Jim Mashek

BAILEY SHINES AS MISSOURI STATE CLAIMS TENSE 22-20 VICTORY OVER MTSU BLUE RAIDERS

MURFREESBORO, Tennessee — The Missouri State University players rushed hard, at MTSU placekicker Jacob Hathaway, as the game moved into the final minute.

A paid crowd of 9,086 at Middle Tennessee State University’s Johnny Floyd Stadium had thinned considerably at that point, it bein’ a school night and all, and the way college football stretches well beyond three-hour windows these days.

The Blue Raiders’ Austin Logan got the ball down, at the Bears’ 40-yard line, and Hathaway swung his right leg into the ball. Missouri State players turned quickly, after the ball left Hathaway’s foot, and watched the 50-yard field-goal attempt fade wide left.

The Bears had done it.

Deuce Bailey, the former Bowling Green High School star making his first college start, guided Missouri State to a gritty 22-20 victory over the homestanding Blue Raiders, on a cool Wednesday night on the MTSU campus.

Bailey led the Purples to back-to-back KHSAA Class 5A state championships in his final two seasons on Rockingham Avenue, and he clearly was ready for the moment.

“I’m not sure I can tell you, how important this win is for our program,” Missouri State coach Ryan Beard said when it was over. “It all started, really, with our home game against Western Kentucky (on September 27) … (Returning starter) Jacob Clark was injured in that game, and he wasn’t quite ready to go (against MTSU).

“When we recruited Deuce, we knew he had the ‘it factor.’ He’s a true dual-threat quarterback. He forces the other team to defend the whole field. He’s got great vision, in the pocket. We’re just getting started, in FBS football, but one thing hasn’t changed …

“We try to recruit winners.”

Nobody could quite fit that bill like 18-year-old Deuce Bailey. Bailey visited with family and friends at the base of the stadium, before returning to the Mo State locker room to celebrate the Bears’ first victory in Conference USA play.

Missouri State improved to 3-3 overall and 1-1 in C-USA play, while the Blue Raiders dropped to 1-5 and 0-1, respectively.

(MTSU coach Derek Mason, the former Vanderbilt head coach, may not be long for this gig, but we’ll get back to that later.)

“It’s very exciting. We’re really happy,” Bailey said under the visitors’ tunnel at Johnny Floyd Stadium. “i’m just happy I could step into a new role, and help our team win.”

The Bears have an open date next week before resuming C-USA play against New Mexico State on October 22 in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Bailey passed for 278 yards and a second-quarter touchdown, a nifty 20-yard pass down the right sideline to Mo State teammate Ronnell Johnson, and Johnson made the catch at the goal line. The Bears’ Yousef Obeid added the PAT, after misfiring on his first extra point, and Missouri State moved in front, 13-10, with 5:29 left in the first half.

Bailey and the Mo State offense got a chance to extend that lead, and as it turned out, the Bears would add three critical points in the final 65 seconds of the first half.

Bailey made it happen, with his golden right arm, his feet, and his decisiveness in the open field.

Deuce hurled an apparent 69-yard touchdown pass — again, toward the right corner of the end zone — to Missouri State teammate Tristian Gardner, right after the two-minute timeout. It was a critical infraction, a holding call, but Bailey and the Bears quickly regrouped.

Bailey found Gardner again, in the middle of the field, for a 42-yard completion that got the Bears back to the cusp of the red zone. Bailey used his legs to punch out an 8-yard gain on the ground, but he had to take a sack, and Missouri State had to settle for a field-goal try.

Yousef Obeid delivered, from 40 yards out, and Missouri State took a 16-10 lead into the locker room at halftime.

“We didn’t do much, on offense, in our first two drives of the game,” Deuce Bailey said when it was over. “I think I had to get settled in … My teammates were awesome. We got the lead before the half.”

There were five lead changes in the contest. The critical one, of course, came on Obeid’s 29-yard field goal with 2:19 left in the game, the kick that accounted for the final margin. The Mo State defense took a couple critical penalties themselves on MTSU’s final possession of the night, but they bowed up their collective neck and made it happen with the game on the line.

