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Next up for the Bears…

Just like Tarleton EKU owns the series. Massey has us winning by 7 points. The Bears will have to step up their skills if they want to win. We have to avoid penalties and better play selection is a must. I love the Bears win,lose or draw. Hopefully we can have a win saturday. Go Bears

A win this week as I predict will
set up a crucial showdown with Peay.
8-3 will most certainly get the Bears an
invite to the playoffs. Although most likely
not a desirable 1st round opponent.

GO BEARS

Unless I misunderstood wouldn’t 8-3 win us the conf and auto bid. Really question does a 7-4 team make it worst case scenario? Only way to secure is to win.

7-4 is out. Playoffs start saturday

Agree with huggy on this one. Because UAPB backed out a 7-4 record would only include 6 D1 wins. Seldom does a team make the playoffs without 7 D1 wins.
I believe the playoffs started with Tarleton and that loss forced winning every game to claim an outright or tie for the UAC championship. Obviously, Bears have to start with Eastern Kentucky on Saturday and they have had the Bears number recently.
PS: a win by Utah Tech over Austin Peay on Saturday would be huge.

Basically a win against EKU and Austin Peay is needed to make the playoffs for sure. Because as it stands now, there is still a possibility for a 3-way tie (actually two different scenarios).

First would be if EKU beats us and SFA the following week and Austin Peay losses its last two games (which would include a loss to us next week). That would be all three of us tied with 2 conference losses and playing out the Spiderman meme (all the Spiderman's pointing at each other) in that we all would have beaten one or the other. EKU would have beaten us. We would have beaten Austin Peay. And Austin Peay would have beaten EKU.

Second would be if we beat EKU giving them a second conference loss but they beat SFA the following week and Austin Peay losses this week and to us next week. We would again all have 2 conference losses. In that scenario I "think" it's clear that we would get the UAC championship title as we would have beaten both EKU and Austin Peay. And with that the automatic playoff bid.

It's shaping up that all signs are pointing to it most likely being a one conference loss only team to win the UAC. Not surprised in the least. This is a tough conference. And that's not even mentioning what about if Southern Utah wins out and only has two conference losses as well as the scenario I presented with us, EKU, and Austin Peay possibly ending up with 2 conference losses as well. LOL!!!! That would be hilarious. Four teams all 4-2 in conference having beat each other (actually Southern Utah didn't even play EKU this year but did lose to Austin Peay). I hope the bylaws are written well enough to figure out who gets the UAC Champion title. Oh, and imagine if Tarleton St. was eligible for post season play and UAC title. Could be 5 teams finishing the season at 4-2.

So all that to say.....we just need to win out and forgo all the possibilities and going to the bylaws in depth. We win out, and we'll have tiebreakers over Southern Utah, EKU, and Austin Peay. It's that simple. We win UAC and get into the playoffs with the autobid no questions asked. And if we somehow don't win out but get one of the next two, but don't get the autobid on a tiebreaker (ending the season 7-4), bye bye playoffs. UAPB pulling out and leaving us stuck scheduling NAIA Texas College instead, really put us in a situation where from the start of the season we would likely need to win the conference to make the playoffs (that Tarleton St. loss really hurt our chances of getting an at-large bid). 7-4 with only 6 D1 wins isn't gonna impress the committee enough.

I'll be at the game Saturday and cheering them Bears on to do my part in supporting the best D1 football program in the state (excessive penalties and all). GO BEARS!!! FEAR THE STRIPES!!!! BEAR CLAWS UP!!!!!!

First, does anyone have a scouting report on EKU and what we can expect to see Saturday afternoon?

Second, maybe I am wrong but I thought the UAC auto bid goes to either the ASUN champ or the WAC champ, each designated by the particular conference using its own criteria and tie-breaking rules. Then somehow the UAC will decide between the two champs. Also, I thought I came across where ASUN will only consider wins/losses vs other ASUN teams...that is, the loss to Tarleton would not be considered.

Third, I agree that we are unlikely to be in playoffs at 7-4 unless we are ASUN champ chosen for UAC auto bid. We would be eligible with 6 D1 wins but pretty low on list of teams to select from. UAC is the 3rd highest rated FCS conference per Sagarin and that may help get another team in...seems like MVFC has had numerous teams in playoffs even with only 7 wins and occasionally 6. Get to 8-3 and probably get a bid and maybe a first round home game.

