UNI football battles Missouri State in key MVFC showdown

RV Missouri State (2-4 / 0-3 MVFC) vs. UNI football (3-4 / 2-2 MVFC)

4 p.m. CT | Oct. 15, 2022
Cedar Falls, Iowa | UNI-Dome (16,090)
Watch: ESPN+ (Brad Wells: Play-by-Play / Justin Surrency: Analyst)
Listen: Panther Sports Network (J.W. Cox: Play-by-Play / Scott Peterson: Analyst)

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — The top two passing offenses in the Missouri Valley Football Conference will face off when Missouri State visits UNI football this weekend at the UNI-Dome for Family Weekend.

The Panthers have the edge, averaging 267.4 passing yards per game to the Bears' 261.8 yards.

Fans are encouraged to wear purple, and the Panthers will be celebrating Faculty & Staff Appreciation Day.

UNI will close out a four-game homestand. It's the most consecutive regular-season home games under the helm of coach Mark Farley since taking over in 2001. In 2007, UNI hosted four consecutive home games that concluded with two playoff games. In 1992, under head coach Terry Allen, UNI hosted five consecutive games that included three playoff games.

This will be the final home game until Senior Day on Nov. 5.

UNI PANTHERS

The Panthers are coming off a win over Utah Tech that set several season highs as a team and career high records for individual Panthers.

UNI set a league high this season with 21.3 yards per catch against Utah Tech while rushing for a team-high of 52 times for 229 yards (also a season high). It was the first time UNI recorded at least 200 rushing yards since November 2021 against Western Illinois.Vance McShane set a team season-high 18 rushes against UT.

UNI rattled off 78 plays against Utah Tech, the most for the Panthers in any game so far this season. They racked up the most offensive yards yet with 548 yards. The Panthers' last game with 500+ yards of offense came against Monmouth in November 2016.

On special teams:

Deion McShane set a career long and a season team-high punt return, running it back 17 yards.
Terrance Kamara set a personal career record with a 19-yard kickoff return.
Noah Pettinger improved his career average punt to 47 yards against UT, which is also the best UNI performance this year.

Wide receiver Desmond Hutson had a career day for UNI against UT with 39 reception yards, including a career long of 32 yards. He notched his second touchdown as a Panther since transferring from Iowa.

Tight end Layne Pryor tallied a career long game of 28 yards in reception and had a career catch of 23 yards.

Sam Schnee had a career-high 143 yards against Utah Tech to lead UNI's receiving game. He is now the Panther leading in receiving with 508 yards and averaging 72.6 yards a game.

Panther quarterback Theo Day leads the MVFC in seven stat categories:

Yards per pass attempt (9.54) - No. 6 in U.S.
Total offense (274 yards) - No. 18 in U.S.
Yards per completion (14.92) - No. 7 in U.S.
Passing yards per game (264.3) - No. 17 in U.S.
Points responsible for (90) - No. 21 in U.S.
Passing yards (1,850) - No. 6 in U.S.
Passing touchdowns (13) - No. 16 in U.S.

Day is on track to crack UNI's top 10 for season efficiency. He has 1,850 passing yards, 13 passing touchdowns and averages 264.29 yards per game.

How he compares: 162.01 - (124-194-4) to the all-time list:

170.4 - Steven Beard (20-34-1), 1995
169.4 - Chris Berg (146-258-8), 1995
168.2 - Eric Sanders (213-312-5), 2005
168.2 - Mike Smith (190-303-16), 1986
165.0 - Eric Sanders (237-315-6), 2007
162.9 - Eric Sanders (95-150-5), 2004
158.0 - Rich Oliphant (59-91-5), 1964
156.7 - Pat Grace (155-253-8), 2009
153.5 - Ryan Helming (253-403-14), 1999
152.7 - Jason Jones (23-38-1), 1997

QUICK NOTES

UNI has racked up 199 points to its opponents' 182 points, scoring 38 points off turnovers, compared to opponents' 27 points.
UNI has 159 first downs and has allowed its opponents 146 first downs.
The Panthers average 9.4 yards a pass, 14.7 yards a catch to average 6.8 yards a play.
Twelve Panthers have combined for 25 touchdowns this year: Dom Williams (5); Sergio Morancy (3); Quan Hampton, Sam Schnee, Alex Allen, Logan Wolf, Woo Governor, Desmond Hutson, Theo Day (2); Deion McShane, Harrison Bey-Buie, Vance McShane (1).
Placekicker Matthew Cook is chasing Tyler Sievertsen in consecutive PATs from 2011-2013 with 114. Cook has 104.

MISSOURI STATE BEARS

The Bears opened the season with a top-five national ranking and improved to as high as No. 4 in the coaches poll before dropping out of the rankings to receive votes Oct. 10.

The Bears are led by quarterback Jason Shelley, a senior from Frisco, Texas. Shelley cracked the Walter Payton Award Preseason Watch List and is a preseason all-America and preseason all-MVFC first-team pick. Shelley was named as the 2021 MVFC Offensive Player of the Year and MVFC Newcomer of the Year. He is coming off a 2021 campaign in which he threw for a school-record 3,347 yards and racked up another program record 3,789 yards of total offense, both of which led the conference.

Missouri State is dangerous on kickoff returns with Montrae Braswell having a touchdown off one kick already this year. D'Vontae Key is third in the MVFC and No. 17 in the nation with an average of 24.6 yards off kickoff returns.

Braswell is on the Buck Buchanan Watch List for top FCS defensive player of the year. He joins Kyriq McDonald and Ty Scott on the Shrine Bowl 1000 prospect list.

Scott is coming off a 2021 debut season in which he earned All-Missouri Valley Football Conference first-team honors and MVFC All-Newcomer Team distinction. He posted school-record totals for receptions (66), receiving yards (1,110) and receiving touchdowns (8) in 2021 and earned a spot on the Hero Sports Sophomore All-America Team.

Bears punter Grant Burkett has been named to the 2022 FCS Punter of the Year Award Preseason Watch List.

THE FULL SERIES

UNI leads the series, 34-7 and is 18-3 at home. Head coach Mark Farley is 18-3 against the Bears with two of the three losses coming in the last two meetings.

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