Clark helped Missouri State go 7-6 in 2025 and reach the Xbox Bowl in the program\u2019s first year as a Football Bowl Subdivision member. In his 28 starts at MSU,\u00a0Clark passed for 8,081 yards, 64 touchdowns, 19 interceptions and completed 67% of his throws, breaking several MSU passing records in the process. He was a two-time Manning Award Star of the Week winner his senior season.<\/p>\n
He led the Bears to an 8-4 mark and a No. 23 national ranking in the final 2024 Football Championship Subdivision Coaches Poll, the program\u2019s final year in the FCS. Clark was a Walter Payton Award finalist during the run, popularly known as the Heisman Trophy of the FCS.<\/p>\n
Clark, a four-star recruit of the Dallas area\u2019s Rockwall High School before starting his college career at Minnesota, was often regarded as a future pro by MSU coaches and their opponents last season.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Missouri State has) a great quarterback who is an NFL quarterback, so they present many challenges,\u201d Arkansas State and former Tennessee head coach Butch Jones said ahead of the Xbox Bowl.<\/p>\n
\u201cJacob (Clark) is probably the best quarterback, in my opinion, in this league,\u201d said Kennesaw State head coach Jerry Mack, whose Owls won a 2025 Conference USA title and clipped the Bears in a 41-34 thriller in November.<\/p>\n
Clark impressed at the American Bowl, a senior all-star game in January where he earned MVP honors. The game was broadcast on the NFL Network.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good week to get in front of NFL scouts. The coaching staff was all guys that have been in the NFL, so learning from them was good,\u201d Clark told the Daily Citizen after the game. \u201cBeing able to practice with guys at a really high level and going up against defensive players that played at a really high level was good, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shomari Lawrence, who rushed for more than 1,000 yards in 2025 for MSU, also played in the American Bowl. He will be among the 11 players at MSU\u2019s pro day this week.<\/p>\n
Clark and Lawrence will be joined by receivers Dash Luke and Deamikkio Nathan, offensive lineman Erick Cade, defensive lineman Sterling Smithson, linebacker Jalen Brooks, defensive backs Maguire Neal, Thomas Anderson and Jordan Dunbar, and punter Anthony Frederique. <\/p>\n
Missouri State had two players on 53-man NFL rosters in 2025, including defensive tackle Eric Johnson with the Indianapolis Colts (fifth-round NFL Draft pick in 2022) and Seattle Seahawks running back Jacardia Wright (undrafted rookie free-agent in 2025) before a Week 3 injury.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Ryan Collingwood covers college and high school sports in the Springfield metropolitan area for the Daily Citizen. Have a story idea or gripe? Send an email to rcollingwood@sgfcitizen.org, call or 417-837-3660, or follow Ryan on social media at X.com\/rwcollingwood. More by Ryan Collingwood<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Missouri State will host a series of NFL scouts on Thursday at Plaster Stadium in a pro day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,10268,45414,14,38909,43471,6,15,47964,112503,89370,38910,87618],"class_list":["post-803376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-nfl-draft","tag-football","tag-jacardia-wright","tag-jacob-clark","tag-mel-kiper","tag-missouri-state-football","tag-missouri-state","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft","tag-nfl-scouts","tag-plaster-stadium","tag-shomari-lawrence","tag-topsports1","tag-xbox-bowl"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116202195427435790","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRyan Collingwood\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n