South Dakota State will welcome another team to Brookings that is having unprecedented success on Friday as the Great Danes of UAlbany will come to Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium.
This is the third time the Great Danes have been in the FCS Playoffs and this is the farthest they have gone as they take on the Jackrabbits in the semifinals on Friday. UAlbany joined the FCS in 1999 and first made the playoffs in 2011.
However, UAlbany would have to wait eight more years to get their first playoff victory as the Great Danes beat Central Connecticut in the first round in 2019 before falling to Montana State in the second round. They went 9-5 that season, but UAlbany struggled in the next three seasons with a combined record of 5-20.
The Great Danes had a complete turn around in 2023 as they are 11-3 entering Friday nights game. They shared the Coastal Athletic Association title with Villanova and Richmond this season and that was the first conference title for them in the FCS. UAlbany is the No. 5 seed, which is the highest ranking in program history.
So, how are the Great Danes handling the success? UAlbany head coach Greg Gattuso, who has been at the helm for a decade, said after the Great Danes quarterfinal win over Idaho that this type of season is something that his team has been building towards over the past few seasons.
This all started last year with these guys. We struggled and came out and had a tough 2021 [season]. It was a really brutal year for us, as it was for many, but especially for our football program. I knew last year we had a good football team, but we struggled. We lost five games by [one score]. We fought our tails off last year to win games and I knew we had something special with the kids we had. We added some people that transferred in and some freshmen. People talk about culture and all those things, and theyre so important, but these guys live the culture. Its a real thing with them, Gattuso said.
In the win over Idaho the Great Danes put up 461 total yards of offense and sophomore quarterback Reese Poffenbarger had a record-breaking day. He threw for 341 yards and three touchdowns and in the process broke the single-season UAlbany record for total offense with over 3,380 yards and surpassed the career record in passing touchdowns with 56. This season he leads the country in passing touchdowns with 36 and is second in the country in passing yards with 3,371.
Poffenbarger said after the Idaho win that the Great Danes have been over looked all season long and its been fun proving everybody wrong so far.
Weve just had the mentality that were the underdogs. No matter what, we dont get the kudos that we deserve, but we dont care. We just go out there and fight every single practice and every single game. We dont look at that stuff, Poffenbarger said.
Poffenbargers top weapon is senior wide receiver Brevin Easton. Easton is fifth in the country in receiving with 1,055 yards. He also has 13 touchdowns on the season. Against Idaho he had a career-high 228 yards and three touchdowns.
UAlbany has also gotten it done on the defensive side of the ball. The Great Danes have the 13th ranked defense in the FCS, giving up 305.9 yards per game. They are the top ranked rush defense as they allow just 78.1 yards per game on the ground. UAlbany is also sixth in red zone defense this season as it has allowed a score 34 times in 50 possessions.
The Great Danes had to travel 2,653 miles last week to play at Idaho and this week theyll have to get on a plane again on short rest. This weeks trip to Brookings is 1,438 miles, but Gattuso said his team isntfazedby the long plane rides and having to travel far in back-to-back weeks.
We dont like to make excuses. Its just like last year, we fought and clawed. The flight [to Idaho] was easy. I dont know if youve ever driven from Albany to Maine before, but thats not an easy trip. So, we just go play. We were talking about maybe just driving to South Dakota [from Idaho] and just stay and practice there Wednesday and Thursday. The kids have been resilient. They believe in each other and believe what the coaches are telling them, and thats special, Gattuso said.
SDSU will obviously have the upper hand in playoff experience on Friday as this is the 12th straight season the Jacks have made the playoffs and they have a record of 19-12 in playoff games. For UAlbany, a lot of people might think the Great Danes are just happy to get this far. Gattuso said after the Idaho win that it would have been easy for his players to give up after traveling that far and falling behind 16-7 in the second quarter, but his team wants to keep playing and continue this historic season.
For our program [winning at Idaho] is a big thing. You have to realize that coach [Bob] Ford took this team from club football [in 1970] to Division III to Division II to FCS and into the CAA and weve kind of picked the ball up. Its a journey that this program has been on to do well and I knew it was going to take time. You cant just flip the switch. We dont have that kind of ability. Weve been building and building, and to be here is amazing, Gattuso said.
Kickoff between the Jacks and Great Danes is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Leave a Reply