Missouri State comes to town on Saturday. A large family day crowd is expected to greet them. Coach Brock Spack will renew the acquaintance of best buddy Bobby Petrino. MSU brings a talented and balanced team. The Bears looked strong on defense against Oklahoma St. but then they gave up more yards and more points to Cent. Arkansas. Go figure. On offense the Bears could have gone with So. Mississippi transfer Jaden Johnson at QB. He started some games for them in the spring season. But Coach Petrino decided he wanted to be deeper, better and more experienced at QB, so he brought in another FBS transfer, 5th year QB Jason Shelley. In previous lifetimes Shelley was a starting QB at Utah and Utah St. Good news - in the conference opener South Dakota was able to sack Shelley 6 times. Bad news - In spite of 42 yards of negative rushing, Shelley also had 104 yards of positive rushing for a net gain of 62 yards and 2 TD's. Shelley also threw for 281 yards and 2 TD's as Missouri St. beat South Dakota 31-23. The 'Birds have a battle on their hands.
Clayton Isbell will be back. That will help. I need one more thing to become optimistic. Do we get either Zambrano or Asche back at offensive tackle? We need one to have a chance. Waring looked ok for a first start but our passing game remains fragile. It needs protection and Drew Bones might be gimpy as well. If our offensive line is slightly better than walking wounded then we have a chance to slay the Berenstains.
Clayton Isbell will be back. That will help. I need one more thing to become optimistic. Do we get either Zambrano or Asche back at offensive tackle? We need one to have a chance. Waring looked ok for a first start but our passing game remains fragile. It needs protection and Drew Bones might be gimpy as well. If our offensive line is slightly better than walking wounded then we have a chance to slay the Berenstains.