♦ Missouri State continues its three-game fall slate on Saturday when it travels to Conway, Ark., to take on UCA
(1-1) at 7 p.m. in the first of two meetings this season between the two teams.
♦ Over the last 15 seasons, Missouri State has accumulated eight wins when allowing 30 or more points. Two
of those wins have come over UCA — first with a 42-38 win at Plaster Stadium (9/22/07) and then later with a
last-second field goal clinching a 33-31 win at Estes Stadium (9/20/14) in the most-recent meeting.
♦ In the last meeting between MSU and UCA at Estes Stadium (9/20/14), Marcelo Bonani’s 53-yard field goal
as time expired lifted the visitors to a 33-31 victory. Missouri State accumulated 593 yards of total offense in the
contest, the club’s second-highest total over the last seven seasons (624 vs. Indiana State, 10/28/17).
♦ The Bears have 3 true freshmen players from the state of Arkansas — P.J. Hall (S, Little Rock, Ark.), Bryant
Ullrich (ILB, Harrison, Ark.) and Hunter Wood (WR, Springdale, Ark.).
♦ Jordan Murray (Jr., Lee’s Summit, Mo.) has recorded a pass reception in 22 consecutive games, tied for the
fifth-longest streak in program history. In 2018, Murray broke the Bears freshman receiving record with 33 catches
for 378 yards while earning FCS Freshman All-America honors. Murray caught 24 passes for 280 yards last
season with a team-high 5 touchdown catches.
♦ Lorenzo Thomas (Sr., Jasper, Texas) currently ranks 18th on Missouri State’s career receiving yards list
(1,077) and needs 73 yards to catch Tyler Currie (2017-19) at the No. 17 spot. Thomas now has 89 receptions in
33 career games.
♦ Missouri State is a member of the Missouri Valley Football Conference which has produced eight of the last
nine national champions at the NCAA Division I FCS level. The MVFC has five teams ranked in the FCS preseason Top 25 — including four of the top nine — with two additional teams receiving votes.
♦ The Bears have been one of the least-penalized teams in the FCS the last four years in a row. Last season,
Missouri State was flagged 59 times for 496 yards (11 games), which ranked 19th and 17th, respectively among
all FCS programs. In terms of number of times penalized per game, MSU previously ranked 18th nationally in
2018 (4.91), 7th in 2017 (3.45), and 7th in 2016 (4.36).
♦ Defensive lineman Eric Johnson (Sr., Plainfiled, Ill.) and safety Titus Wall (Sr., Plano, Texas) have appeared
in 34 consecutive games for the Bears to lead the squad, while wide receiver Damoriea Vick (Jr., Oklahoma City,
Okla.) has made a team-high 22 consecutive starts.
♦ Missouri State started 5 freshmen in the season opener at Oklahoma, including a pair of true freshmen —
Kellen Porter (RB, St. Louis, Mo.) and Grant Goodson (OL, Norman, Okla.). Likewise, the Bears starting rotation
at OU included 4 transfers — Jaden Johnson (RFr., QB, Memphis, Tenn.), Isaiah Sayles (DE, San Antonio,
Texas), I.K. Ahumibe (DT, Cerritos, Calif.) and Jeremy Webb (CB, East Mims, Fla.). Johnson was the first MSU
freshman to start at QB since 2011, while Webb snagged an interception against the Sooners in his Bears debut.
♦ In 2019, linebacker Tyler Lovelace (Sr., Lee’s Summit, Mo.) ranked 3rd nationally with 3 fumble recoveries. In
his MSU career, Lovelace now has 5 total recoveries which puts him two away from breaking into the Bears’ top
10 in career fumble takeaways.
♦ Grant Burkett (RFr., Allen, Texas) made his MSU debut with a 40.1 punting average at Oklahoma on 9
attempts. His long for the day was a 50-yarder on the fourth punt of his collegiate career.
♦ With 151 wins since 2001, Central Arkansas is the winningest college football team in the state of Arkansas in
that span, at any level. UCA’s best outing was an 11-3 record in 2005 when the Bears reached the quarterfinals of
the NCAA Division II Playoffs and tied the school record for victories. They won 10 Division I games en route to a
10-3 record in 2016, including an FCS Playoff victory vs. Illinois State, and had another 10-2 season in 2017
