Bears football looks to keep winning streak alive and earn share of conference title in final games of season.
Missouri State Bears football notched their eighth straight victory this past Saturday with a win over Murray State. The Bears are 8-2 and 6-0 in conference. They have an eight game winning streak. They finished last season 4-7. We brought in Paul Bohlin, sports editor for the Missouri State Standard, to tell us how the Bears have turned things around and what to expect now.
In your articles in The Standard, you've talked about the exceptional performance of senior QB Jacob Clark. Tell me more about the bears offense and what he and the team are bringing this year.
Well, I think last season we got a lot of really good previews of this.
Jacob Clark spent three seasons as a benchwarmer at Minnesota and then came to Missouri State and was a secondary quarterback for Jason Shelley. And then his time to step up under first year head coach Ryan Beard, he plays a couple really great games, including one against Utah Tech for the home opener in 2023, and then a couple games later he goes down with a huge shoulder injury, has to have surgery, his season's gone, and the bears season kind of fell apart after that. But against Utah Tech you definitely saw the start of what can be with this guy and with the bears offense, especially under their new offensive coordinator, Nick Petrino.
But he's come back and he's come back even better. And his offense too, he's got really great receivers. He's got what we've been calling thunder and lightning with his running back pair of Jacardia Wright and Jayden Becks.
Now, looking at Missouri State's offense. They're in the top of the FCS. The entire subdivision. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but they're in the top five of passing yards, total passing offense, total offense. They have some of the fewest passes intercepted. It really it shows why they're later this week going to fight for a share of the conference title against the number one team in the country.
At the same time, you kind of described in your articles the defense as a bit inconsistent. Where are things working and not working, and what do they need to do to wrap up on a high note in these last couple games?
The problem with the defense, I think, in my opinion, is just that consistency. Head coach Ryan Beard has talked, all the time about how the bears need to play a “full” game and that they need to put together four quarters of football to be successful. They can't quite get either their starts right or their finishes right. They will have really great moments, but they will not play through.
I think against Murray State you saw them have a decent finish. Murray State couldn't score anything in the final quarter, and they were really tapering off in the third. But the start, they just kept letting things go through.
It's not only that they can't convert things on the field and prevent things from happening. Get stops. But there are so few patterns that are emerging. It's like they often get taken by surprise by the teams that they face.
The last two opponents of the season, you have North Dakota State and South Dakota State. They are first and third. So what do we expect to see in those games? Do you think they have a chance of winning either of them?
I think you look at North Dakota State's defense, it is good. There's a reason they're that they're number one. There's a reason the only game they've lost this season is to Dion Sanders team Colorado. But they're not number one. They're not leading the defense in the FCS in anything that I could tell. And they're not really even in the top ten. Now Missouri State's not either. But Missouri State's States offense is leading in the FCS, and I think you put that with a good but imperfect defense from the bison. I think that definitely opens up a good possibility of scoring for the bears.
South Dakota State, I think, will be a more interesting one, because I think Missouri State has a much better chance to win against South Dakota State. I think, for one, they've got home field advantage. And then South Dakota State is also you know, they've been a struggling a little bit more this season. It was not a couple of weeks ago that they weren't even in the top three. This is a team that's hit some struggles hit some roadblocks. I'll be interested to figure out what those roadblocks are once I get up to actually get ready to cover that game.
I more so suspect personally that they'll probably fall at the with the bison, but I think it'll be a close game. And I think they've got a real chance against South Dakota State.
And at least get to end this fabulous season at home with what should be an exciting game. Hopefully. Thank you very much for coming in here and getting us caught up and letting us know what to expect in the last few games. Where can people hear you talk about football and read your writing about football?
You can find my writing at the at the-standard.org, that's our website. We put out a print issue every month, which you can find on newsstands around campus. But most of our sports coverage is online. Then you can hear us talk about football and all of the other sports that Missouri State sponsors with myself and our sports staff on our podcast called The Growl. You can find that under The Standard on Spotify and on SoundCloud. Those episodes come out every Monday. They're hosted by myself and our co-editor in chief, Jayden Pettus, and a few of our sports reporters, Maddux Radosevic and Jackson Wright.