2020 OU Schedule Preview: Missouri State

Helmed by Bobby Petrino, the FCS Bears were 1-10 last season

John E. Hoover | Apr 29, 2020

Every Wednesday leading up to Big 12 Media Days in July, SI Sooners will preview each opponent on Oklahoma’s schedule in 2020.

You didn’t dream it. You didn’t imagine it.

Bobby Petrino is the head coach at Missouri State. And his first game in charge of the Bears is at Oklahoma on Sept. 5.

Petrino, formerly of Louisville, Arkansas, Western Kentucky and Louisville again — there was even a brief, if ill-fated stop with the Atlanta Falcons in there — is 119-56 as a head coach. He’s been to 11 bowl games, and he’s been in the college game for 32 years.

Petrino became famous for offensive innovation with quarterbacks like Stefan LeFors, Brian Brohm and of course, Heisman winner Lamar Jackson.

Unfortunately, he’s infamous for the way he’s left several programs, including walking out on the Falcons in 2007 (he reportedly had a staffer leave a note on each player’s locker), and his firing at Arkansas in 2012, nine days after an apparent motorcycle crash with his mistress and athletic department employee on the back of the bike.

The Bears were 1-10 in FCS last year, with nine of their 10 losses by double digits.

Missouri State ranked 116th (out of 124 FCS teams) in total offense and 101st in total defense, and ranked 90th or lower in 15 of the NCAA’s 25 statistical categories.

Petrino’s rebuild starts with transfer quarterback Jaden Johnson from Southern Miss, the No. 20 pro-style quarterback in the country out of high school in Tennessee, according to 247 Sports.

FCS teams get 63 equivalent scholarships, while FBS teams get 85 full scholarships. So these matchups are rarely competitive, especially for high-level programs like Oklahoma.

OU is now 5-0 all-time against FCS opponents: 49-0 over Indiana State in 1999, 50-2 over Chattanooga in 2008, 64-0 over Idaho State in 2009, 69-13 over Florida A&M in 2012, and 70-14 over South Dakota in 2019.

Such games do come with a cost, however. The Sooners paid South Dakota $575,000 last year, and they’re paying Missouri State $600,000 this year.

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Published Apr 29, 2020

JOHN E. HOOVER

John is an award-winning journalist whose work spans five decades in Oklahoma, with multiple state, regional and national awards as a sportswriter at various newspapers. During his newspaper career, John covered the Dallas Cowboys, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oklahoma Sooners, the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the Arkansas Razorbacks and much more. In 2016, John changed careers, migrating into radio and launching a YouTube channel, and has built a successful independent media company, DanCam Media. From there, John has written under the banners of Sporting News, Sports Illustrated, Fan Nation and a handful of local and national magazines while hosting daily sports talk radio shows in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and statewide. John has also spoken on Capitol Hill in Oklahoma City in a successful effort to put more certified athletic trainers in Oklahoma public high schools. Among the dozens of awards he has won, John most cherishes his national "Beat Writer of the Year" from the Associated Press Sports Editors, Oklahoma's "Best Sports Column" from the Society of Professional Journalists, and Two "Excellence in Sports Medicine Reporting" Awards from the National Athletic Trainers Association. John holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications from East Central University in Ada, OK. Born and raised in North Pole, Alaska, John played football and wrote for the school paper at Ada High School in Ada, OK. He enjoys books, movies and travel, and lives in Broken Arrow, OK, with his wife and two kids.