Southwest Missouri State quarterback Ryan Porter someday might forget the sack that knocked him out of Saturday’s KU-SMS football game at Memorial Stadium.

The junior quarterback, however, says, “for the rest of my life I will never forget” what happened immediately after the fourth-quarter play in which he injured his right knee.

He went down, looked up and saw a concerned KU coach Mark Mangino in his face.

“Usually trainers from the other team come up when you get hurt. I go down and there’s coach Mangino. He is a class act,” said Porter, who will have an MRI taken today or Monday to determine the extent of his knee injury, incurred following a sack by KU’s Charlie Dennis and Greg Cole at the SMS one-yard line.

“Coach Mangino told me, ‘You are a heck of a player,”’ Porter said. “I was joking with him the whole time, trying to not think about the injury.

“I said, ‘Why didn’t you recruit me when you were at Oklahoma? The rest of the Big 12 sure did,'” added Porter, a 6-3, 190-pound junior from Highland, Calif., who started his career at the University of Washington before transferring to SMS. “He said, ‘We coaches make mistakes, too.’ I think he was sincere. I know no coach will ever say, ‘You are a bad player.’ But it’s classy of him to say I’m a good player while he’s helping me up.”

Porter completed eight of 20 passes for 96 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

“I planted and some big guy was in my face. My knee shifted from side to side,” Porter said of his final play. “It didn’t feel good. They don’t think it’s season-ending. I asked, ‘What’s the worst-case scenario?’ They said, ‘A couple of games.’ Maybe it’s an MCL or lateral meniscus.

“I may look like (Dan) Marino out there playing with a knee brace next week.”

The NCAA Div. I-AA Bears finished with 295 yards to KU’s 314. The Bears suffered two turnovers to KU’s three. So why the lopsided score?

“The key to the game was special teams. They had them and we didn’t,” SMS coach Randy Ball said.

Indeed, KU’s Greg Heaggans had four kickoff returns for 195 yards, including a 100-yard return for a score on the opening kickoff. KU also had four punt returns for 47 yards.

“I was proud of our kids not giving up after a big touchdown run on the opening kickoff,” Ball said. “Our kids played hard. We’ve got to get better, especially on special teams. We didn’t do anything on special teams and they did a lot.”

The Bears’ most effective weapon was running back Steve Ennis, who gained 86 yards on 14 carries with a touchdown. He, however, left in the third quarter after hurting his toe. Zach Dechant, a 5-9, 190-pound senior from Ransom, filled in with 49 yards on 11 carries and a score.

“I don’t know if injuries took it out of our team, but it took it out of me,” Ennis said. “Somebody fell on it (toe). I felt like we came with the idea of winning the game. We were not intimidated or anything playing a D-I team. We just made some mistakes on special teams and didn’t play well enough to win that game.”