games; the senior is averaging 56.7 yards per game on the ground with five touchdowns on the season, while passing for 112.7 yards per game with two touchdowns.
- KSU employs an option attack that has featured 15 different ball carriers and averaged an eye-popping 388.7 rushing yards per game through the first three games of the season.
- In addition to David's team-leading rushing total, Antavius Grier (46.0 yards per game), Isaac Foster (42.0) and Bronson Rechsteiner (39.3) have each contributed to the Owls ground success; Foster is coming off an 84-yard performance in last week's win over Alabama State.
Last Time Out
Missouri State dropped its second straight contest—and its seventh in a row overall—last weekend at Tulane, as the Green Wave rolled up 540 yards of offense in a 58-6 decision over the Bears.
- The Green Wave ground game racked up 298 rushing yards and tallied six rushing touchdowns by four different players.
- The Bears generated just 11 first downs and 182 yards of total offense against the Tulane defense, which permitted just two third-down conversions in 12 attempts for the game.
- Peyton Huslig's 11-yard touchdown pass to DJ Frost marked the senior quarterback's 25th scoring pass as a Bear, which ranks sixth all-time at MSU.
- Damoriea Vick's 25-yard second-quarter rush represented the longest of his MSU career; the sophomore also extended his consecutive games streak with multiple receptions to six in a row dating back to Oct. 27 of last year.
- The Bears' seven-game skid is tied for their third-longest as a Division I program and their sixth-longest overall.
- Missouri State yielded six rushing touchdowns for the first time since Oct. 21, 2017 vs. South Dakota State.
- MSU fell to 1-35 all-time against NCAA FBS competition and 1-10 against American Athletic Conference foes.
Bears Strong in Non-Conference
The Bears bring a six-game home win streak versus non-conference opponents into the 2019 season, including shutout wins in two of those outings. MSU has outscored its last six home non-league opponents by a combined 236-66 margin since kicking off the streak with a 38-0 victory over North Dakota on Sept. 13, 2014.
Missouri State's win over Northern Arizona last September saw the Bears continue their recent non-conference surge. MSU has enjoyed a history of success in non-conference play at home since joining the Division I ranks in 1982, going 58-20 overall against non-league foes at Plaster Stadium, including a perfect 5-0 mark in such contests under
Dave Steckel.
Huslig Leaves His Mark
Peyton Huslig 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 24-game career, he also ranks fourth on both the Bears' career passing yardage (4,511) and total offense (5,489) 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.
Captain Consistency
Bears linebacker
McNeece Egbim started his 20th consecutive game last week at Tulane and celebrated the milestone by recording a game-high eight tackles in the contest. Egbim is in his second season as an MSU co-captain. The senior from Rowlett, Texas has recorded at least five tackles in 15 consecutive games.
Frost Heats Up
MSU redshirt freshman DJ Frost, a transfer from Air Force, caught a touchdown pass for the second straight contest in Saturday's game at Tulane, hauling in an 11-yard pass from
Peyton Huslig in the second quarter in New Orleans. It marked the rookie's second straight game with a touchdown reception and moved him atop the squad's early-season scoring chart with 12 points. Frost also boasts MSU's second-highest rushing total through two games.
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.
Packing Them In
The newly-renovated Robert W. Plaster Stadium has hosted three of the top nine home crowds in Missouri State football history, as well as an overall average of nearly 10,000 fans per home contest over the last five seasons. In 2016, MSU registered its third-consecutive season drawing at least 50,000 spectators at home and ranked among the nation's top 30 FCS programs in average home attendance for the third consecutive year after the facility opened to rave reviews in 2014. The Bears drew 58,324 fans through the turnstiles in their five home games that season, an average of 11,665 per contest — good for 18th nationally. The club's net total attendance in 2014 marked its best in five-game home schedule since 1996 and the top season figure overall since 2007.
A record-drawing crowd of 18,386 witnessed Missouri State's 38-0 victory over North Dakota (Sept. 13) in its 2014 home opener. The standing-room-only crowd translated to 105 percent of the stadium's new capacity and represented the top home crowd in Bears' history, surpassing the previous 17-year-old record of 16,672, established Aug. 28, 1997 vs. Pittsburg State. The opening-night attendance also equaled the 26th-largest crowd — home or away — to see a Missouri State football game.
Strength of Schedule
Missouri State can once again make a valid claim as having one of the toughest schedules in the Division I FCS ranks this fall. Based on STATS' Preseason FCS Poll, the Bears are slated to meet 10 teams ranked among the top 25 or receiving votes in the poll.
Seven of the Bears' eight MVFC foes entered the season either ranked in the top 25 or receiving votes from the STATS voters. Over the last five seasons, MSU has squared off against a total of 29 ranked opponents. In fact, the Bears have played no fewer than three ranked opponents in any of the last 14 seasons. MSU has taken on a total of 49 top 25 clubs in the last nine seasons alone and brings a record of 24-97 against ranked foes into the 2017 campaign. The Bears posted a pair of top 25 wins last fall, defeating No. 20 NAU (40-8) and No. 9 Illinois State (24-21) at Plaster Stadium.
