When the No. 12 Oregon Ducks welcome the Missouri State Bears into Autzen Stadium Saturday afternoon, the outcome will have all but been decided before the game’s opening kickoff.@@ouch.@@
The Ducks (1-1) reminded the college football world why they were the No. 3 team in the country in most preseason rankings when they outscored Nevada by almost 50 points in last week’s home opener. With the Bears (0-2) coming west from the Missouri Valley Conference @@http://www.mvc-sports.com/@@due to a last-minute rescheduling act, Oregon is again the heavy favorite when they begin play at 12:36 p.m.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=3383&SPID=233&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205271095&DB_OEM_ID=500@@
Saturday marks the first-ever meeting between the two programs, and it will be Missouri State’s second time playing an FBS opponent ranked in the top 15 nationally during the first three weeks this season. The Bears fell to then-No. 15 Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark.,@@http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Fayetteville,+Ark&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x87c96f7b2fb53e9d:0x4519f069fcb4c8cf,Fayetteville,+AR&gl=us&ei=6mhyTqfEMvHQiAK5qpWQCQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CDYQ8gEwAA@@ 51-7, in week one, before dropping a narrow loss to Eastern Kentucky, 28-24, last weekend.@@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=3383&SPID=233&DB_LANG=C&ATCLID=205271095&DB_OEM_ID=500@@
Though much has recently been made of top-tier FBS teams refusing to come to Eugene and play in Autzen Stadium’s fierce environment, the same is actually true for Football Championship Series (FCS) teams like Missouri State. In fact, the Bears are just the second FCS program to matchup with the Ducks over the past five seasons, with the last contest resulting in a 69-0 victory over Portland State last September.
Oregon was scheduled to play Utah this week prior to the realignment of the Pacific-12 Conference earlier this year, and took this MSU contest, one of the few other teams left with the same open date, as a filler instead of holding another bye week.
“There’s a lot of unknowns going into the game,” Oregon’s third-year coach Chip Kelly said. “I think that’s what happens when a game like this comes up…You don’t know a lot about ‘em, so it’s going to be a lot of coaching within the game.”
Kelly, formerly the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at New Hampshire, an FCS school, has some experience in facing opponents at opposite ends of the college football spectrum. During his eight seasons with the Wildcats, Kelly led UNH to substantial victories over FBS foes Northwestern and Rutgers.
But the idea of Missouri State changing its preparation to face a larger opponent like Oregon seemed foreign to Kelly, who said that was never the case when he was at New Hampshire.
“It didn’t change for us,” Kelly said. “We didn’t crank it up when we played those teams, and then have a letdown the next week. We’ve always had the same philosophy that every game you play is the Super Bowl that week.
“We were fortunate to knock of some pretty good (Division I) teams when I was there, but the big thing for us was: Do you go out the next week and win again? That was big for us.”
Though Missouri State played well against a decent Eastern Kentucky squad last Saturday, a much tougher task awaits in week three. Despite a handful of key injuries — running back Kenjon Barner, wide receiver Josh Huff and linebacker Michael Clay — the Ducks seemed to find more of their groove offensively against Nevada, and that doesn’t bode well for the Bears.
Through two games, Missouri State has totaled 31 points on 574 yards of total offense, while giving up 79 points on 857 yards defensively. Oregon on the other hand, has scored 96 points on 938 yards, and allowed 60 points on 789 yards defensively.@@http://www.missouristatebears.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/mosu-m-footbl-CumulativeStats.html@@ @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205266631@@
The differences in size, speed and overall ability cannot be denied. But, at the end of the day, there’s a reason they still play the game.
Oregon football welcomes just second FCS opponent in five years
Daily Emerald
September 15, 2011
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