• Missouri State is 18-64 all-time against ranked FCS teams (12-53 against ranked Missouri Valley Football Conference foes). The highest-ranked opponent ever defeated by the Bears was McNeese State in a 12-7 win over the No. 3 Cowboys on 9/7/96. The Bears were 3-2 against ranked teams a year ago and are 0-1 this season against the FCS Top 25. 
  • Senior running back Chris Douglas (Lawrenceville, Ga.) will need to compile 766 ground yards over the next seven games (109.4 ypg) to become the second MSU player to rush for 1,000 yards in back-to-back seasons (Cody Pratt, 2003-04). Douglas is also 290 yards shy of the 2,000-yard career milestone, something achieved by only 10 Missouri State rushers.
  • Missouri State puts a six-game home winning streak on the line this afternoon.  The Bears started the streak with a 31-7 win over Indiana State on 11/7/09 and continued it with five straight home wins last season. The 2010 campaign marked the Bears’ first perfect home season since 1992 and was just the sixth undefeated home season since the Plaster Field opened in 1941 (1948, 1963, 1974, 1989, 1992 and 2010). The last team to beat MSU at home was Illinois State (10/31/09).
  • The Bears are 4-1 in home openers under Terry Allen and 10-1 in their Plaster Field debuts over the last 11 seasons.
  • MSU has defeated Northern Iowa twice when the Panthers have been nationally ranked — a 24-21 win in Cedar Falls (10/3/98) while UNI was No. 17; and a 24-21 win at Plaster Field (10/8/05) when the Panthers were No. 6.
  • Jermaine Saffold (Sr., WR, Grandview, Mo.) is 9 pass receptions shy of 100 for his career, which would make him the ninth MSU player to do so.  Saffold also needs just 394 receiving yards to catch Steve Newbold (1977-80) as the club’s all-time leader in reception yardage. 
  • Punter Jordan Chiles (Sr., Hillsboro, Ill.) needs 11 punts to reach 200 for his career, a feat achieved previously by just Warren Baker (1968-71) with 239 and Mike Atzen (1983-86) with 204.  Chiles also ranks No. 4 all-time in punt yardage (7,403) and has three of the seven longest punts in school history (75-72-72).
  • The Bears are 0-4 for the first time since 1994 when they started 0-5. Likewise, no Terry Allen-coached team — at UNI, Kansas or Missouri State — has ever opened the season with more than two straight losses.
  • The Bears, who have three home games in October, will play four of their next six contests at Plaster Field. The game against UNI will be the club’s latest home opener since Howard Blair’s squad lost a 6-0 decision to Memphis on Oct. 9, 1942.
  • Missouri State’s defense enters Week 5 without having committed a penalty.  As a team, the Bears have been penalized 18 times for 119 yards with the offense drawing 15 flags and special teams collecting three.