SIU looks to bounce back from the loss at Northern Iowa but Missouri State will be a tough test. The Bears are 5-3 on the season with losses at Oklahoma State, at Youngstown State, and at North Dakota State and wins vs Central Arkansas, vs South Dakota, at Illinois State, vs Indiana State, and vs North Dakota.
The Bears are coached by Bobby Petrino who turned a 1-10 (1-7) Bears team in 2019 to a 5-5 (5-1) team in the Spring season and shared a conference title with South Dakota State.
Last season, the Bears beat SIU 30-27 on a last second field goal in Springfield
Meet the Bears:
The Bears are led by 5'11 Redshirt Junior QB Jason Shelley. Shelley was a 3 star QB from Frisco, Texas and started his college career at Utah where he played 19 games from 2018-19 as a Redshirt Freshman and Sophomore and started 5 games. In 2020, Shelley transferred to Utah State where he started 4 games and threw for 420 yards and 2 touchdowns with 2 interceptions. Shelley then transferred to Missouri State this offseason and he's been impressive this season. He's throw for 2,254 yards and has 16 TD's and 5 interceptions. He's also added 261 rushing yards and 5 rushing touchdowns. Last week against North Dakota, Shelley threw for 349 yards and 3 passing touchdowns and added a rushing touchdown which led to him being named MVFC Offensive Player of the Week and MVFC Newcomer of the Week.
Missouri State's leading rusher is 6'0 Senior Tobias Little. Little was a 3 star linebacker recruit out of Atlanta, GA and started his college career at Louisville. At Louisville, Little was moved to fullback where he appeared in 7 games in 2017. In 2018, Little missed the season with an injury and in 2019 he only appeared in 4 games. In 2020, Little transferred to Missouri State where he rushed for 260 yards last season. This season, Little has rushed for 444 yards and 6 touchdowns.
The Bears leading receiver this year is 6'3 Redshirt Sophomore Tyrone Scott. Scott was a 2 star recruit out of Savannah, GA and started his college career at Central Michigan. In 2019 at Central Michigan, Scott caught 37 passes for 650 yards and 5 touchdowns and was 4th in the MAC in yards per catch average. This offseason he transferred to Missouri State and he's been one of the best WR's in the MVFC catching 43 passes for 728 yards and 7 touchdowns. In the win last week against North Dakota, Scott caught 10 passes for 147 yards and a touchdown.
The Bears leader in tackles is 6'1 Linebacker Tylar Wiltz. Wiltz started his college career at Independence CC in Kansas before transferring to Southern Arkansas University. In 2019, he transferred to Missouri State and in the 2020 Spring season, Wiltz was named to the second team all-MVFC for his 51 tackle and 7.0 tackle for loss season. This season, Wiltz leads the Bears with 71 tackles and 7.5 tackles for loss.
Massey Ratings:
Massey Ratings predicts a 31-27 SIU victory and gives SIU a 59% chance of winning.
Weather:
As of 11/1, the weather in Carbondale for Saturday looks like this:
Widespread frost before 9am. Otherwise, sunny, with a high near 55. Light and variable wind.
Need a W vs MSU. IMO the players need it to keep their mojo. It’s going to be another close game. We need a good crowd. Weather looks perfect and the blue yummies will be cold.
Well at least we didn't fall as far in the polls as we could have. Dropped to 9 in the coaches poll. Lose on the road to a ranked team and you fall six spots? Either they don't respect UNI, or us.
A win over the Teddy Bears is paramount to keeping us in the mix for a protected seed though.
"The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe." ~Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
Well at least we didn't fall as far in the polls as we could have. Dropped to 9 in the coaches poll. Lose on the road to a ranked team and you fall six spots? Either they don't respect UNI, or us.
A win over the Teddy Bears is paramount to keeping us in the mix for a protected seed though.
I think the problem was that not many teams in the top 25 lost. It was basically about how low you wanted to drop SIU and Villanova which were the only two big teams that lost this week.
Well at least we didn't fall as far in the polls as we could have. Dropped to 9 in the coaches poll. Lose on the road to a ranked team and you fall six spots? Either they don't respect UNI, or us.
A win over the Teddy Bears is paramount to keeping us in the mix for a protected seed though.
We dropped from 3rd to 7th in the Stats Perform poll. SDSU is #9, UNI up to #13 and MoSt up to #17. USD is #23.
Well at least we didn't fall as far in the polls as we could have. Dropped to 9 in the coaches poll. Lose on the road to a ranked team and you fall six spots? Either they don't respect UNI, or us.
A win over the Teddy Bears is paramount to keeping us in the mix for a protected seed though.
We dropped from 3rd to 7th in the Stats Perform poll. SDSU is #9, UNI up to #13 and MoSt up to #17. USD is #23.
Yes....I realize that. In the coaches poll -
https://www.ncaa.com/rankings/football/fcs/fcs-coaches-poll
we fell to 9th.
I guess the point I was making is the usual disparity between the coaches poll and the media poll. Not sure if it's a respect issue or what.
"The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe." ~Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
The DirecTV thing is only for people who pay for the College Football package etc. learned that the hard way last time SIU was on Espn3 as opposed to Espn+.
I would think that most sports bars would have that package from Directv. I guess I pay a little extra a month for that package.
I have no idea what to expect. I hope we’re hungry after the UNI game. A win here is critical, and I want to beat upstart MSU and Petrino so bad.
There doesn’t seem to be much interest in this game. We are still ranked Top 10 and can make a playoff run.
I predict the Dawgs’ best game of the year.
31-17 in favor of SIU. Nic Baker is going to have a huge game.
Let’s fuxxing go!!!
That was not a good call Unintentional all the way
We're in trouble. That TD was way too easy. Need to create some TOs and outscore them.
Yeah, we almost created our own turnover.
"The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe." ~Dr. Leonard H. McCoy
