CEDAR FALLS – No. 20 UNI football wraps up its regular-season road trips at No. 16 Missouri State this Saturday.
No. 20 UNI Football @ No. 16 Missouri State
2 p.m. Nov. 13, 2021
Plaster Stadium | Springfield, Mo.
ESPN+ | Panthers Sports Radio Network News/Talk KXEL 1540
THE PANTHERS
• Head coach Mark Farley is 20-2 all-time against Missouri State. Farley won 14 games in a row from 2006 to 2019 against the Bears.
• UNI football quarterback Theo Day is among the candidates on the 2021 midseason watch list for the CFPA FCS National Performer of the Year trophy.
Award watch list. Penning is among 46 players on the 2021 Stats Perform FCS Walter Payton Award, which is presented annually to the national offensive player of the year in college football’s Division I subdivision.
• The Panthers have earned four MVFC Player of the Week honors in the month of October.
10/3 – Spencer Cuvelier – MLB (Defensive)
10/24 – Mathew Cook – K (Special Teams)
10/25 – Trevor Penning – OL (Offensive Lineman)
10/31- Nate Murphy – P (Special Teams)
• Following back-to-back, top-10 wins, UNI moved up in the rankings to No. 13 and earned the team the national FCS team honor from Stats Perform.
• The UNI defense forced six turnovers at Sacramento State. The last time UNI forced six turnovers was Sept 8, 2012, when the No. 7 Panthers beat DII Central State 56-0.
THE BEARS
• The Bears have won six in a row at home and are gunning for their first unbeaten home ledger since 2010. The Bears are shooting for their first seven-win season since 1996 (7-4).
• MSU also is trying to rack up six conference wins for just the second time in program history, done previously by the 6-0 MIAA championship team of 1978.
• Jason Shelley (QB, Frisco, Texas) is coming off his ninth straight 200-yard passing game to start his Missouri State career, a Bears season record. In Saturday’s win at No. 7 Southern Illinois, Shelley broke Missouri State’s single-season total offense record (2,806) and moved within 244 yards of Jay Rodgers (1999) single-season passing record (2,741). He also eclipsed 4,000 career passing yards and threw his 25th career TD in the SIU game.
• For the first time since 2010, the Bears have scored 30 or more points in seven different games. MSU has hit the 30-point plateau in seven of its last eight games overall and ranks 24th nationally in scoring (32.3).
• The Bears defense ranks sixth nationally in takeaways (20); 13th in interceptions (11); 16th in 3rd-down defense (.320); 23rd in turnover margin (+0.56); and 28th in red zone defense (.750).
• Montrae Braswell (CB, Avon Park, Fla.) is coming off 7 tackles and 4 PBU’s in last week’s win at Southern Illinois. He ranks 32nd nationally and third in the MVFC in passes defended per game (1.1). Braswell is also one of the nation’s top kickoff returners, ranking 5th in the FCS and 2nd in The Valley (29.9).
