2025 Xbox Bowl-Arkansas St. vs Missouri St., 12-18-25 | Photo Gallery
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Arkansas State head coach Butch Jones (seen holding up Xboxl Bowl Trophy) secured his sixth bowl victory in nine appearances. It was the second consecutive bowl victory for the Red Wolves.
Arkansas State and Missouri State linked up in the first ever bowl game sponsored by Xbox. It was a battle of CUSA’s second-best pass offense against the Sun Belt’s top pass rush unit. Coming into the contest, Arkansas State featured four players with at least four sacks. Meanwhile, the Bears featured five receivers with at least 400 receiving yards.
The Red Wolves were facing a hot quarterback in Missouri State’s Jacob Clark. Clark had posted 280 or more passing yards in five of his last six starts. In that stretch, only one team (see Kennesaw State) contained a pass rush similar to Arkansas State’s.
In Thursday night’s Xbox Bowl, Clark was pummeled by Arkansas State’s fierce contingent. They sacked Clark eight times in an all-out assault. On three different occasions the Red Wolves took him down to end drives. Ethan Hassler’s sack of Clark in the fourth quarter forced a fumble which was recovered by Ryan Reese.
Yet, as has been the case so many times in Clark’s journey from Minnesota to Missouri State, he simply would not quit. Down 34-15 after the lost fumble, the school’s second all-time leading passer went full Bears mode.
Bears mode
First, he hit slot receiver Dash Luke in stride for a perfectly placed 47-yard seam touchdown pass in-between the hash marks. Missouri State aligned in an empty spread formation and Clark identified the Red Wolves split-safety, two-deep coverage. He attacked linebacker Nigel Nelson, who lost in isolation against the speedy Luke in the middle of the field. Despite a failed two-point conversion from Clark to tight end Jeron Askren, the lead was cut to 34-21.
Subsequently, the Bears forced a 34-yard missed field goal from Arkansas State placekicker Clune Van Andel. Missouri State got the ball back with 3:20 remaining in the fourth quarter. Back-to-back Clark incomplete passes left them with a third down and 10 from their own 20-yard line.
A 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty put the ball on the 35-yard line with just over three minutes left. On the next play, Clark found gold once again. Arkansas State brought a corner blitz and left the back end of the defense in yet another combination zone coverage. He found Luke streaking down the seams and the 59-yard connection took them to Arkansas State’s six-yard line.
Two Bears penalties backed them up to the Red Wolves 16-yard line, but Clark remained undeterred. Versus an all-out blitz, he fired a 16-yard slant for a touchdown to Jmariyae Robinson. It cut the lead down to 34-28.
Too little, too late
After a failed onside kick attempt from the Bears, Arkansas State simply ran out the clock with three Jaylen Raynor kneel downs. Xbox Bowl Offensive MVP Corey Rucker finished with six catches for 166 yards and one touchdown. Rucker ran away from the Bears on a 71-yard stutter-and-go touchdown from Raynor (17-of-31, 288 yards, 3 TDs). He launched a missile to the sixth-year senior after he ran away from cornerback Jordan Dunbar down the field.
In the process, the duo combined with its sack artists to secure head coach Butch Jones’ sixth career bowl victory. It also marked the second consecutive bowl triumph for Jones at Arkansas State.
We go inside some of the images from the contest in our photo gallery recap.
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