Bears have to take care of business and play like they are capable next two weeks. We have not seen a complete game yet from the Bears...or even close for various reasons such as injuries.

Just looking at pure stats, Eku is last in the nation in passing defense (313 ypg) total defense ( 495 ypg) and 92 in rush defense ( 200≈ ypg). But they still have Parker McKinney who’s one of the best qb in the country and by himself can keep Eku in games and win a lot of them. Either a shootout or if we see the first half defense from UNA maybe we run away with it.

And I haven’t seen anything like that about the conference title. I’ve only heard it’ll be just like a normal conference. Best record wins then head to head to break a tie and I think I heard it’s something like head to head of the next highest common opponent. I know the one wac and one asun was how it worked last year.

Last home game for some seniors. Any idea who all they are? I can’t keep track with guys extending their eligibility.

Nothing at all from that game? Insane game again. Wasn’t pretty at all but we’re playing for a title next week.

Do not recall all the seniors but includes Richmond, Barnes, Godfrey, Jessup, Davenport, Eldridge and George...PR announcer today said 18....some may have a medical or covid year left and play as graduate students....

As for the game tonight....have lost count of how many times in past decade the Bears have made these bizarre late Q4 comebacks for a win....this one is right up there with the best....figured it would be close but this was unbelievable...

Watching the game I felt we were the better team .... even though EKU had total offense of 437 on 77 plays and we were 419 on 73.....defense played very well and may have been tiring late on the EKU late go ahead drive.....guess we just decided to play them loose and not take chances on going for INTs on all the short passes...I really only recall one time we tried to jump a sideline route and Jordan nearly has a Pick 6 but was a split second late....EKU's o-line deserves a lot of credit for their play tonight as we found it really hard to get hands on McKinney....and give McKinney credit for knowing how to stay alive under duress and finding the open receiver....

Great to see Powell back healthy...96 yards rush ...James only had 19 rush yards but another 53 receiving and several really key plays for first downs or getting to a makeable 3rd down... Hale only has 14 rush yards but most were for a first down...

Receivers played very well....notwithstanding the dropped pass at the EKU 30 on the last drive....Barnes has 75 yards (and was routinely held but I do not recall any flags) and a TD, Richmond had 71 and a TD and Oliver had 45 and a TD....Butler and Robinson did not a lot of yards but very important receptions....stats do not show Manny Smith with any rush or receptions but I pretty sure he had one 6 yard gain....

Golday and Walker had a lot of tackles...Jessup nearly had McKinney 10 times and had the INT....as it turns out Williams 52 yd INT return on the first play was crucial to the outcome.....Caughron had a great night punting .....Ward was solid on KOs and Caster being 3/3 on PATs was the winning margin....

McKinney kept EKU in the game and their placekicker Nation was 3/3 on FGs and 1/1 PATs and kept getting points on the board...

Then there is my player of the game...Will McElvain....he is cool hand Luke...even though not at his sharpest passing (27/44 for 291) tonight his on-field leadership and calm under duress gave our play makers chances to make plays....did you believe that they could score with only 24 seconds left? McElvain and his team certainly felt that was plenty of time....that was maybe the best ever last gasp drive I have seen the Bears make....

Will need to play even better next at APU but maybe they will be on a mission...Go Bears!!

Also, good to see Frazier Rose on sidelines walking around without any assistance...he is a very big fellow...

Finally, I wish football officials would throw flags when they see the violation and not wait 10 seconds...

Last play was #4 on ESPN Top 10 plays of the day.....great pic of the Stripes, McElvain and two shots of the throw, tip, catch and score....McElvain and Barnes got some nice coverage....

I was never a big fan of the covid year. I don’t think it was necessary because guys find ways to continue to play. Those guys coming out of high school in 20-23 classes got hosed. They lost the year completely. I think the eligibility should have been capped at 6 years across the board.

As far as the game goes it was an ugly final 80 seconds. We gave up a 99 yard scoring drive in under a minute. That being said that is the craziest finish I've ever seen at Estes stadium. Truston with a huge catch on first down. The Eku folks do have a right to be pissed about the clock. Whoever runs the clock...nice job. We got extremely lucky tonight, but I'll take luck any day.

#4 on ESPN you say? Strange no mention of it on KARK (https://www.kark.com) or KATV (https://katv.com/sports). You wouldn’t even know we had a game looking at those two local “news” sources.