Missouri State got paid $450k to lose to Kansas. Were there any other positives?

LAWRENCE, Kan. — For a moment, there was a hope that Missouri State could pull off a statement win in its first game under its new football coach.

One minute and 11 seconds later, the Bears gave up the lead and Kansas chipped away at any hope they had. We were then left searching for whatever positives could come out of a blowout loss to an FBS school.

Missouri State's 48-17 loss to Kansas wasn't quite as bad as the final score indicated but it didn't leave you thinking it was a team that was about to compete for an FCS playoff spot this season. There is too much unknown after giving up 31 points in the second half to an explosive Big 12 offense that was without its star quarterback.

Not all was bad as Missouri State came away with its $450,000 guaranteed paycheck. A few questions were answered but we'll have a much better idea when the final whistle is blown next week at UT Martin.

Here's what we learned from the Bears' season-opening loss:

More: Missouri State football couldn't keep up with Kansas in Ryan Beard's head coaching debut

Jacob Clark is QB1 – for now

We always want to know who the quarterback is, and we had no clue what to expect after head coach Ryan Beard indicated that the Bears produced "significant packages" for both Jacob Clark and Jordan Pachot while not announcing a starter.

Clark was under center for the first series and every series after that. Pachot didn't see the field.

"That's just how the game shook out," Beard said. "He knew he was going to go out with the first huddle. He was effective and efficient as our quarterback. He's a smart player with a good arm and he showed the ability to escape when he needed to and then push the ball down the field to open players."

Clark completed 14 of 21 passes for 143 yards and a touchdown. He also tossed two interceptions in the fourth quarter, which led to Jayhawk touchdowns to put the game way out of reach.

He probably did enough to establish himself as the unquestioned starter heading into Week 2 at UT Martin. He excels in pocket awareness and he was smart in knowing when not to force the ball and take what the defense was giving him with open running lanes. Those probably won't be there as often against the Skyhawks.

Clark struggled, however, with a few underthrown balls. He had opportunities for big plays, including one that could have led to a touchdown, but he played it too safe. The two interceptions weren't great but came at desperate times. On the first, you had no idea where he was trying to go with the ball. With the second, he hesitated just enough for a defender to jump the route just in time to rip the ball away.

"They just couldn't happen," Clark said. "I put the defense in a really bad position and gave them 14 points. It's just two critical areas that can't happen and won't happen."

Clark wasn't 100% pleased with what the offense did — especially as it got off to a slow start in the first half and didn't find the endzone in the second half until the first play of the fourth quarter.

"We could have done a lot better in the first half," Clark said. "There were a lot of execution and pre-snap penalties that were my fault. We did some good things. I'm proud of the guys up front. They played hard and were ready to play and gave me time to sit back there and throw the ball."

Was Clark good enough for Beard to declare him the starter immediately after the game? Nah.

"We gotta look more into it," Beard said. "He certainly did a good job. The nice thing about Jacob was that the offense was looking to him for leadership and he answered the bell. He's a solid young man with a good head on his shoulders that people want to follow."

The offensive line wasn't bad?

The other big question heading into the game was how a revamped offensive line would hold up. That question was kind of answered but not totally. We still need to see more, but the line wasn't the reason for the Bears' loss as it has been for many years of Missouri State football.

Only one sack was allowed by the Bears' front and it came for a five-yard loss on the third play of the game. From then on, MSU had a clean pocket allowing Clark time to step up and allow plays to develop down the field.

"It seemed to really come together," Clark said. "They're just playing really hard and they love each other. They love playing football. We just have a lot of good football players up front."

While the Bears were protecting the quarterback, they weren't able to establish the run — which is what they had preached throughout the preseason.

Missouri State finished with 27 carries for 74 yards and a touchdown. They averaged 2.7 yards on the ground as a team while featured running back Jacardia Wright ran for 23 yards on 15 carries.

Kansas was frequently in the backfield hitting the running back before he could get going. The Jayhawks wanted Clark to be the one beating them with his arm and it paid off.

"We need to do a better job at establishing the run and moving the line of scrimmage," Beard said. "There were too many guys making first contact in the backfield, I would say a majority of the time. We'll look at the analytics and see when the first contact was made but we have to get a good push up front. We talked about it all week — if you can establish the run, that's the only way to create more opportunities for our quarterback and our wide-outs to make plays."

Of course, Missouri State didn't like how it closed the game

Missouri State spoke of finishing games throughout the preseason. It fell apart a year ago against Arkansas and South Dakota State in games that might have been there for them to win.

After being outscored 31-7 in the second half, Missouri State realized it still has a long way to go when trying to play a competitive four-quarter game.

"It's frustrating but we have a long season ahead of us," Beard said. "This was a big game for us. The guys in there are frustrated and we're frustrated as a coaching staff. But it's a long season and the guys in that locker room have a lot of talent and we're going to have a good football team by the time this thing shakes out."

Ryan Beard wasn't very aggressive

We learned a little bit about Beard during his first time managing a game. There were two fourth-and-short calls in which he opted to punt instead of going for it.

One came right before halftime when the Bears, down four, had the ball at their own 48. The punt turned into a 10-play, 75-yard drive that ended with a Jayhawks field goal.

The other came in the third quarter when the Bears were down two touchdowns and had the ball fourth-and-1 from their own 34. The punt was followed by a 10-play, 55-yard drive that resulted in another field goal.

We saw Bobby Petrino be aggressive with his fourth-down calls a year ago when the Bears were heavy underdogs at Arkansas and it worked out. This showed a difference for a coach going through his first game against a team that was moving the ball relatively easily.

"At those points, we were playing decent defense and you always want to give them a long field," Beard said. "You don't want to give a good offense the short field, just in case. We can look back on those and learn from it. We decided to punt and we thought that was the right decision."

The defense didn't look fast. This might be why

Kansas was without its best player but it didn't matter. The Jayhawks' capable backup had time to throw and the great quickness of the Kansas offense gave the Bears struggles.

Kansas rushed for 245 yards and four touchdowns. Jason Bean completed 22 of 28 passes for 276 yards and a pair of scores. The Jayhawks were 6-for-11 on third downs and averaged 7.9 yards per play.

It's unlikely the Bears will play many teams this season that possess the speed the Jayhawks had, but you would still have liked to see better.

Missouri State finished the game with no sacks, three tackles for a loss and zero hits on the quarterback. There wasn't a time when it seemed like the Bears came anywhere close to bringing Bean down.

"There's a reason that they have those offensive numbers that they have," Beard said. "It goes back to 'what did we do to allow those things to happen?' Clearly, in the first half, we could tackle their backs and tackle their wide receivers. We just have to do a better job coming out of halftime and that's on us coaches. We have to be able to inspire for the second-half football team and grow from that."

Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or X at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the host of the weekly "Wyatt's World Podcast" on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other podcasting platforms.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State football takeaways from loss to Kansas in season opener