MTSU coach Derek Mason chose to run the ball, rather than put the game in the hands of senior quarterback Nicholas Vattaiato, and the Bears were equal to the task. The Blue Raiders twice took short losses on running plays, forcing placekicker Jacob Hathaway to bail them out in the end.

Not happenin’ …

Mason shared his thoughts on the game with The Tennessean’s Mike Organ, an outstanding sports scribbler I’ve known since the ’90s. Organ can probably bench press a silo, but he’s got a heart of gold, and like me, dude loves dogs.

I’m not sure how to decipher Organ’s lead quote from Mason after the game, but here goes …

“Offensively, it wasn’t enough. Altogether, it wasn’t enough,” Mason told Organ and other reporters. “I told our team the outcome changes when we make it so. You can only be close for so long. We’ve got to score points. We’re getting defensive stops …”

And the Blue Raiders are losing games.

MTSU dropped to 1-5 overall and 0-2 in Conference USA play. The Blue Raiders will take a three-game losing streak into next week’s road game against C-USA newcomer Delaware.

The Bears, and senior quarterback Jacob Clark, get an opportunity to heal before their next game against New Mexico State in 13 days. Clark and Bailey communicated extensively, on the bench while the Mo State defense was on the field, and Clark was one of the first guys to celebrate with Bailey behind the Bears’ bench after the game.

“Jacob’s been great, really supportive,” Bailey said.

Missouri State coach Ryan Beard took that a step further.

“In summer camp, Deuce was pretty much in Jacob’s hip pocket,” Beard said. “You could see he wanted to learn. Jacob wasn’t quite ready this week, so Deuce got the nod (to start).”

The Missouri State coaching staff kept that decision close to the vest, of course, to give the MTSU staff a little something extra to think about, heading into Wednesday night’s nationally televised game at Johnny Floyd Stadium.

Craig Bailey, Deuce’s Dad, and scores of family members posted up behind the Missouri State bench. They went through all the emotions of Deuce Bailey and his teammates, and coaches, and former WKU president Gary Ransdell was on hand to congratulate Beard after the game.

Beard, after all, played football at Bowling Green High School and Western Kentucky University, as a defensive back. He had two stints on the WKU coaching staff, first as a graduate assistant and later as the secondary coach under former Hilltoppers coach Jeff Brohm.

That was a one-year stint before the youthful looking Beard made a one-year pit stop at Central Michigan, before moving on to the Mo State campus in Springfield, Missouri, in 2020. He was named the Bears’ head coach in 2023, and he’s excited about the future of Missouri State football.

At this time last year, Missouri State was tangling with the likes of Tennessee-Martin, Indiana State and Lindenwood University, a private school with about 7,000 students in St. Charles, Missouri.

No knock on Lindenwood, Indiana State and UT-Martin, but that’s a far cry from the Bears’ opening game on August 30. That’s when the team squared off with tradition-rich Southern California, and the Trojans trampled Missouri State, 73-13, in the massive Los Angeles Coliseum.

Missouri State has evened its record at 3-3, and Wednesday night’s nationally televised game provides the perfect segue for Ryan Beard and his Mo State coaching staff to do some recruiting during the Bears’ open date.

And don’t think I didn’t notice, that Bailey’s BGHS teammate, Trevy Barber, was sporting a Missouri State ballcap in the stands. Barber, an all-state wide receiver, has been injured this season, but he’s expected to return next week, when Bowling Green resumes its district schedule against crosstown rival Greenwood High School.

“It’s great timing, definitely,” Beard said.

Deuce Bailey got a chance to visit with family and friends before grabbing a box of Raisin’ Canes chicken fingers and boarding the bus for the Nashville airport. It’s too soon to say when Bailey will be making his next start, as the Bears’ starting quarterback, but his maiden voyage couldn’t have gone much better …

Except …

Bailey took four sacks, and he had two or three indecisive moments against the MTSU pass rush in the second half. He’s always a threat in the open field, however, and he has that gifted passing touch. That kind of adversity could be lethal for a freshman or sophomore quarterback still finding his footing, in college football, but Deuce Bailey was clearly equal to the task.

“Couldn’t be prouder, of course,” a beaming Craig Bailey told me in the stands.

Congrats, Bears. You’ve got a keeper in Deuce.