ST. LOUIS – After engineering his fourth game-winning, fourth-quarter scoring drive of the season in Saturday’s win over No. 20 Northern Iowa, Missouri State quarterback Jason Shelley (Frisco, Texas) was named Missouri Valley Football Conference Offensive Player of the Week, the league announced Sunday.
It is Shelley’s second MVFC Offensive Player of the Week honor this season.
On Saturday, Shelley passed for 320 yards, accounted for three touchdowns and broke the Missouri State single-season passing yardage record to lead the Bears past UNI for the second straight season. He also engineered the Bears’ game-winning 75-yard touchdown drive in the game’s deciding moments, marking the fourth time this season the MSU signal caller has produced a game-winning, fourth-quarter scoring drive.
Shelley completed 22-of-33 passes with no interceptions on the afternoon and fired a 55-yard, game-winning TD strike to Naveon Mitchell with 58 seconds left in the game to secure the win over UNI. Shelley also rushed for a pair of second-half scores, both of which put Missouri State up by 14 points at the time.
This week’s performance marked Shelley’s fourth 300-yard passing game of the season, his 10th 200-yard passing game and his fifth game with no interceptions. He eclipsed 3,000 yards of total offense for the season (already a school record) and eclipsed Jay Rodgers’ (1999) season record for passing yards with 2,817.
Also recognized by the MVFC on Sunday were SIU cornerback David Miller (Defensive Player of the Week), North Dakota punter Cade Peterson (Special Teams Player of the Week) and South Dakota WR Jeremiah Webb (Newcomer of the Week).
The Bears have now racked up 12 weekly conference honors this season, which breaks the program’s high-water mark (previously 11), last achieved in 1996.
Shelley, who also earned the distinction on Oct. 31, represents MSU’s fourth MVFC Offensive Player of the Week honor this season, joining Xavier Lane (Sept. 12), and Tobias Little (Oct. 2).
The win over UNI ensured Missouri State (7-3, 6-2 MVFC) of a two-top finish in the Missouri Valley Football Conference with the club’s sixth conference victory of the season. It marks just the second time in school history (1978), the Bears have won six league games and also wrapped MSU’s first unbeaten home campaign since 2010.
The Bears close out the regular season Saturday at Dixie State (8 p.m., Central) in advance of the Nov. 21 NCAA FCS Playoff Selection Show.
